Loyalty to God and being helpful to strangers
Scripture background: Genesis 19:1-29.
The story:
The biblical book of Genesis tells us that there was once a great, but wicked city named “Sodom.” What does it mean for a city to be wicked? It means that every person in the city is wicked.
A man named Lot moved to the city along with his wife and their two daughters.
In those times, cities were surrounded by protective walls, and it was the custom for the leading men of the city to spend time in the evenings sitting by the city gate discussing many things. We are told that one evening when Lot was sitting with the group at the city gate, two angels came into town. Everyone thought they were men, but Lot was the only one to offer them a place to stay. They said that they intended to camp out for the night in the city square, but Lot urged them to stay with him, and finally they agreed.
That evening, a mob of townspeople gathered at the door to Lot’s house demanding that Lot give the two men to them. We’re not sure what they wanted, but they called Lot a foreigner and other bad names until the angels got rid of the mob. (Angels are really strong and tough warriors, not the chubby little babies we see on greeting cards.)
Then the angels told Lot and his family to leave Sodom immediately, because God was going to punish the city for its repeated wickedness. Lot and his family had to leave in the middle of the night with whatever they could carry. The angels had told them, “Run for your lives! Don’t look back and don’t stop in the valley. Run to the hills, so that you won’t be killed.”
Lot and his family went to a nearby town called Zoar, and as soon as they got there, burning fire fell on Sodom. The way Genesis describes it, it sounds as if a volcano erupted there.
Everything would have been fine for Lot and his family except that, according to Genesis 19:26, Lot’s wife looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt.
The lesson:
The second point of the Scout Law is “A Scout is Loyal.” The handbook interprets this as being “loyal to all to whom loyalty is due.” This is interpreted as being loyal to his scout leaders, his home, his parents, and his country. But this ancient story from the Bible tells us some more about loyalty.
Our big loyalty should be loyalty to God. The situation turned out bad for Lot because of his wife’s lack of loyalty to God. Her real loyalty was to the wicked city that God condemned, so she looked back when she should have been running away. Angels are messengers of God, and they told her what to do, but she wouldn’t do it.
But there is another message about loyalty in this story. Did you hear it? Loyalty to God requires that we be kind to strangers. The Bible tells us this over and over, but you are probably most familiar with it in the Ten Commandments. The fourth commandment tells us to take a day of rest each week, so that we have time to worship God, and time to rest and “recharge our batteries.” When you read that commandment (Exodus 20:8-11, Deuteronomy 5:12-15) you find out that it applies to “strangers” who are living with you as well as to you and your family.
Lot did two things in this story to show his loyalty to God. First, he offered strangers a place to stay, and then he defended them when a mob came after them. Lot helped the strangers, and when he did that, he showed his loyalty to God.
Sometime you may hear people saying bad things about strangers. Maybe it’s a kid who has just moved to town and is new in your school. Maybe it’s someone from a foreign country that is visiting here.
Show your loyalty to God by helping the stranger.
--Meditation by Richard E. Davies (copyright ©2007).