Monday, February 1: Genesis 19- A troubling picture of humanity.

The story of Lot and Sodom is so troubling for me. Ugh, the perversion of the townsmen who want to sexually pounce on the two visitors to the town. I sometimes think that my world is over sexed, the way we sell everything through sexual innuendo.  Most movies and many TV shows are laced with sex, but the depravity of Sodom is exponentially greater and more perverse.

I have a house guests for a few days, I am imagining how bad it would be if my neighbors stormed my house in order to drag out my guest to have sex with them. This is a horrendous thought.

As I read Lot’s suggestion of sending out his two virgin daughters to the crowd instead of the two male guest is equally repugnant. And Lot is the ‘good guy’ in the story! Fortunately the girls aren’t sacrificed… one small saving grace in this troubling chapter.

Oh my, what a perverse world!

Sadly, there are parts of our world which still treat women with this kind of utter distain. (If you don’t think so, please read the book Half the Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. It is a troubling but excellent read.

I am troubled by this chapter and the more I think about this, the more I realize that we may not be much ‘better’ in 2016 than in this account. The whole world back then was not as bad as Sodom and the whole world today is not as bad as Sodom, but there are pockets. And for all our supposed advancements, atrocities still happen at an alarming rate.

The seeds of sin remain highly latent in our human souls…

As I think about all of this my thoughts follow two tracks…

1) I am thankful for Jesus who can save people and place a new heart in them. Christ-followers are far from perfect but as we open ourselves up to the Lord.  He will put out the fires of sin that rage within us and replace them with light and love.

This leads to my second track.

2) What can I do to reverse and ease the pain sin is causing in the world and bring the light of Jesus to more people in the process? I am troubled that I, all too often, sit idly by when I see atrocities and injustice!!

Lord, lead me in the paths of righteousness for Your sake and the sake of people victimized by sin in this world. I pray in Jesus’ name. And, Lord, please don’t allow me EVER to get comfortable with de-humanizing and horrendous acts perpetrated against other human beings. Amen.