January 6 Devotion

Sin always takes us down a slippery slope, resulting in consequences that are not good. Once sin has been accepted or tolerated, it is not long before it is embraced. We see that truth in scripture, as well as in our own personal experiences. God told Abraham, “I have heard that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah are extremely evil, and that everything they do is wicked” (Gen.18:20). Sounds like the description of the world at the time God chose to destroy it with a flood (Genesis 6:5). One has to admire Abraham’s desire to intercede on behalf of the doomed cities, but his acceptance of sin had resulted in a blindness to the spiritual reality. In a meeting of the minds, Abraham thinks he is able to bargain God down to sparing the city if only ten righteous people could be found within it (Gen.18:32&33). But, God already knew there were not ten righteous people living in that city. When two angels came to rescue Lot, the men of the city came to Lot’s house, requesting to have homosexual relations with his two male guests. Lot thought nothing of offering them his two virgin daughters to do with as they wanted, but he called their homosexual desires, “a wicked thing” (Gen.19:7). Most of us would also see Lot’s offer as a wicked thing, but he had lived around these sinful conditions for so long, not only had he tolerated sin, but he had also embraced it. Furthermore, because the two men engaged to Lot’s daughters refused to leave, they were destroyed with the rest of the city. So was Lot’s wife, who became a pillar of salt for her disobedience (Gen. 19:17,26) by looking back to the city as they left, as if what was in the city had anything she really needed. In time, Lot’s daughters thought nothing of getting their father drunk so he would have sex with them and give them each a child (Gen.19:30-38). It all seems so hard to believe, but it begins the first time we tolerate sin in our lives. Still later, Abraham sees no problem in lying to preserve his own skin by saying that his wife was a sister. Now, technically, she was his half-sister, but his intent was to deceive King Abimelech just so he could save his own life. And Sarah went along with his deception (Gen. 20:1-8). Again, sin is a slippery slope in our minds and the best way to avoid the problems and the consequences of sin is to neither accept or tolerate it in the first place.