The Letter To The Church Of Thyatira: The Church Tolerant Of Sin Series

I'd like to contrast two historical figures, Lot the nephew of Abraham, and Jacob the son of Isaac. One leads to disaster, one leads to overcoming. The question you should ask yourself is, which path am I on today?

From James Petterson's One Year Book: "He left his city along the Euphrates River and headed north with his uncle. They crossed Iraq into Syria, and then Uncle Abe’s new God called them to move on to the land of promise. But high desert country could not sustain both the uncle’s and the nephew’s herds in the same place. After their herdsmen fought over grazing rights, they decided to split.

When his nephew chose the lush plains east of the Jordan River, Uncle Abe gasped. The cities of that region were cesspools of depravity: demonic gods, infant sacrifice, unthinkable perversions, and horrific cruelty. But Lot could only see grazing lands that would fatten his herds and markets that would fatten his wallet. The Genesis account says that he “pitched his tent toward Sodom” (Genesis 13:12, KJV). In short, Lot kept his family outside that wicked city, but placed his tent in such a way that his wife and daughters were able to see its bright lights. Over time they were seduced from a distance. They pestered Lot to move them into Sodom until he finally acquiesced to their pressure. Eventually, Abraham’s nephew became a member of the city council. But his business interests caused him to keep his mouth shut in the face of evil, even as his wife and daughters abandoned Uncle Abraham’s God for the pleasures of Sodom.

Then angels appeared with a warning: judgment was coming, and Lot’s family must flee immediately. The angels literally dragged the reluctant family away from Sodom and Gomorrah. No one knows whether the region was hit by a meteorite or an earthquake, but huge fissures opened, and methane gasses spewed out in geysers of hot fire and liquefied salt, raining down a holocaust that turned sand into glass balls and stones into charred lumps. Lot and his daughters ran into the mountains to the east, but his wife couldn’t tear herself away from the cities she loved. Liquefied salt washed over her, instantly encasing her so that she became a pillar of salt.

The worst was yet to come for Lot. As his two daughters cowered in the mountains above, they must have thought the whole world had been destroyed. They figured that their daddy was the only man left on the planet. So they got him drunk and took turns seducing him. Could the righteous man, who pitched his tents toward Sodom, have sunk any lower than incest? His sons became the progenitors of the Ammonite and Moabite nations, taking on the immoralities that Lot’s daughters had picked up in Sodom. Lot’s tale is the sad story of a man who lost his place in the family of Abraham, then his own family, and finally his legacy. His amazingly sad story warns us that a life of small compromises eventually leads to a tipping point and a plunge into catastrophe. We would do well to remember Lot and something Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote:

Sow a thought, you will reap an action; sow an act, you will reap a habit; sow a habit, you will reap a character; sow a character, you will reap a destiny."

"Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master." -Genesis 4:7

Lots story went all wrong. Though perhaps in the end, Lot gave his life to God, and was saved. We don't know for certain,

but I think we’ll see today that the church in Thyatira was being offered this course, of slow compromise, leading to bigger compromise. But, they were also being offered a path to righteousness.

It reminds me of the account of Jacob. He was a manipulator, plotting with his mother to steal the first born role from his brother. God was pursuing him all his life. And he fled from God. But, then one day Jacob, fleeing from his brother, encountered a staircase, in a dream, leading up to heaven. And he was astonished.

Later, he would wrestle with God, all night, perhaps wrestling between pride and obedience to God, and finally God asked Him, what is your name? Jacob, means deceiver. Jacob admitted what he was. And God then made a great nation out of Jacob. He became who he was always meant to be, a hero. But he had to admit, ask forgiveness, and repent, to become who he was meant to be, a hero.

Jacob overcame himself, his own desires, his own selfishness, and ego, and manipulations, and became a man dedicated to God. He overcame.

We'll see that these two paths, that of Lot, or Jacob, was before the church in Thyatira. Jesus gives them this message.