THE EVOLUTION OF MOMENTS

By Jill Roberts and Michael Canalé

 

 

Michael raised such a fascinating point in speaking about our most recent Biblical protagonist, Abraham’s nephew, Lot. Michael said,

 

“In thinking back over the years that followed the time that Abraham and Lot went their own ways – Abraham to Canaan and Lot to Sodom – did you ever consider how it was that Lot blended in so well in Sodom, this world clearly not honored by God?”

 

Yes, there were moments when there were flashes of goodness in Lot, as he warned the two angels of the danger inherent in spending a night in the streets of Sodom, when he offered these angels sanctuary from the perils of the Sodom night and when Lot stepped out into the threatening crowd to try to appease them.

 

But as Michael astutely points out,

 

“You’re only getting moments of Lot’s life. The question is, what did he do in between these moments? God has made the Bible a whole learning system out of his moments, as compared to the majority of Lot’s life. We’re not getting the whole drift of his life from moments.”

 

This is wisdom, Michael style, and it is powerful. How can we escape the fact that Lot was deeply enamored with life in Sodom? He had to be pulled from this city like a person held in quicksand! Under his own steam, he had no intention of leaving voluntarily – ever!

 

And our point?  The seed of Lot and his daughters, i.e., the Moabites and the Ammonites, the people of whom God said –

 

“Do not harass…or provoke them to war, for I will not give you any part of their land. I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as a possession.”

(Deuteronomy 2:9) NIV

 

– this seed carried with it some Lot DNA that was going to throw into the face of God, most of the blessings bestowed on them, as described above.

 

God rolled out the red carpet, protecting these Moabites and Ammonites and preserving land for them. God’s generosity is unquestionable but their gratitude is sadly lacking.

 

In this life, God can give individuals every advantage, but what a person says and does with God’s gifts can route them away from the His beautiful pathway and, in the end, foreclose it from them permanently.

 

Sadly, this is today’s story. Judges 3 chronicles how, due to Israel’s disobedience, God allowed the Moabites and Ammonites to prevail against Israel in war:

 

“The Israelites were subject to Eglon, king of Moab, for eighteen years.”

(Verse 14)

 

David fought them and plundered their riches. The tributes they had given him had been forced. ( 2 Samuel 8:2) NIV. Moments of giving? Yes. A life pattern of it? Completely missing.

 

Their allegiance to God was mostly nonexistent. Instead of gratitude for all that God had bestowed on them, due to Lot’s familial and heartfelt ties from Abraham, these descendants of Lot, became pagan and chose to worship the false God, Chemosh. (Numbers 21:29) NIV

 

Solomon married a Moabite, as well as an Ammonite, and was led astray by the god of these wives.

 

In short, the Moabites and the Ammonites, Lot’s progeny, fell into idolatry as to God and into hostility with regard to God’s people, Israel.

 

Did they have moments of obedience? Possibly. Their progenitor, Lot, had those. But, what was the overriding trend of their lives? Did they find their own Sodoms and ensconce themselves there? Apparently they did this and more.

 

The above is the backdrop for the apex of such egregious behavior by Lot’s descendants. This denouement takes place hundreds of years after God’s great provision for these people. To say that God has been patient, is a tremendous understatement. He had given them chance after chance. Despite this, the following verses set forth their repayment to God for the endless opportunities He afforded them.

 

“It came to pass after this, also, that the children of Moab and the children of Ammon,  and with them other, besides the Ammonites,  came against Jehoshaphat to battle.” Jehoshaphat was the King of Judah and a strong worshipper of God.

( 2 Chronicles 20:1) KJV

 

It was an enormous army, outnumbering Jehoshaphat’s greatly. And who was the enemy? None other than Lot’s descendants – the Moabites and the Ammonites, bearing down on Israel! Instead of the red carpet granted them, they preferred the muddy road toward an attack on Israel, God’s people! At this point, even their moments of goodness were gone. They were uncompromising in only one direction – that of evil.

 

What follows is one of Scripture’s most beautiful prayers and, included therein, a brief but powerful negotiation of Jehoshaphat and God:

 

“And Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem, in the House of the LORD, before the new court,

And said, Oh LORD God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee?

Art not thou our God, who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham, thy friend forever?…

And when evil cometh upon us…we stand in this house…and cry unto thee in our affirmation, then thou wilt hear and help.

AND NOW, BEHOLD, THE CHILDREN OF AMMON AND MOAB AND MOUNT SEIR, WHOM THOU WOULDST NOT LET ISRAEL INVADE…

HOW THEY REWARD US, TO COME TO CAST US OUT OF THY POSSESSION…

O OUR GOD, WILT THOU NOT JUDGE THEM? FOR we have no might against this great company that comest against us; neither know we what to do; BUT OUR EYES ARE UPON THEE.”

(emphasis added)

(2 Chronicles 20:5-12) KJV

 

God answered Jehoshaphat quickly and definitively that they need not concern themselves about fighting this battle. God said that they were to just go out and stand still. GOD HIMSELF WOULD FIGHT THIS ONE.

 

The next day, Israel went out with their battlecry – which was loudly praising God.

 

As arranged by God, the Moabites, the Ammonites and Mount Seir began to fight each other until this army had destroyed itself.

 

What a metaphor for rejecting God – self destruction!

 

Michael says, speaking of this circumstance,

 

“Certain words trigger certain parts of the brain.”

 

How true. Here, as to the word, path, God can just roll it out from here to the stars but unless we step on it, onto the road He sets before us, we just stumble along a rocky, difficult way. For Lot’s children, it was a dead end. God had had His fill.

 

In stark contrast, Ruth, the Moabite, left her pagan people and came to worship God. As stated last week, she is found in the Matthew 1, genealogy of Jesus. Surely, no greater honor is possible.

 

Yes, she was descended from Lot. She, too, carried his DNA. Yes, she lived among evil, among a people who worshiped the false god, Chemosh. Her birthplace was a Sodom in so many ways. The difference is that, when she left all that behind, she didn’t look back and she fled, joyfully, never to return! She chose to serve the one true God. She had Lot in her bloodline but she quickly got his family’s idolatry and lifestyle out of her system!

 

Whether one chooses virtue, momentarily, or as a life pattern,  God gives everyone a chance to spiritually advance, to evolve toward greater and greater good or to become mired in worshiping false gods so that He, the true God, fades from practice and view.

 

And so it was with Lot’s descendants. In the end, they destroyed themselves, both literally and figuratively.

 

May our moments be a genesis that evolves down time into lives that honor the inheritance He mapped out for us from the foundation of time.

 

Again, Michael said,

 

“Moments do not give the whole drift of a life.”

 

We can and we must do much better than moments, episodic goodness. The evolution of a moment – may we choose the one leading toward greatness in the eyes of the LORD!

 

Postscript

Next week, we return to Abraham. Would he actually, again, represent Sarah as his sister? However great this debacle, right on its heels, does he demonstrate faith beyond what any of us can imagine?

 

We are grateful to the article, “Pondering Scripture,” An Uncommon Commentary, for its insights with regard to the historical conflicts between Lot’s progeny and Israel.