That's what Lot did!

Mercy is for the weak, says a proverb. You don’t need mercy if you are strong. And in Christian terms, you don’t need mercy if you are righteous. But the statement is wrong. We need mercy every day of our lives. We need his mercy to even touch our index finger with our thumb. Not even one of us is pure and sinless but all of us have been sinful since birth. And that is exactly why we need his mercy because we are all short of the glory of God. There is a huge difference between Grace and Mercy. Grace is when you are redeemed by the blood and given a new life to live. In grace, you are blessed. Mercy is when you are forgiven and set free even when you are at fault. In mercy, you are delivered from judgement.

Lot lived among the sinners in Sodom. Nobody made him do that. It was his own choice. While although he was righteous, he didn’t make any effort to live in a better place. He chose Sodom for its prosperity. And now, the lord plans to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. He divulges his plans to Abraham. Unfortunately, Abraham couldn’t save his cousin. There was no way he was gonna call up his cousin and say, “Dude, you gotta move out. Your city is about to go up in flames”.

Yet, Abraham intercedes to the Lord and the Lord listens. He agrees to spare the city if at least 10 righteous men are living in it. But he happens to find only one, Lot. So what does he do? Genesis 19:16 says:

“The Lord was merciful to them”

He sends his angels to take away Lot and his family away before he destroyed the city. The bible clearly says that, although was righteous, he was hesitant to leave the city. But he was still spared not because of his righteousness but because the Lord was merciful unto him. It is clear from Lot’s hesitation and his actions (which included offering up his own daughters to be raped) that he did not gain deliverance by virtue of his righteousness.

A lot of us are no better than Lot. We go where we find prosperity, never mind what sort of people live there. And when the Lord says us to leave, we start making up excuses.

“That industry offers a great salary! So what if it is porn? I am not acting as a porn star anyway! I am just doing my job and I earn for it.”

“In my defense, I advised my client to invest his black money in so and so because it is my job to advice people financially and I get paid for that. His black money is not my responsibility.”

There is nothing wrong with living among such people but what is wrong is that, we justify our actions by telling that we do only our business. We think it’s all right to be a mute spectator because that is not a sin. But the fact is, mute spectator-ship is almost a silent agreement. It is always good to voice your disapproval in such situations because otherwise you will be considered as one of them, whatever they are. And by saying ‘voicing your disapproval’ I don’t meant arguing and advising. It means that you tell politely but firmly that you are not in favor of such actions. Then, you gotta pray and leave the rest to God.

~Lilac Blossom