Run For Your Life Series

RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!

Maybe you have heard the story of the two guys that were out hiking in the woods one day when they met up with a hungry bear. The bear started running towards them. The two guys started running but then the one guy stopped, opened up his backpack, pulled off his hiking boots and started putting on running shoes. His friend yelled “What are you doing! Even with those running shoes you can’t outrun that bear”. He replied “I don’t have to outrun the bear. I just have to outrun you!”

Have you ever had to run for your life from something? In the Bible there was another man who had to run for his life, not because of a bear but because the city he was in was about to be destroyed.

Gen. 19:15 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, please! 19 Your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you 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.) 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, including 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.

I remember a time when I was a kid visited a friend on his farm. We were playing in the cow pasture. The cows were a long way away but I was still afraid they would come closer. My friend assured me that they would stay far away so I just forgot about them. We were so caught up in what we were doing that we didn’t notice the cows until they were only a few yards away. We finally looked up and ran for our lives! We tried to continue playing but I was too shaken up by the experience. I learned something that day. You can’t enjoy yourself when you are always having to look over your shoulder.

The same is true with sin. When Abram and Lot arrived back in Canaan after returning from Egypt they had accumulated such wealth that the land could no longer support both their flocks. Abram gave Lot the opportunity to choose where He would like to go.

Gen 13:10 Lot looked up and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan was well watered, like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, toward Zoar. (This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) 11 So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. The two men parted company: 12 Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom. 13 Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the LORD.

Lot chose the Jordan valley because it was well watered and a "garden". It looked like the perfect spot but there was one problem. It was near Sodom. Lot knew that the people of Sodom were very wicked but he still he chose to live there. There are many choices which we face in life which look great from a distance. Like the valley they look great from a human standpoint. The problem is that they are close to Sodom.

Notice that while Lot first pitched his tents NEAR Sodom we see in just the next chapter that he was now living IN Sodom.