The word chosen catches my eye, and I’m hooked. “For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.” (Genesis 18:19, NIV)
After delivering the news that Sarah will birth a child the next year, the Lord is on the way to Sodom and Gomorrah to examine the situation for himself. There’s a conversation between Abraham and the Lord, about sparing the city if there are at least ten people who are righteous. It turns out, there are not. Lot, his wife, and his two daughters are told to flee. In this, I read protection, and it is life. Protected from the angry mob that is struck blind. Protection from the impending destruction.
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!” (Genesis 19:16-17, NIV)
I’m currently reading a book written by a Hungarian Holocaust survivor (The Choice by Edith Eva Eger). There is a haunting mention early in the book where her parents had been given warning to flee, and papers to help with safe passage, and they didn’t act upon it. I think of them in this moment of Lot’s hesitation.
There are other moments of protection and provision in this reading: of Sarah being spared from Abimelek’s attentions, of Hagar’s provision when she is sent away.
When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes. 16 Then she went off and sat down about a bowshot away, for she thought, “I cannot watch the boy die.” And as she sat there, she began to sob.
17 God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. 18 Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”
19 Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. (Genesis 21:15b-19, NIV)
In these Bible stories, I read of God’s very real presence, and it comforts me.
Lord, thank you for reminding me.
Courtney (66books365)
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Sixty-six books in a year 
Great post this am. One of my favorite passages in the Bible is chapter 18 where Abraham bargains with the Lord for Lot’s life.
Your reference to the Holocaust survivor reminds me of a movie I saw I think it was called “The Last Train to Auschwitz”. The father asked for forgiveness to his family for not getting them to safety when the offer was for them to leave.
Thank you for a good and chllenging read today.
Dave
Thanks, Dave. Wow, that apology in “The Last Train to Auschwitz,” how utterly heartbreaking. All of it is.