FBC Daily Devotional – January 15, 2021

Faith Baptist Church

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Is this one of those TGIF Fridays for you? Thank goodness it's Friday. Has it been a long week for you, or has the week just, you know, breezed right on by?

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And before you know it, here you are at the end of another week. I often feel that way on Fridays, because for me, you know,

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Sunday's coming, and, you know, Friday is the day that, you know,

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I have to get everything done. I need to get everything done before the Lord's Day. I do that because typically

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I'll take my day off on Saturday, which may seem awfully strange for, you know, a pastor to take

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Saturday off. Why, you know, why do you do that? This has absolutely nothing to do with today's devotional.

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It just kind of came up. But I do that. I got into that practice when my kids were little, especially when they started, you know, to be school age, because it's like I wasn't going to be working on the one day that they're off school, you know, and otherwise we'd never have any family time together.

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So it's very young, very early in my ministry life, got into that practice of taking

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Saturdays off, and then it's just been the practice. I've also found it to be generally helpful because it gives the mind and everything a break.

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Maybe be a little more refreshed on the Lord's Day. I don't know, you know, let you be the judge of that.

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But anyway, so here we are, Friday, and today in our daily

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Bible reading, we're in Genesis 18 and 19, as well as Psalm 8.

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And at the end of Genesis 18, you know, Abraham probably went home, with his mind at ease.

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The Lord had just told him that he was intending to go to Sodom and Gomorrah.

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It had been known of the wickedness of the place. He's going to go down there, and the way he puts it is,

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I'm going to go down there and see if the wicked report that I've got is actually really that bad.

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And the point is that he's going to judge. He's going to bring judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah.

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Remember that foreshadowing back in chapter 13? We saw it on Monday, when

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Lot chose to go to the valley of where Sodom and Gomorrah were. And he had that statement in verse 13,

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I think it is, where it said the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the

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Lord. Well, anyway, by now, the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah is very well known.

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And Abraham knew that his nephew Lot and Lot's family were there, so he prayed and he asked the

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Lord to spare this city if a mere ten righteous people were there. And the

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Lord promised he would. So they parted company, and Abraham went home confident.

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I'm sure he was very confident that all would be well. After all, he knew

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Lot, and he knew Lot's family were righteous, and surely there were a couple more.

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But the next thing Abraham sees is the smoke rising.

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In chapter 19, verse 27 and 28, it says Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the

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Lord, where they had that conversation the day before. And the Lord promised, there are ten righteous people,

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I'll not destroy the city. So Abraham's early in the morning, he's back at that same spot, and he's looking over the valley, and he looks toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the valley, and he looked, and behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.

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Key word in that verse is the word behold. Behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.

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Behold. That tells you that Abraham was startled. Abraham was shocked.

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He's standing there beholding this, and he's trying to process what he's seeing, what has just happened here.

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I wonder what he must have concluded, even though he didn't have the information at the time that we have in chapter 19.

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In other words, when Abraham is looking over the valley, and he sees this smoke rising, knowing that Sodom and Gomorrah has just been destroyed, he doesn't know all that took place between the angel of the

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Lord and Lot and his family, and how the angel brought Lot and his family out of the city, and he tried to get the fiancées of Lot's daughters, tried to get them to leave as well.

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Abraham doesn't know any of that. All he knows is Lot and his family live in Sodom and Gomorrah.

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I had this conversation with God. He said he wouldn't destroy it if there were ten righteous people there, and the city is destroyed.

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What would you conclude? What did Abraham conclude? What kind of questions went through his mind?

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What kind of conclusions did he draw? Did he assume that Lot and his family were dead?

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That would be a reasonable conclusion to draw, wouldn't it? I mean, he didn't leave there to look for Lot, to figure out where he was.

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We read that he just went home. He just went home. Can you imagine him shuffling back to his home, just perplexed?

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Did he assume Lot and his family were dead? Did he wrestle with some doubts about God, about God's faithfulness to his promise?

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I mean, he said he wouldn't destroy the city if there were ten righteous people there. There weren't ten people there.

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There had to have been ten people there. Wasn't there? Or maybe he struggled with God's justice.

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I mean, after all, in his conversation with the Lord, he had said this. He had said, Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put to death the righteous with the wicked.

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Far be it from you. And so, as far as Abraham knows,

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Lot and his family are dead. So, has the Lord put to death the righteous with the wicked?

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And Abraham struggles with that concept of justice. Well, we don't know what was going through Abraham's mind at the time as he gazed out at that destruction before him.

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But he would eventually learn a very important truth that is good for us to remember as well.

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And the truth is this. Sometimes the Lord answers prayers in ways that I may never see.

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Maybe I won't see them for quite some time. Perhaps I'll never see them.

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So, the Lord answered Abraham's prayer to spare the righteous from being judged with the city.

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Abraham had that sparing pretty narrowly defined.

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His conclusion was that the way the Lord will spare the righteous is by sparing the city.

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Well, the Lord answered his prayer. He spared the righteous while still judging the sin of the city.

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And so, we need to understand that truth as well. Sometimes the

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Lord answers prayers in ways that I may not see for quite some time. And maybe

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I'll never see it. Nevertheless, nevertheless, just as Abraham had said, shall not the judge of all the earth do right?

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Well, indeed he shall. Whether I see the answer to that prayer or not, the judge of all the earth shall do right.

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Let's take encouragement from that truth today, shall we? Our Father and our God, I pray that you would give us patience in our praying and give us confidence in your character, in your righteousness, and in your answers to those prayers to be brought about in ways that are pleasing to you, ways that will glorify you, and in ways that are best.

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Give us the faith to trust you, to know that you, the judge of all the earth, will do what is just.

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We thank you that we can have that confidence in you as our God because you have revealed to us in your word what you are like.

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May we have the faith to believe that you are what your word says you are.

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We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. All right, well, have a good rest of your

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Friday and a wonderful weekend. We're looking forward to gathering for the

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Lord's Day service, 1030, this coming Sunday morning. If you can't join in person, understand that.

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But we are live streaming, of course, as we do every week. So join us for worship on the