Show me your friends and I’ll know what you’re becoming. Don’t be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”
At the end of Genesis 13, Abram settles into a new place, 35 miles south of Bethel, at Mamre (meaning “fruitful”), near the town of Hebron (meaning “fellowship”). Fellowship with God and fruitfulness in life always go together. The Lord there restates His promise to Abram regarding the land where his family will live and the large number of descendants who will be born, even though at this point Abram is childless! Meanwhile, Lot, who first pitched his tent near Sodom, has moved his family into Sodom. Sadly, it would not be long until Sodom moved into his family. However, God does not abandon His people, even when they wander away. Actually, Peter uses Lot as an example in this way—not of his faith, as with Abram, but of God’s faithfulness: “The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations” (2 Pet 2:9). Of all the things the Lord knows how to do, three cheers for this one! Christian, don’t be tricked by the seemingly bright prospects the world offers. It’s all fool’s gold. Lot thought Sodom was a great place to put down roots. How did he do? Here’s what the previous verses in 2 Peter 2 say: Lot “was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)” (vv 7-8). Self-inflicted, too! It’s a good thing God knows how to get us out of such quicksand. Lot will need God’s rescuing grace, as our next lesson shows. But to any believers who have somehow ended up in Sodom’s suburbs, let me leave you with these words by P.P. Bliss: “Though I forget Him and wander away, / Still He doth love me wherever I stray; / Back to His dear loving arms would I flee, / When I remember that Jesus loves me.”