Author: missionspaul

I haven’t purposely chosen to write about Lot’s story during the Christmas period; it was simply because, as you know, I am reading through Genesis.

This is an alarming read for a Boxing Day morning!

In the last two days, many have had a welcome break from the stresses of life. Perhaps they have already returned to reality. If not, some will tomorrow and the day after. Christmas doesn’t erase our worst moments, nor does it pretend trauma doesn’t distort our choices. That’s not it. It announces that God has entered human darkness and redeemed a generation from even the choices their ancestors made long ago. He still does.

 Here’s the story:

^“ Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave. ³¹ One day the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man around here to give us children—as is the custom all over the earth. ³² Let’s get our father to drink wine and then sleep with him and preserve our family line through our father.” ³³ That night they got their father to drink wine, and the older daughter went in and slept with him. He was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up. ³⁴ The next day the older daughter said to the younger, “Last night I slept with my father. Let’s get him to drink wine again tonight, and you go in and sleep with him so we can preserve our family line through our father.” ³⁵ So they got their father to drink wine that night also, and the younger daughter went in and slept with him. Again he was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up. ³⁶ So both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father. ³⁷ The older daughter had a son, and she named him Moab; he is the father of the Moabites of today. ³⁸ The younger daughter also had a son, and she named him Ben-Ammi; he is the father of the Ammonitesof today.” (Genesis 19 v 30-38)

Yes, it’s horrible. But let’s look again. Lot’s daughters found themselves isolated in a mountain cave, convinced they were among the last people on earth. According to their thinking, their father was the only man around. Civilisation as they knew it had ended. So, how was their future? They came up with a disturbing plan. Get their father drunk and become pregnant by him. Lot wasn’t in on the plan; he was, in that sense, a victim of their traumatised and catastrophic choice.

Years later, the Moabites and the Ammonites, enemies of Israel, would emerge from these children of Lot and his daughters.

This isn’t a story the Bible celebrates or endorses. It simply tells us that in an ancient cave, certain decisions made the destruction even worse. There are many in such caves today trying to answer this question: when things are desperate, what boundaries will we cross to find a way forward for ourselves?

“Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the Lord. ²⁸ He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace. ²⁹ So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.” (Genesis 19 v 27-29)

Abraham went back to the place. That place was where he had pleaded for the righteous people of the two cities, if any could have been found. But the people have all gone. Judgment came. In the place of his intercession, it seems that God hadn’t listened to his cries. But then see how things change in v29.

God remembered. Who? Not Lot. That would have been what we would have written. But no, God remembered Abraham and his intercessions. God had heard Abraham. God had remembered, and God had rescued.

At this moment, Abraham doesn’t know Lot is safe. All he sees is the ruins and the smoke.

Christmas often comes to us in the same way, unexpectedly arriving in the midst of ruins. The first Christmas was not announced with fanfare to everyone. In the place of powerful empires and religion, God remembers, even when everyone had forgotten or turned their gaze away from a simple town of Bethlehem.

I have just watched the Netflix series Man v Baby, and I can recommend it. It is a modern tale of how, at first, a baby was somewhat of a nuisance, but how, in the end, it brought so many together.

This Christmas Day, we celebrate the birth of the Christ-child, born in a manger, in a story that is at first hidden from many.

We may be taken up with so many things today—fears, pain and loss. It is easy to be blinded by the smoke and the ruins. It is easy to see what has gone and not what has come.

At the start of v27, it says, “Early the next morning …” Many can see the smoke today. The smoke may be rising, but friends, so does the sun, and sometimes at the same time. We often live with partial vision. God remembered Abraham, and He remembers you also. This is the message coming out of this important day.

Christmas morning symbolises the rising of the Sun of Righteousness amidst the smoke of our broken world. The Light shines in darkness, right in the midst of it. The baby in the manger represents God’s remembrance—proof that He hasn’t forgotten us, even when we only see ruins.

Lot chose the small city of Zoar to escape the judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah. The instruction was not to look back. He, his wife and his two daughters must continue to move forward without returning, hesitating, and even turning to look at what they once had.

“By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. ²⁴ Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens. ²⁵ Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land. ²⁶ But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.” (Genesis 19 v 23-26)

As we celebrate Christmas, we remember that the first Christmas was about God doing everything necessary to save us, sending His Son into our world. But salvation, then and now, requires a response. The story of Lot’s wife reminds us that receiving God’s gift means fully embracing it, not clinging to what we’re being saved from.”

What was her name? We don’t know.

Why did she look back? We don’t know.

But Jesus tells his disciples to remember Lot’s wife, in the context of telling them not to turn back but to be saved at the end times (Luke 17:32).

When we look at this story of the saving of Lot’s family, we can see how God had to do everything to save them. Lot’s sons-in-law pledged to be married to his daughters, disbelieved him when he told them of the destruction; Lot himself hesitated to leave the city he loved and the angels had to grab hold of him, his wife and his daughters to drag them to safety; and now his wife on the brink of safety, hesitated, and in what seemed a harmless move, became disobedient, and what was pouring down from heaven in judgement, fell on her.

Just as the angels helped Lot’s family reach safety, God went to extraordinary lengths to save us. He didn’t send just a message or a prophet; He came to us Himself. The manger is a symbol of God’s endless pursuit of humanity, doing whatever it takes to rescue us. It’s essential to recognise that Mary had to say yes, Joseph had to trust, and the shepherds had to leave their flocks. Salvation has always required a response.

Salvation needed to be embraced fully. Was it a look of longing for Sodom? Was she reluctant to leave the corrupt city? Did she have other family members there? Was this about grief and loss? Was this simply a struggle to move into a new chapter in her life when all that was familiar to her was being destroyed? Do we have sympathy for her?

Lot’s wife teaches us that we cannot step into God’s new thing while clinging to the old. At Christmas, we celebrate that ‘the old has gone, the new is here’—but only if we’re willing to stop looking back.”

I pastored a man for several years. He was a regular church attender but didn’t engage with many people except one lady. He looked so much older than he actually was because he clearly didn’t look after himself. In many ways, he was unkempt, and being a heavy smoker, his health wasn’t good either. Yet he struck up a relationship with this lady, who also struggled with ill health. They became best of friends, and he enjoyed, in some ways, being a carer to her. However, sadness was always part of his demeanour, and I never really knew why until the end of his life. He never let me visit him at his home, but I went there when he passed away. Stepping into his house was an eye-opener. How had I missed what was really going on in his life? It wasn’t that his home was a mess, smelly and dirty. I went upstairs to his bedroom, and his wardrobe was filled with his late wife’s clothes; they were even hanging outside the wardrobe. All around the bedroom were pictures of his wife wearing these same clothes that were hanging, standing still, announcing the loss every morning that he woke and every night that he slept. It was then I understood. I saw how he struggled to move forward when everything familiar in his life had gone. He couldn’t let go. He wouldn’t move forward into the next chapter. His care for the other lady in the church was an attempt at a purpose, but each day he would go home, close the door, and be consumed by the death of his wife. He never moved on.

Lot’s wife stood as a memorial.

Sometimes the past can hold on to you even as you try to move forward. Looking back, and for whatever reason, not letting go can do permanent damage to our lives.

The story might seem harsh, but it does show us dramatically how we can become paralysed when we need to move forward.

What are we looking back on when we should be looking ahead? What clothes are still hanging in the wardrobe of our lives because we are afraid to let go?

Not only did Lot’s wife become a memorial, she became a monument, reminding us all that salvation requires us to keep looking only ahead. Salvation requires our response, a willingness to leave the old life behind and embrace the new.

In a world of fake news, do you find it difficult to believe what is being announced? Further to this, there is the temptation to discount the truth because we are turned off by the packaging it comes in. Sometimes it is hard to believe what we are hearing. We can laugh it off with a roll of the eyes, hesitate and not respond quickly enough, or even think negotiating or arguing with the one bringing the news is the right course of action. If anything of this resonates, then we are ready to read these verses that reveal how people can respond when crises land.

“The two men said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here—sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here, ¹³ because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the Lord against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it.” ¹⁴ So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marryhis daughters. He said, “Hurry and get out of this place, because the Lord is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking. ¹⁵ With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.” ¹⁶ When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them. ¹⁷ As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!” ¹⁸ But Lot said to them, “No, my lords,please! ¹⁹ Yourservant has found favour in youreyes, and youhave shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die. ²⁰ Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it—it is very small, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared.” ²¹ He said to him, “Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of. ²² But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it.” (That is why the town was called Zoar.) (Genesis 19 v 12-22)

Here is the news: the end of the world is nigh (well, the city anyway).

That is impossible, so thought the sons-in-law of Lot. This is exaggeration at best and hysteria at worst. That moment when they decide not to believe would cost them more than they realised; they would die.

Yet isn’t this the Christmas story too? Who could believe such news? The packaging seemed all wrong. A baby born to be King?

The Apostle Peter spoke of the story of Lot and saw the mercy and the redemption that Christ has brought.

“… if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials … (2 Peter 2 v 7-9)

This was undoubtedly not Lot’s righteousness. He hadn’t done anything righteous. And of course neither have we. Lot was influenced by the city he lived in. And we, too, are influenced by the society we live in. Our sins may not be as dark as Lot’s, but we are foolish, and we fail. We are not righteous. Yet Lot’s soul was tormented; he had conviction. And we, too, feel that conviction when we sin. The Bible calls us (who put our faith in Him) righteous, as Peter does about Lot, not because of our actions, but because of the Lord’s. It is His grace and mercy. This is the redemptive story.

This is the heart of Christmas: God calling us righteous not because we’ve earned it, but because of what He has done. The baby in the manger would grow to become our righteousness.

Lot hesitated. What was he thinking about? Was it what he would lose in the destruction? What were these doubts? We know the story, and we know he will later look back on what he lost with drastic consequences. Here, he hesitated, and the angels grabbed his hand and dragged him to safety. Mercy sometimes looks like being dragged away, even when we hesitate.

Remarkably, Lot is selective about his next home. He opts for a town instead of the mountains. Within God’s mercy lies a sense of flexibility. This story emphasises mercy rather than judgment—mercy that guides us to safety and patiently waits until we feel secure.

This Christmas, mercy reaches out to us. Will we let go of what doesn’t bring life and embrace true Life? Will we shrug off the announcement? Will we pause at the door? Will we settle for lesser things? Or will we accept the hand that heaven extends? The hand that once was small enough to fit into Mary’s hand and which became the hand that was nailed to the cross, and now the hand strong enough to pull us to safety even when we feel paralysed?

Mercy came down at Christmas, and it continues to wait for us to find refuge. This Christmas, don’t hold back. The angels are at the door, the rescue is genuine, and mercy is extending its hand. Will you take it?

Warning! This isn’t a nice story to read. We would most likely not dwell on the verses, seeking some devotion.  

The summary is this:

• Lot, knowing what might happen to the strangers if they remained in the city, persuaded the visitors to stay in his home. It was his rescue mission.
• The men of the city hear of these visitors in Lot’s home and bang on the door, for they want to do what, in effect, is gang-rape.
• Incredulously, Lot offers his virgin daughters to the men in place of the male visitors. How could he do that?
• The visitors (angels) strike the mob with blindness and pull Lot inside to the safety of his home. It was their rescue mission.

“The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. ² “My lords,” he said, “please turn aside to your servant’s house. You can wash your feet and spend the night, and then go on your way early in the morning.” “No,” they answered, “we will spend the night in the square.” ³ But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate. ⁴ Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. ⁵ They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.” ⁶ Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him ⁷ and said, “No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing. ⁸ Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.” ⁹ “Get out of our way,” they replied. “This fellow came here as a foreigner, and now he wants to play the judge! We’ll treat you worse than them.” They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door. ¹⁰ But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door. ¹¹ Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door.” (Genesis 19 v 1-11)

This is a story of two rescue missions that mirror the Christmas message:

1. Lot’s failed rescue:

He tries to save the strangers, but only through compromise. Sodom has warped his judgment, and his rescue idea nearly ruined his daughters’ lives. This act to rescue his visitors was obviously evil in itself, but at least it was trying to save them. He realises he cannot save anyone.

2. The angels’ successful rescue:

Just when Lot’s misguided heroism is about to destroy him, divine hands reach out. The angels pull him back inside to safety. They strike the mob with blindness. The rescuer becomes the rescued.

This is the Christmas message: We cannot save ourselves. We need divine intervention.

The problem of living in an evil, corrupt society is that we become stained ourselves—our righteousness watered down, our judgment compromised. We become implicated in the evil culture around us. Are we so stained? Is our judgment so compromised that we’ve actually become part of the culture we live in?

Like Lot, we might have good intentions, we want to protect the innocent, stand up against injustice and do what’s right. But like Lot, our methods are often warped by the darkness we’ve lived in too long.

Christmas offers this hope: Even when we’re morally compromised like Lot, even when we’re surrounded by darkness like Sodom, even when our own rescue efforts fail spectacularly—divine rescue still arrives.

God pulls us toward safety. Light breaks into our darkness. The rescue mission we couldn’t accomplish becomes the rescue mission God completes.

God entered our darkness to pull us to safety—this is the essence of Christmas. “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light” (Isaiah 9:2). We can’t save ourselves; our righteousness is flawed. Let divine hands pull you to safety—the mission is to receive.

In this passage today, we seem to be stepping into an argument between Abraham and God. Foolish as this sounds, it appears to be an invitation from God to step forward and stand in the gap between holy justice and the human need for mercy. As we approach Christmas, when God’s mercy took flesh and entered our world, read this not as if Abraham were trying to convince God to be merciful, as if He weren’t. But Abraham is being led by God into the deepest part of His character to find mercy indeed—the same mercy that would one day be wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger.

“The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord. ²³ Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? ²⁴ What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not sparethe place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? ²⁵ Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” ²⁶ The Lord said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.” ²⁷ Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, ²⁸ what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?” “If I find forty-five there,” he said, “I will not destroy it.” ²⁹ Once again he spoke to him, “What if only forty are found there?” He said, “For the sake of forty, I will not do it.” ³⁰ Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?” He answered, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.” ³¹ Abraham said, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?” He said, “For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it.” ³² Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?” He answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.” ³³ When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.” (Genesis 18 v 22 – 33)

This is a powerful example to all intercessors out there. To stand in the gap and to plead for the innocent. Abraham, for some reason, stopped at ten. That wasn’t God’s decision; it was Abraham’s. Could he have kept going, perhaps to even one?

What we do know is that Abraham’s intercession gives Lot and his daughters a chance to escape. Sometimes intercession doesn’t save a wreckage, but it rescues survivors in it.

Intercession is more than ‘bless her, bless me’ prayers. It is to know what it is to hold onto God and contend with Him for someone. It is to wrestle the angel till dawn as Jacob did; it is the widow persistently and annoyingly calling to the judge for justice; it is Abraham, with his own failed story, daring to come to God for the sake of a city.

Here’s the challenge: what type of prayers do you pray? Safe ones? Or do you dare to beg for mercy for others?

At the end of this exchange, God leaves, and Abraham walks home. What was he thinking? He was carrying yet another promise from God. Ten righteous people will be saved. He has managed to save ten. I wonder if he regretted stopping at ten. I wonder if he was concerned that there were not ten righteous people in Sodom.

But what Abraham had done (though he would never have understood this) was give us all a challenge. We all should intercede with more rigour and daring. We can all change things for people by seeking God for their lives.

This Christmas, as we celebrate the most extraordinary intercession of all, God stepping into our world to stand in the gap for humanity, let us be inspired to pray with the same daring hope that marked this ancient argument between God and His man.

Do we have God’s heart this Christmas? Are we bothered about what bothers Him? Do we see what He sees? Can we hear the cries of people like God does?

As we gather in this season of Immanuel—God with us—we’re reminded that Christmas is the ultimate proof that God wants to include us in His concerns. The Incarnation itself is God refusing to hide His plans from humanity, but instead drawing near, making His heart known through a baby in a manger.

We’re going to read a few wonderful verses that show God deliberating whether to include Abraham in His concerns. We see God wondering whether Abraham will care the way He cares—much like we wonder at Christmas whether we’ll truly receive the gift of God’s presence and let it change how we see the world.

“When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way. 17 Then the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? 18 Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. 19 For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.” 20 Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous 21 that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.” (Genesis 18:16-21)

The visitors have enjoyed Abraham’s hospitality, a theme that echoes through Christmas, where God Himself becomes our guest, and are now leaving. As they look toward Sodom in the distance, God asks the strange question in verse 17. God Almighty is considering whether to let this man, a failure in many ways, come into His thinking about His plans. We have often done this with those closest to us. It reveals Abraham’s position with God. He has become a friend of God.

Let’s pause right there.

Isn’t this what Christmas celebrates? That God would call us friends? That He wouldn’t keep His rescue plan hidden but would announce it to shepherds, reveal it through a star, proclaim it through angels? At Christmas, we see that God’s heart has always been to include us, to draw us near, to share His concerns with us.

God did this not because His friend had earned such a position. That is perhaps why we would let a friend be so close to our thoughts.

• He brought Abraham into His confidence because of what he would become. He will become a great nation. There was a calling on Abraham’s life, but also a promise from God. Just as the Christmas story reminds us: we are called to become part of God’s family, His people—not through our merit, but through His promise.
• Secondly, because of what Abraham would do. He would instruct his children in the way of the Lord. He would teach them righteousness. God has confidence in Abraham. How? He has instilled these values in him. So as we continue to read tomorrow of one of the significant negotiations in the whole of the Bible, we do so because God equipped Abraham to respond the way He did, with compassion.

This Christmas season, as we light candles against the darkness and sing of peace on earth, goodwill to all, we’re living in the answer to God’s question. He didn’t hide His plans. He sent His Son. He gave us His heart wrapped in swaddling clothes.

For Abraham, this was a wonderful invitation, and it still stands for us today.

Will we let God’s heart for justice, righteousness, and compassion become ours?

What question do you think God might ask you today that could help you tap into a deeper well of emotions?

What question would restore you from failure or realign you to His purpose?

Maybe you don’t know the questions, but He does.

⁹ “Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him. “There, in the tent,” he said. ¹⁰ Then one of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.” Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. ¹¹ Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. ¹² So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?” ¹³ Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ ¹⁴ Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.” ¹⁵ Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, “I did not laugh.” But he said, “Yes, you did laugh.” (Genesis 18 v 9-15)

Let’s look at these questions in more detail.

• Where is your Sarah?

25 years previously, Abraham had failed his wife, Sarah, miserably. In a blind panic, he denied she was his wife, saying she was his sister. How could a husband do that, and do it twice? It was a failure, a wound that time hadn’t fully healed.

But God doesn’t abandon our broken places. What is your “Sarah”? What promise have you stopped looking at because the waiting has worn you down? God hasn’t forgotten.

• Why did she laugh?

Sarah laughed to herself. But God heard it. He always does. He exposed what she thought was hidden.

I can imagine God saying this in the question: “A few days ago, on the day of your circumcision, when I was blessing your wife, you laughed to yourself, I saw it! Sarah is copying you. I want to correct you, to realign you, your leadership of her is not good, you have not been a good example with this.”

• Is anything too hard for the Lord?

This is the question that still echoes through every Christmas carol, every nativity scene, every moment we pause to remember Bethlehem.

It’s the ultimate pincer question. Only two possible answers exist:

Yes = Then He is not really Lord at all, is He?

No = Then there is nothing—absolutely nothing—you cannot trust Him for.

A virgin birth? Not too hard. Redemption for all humanity through one humble birth? Not too hard. Hope for the hopeless, sight for the blind, life for the dead? None of it is too hard.

What is it for you?

This Christmas, in a circumstance, a conversation, or even a quiet moment of reflection, you might face a question that spurs you toward great days ahead. Don’t be afraid of it. Don’t hide behind the tent flap or lie about your laughter. Let God ask what He needs to ask.

Because the same God who visited Abraham’s tent visited Mary’s womb, the same voice that asked about Sarah announced to the shepherds, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.”

Is anything too hard for the Lord?

The manger answers with a resounding no.

And that changes everything.

Today, you could have an unexpected interruption. A stranger may appear at the door of your life. A random conversation with someone you don’t know or a neighbour who calls for help. Are you ready for the strange? God may be at the centre of what appears strange. Is your heart available and your hands open? Is your voice a welcome sound?

“The Lord appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. ² Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground. ³ He said, “If I have found favour in your eyes, my lord,do not pass your servant by. ⁴ Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. ⁵ Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way—now that you have come to your servant.” “Very well,” they answered, “do as you say.” ⁶ So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. “Quick,” he said, “get three seahsof the finest flour and knead it and bake some bread.” ⁷ Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice, tender calf and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it. ⁸ He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared, and set these before them. While they ate, he stood near them under a tree.” (Genesis 18 v 1-8)

Abraham had known much of the strangeness of God to see that he must be ready for anything. He was resting in the heat of the day, sitting at the entrance. He was ready. Today, watch out for that knock on the door of your life.

Abraham sprang into action. This was not merely a cup of water. This would take hours to prepare, and the strangers would need to wait, but here is a beautiful picture of Abraham, the great man of faith, standing, almost like a waiter, not eating with them, simply on hand for anything that might be needed.

At what point did Abraham know these three men were the Lord? Was it in v3 or before? It would certainly be later when the conversation turns to Sarah. But when did Abraham know? It is impossible to know.

Maybe we should live our lives thinking God is more involved in our lives than we imagine? For that to happen, then we should recognise that:-

• Be open to the inconvenience. Abraham was resting, and he had to abandon that for the Lord.
• Be quick. There was no dragging of feet; there was a quickness to serve.
• Be humble. Abraham stood back. He knew it was okay to stand near but not be the centre of the event. We need to give God that place.

These visitors came to bring Abraham and Sarah news that would bring so much joy to their lives. But it came in the atmosphere of openness, quickness to serve and a humility that worshipped.

Let this image of Abraham under the tree, ready, quickness of heart and with humility be our approach today. For the strangers may indeed be the Lord. Who is coming towards you today as you stand at the entrance of your tent?

Not tomorrow.

“On that very day Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household or bought with his money, every male in his household, and circumcised them, as God told him. ²⁴ Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised, ²⁵ and his son Ishmael was thirteen; ²⁶ Abraham and his son Ishmael were both circumcised on that very day. ²⁷ And every male in Abraham’s household, including those born in his household or bought from a foreigner, was circumcised with him.” (Genesis 17 v 23-27)

Yesterday, we read how God’s presence lifted from Abraham, having told him that plan A was still on, Isaac would be born.

Then.

“On that very day” That day. Abraham knew what he had to do.

Now we might never have to consider circumcising our household. But as we walk with God, we all know when God speaks, when He waits for our commitment, and it can be said of us, “on that very day.” Can it be said of us? Will it be said?

Is that day today? Is your story waiting for your action?

No hesitation. Abraham had every reason to do so. Yet he moves forward in obedience without compromise.

For a 99-year-old man, this obedience was painful. It was costly, visible, and irreversible.

Maybe you are reading this and know God has spoken to you, and though it will be painful, you know today is the day when obedience is called for.