Category Archives: Morning Musings

Morning Musings, Uncategorized

Lot’s Weakness.

Leave a comment

Genesis Nineteen….  Verses 26-38….

   Verse 26 seems to show most of Lot’s weakness…his wife. She was too strong for him, she didn’t really believe the messengers…..

     She didn’t want to leave her home, and she didn’t want to go to the mountains either….everything she said, Lot went along with. Her heart was still in Sodom. As they were taken forcibly by the hands of the two messengers, she hung back watching it all happen. As she dithered around, she was turned into a salty statue, destroyed by the same stuff that was destroying her things back home.

     How many people are not prepared to leave their old ways to take the deliverance offered by God! They are ultimately destroyed by the very thing they hang onto…their sin.

      We wonder what Abraham’s thoughts were the next morning as he surveyed the smoking plain! He probably never saw Lot again. But that was not the end of Lot’s weakness. His two single daughters were still tainted with Sodom’s wickedness and evil, and thought nothing of the incest between them and their father….in fact, they planned it.

     The results of it plagued God’s people for ever in the Moabites and Ammonites (symbols of the flesh) that overran their borders for years. In the same way believers today are plagued by the fleshly desires as Paul describes in Romans 7:14-25….I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into the captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me  from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ  our Lord.

Lot’s life was saved, his things were gone,                                   Nothing left that he’d worked on.      No-one listened to what he said,   For he was weak and easily led.

Morning Musings

Depravity Reigns!

Leave a comment

   

Genesis Nineteen….     Verses 2-25….                                         

 One wonders why these messengers were reluctant to stay with Lot. Was his wife not co-operative? Or too busy? Or did they want to see how genuine Lot was with his invitation?

    Verses 5-9 show how depraved the men of Sodom were….they didn’t want the girls, only the men. The general atmosphere of Sodom was so evil and so pervasive, that it was no wonder that Lot’s daughters did what they did later with their own father!

   The visitors rescued Lot and protected the household by making the rioters blind, and then told Lot to go and warn the rest of his family to leave the city. Were these the “ten” that Abraham had pleaded to God for? Alas, Lot couldn’t even get ten of his family to believe what God said!  Lot’s testimony was nil in Sodom…what a challenge to us!

   Lot’s weakness of character showed itself again and again….he “lingered” in verse 16, he was lazy (“I can’t get as far as the mountain”) and he liked his comforts (“Let me stay in this little city”). It is hard to imagine the sight, smell and sounds involved in the destruction of these two cities….the shaking of the earth, the flashes in the sky, the smell of sulphur and the noise that there would have been. Everything….people, animals, crops and buildings….all gone.

                                Lot was sitting in the gate, The day was gone and getting late   “Come home to stay” was what he said, As to his house the way he led.                     “We cannot stay, we’ve come to warn, Judgment will come soon after dawn, Lot was saved by angel’s might, The cities gone by the next night.

                                                ***      ***      ***

Morning Musings, Uncategorized

Lot’s Slippery Slope.

Leave a comment

Genesis Nineteen….      Verse 1….

  Lot had started out with his tent pitched towards Sodom (chapter 13:12) and now he was sitting IN the gate of Sodom as one of the chief men. How often we start on a course that we think we can handle, only to find that it overcomes us in the end!

   We don’t know whether Lot’s wife was from Sodom or not, but the family was living in Sodom and part of it by this time with at least two married daughters living there. Lot didn’t agree with the wickedness that went on in the city….his righteous soul was vexed every day by what he saw around him (2 Peter 2:6-9)… but he was too weak and too committed to move out.

   No wonder the Psalmist could say that the man who could keep from socialising with the ungodly, standing with sinners in business or sitting in politics or councils was blessed indeed. (Psalm 1:1-6). It takes a strong committed Christian to be able to be in a position like this and to keep from being sucked into the system.

  So now we see Lot sitting in the gate with the other officials, meeting these messengers from God who had come to warn him to flee from the coming destruction.

Lot started off with good intentions, Now found himself in evil past mention, Through Abraham’s prayers, He was saved from these cares, And taken away from dissension.

                           ***   ***   ***

Morning Musings

Isaac Promised.

Leave a comment

Genesis 17: verses 15-27….
Notice that there was no such thing as female circumcision such as is practiced by many of the dark skinned races today. Instead, God once more gives Abraham the promise of a son to Sarah….
This was more than even Abraham’s faith could take and he laughed at the very idea.
“I’ve got my son”, he said to God, “What about Ishmael?”
“My covenant will not be with Ishmael”, God said, “He will become a great nation too, but My covenant will be with Isaac, son of Sarah”.
Ishmael was born of the flesh, being half Egyptian, and God’s promises were not for him. Paul shows us that he was born of the bondwoman (we are all born in the bondage of sin), and that God’s promises are only for those born of the free woman (Galatians 4:22-31). These are those who are born again by the Spirit of God through Jesus Christ and made free by Him.
God did not rebuke Abraham for his laughter of disbelief, as what He was going to do was an absolute miracle, something totally contrary to nature. Abraham got up from his interview with God and immediately obeyed, and saw to it that he and all his males were circumcised that very day. (Galatians 3:6-29)

God told Abraham of Sarah’s son, He thought it couldn’t possibly be done,
“Ishmael’s here, will he not do?”, But God promised Isaac, son number two.

Morning Musings

God Speaks Again….

Leave a comment

                                                 God Speaks Again.

Genesis 17,  Verses 1-8, 15….

   Thirteen years had passed since Ishmael’s birth and things seem to have settled down again…Abram had his son Ishmael, and Sarai had to make do with this and still have Hagar as her maid. This seemed to be the way it was meant to be….

   We often seem to have plateaus in our life where there are periods of quiet and peace, and then suddenly, boom! Something happens to shake us up! So it was with Abram and Sarai….God was now ready to do something else in their lives in His timing.

  Once more God spoke directly to Abram. He told him who He was ….”God Almighty”, and what He expected Abram to do…. “walk before Me and be perfect (sincere with no pretence)”. We too, have to realise the might, majesty and power of God and relate to Him in sincere repentance and honesty, before He can bless us and lead us on. Again, God gave Abram the same promises, but this time He changed his name to Abraham (meaning “Father of many nations”) and Sarai’s name to Sarah (meaning “Princess”). We too, are not only given a new name (Christian, Christ’s one), but made a whole new creature to walk a new way of life with God (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Abram received from God that day, A promise and new name for aye, “I am God, the Almighty One, Walk with Me and evil shun”.

                                    ***   ***   ***

Morning Musings

Wait!

Leave a comment

Genesis Sixteen….(v.1-4)                       

   What a mix up of events in this chapter! All because Abram went into Egypt! If we backslide into the world, and then come back to the Lord, let us beware that we bring nothing back with us. Abram and Sarai brought back an Egyptian maid with them…harmless thing? Let’s see…..

   Abram and Sarai were both desperate for a son. They couldn’t see how God’s promises were going to come true unless there was a son, and Sarai was well past child bearing time even though she was fit and well. It seems that a woman’s childbearing years then were much the same as now in spite of their longer lives.    Now we see the same pattern of things as with Adam and Eve…Abram didn’t really believe what God said and Sarai had a bright idea…. “Take my maid and give her a son…perhaps this is what God meant!”    We never need to help God out with our good ideas…they don’t work!  What a lot of trouble this thought of Sarai’s caused and is still causing today with the Arab nations coming from this son! Abram got his son (not of God’s choosing); Hagar despised her mistress and Sarai treated her harshly. God could have prevented Hagar from having this son, but He sometimes allows these consequences of our foolish actions and disobedience to bring disastrous results. God knew this was all going to happen, and in spite of it, His purposes would still come to pass.

Abram listened to Sarai his wife, The results have caused much sorrow and strife, From Abram’s time to the present day, All because it wasn’t God’s way!

                                    ***   ***   ***

Morning Musings

God’s Time….Not Yet!

Leave a comment

Genesis Fifteen….(v.1-21)      

   Abram’s life seemed to be one series of tests after another….some he passed and others he failed. Whenever he passed a test, God spoke to him again and re-iterated His promise. Sometimes many years passed before he heard God’s voice, but still Abram remained faithful to God and kept his faith in Him…..

   By this time Abram was around 84 years of age with Sarah ten years younger and he was resigned to the fact that he was still childless and planned to give his faithful steward his inheritance. This, in spite of all the promises that God had already given him about his descendants!  Now God was telling once again that he WOULD have children of his own. Abram was no different to the rest of us. “How can this be so? How can I know for sure?” he asked.    God told him to prepare a sacrifice, and after doing this in the evening, Abram fell into a deep sleep and felt a sense of great horror come upon him. God then spoke to him again and told him plainly what the future held for his descendants. Abram then saw a flame and a fiery light pass through the sacrifice pieces, and knew it had been accepted by God. We also see that God’s patience with nations runs out in the end, and that one day in the future, the nations would be conquered and their land given to Abram’s descendants.  So we know for certain today, that the land of Israel was given to them by God, and it truly belongs to them!

Abram heard God’s voice once more, Just as he had the times before, “A son you’ll have, descendants too, This is the thing that I will do!”

                                    ***   ***   ***

Morning Musings

The Love of Money….

Leave a comment

Genesis Fourteen…. Verses 21-24….
How much do we love our money? We are told that the LOVE of money is the root of all evil and causes people to err from their faith (1 Timothy 6:10). Notice it is not the money that is evil, it is the love of it. It all depends what place it has in our lives….the believer is to love the Lord with ALL his heart, soul and mind and keep his thoughts of money to a minimum. Here we see Abram doing just that. When the king of Sodom offered him all the spoil, he refused to take it. He had already made a pact with God that he would not accept even a shoe lace from this wicked king, in case he said later, that he had contributed to Abram’s riches.
Abram only wanted what God provided for himself, but he saw to it that those who helped him were well paid and he accepted the cost of the army’s food. What a lesson this is to us! Not only that, but Abram gave a thank offering to God through Melchisedek. Abram kept his money in the right place and his faith remained in God, not in his money. The more money we have, the less we have to look to the Lord to provide for us!

Is our heart towards the Lord, With all our thoughts towards His Word?
Does love of money come between, And cause our souls to be quite lean?
*** *** ***