Delayed obedience is not really obedience at all. For a man named Lot, there were consequences for failing to obey God quickly. But things could have been different. This is true in our lives as well.

When God Says Run

Monday, September 19, 2011

Mountains figure heavily in the Bible. Noah ended up on a mountain resting in the Lord after the flood. Jesus died and was resurrected on a mountain. The New Jerusalem is foretold on a mountain called Zion.

Swell

Welcome to HT, I’m CM sharing the GS that’s all about Jesus starting a new week with a series called Making it to the Mountains. As humans, we need mountains to remind us of how small we are, so we can reach the heights of where God wants us to be and where we can meet with him. This is a program from Genesis called “When God Says Run”. HT opens with a brand new album from Selah leading to the Dayspring, the joy of the earth, the morning star. Selah leads us to Jesus.

SONG – Hope of the Broken World – Selah

The title song of a brand new album by Selah, Hope of the Broken World, heard for the first time on HT as we begin a series on making it to the mountains and this program called When God Says Run. Mountains figure heavily in the Bible and in our faith. Just think about the 23rd Psalm. “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.” By implication valleys are low points and mountains are high points. When Jesus was a boy growing up in Nazareth, he could climb the nearby hills and see 60 miles in one direction and 20 miles in another. He climbed a mountain above the Sea of Galilee to share His famous Sermon on the Mount. Near the end of His ministry He set his face to go up into the mountains from Jericho to reach Jerusalem where he was to die on a Roman cross. Old Testament saints were to be like mountains. Psalm 125:

1 Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion, 
which cannot be shaken but endures forever. 
2 As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds his people both now and forevermore. I think it’s safe to say, Christians are to be lofty mountain people. But I want to share the story of Lot in Genesis 19. He was told to run to the mountains, to get away from the evil world of Sodom and Gomorra that he called home and he left late and made his way to a cave in the mountains. Throughout the Bible we see caves used for two purposes. First, they are used as places of burial. Think of Abraham burying Sarah in a cave. Think of the cave used as the burial site of Lazarus in John 11. Think of the cave-like tomb where the Lord himself was buried.


Second, they are used as places to hide in. Think of the five kings who fled from Israel on the day that Joshua commanded the sun to stand still; they fled from the battlefield and hid in the cave. Think of Israel at the time of Gideon; the power of the Midianites was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves, and strongholds. Caves were used whenever danger threatened or men fled for their lives. In the Bible, caves are places associated with death, darkness, and fear. You know the evil at Sodom and Gomorra and that’s where Lot lived. You can read one of the most tragic as well as evil stories in human history by reading Genesis 18 and 19. Let me pick up the story from Genesis 19:15

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,[b] please! 19 Your[c] servant has found favor in your[d] eyes, and you[e] have 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.[f])

23 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.

27 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.

30 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.

That’s God’s word from Genesis 19. Lot lived in a cave – with his two daughters. What a dark, creepy, and evil place that cave is.

Why was he living in a cave? The answer is simple: Lot has nothing left. He hit bottom. How quickly and how drastically things changed. Just one chapter and a few days before Lot was rich and prosperous, the owner of thousands of sheep and camels and servants. He was a merchant prince, living in luxury in a mansion in the best section of Sodom. Lot was considered and treated as a leader in Sodom; he sat in the city gate as an elder and his counsel was sought by all and his advice was listened to.

But that world is gone, it disappeared. And with it has gone Lot's wealth and riches, his position and prestige, his wife and future sons-in-law. Lot is now living in a dark cave.

I am sure you all remember what happened. God rained judgment – fire and brimstone, burning sulfur – upon Sodom and Gomorrah. He overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all those living in the cities, and also the vegetation in the land.

Lot and his family escaped the fires of judgment only because two of God's angels grasped them by the hand and led them quickly and safely out of the city.
"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!"

Lot reached rock bottom and can't sink any lower. His situation can hardly get any worse. There he is, living in a cave. He is hiding. He is afraid. And yet, even though he didn’t respond by running when told to run or flee to the mountains, the New Testament tells us that Lot was a righteous man. We’ll see him in heaven some day. He allowed this world to become his idol and yet in the end, he fled to the mountains and found sanctuary in a cave. Not a pretty life, yet the Lord saved him.

Now, I want us to contrast this with another mountain experience. This is one of a man who followed the leading of the Lord from the very start. God told him to build ark because he sending a flood to cover the earth. Noah built that ark. We’re told in scripture that he preached righteousness to what we know was an evil generation. People then, like today, were eating, drinking, and making merry, and they weren’t seeking the face of the Lord. And the floodwaters came, but Noah and his family was safe. Hebrews 11:7

By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.

And we’re told in Genesis 8 that the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. And you know the rest of the story. When the land was finally dry, Noah came out with his family and all the animals and was told to multiply and be fruitful on the earth. Noah followed the Lord and found his rest on a mountain.

What are we to learn from these two stories … so different … and yet both men are called righteous?

First, there is more than salvation in these two stories. God is committed to salvation operations. Noah and his family are saved, the world and human civilization are salvaged. Salvaging involves retrieving that which is valuable from the wreckage. We certainly see this in the life of Lot. This concept is at the heart of the remnant of Israel and we can find God’s salvage work in individual lives.

Second, God finds and nurtures in Noah and Lot and in each one of us that which transforms our lives from sinful rubble to amazing grace. God is in the business of recreating and our lives can testify to that grace. We are saved from our sin and its condemnation. We are salvaged for ministry and its service to our eternal king.

Third, God uses chaos in our lives for re-creation. Chaos get us to run to the mountains where we can see the Lord. It where we can find safety. Psalm 125

1 Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion, 
which cannot be shaken but endures forever. 
2 As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds his people both now and forevermore.

Fourth and finally, as long as we live, it’s never too late to turn to the Lord. Whether you are thief on a cross on just an ordinary person who most of your life has been out of touch with the Lord, you can have the touch of the Lord, by finding you safety in the cleft of the rock. And I’m speaking of the rock of Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 10:4
tells us we can drink the same spiritual drink as the Israelites in the days of the Exodus. “…for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.”

You, too can find and drink from this spiritual rock that is Jesus. If you hear my voice, it’s not too late. You can run to the mountains and seek His face.


Conclusion
The good news of the Gospel is that the enemies of God and His people do not stand a chance. On occasions too numerous to even count, the enemies of God have tried to bring God's plan for salvation history to nothing. They tried this in Egypt when Pharaoh killed all the Hebrew boys. They tried this in Canaan when Moab and Ammon tried to seduce and defeat the people of God. They tried this in Bethlehem when Herod killed the baby boys. No matter how hard it tries, the darkness of Lot's cave has never been able to overcome the light of God's promises.

Over and over again throughout salvation history, people like Moab and Ben-Ammi walk out of dark, creepy, evil places and oppose God and His people. But the darkness of sin cannot stand up to the light of Christ. As John says in his gospel, "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it" (Jn 1:14). The light of Jesus Christ overcomes even the darkest of caves. But you may be saying, this can’t mean me. And my answer, is yes.

Let me tell you a wonderful instance of light overcoming darkness. Do you remember the story of Ruth? How her husband died? How she went with Naomi, her mother-in-law, to the Promised Land? How she married Boaz? How she became the great-grandmother of King David? How she ended up in the family tree of Jesus? The most amazing thing about Ruth is that she was a Moabitess. You heard me right. She was a Moabitess. She grew up in a culture that hated and despised the children of Israel. Yet, she moved to Israel. She became the great-grandmother of King David. She ended up in the family tree of Jesus. How come? Very simple really: in Ruth's life we see a wonderful instance of God's light and grace overcoming the darkness of sin and evil and hatred.

Does that light shine in your life or are you still like Lot, hiding in the cave, the darkness, of sin?

SONG – Mountain of God – Third Day