FBC Daily Devotional – January 11, 2021

Faith Baptist Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:03

Well, here we are, the beginning of another new week, January, what is the date today?

00:09

11th, 2021. I hope you had a good weekend and were able to gather together with God's people, if that worked for you, and just had a good

00:21

Lord's Day yesterday, and that has encouraged you to begin the new work week well and get off to a good start.

00:33

Well, if you're following along in the Bible reading plan that we've published, then today you will have read or will read

00:42

Genesis 13, 5 through 15, 21, as well as Psalm 6.

00:50

And that passage in Genesis is really kind of interesting. In chapter 13, you have the account of the strife between Abraham and Lot.

01:00

And interestingly, the strife is not due to any animosity, it's not that they don't like each other, it's basically due to prosperity.

01:10

Both of them had prospered so well in the growth of their flocks and so forth that there just wasn't enough land to provide for both families and all of their wealth in terms of livestock.

01:28

It was kind of a similar experience that happened in the early days of our country, if you remember, when the pilgrims had come over to the

01:37

New World, new to them, settled in Massachusetts a bay area,

01:45

Plymouth Rock area and so forth, set up the Plymouth Plantation, and there were some other settlers there as well.

01:52

And of course, the Native Americans were in the area also. And for quite a while, they were able to live in relative peace and harmony, and as you know the story behind the first Thanksgiving and all the rest of that, there was peace.

02:07

But as the colonies grew and the colonial areas grew, where the settlers had come, they started to encroach more and more on the land of the

02:21

Native Americans, and that ended up creating some conflict. They're losing, not only are the

02:27

Native Americans losing land, but they're losing hunting grounds and food and fishing grounds and so on and so forth, and that created strife.

02:36

So it was the prosperity between Abram and Lot that created this strife.

02:42

And Abram graciously took the approach to present a potential solution.

02:50

He said, look at all of the land before us, you choose which route you're going to go.

02:55

And so he gives the choice to Lot to decide which direction to go, and Abram would go in the other direction.

03:05

So he gave that choice to Lot, even at the risk of missing out on the better land, better territory for himself.

03:15

But I do want you to notice something. It was to Abram that the

03:21

Lord promised all of the land, eventually. Not to Lot, but to Abram.

03:28

So it's kind of an important truth to keep in mind as you go through the account of Genesis and then on into Exodus and into Joshua.

03:40

But anyway, in verse 13 of Genesis 13, there's a note of foreshadowing, and it says this.

03:48

It says, you know, when Lot looked to this valley that was well watered, it was like the

03:56

Garden of Eden. It was just so plush and lush with vegetation and so forth.

04:07

It was just a beautiful area to settle in. But there's this caveat, there's this note of foreshadowing in verse 13.

04:14

It says, now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners before the Lord.

04:20

So in the middle of this valley that was a wonderful place for livestock and grazing livestock and so forth, are the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

04:31

And the writer tells us, Moses tells us, that the men of Sodom were wicked.

04:39

They were great sinners against the Lord. Now there's a little note there that we can keep in mind as we look at this world and the things that are of beauty in it.

04:51

Something that may look like paradise and look so beautiful on the surface may actually have an underbelly of ugliness that you can't see from the distance.

05:03

Have you ever flown into O 'Hare Airport or maybe Midway? Have you done it at night?

05:11

It's really a beautiful sight. You come flying in over Lake Michigan into plain banks, and you can look out your window and look at the city all lit up, and it looks so beautiful.

05:25

Or even on a beautiful day, a nice sunny day, a few clouds and so forth, and the sun gleams off of those beautiful buildings.

05:36

So looking at it from the plane, out the window of the plane, everything looks so beautiful.

05:43

Same's true with New York City or some of these great cities of our country. But if you've been there and you follow the news, you know that not all is so beautiful when you get down up close and personal in these places.

06:00

Well, this is the way it is. As Lot looks at this well -watered plain and how great it is and wonderful it is and much more to be preferred than the other direction that Abram's going to go in, there's this underbelly of ugliness that he doesn't see.

06:18

And it does raise the question, doesn't it, how much of this corruption was Lot aware of when he made his choice?

06:25

Well, we don't really know, but we do know from chapter 14 that God used that choice of Lot, regardless of how selfish he was in making that choice, he used that choice of Lot, God did, to protect

06:42

Abram and his assets from these ruthless invaders that came. They came and attacked the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

06:50

They took captive all the people. They plundered the cities and took them all captive.

06:57

Well, if Abram had gone into that area and Lot took the area that Abram got, well,

07:03

Abram would have been taken captive. So God used that choice of Lot to protect his servant

07:10

Abram. You know, we can be pretty critical of Lot, can't we? He should have chosen the lesser quality land in deference to his uncle

07:17

Abram. He shouldn't have been so selfish. He shouldn't have opened himself up to the trouble that he was going to experience in Sodom and opening himself up to the corruption that was there and so on and so forth.

07:30

And some of that criticism may be valid. It's not really criticism that comes out, you know, pointedly in the text.

07:41

Some of it may be valid. But what I don't want us to miss is the point that God used

07:47

Lot's choice for the benefit of his chosen servant. I wonder how often the

07:55

Lord graciously protects us and we're not even aware of it.

08:02

And how often he uses the choices of others that cause us to go in a different direction that we didn't intend or we didn't plan for, but God uses that for our own benefit, for our welfare.

08:19

Interesting to ponder that, isn't it? Let's thank the Lord for his gracious protection.

08:25

So, our Lord, we are grateful today that you graciously protect your servants.

08:31

And sometimes we're not even aware of the protection that you give to us and you provide for us, but we are grateful for it.

08:40

Lord, bless these thoughts to our hearts today, we pray. And we ask this in Jesus' name and for his sake.

08:47

Amen. All right. Well, I hope your week gets off to a great start today.