Sunday, June 7, 2015

Recovery in the Bible (RIB)




THE LOT OF LOT

Remember Lot? Remember that he was the Mayor of Sodom? Remember that he lived at the gate, the entrance to the city? I believe that means he reside (literally) between things: between the wicked city and the lands outside the city gate.

These tidbits remind me of Kadmus, who, in the Euripidean tragedy Bakkhai, is sentenced to perpetual shepherding of the damned. Why? Because he was lukewarm in his earthly life., literally standing  between the tangible world and the world unseen.

So I return to Lot: he was lukewarm, too. Perhaps it is no coincidence that his wife ended up looking back as they fled God’s destruction of their former city. She had been warned about this. But, like Eve, she was tempted and turned into a pillar of salt. In Revelation 3, Jesus speaks to the churches about leaving their First Love and to the church of Laodicea about being neither cold nor hot. “As many as  I love I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent (Revelation 3:14-21).”

God is not mean, but I believe He means what He says. And He says, in Matthew 14:25-27 that we are to keep our eyes FIXED on Jesus, who stands beyond the “boat” in which we are located, and He is beckoning us to come to Him. Therefore Jesus… suffered outside the gate. So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come  (Hebrews 13:12-14).”

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