Missions Paul

What you see and hear is not everything.

You may think you are only experiencing a dry place, a desert-like experience where your needs outweigh the provisions you have. You may think you have lost friends, even family, or perhaps you are watching from a distance a loved one who is experiencing their own hell, and you are afraid to watch. Even though God may have helped you in the past, it may seem that today is different.

We read the final few verses that tell the story of Hagar, which have been passed down through the generations, so that even the Apostle Paul speaks of her (Galatians 4 v 21-31). Hagar is back in the desert experience.

^“14 Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the Desert of Beersheba. ¹⁵ When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes. ¹⁶ Then she went off and sat down about a bowshot away, for she thought, “I cannot watch the boy die.” And as she sat there, she began to sob. ¹⁷ God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. ¹⁸ Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.” ¹⁹ Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. ²⁰ God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert and became an archer. ²¹ While he was living in the Desert of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from Egypt.” (Genesis 21 v 14-21)

Do you know when you have come to the end? The end of your tether? That rope tied to an animal will keep it in order. But there’s no rope left.

She had run out of water, and though she had experienced the desert before, this time it was different; it was worse than before, and she had a son with her.

Abraham, the man of God, the one who had great wealth and many servants, sends Hagar and his son away with meagre supplies. I still meet men and women of God who seem to be blinded by their actions. They have the ability to help, but they don’t. In fact, doing nothing or very little appears to be unkind. Blindness affects the most spiritual.

Hagar, who had named God ‘El Roi’ because He is a God who sees her, has reached the lowest point in her life. God might have seen her before, but now she cannot even face seeing her own son die before her eyes. God seems blind, deaf, and she has to blind herself because she cannot bear hearing her son cry from thirst. She begins to cry.

Then comes the turning point: “God heard the boy crying.”

Who did God hear? Not Hagar, though surely He did. Just like his mother, this next generation, her son, also had to experience El Roi, the God who sees.

God brings hope, a destiny, and a simple command to obey.

Where did the well come from? Did God create it there and then? He could have done. Or was her pain and despair so traumatic that it had blinded her to what was in front of her? In front of her, all the time, was the well. She had come to the end of her life at the very place which would save her and her son.

This place you are in right now may not be the end, but the beginning of a new chapter in your life. Dry your eyes and look up. God’s provision may be closer to you than you realise.

So Hagar’s story comes to an end, for what we know at least. Ishmael grows up in the desert, presumably with his mother, and she finds him a wife from her home nation. God keeps His promise about Ishmael, for he too births a nation.

 The lesson is this: The desert doesn’t win. It becomes a servant for the purposes of God in your life. Being cast out, losing everything, isn’t the last sentence in your story. The trauma is real, but so is your God. He sees you and hears you. He has the last word on your life, not anyone else.

We like stories when we know who is right and who is wrong. We want them to end well. But that’s just not always how things work out.

“The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned, Abraham held a great feast. ⁹ But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, ¹⁰ and she said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.” ¹¹ The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. ¹² But God said to him, “Do not be so distressed about the boy and your slave woman. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. ¹³ I will make the son of the slave into a nation also, because he is your offspring.” (Genesis 21 v 8-13)

A party is taking place, for Isaac was born a few years ago, and everyone is happy. The promised child is the focus, Isaac, Sarah’s pride and joy. But. That word. The juxtaposition between what is good and what is spoiling. Hagar’s son, Ishmael, was older, probably around 14 years older. In the place of celebration … but. Ishmael’s youthful immaturity was belittling Isaac, and Sarai was protective. Abraham is given the command – get rid. But Ishmael was his son, and this command was too much. He is caught between the two, and God steps in, revealing the future for both boys.

Broken families, mixed families, mixed-up families, flawed relatives, situations broken by jealousies and fear. Even at Christmas, a season of peace and goodwill to all men, brokenness is evident all around. Who is right and who is wrong? This is not the question. Instead, can God step in? Can God bring sense from confusion and a future from a mess? The answer is YES, he can. He doesn’t need perfection from us. Ishmael’s mocking, Sarah’s scorning, Abraham’s distress and Hagar’s fate and yet He is still faithful to His promise.

Perhaps you have a fractured family, and maybe in this season, you are navigating impossible decisions and even hurting from other people’s choices. It’s not easy, and God doesn’t promise it will be. There’s no simple answer. But what you need to know is that God does step in, and sometimes He does that in response to our distress. But maybe you need to invite Him today to step into your family and into your world.

This beautiful story should be a reminder to us all that God seeks those who are running away from their disappointments or who have been cast aside, discarded because they feel forgotten by heaven and earth.

“The angel of the Lord also said to her: “You are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery. ¹² He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.” ¹³ She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seenthe One who sees me.” ¹⁴ That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered. ¹⁵ So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. ¹⁶ Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.” (Genesis 16 v11-16)

God sought and found Hagar. She was on the road to Shur, heading back home to Egypt.

Hagar, the runaway slave, is now given a promise about her son to be born. It is a prophecy that he will have what his mother hasn’t had: freedom and an independence unhindered by anyone, even though at odds with those around him. He would live a life of struggle, born not into a world of his choosing.

Hagar, the Egyptian woman, a slave, someone running away, seems to be the first person in the Scriptures who gives God a name based on her experience and encounter of Him. God – El Roi, the God who sees me. A well was named in remembrance of this encounter between the God of the universe and an unwanted nobody named Hagar.

It wasn’t Adam or Eve, Noah or Abraham, who first gave God a name based on their encounter with Him. It was this slave girl who realised God sees her and gives her son the name, Ishmael, as He told her, for He also hears her.

Maybe arriving at a place where you feel unseen and unheard is the very place where God will meet you? Perhaps we have to come to our very end for God to give us a new beginning?

Hagar’s life was quite a mess. But God doesn’t wait for it to be sorted out. He found her on the desert road, and He will find you, no matter where you are today, for He is a God who sees you and hears you, your pain and your hopes. You may be crying out to Him; He has heard you. You are not unknown to Him. You are not forgotten.

I am sure you have at times felt invisible. There have been times when you have felt unnoticed. You have known the wildernesses of life. You know what it is to desire to escape from everything that you know. Hagar’s story speaks to you. God gives her a promise that doesn’t take her out of her circumstances but creates a new beginning for her. No pain that you experience has the last word over your life. Let’s read.

“When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. ⁵ Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me.” ⁶ “Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her. ⁷ The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. ⁸ And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” “I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered. ⁹ Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” ¹⁰ The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.” (16 v 4-10)

Hagar started to look at Sarai differently. She had been used, taken as a second wife, not for love but for reproduction. She now had something that Sarai only longed for. There was no relationship with Sarai; she was her slave, but now she was to be the mother of her husband’s child. This change affected her thinking about her mistress. She despised her. Things soon began to unravel. Sarai and Abram fall out, leaving Hagar exposed. This ancient story could be written today: the vulnerable often bear the consequences of decisions made by those with more power.

Hagar escapes and tries to go home, back to Egypt. When we are in such situations, we all want to turn back the clock. However, Hagar is different now, and more importantly, she is expecting a child.

How wonderful to know that God knows where we are. Hagar, on the road home, in a desert, pregnant, abused, feeling like she is indeed a piece of discarded property, a nothing to no one, is met by the angel of the Lord. It is even more wonderful to know that this first appearance of the angel in the Bible comes not to someone powerful, but to Hagar. That is a message all in itself.

The angel of the Lord gives to her what she has never experienced: dignity, purpose and importantly, promise. It all happened at the spring on the desert road, hope and relief in a dry place.

This is profoundly beautiful, and there have been moments like this in your life. There will be more. Like a spring in the desert, you carry joy but in a wrapping that has known huge disappointment. God will meet you, wherever you are; His eye is always on you, and what you are carrying or what you have gone through is not the end, for He is a promise-making and promise-keeping God.

There is one question He still asks you and me. “Where have you come from, and where are you going?” It is an invitation to talk to God who knows where you came from who always manages to

There’s something profoundly beautiful about the setting of this encounter: a spring in the desert, a place of life amid death. That’s what divine encounter does—it brings living water to our driest places.

Hagar came to that spring running from abuse, carrying trauma and an uncertain future. She left that spring having been addressed by God himself, holding a promise, with a new name for the Divine in her heart: El Roi, the God who sees.

In our own wilderness moments—when we feel forgotten, abused, or abandoned—the story of Hagar reminds us that we too are seen. Our names are known. Our stories matter. And sometimes, in the places we least expect it, beside the springs of our most profound need, we discover that God has been there all along, waiting to be found by those who thought they were lost.

The question that the angel asked Hagar resonates with us through the ages: “Where have you come from, and where are you going?” It invites us to share our stories with the One who already knows them, helping us realise that even in our efforts to escape, we are ultimately moving toward the God who sees us.

Abram and Sarai have lived in Canaan for 10 years. Ten years ago, God had told Abram to look up and count the stars. He did, and he believed. God was going to give him an heir, a son and a nation would be born. It was a tremendous promise, but God said He would do it. Ten years later, they were still waiting. This is a story as familiar as history itself. The couples battling with infertility, endless grief and are unable to do anything. We can all add our own different stories to this moment. Ten years, perhaps even longer, of whispered prayers of asking God to step in and help and do what we know He can do, and even promised to do. These years can be so long, and heaven can seem silent. What happened to this couple, especially Sarai, over those years? Did Sarai become hardened and bitter? Was the shame too much to bear? Did she become frustrated with Abram, with herself, with God? Many do. Let’s read.  

“Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; ² so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.” Abram agreed to what Sarai said. ³ So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. ⁴ He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.” (Genesis 16 v 1-4)

We could think of Abram and Sarai and their pain. We could wonder why, after coming up with a solution, they didn’t first check it with God. However, it is the other woman that we do well to consider. This is her story as much as theirs.

We know from chapters 12, 13 and 15 that Abram was holding onto a promise for a son. Sarai is now 75 years old, and God hasn’t explicitly mentioned that a son would be born through her (that comes in the next chapter). The plan was culturally acceptable. Sarai knew the promise given to her husband, but she didn’t believe it would be directly through her. It is an excellent example for us all when we believe in the promise but cannot accept the method, so we try to help God out if He needs it.

Hagar had no choice. She was not part of the discussion. She was the solution. Being owned as a slave, she was property to be used. Hagar was an Egyptian, a foreigner and less than her mistress in many ways.

One day, Sarai came to her, took hold of Hagar, brought her to Abram, and closed the door. This wasn’t for love. Suddenly, Hagar became a wife, a second wife to this God-fearing man. Becoming a wife is a stretch of the imagination. This was a transaction. Hagar’s womb became a commodity. No one asked her what she wanted. Slaves don’t get asked.

Ten years and nothing. Then, almost immediately, Hagar, the other woman, conceived. The plan had worked. Here was the promise fulfilled. God’s promise comes true. Hagar moved from being a slave to the mother of Abram’s child. Surely if this were not the beginning of the fulfilment of the promise, then Hagar would not have conceived?

There we leave it. The foreign woman. The slave. The surrogate. The mother. Hagar, the second wife of Abram, who carried the promised child … so they all thought.

We have all asked the same question as Abram. How do I know you will help me? How do I know you will keep your promise?

God doesn’t enter into a discussion. He does something that demonstrates vividly that He is committed to Abram’s life.  

“He also said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.” ⁸ But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?” ⁹ So the Lord said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.” ¹⁰ Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. ¹¹ Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. ¹² As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. ¹³ Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. ¹⁴ But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. ¹⁵ You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. ¹⁶ In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” ¹⁷ When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. ¹⁸ On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadiof Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— ¹⁹ the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, kadmonites, ²⁰ Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, ²¹ Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.” (Genesis 15 v 7-20)

Abram was told to prepare animals for what was a covenant ceremony, where two parties would walk between the dead animals and commit to the agreement. It was an ancient ritual that we obviously find hard to understand. It was binding.

Darkness falls, and Adam sleeps.

Then something remarkable – in the darkness and as Adam sleeps, God walks alone through the fire and the dead animals. He walks alone in the covenant ceremony.

What did this mean?

God was making the covenant regardless of whether Abram (who was asleep) would fail or keep his side of the agreement. This is a beautiful picture of grace.

You may feel tempted to walk through the fire of the covenant yourself. I mean, you want to show God that you can be a good enough Christian to receive the promises He has given. You want to demonstrate you are faithful. He can count on you. But it is never about your performance. You can never be good enough.

Here is the key point: Your salvation isn’t guaranteed because you have made a commitment, but because He has committed Himself to you. God isn’t concerned that you might be asleep or disciplined. The covenant has been made. He has walked through the fire. He is faithful.

Abram has left everything behind to follow the call of God, but what he had been carrying in his heart is now poured out into prayer before God. He is afraid of something, and God knows what it is. Abram had been seeking God for a desire of his heart, but there had been no answer. Up to this point, we don’t have any record of a complaint, but God provokes Abram, and then it spills out.

“After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: ‘Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.’ ² But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” ³ And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.” ⁴ Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” ⁵ He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspringbe.” ⁶ Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” (Genesis 15 v 1-6)

Who is Eliezer? Is he Abram’s chief servant? Abram’s fear is that all that God had given him, and more importantly, the promise that God will give more, looks very unlikely because there is no son to receive his inheritance. Remember how God promised Abram he would be the founder of a great nation?

There is a gap between the current reality and the promise he received.

How can I become a nation with no heir?

So he prays, “Sovereign Lord …” This is a wonderful title expressing his faith that God can do anything. At the same time, Abram is confused as to why He hasn’t done this one thing.

We, too, face these confusing moments in our lives. Especially if you have a promise from God that you are holding on to, despite everything contradicting that.

In the vision, God takes Abram for a walk. On that walk, he is told to look up, something that we all need to do at times. Count the stars. Abram tries to do the impossible task. At some point, he stops counting, but that task leads him to choose to believe. He will believe what God has said, not what Abram can see (no son). God knows Abram cannot count the stars, but the exercise reveals to Abram that His promise far outweighs Abram’s comprehension. God is going to do something that is beyond his ability to measure. He can’t have the fine details on this. He won’t be able to work it out. This is beyond his ability to make it happen. The stars are uncountable; just when you think you have got a number, you see more, or someone offers you a telescope, and it becomes a whole new universe.

The point being is this: the God who put the stars in place has given Abram, a 75-year-old man, a promise that is impossible, a son. Trying to do the impossible of counting the stars moves the complaint of disbelief, and what is handed to Abram is an invitation to trust God.

Go out into the night sky. The promises God has given you far outweigh anything you can understand. His ways are higher. Perhaps you need to look up today and try counting the stars, the same ones that Abram tried. God can do it for you.

Many years ago, as a young Pastor, I was facing a big project for my small church. I needed £20,000, and a man in my church who was very controlling offered it to me. I had never been offered such an amount of money. With the offer came a condition. I had to let the whole church know that we got the money from him. I turned him down. I couldn’t believe I was turning down the £20,000, but what I was actually turning down was the further difficulty of being controlled by this man.

I remember that as I read the next part of Abram’s story. He has just won a victory over the dominant kings and rescued Lot, his nephew.

“After Abram returned from defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings allied with him, the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). ¹⁸ Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, ¹⁹ and he blessed Abram, saying, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. ²⁰ And praise be to God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.” Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything. ²¹ The king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the people and keep the goods for yourself.” ²² But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “With raised hand I have sworn an oath to the Lord, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, ²³ that I will accept nothing belonging to you, not even a thread or the strap of a sandal, so that you will never be able to say, ‘I made Abram rich.’ ²⁴ I will accept nothing but what my men have eaten and the share that belongs to the men who went with me—to Aner, Eshkol and Mamre. Let them have their share.” (Genesis 14 v 17-24)

The King of Salem and the King of Sodom came out to meet Abram. The King of Salem, Melchizedek, was on the same spiritual level as Abram; he believed in God and served Him as priest. He brings bread and wine and blesses Abram. In turn, Abram gives him a tenth of everything he has.

Then another King of Sodom comes to meet Abram. This time, he tries to do a deal. Abram can keep everything, but Sodom wants the people. But Abram refuses to allow anyone to control him or to say ‘I made you rich.’

Using the same titles for God as Melchizedek did, the ‘God Most High, the Creator of heaven and earth’, is acknowledged as the one who has given to Abram, no other individual.

Sometimes the offers that come your way are nothing more than control. £20,000 was a lot of money, but it was cheap, coming with the strings attached.

It is essential to protect the source of your blessing. If you receive what looks like a blessing, first think, is this leading me nearer to God or away from him? Who is likely to receive the glory here?

It may be radical, but protecting the source of your life matters more than the success and gain of your life. Protect the fact that God is your provider. Melchizedek knew this, and so did Abram.

When Abram heard that his nephew Lot had been captured, he didn’t deliberate or form a committee; he gathered his 318 trained men and rode into the night.

 ^“They also carried off Abram’s nephew Lot and his possessions, since he was living in Sodom. ¹³ A man who had escaped came and reported this to Abram the Hebrew. Now Abram was living near the great trees of Mamre the Amorite, a brother^[b] of Eshkol and Aner, all of whom were allied with Abram. ¹⁴ When Abram heard that his relative had been taken captive, he called out the 318 trained men born in his household and went in pursuit as far as Dan. ¹⁵ During the night Abram divided his men to attack them and he routed them, pursuing them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus. ¹⁶ He recovered all the goods and brought back his relative Lot and his possessions, together with the women and the other people.” (Genesis 14 v 12-16)

I’ve got some questions to ponder:

1. When someone who has wronged us falls into crisis, do we calculate what they deserve or what they need?
2. When did playing it safe become more important than doing what’s right?
3. Does fear of failure give us permission to do nothing?
4. Who around us have we written off as too far gone, too broken, or too difficult to save?
5. When society calls someone collateral damage, do we agree—or do we see someone worth pursuing?
6. If God didn’t leave us in our captivity, how can we leave others in theirs?

And finally, the most important question isn’t whether people around us need rescuing. Question 7 is: Will we be the kind of people who ride into the night for them?

This may not be your usual daily passage of Scripture to read. We are going to read about an ancient war where four kings, led by Kedorlaomer of Elam, crushed a rebellion by five city-states, including Sodom and Gomorrah. After defeating numerous regional peoples, they plundered the rebellious cities and captured Abraham’s nephew Lot, setting the stage for Abraham’s rescue mission.

“At the time when Amraphel was king of Shinar,Arioch king of Ellasar, Kedorlaomer king of Elam and Tidal king of Goyim, ^two these kings went to war against Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboyim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar). ³ All these latter kings joined forces in the Valley of Siddim (that is, the Dead Sea Valley). ⁴ For twelve years they had been subject to Kedorlaomer, but in the thirteenth year they rebelled.⁵ In the fourteenth year, Kedorlaomer and the kings allied with him went out and defeated the Rephaites in Ashteroth Karnaim, the Zuzites in Ham, the Emites in Shaveh Kiriathaim ⁶ and the Horites in the hill country of Seir, as far as El Paran near the desert. ⁷ Then they turned back and went to En Mishpat (that is, Kadesh), and they conquered the whole territory of the Amalekites, as well as the Amorites who were living in Hazezon Tamar.⁸ Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboyim and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar) marched out and drew up their battle lines in the Valley of Siddim ⁹ against Kedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of Goyim, Amraphel king of Shinar and Arioch king of Ellasar—four kings against five. ¹⁰ Now the Valley of Siddim was full of tar pits, and when the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some of the men fell into them and the rest fled to the hills. ¹¹ The four kings seized all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food; then they went away. ¹² They also carried off Abram’s nephew Lot and his possessions, since he was living in Sodom.” (Genesis 14 v 1-12)

This coalition of four powerful kings from the east—Kedorlaomer of Elam, Amraphel of Shinar, Arioch of Ellasar, and Tidal of Goyim—who in the region of the Dead Sea had dominated five city states for twelve years. But in the thirteenth year, those same city-states rebelled and pushed back, and the next year Kedorlaomer launched a full-scale war supported by his allies.

This wasn’t a minor skirmish. Kedorlaomer’s response to this rebellion was a systematic crushing of tribes and peoples who were just frankly in the way.  This wasn’t random violence. It was strategic domination. The four kings then went chasing Sodom and Gomorrah to defeat them, which reads easily enough, especially because the valley they called home was full of tar pits, which proved a trap for their own lives.

Then we come to verse twelve. Lot had chosen to live in Sodom, despite his reputation, and had separated from his uncle. Now he has been taken prisoner and his possessions stolen.

The world was a mess, and it had just got worse with the capture of Lot.

With hindsight, maybe Lot would not have chosen what looked good; Sodom, with all of its prosperity, now carries unforeseen consequences for being there. Where we decide to plant ourselves is very important. You may not know the historical conflicts, the present moral atmosphere or that war would break out. This isn’t punishment, but the truth that the decisions we make for our lives are always part of bigger stories that may have nothing to do with us.

We choose. We get to decide not only where we live, but who we live with, who we align ourselves with, knowing that we cannot see the chapters to come, just the one we are in now. We see injustice all around because the guilty and innocent are both at the receiving end of violence.

Sometimes we find ourselves trapped in other people’s battles. That battle may have had nothing to do with you. It could have been historical, for wounds can take a long time to truly heal, or it could have been predicted. In a sense, Lot was collateral damage; he could not have been blamed for the battle, he was just there.

Ask the child caught up in his parents’ divorce, the employee wondering how the executives’ battle will impact their own job, the family member pulled from side to side in a relative’s battle, or the neighbour who realises there is a historical feud in the neighbourhood. Proximity can create vulnerability, making it impossible to stay neutral. The examples are everywhere. We may live in a nation hated by most because of the regime and culture that we were born into, not involved in creating that enemy. We work for organisations that have systems and ways of doing things that work well most of the time, but when some begin to be negatively affected, we get caught up in those arguments, because neutrality gives us no protection whatsoever.

There we leave it. Lot was taken. He could not free himself. No matter how much positive thinking or good decision-making he did, trying harder would not set him free. He needed rescuing. There are moments in our lives when we are caught up in something that we actually didn’t choose. We blinked, and we were there, trapped. It is then that we need someone to say, “You’re caught in something you can’t escape alone, so I’m coming for you.” Not because it’s their fight, but because you’re their person. And that is the story of salvation.