It's interesting that when the angels came to check out Sodom, Lot was sitting at the gate. It's almost as if Abraham had called ahead to warn Lot the angels were coming. Apparently, hanging out at the city gate was common for Lot. Maybe he was there to protect others coming to the city or maybe he was trying to stay away from all the corruptness of the city.
When the angels arrived, Lot met them and invited them home with Him. Hotels, as we know them, didn't exist in Lot's day. People often went to the city square to stay the night when came to foreign city. City natives might offer a place to stay. The angels were planning to go to the city square to spend the night. But Lot knew his own city very well and insisted for their own protection, that they stay the night with him.
Lot, obviously knew who the angels were or at least had a good idea. Abe knew when they came to visit him. He attempted to protect God's messengers from his world, his community. He locked them away in his house even when others came to find out who they were, with the goal of exploiting them. Ironically, they saved Lot not the other way around.
It seems to me that there is a tendency among God's people to try to hide, protect, defend and even keep God from their environment, workplace, community, neighborhood, friends and acquaintances. We don't want God exposed to them for fear of embarrassment or that God will get kicked around. News flash: God can take care of himself. He doesn't need protecting or shielding. He knew what was going on in Sodom and Gomorrah before He sent the angels to destroy it. He knows whats going in your life and lives of those surrounding you. You don't have to run interference.
If there is a lesson here, it has to do with Lot and his family. They continued to live in the vileness without being salt or light. They tried to keep God from intersecting with the people of his community. And then he was reluctant to leave when the angels told him they were going to destroy their city. When they took he and his family by the arm and drug them out for their own protection, they still begged to stay close instead of going where the angels told them to go. And Lot's wife ended up losing her life because she was so endeared to the people who wanted to violate God's angels.
God, Lot apparently was trying to live in both worlds. Help me live with clarity for you, to seek your righteousness. Let me be a light for you. I want to be salt, but not like Lot's wife. I want to make a difference. I want to lift up Jesus.
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