#8 Living Righteously in a Wicked World

Genesis 13-14 & 18-19
I hate to be the one to cause mass hysteria, but I have it on good authority that it has come through appropriate channels down from the Prophet, President Monson, the Chinese government have given authorization to bomb the United States; they are starting with all our bases. Everything within a 50 mile radius of HAFB will be destroyed in less than 2 days. The Prophet is advising all people who will listen to his voice to gather what you can carry in a backpack, head out as far as your car will allow then walk the rest of the way to Missouri. He advises to pack up quickly and don’t look back.

Now picture yourself walking through your house, touching many of your belongings remembering why they are important to you, who gave them to you, what would you pack, what could you not leave behind?
Examine your feelings, could you leave? Do you believe the prophet, would you believe him if there was nothing on the news about it? Would you take your chances? Where do your feelings lie?

Our lesson is “Living Righteously in a Wicked World”; as usual our lesson gives us two contrasting personalities to learn from; both of which live in the world, one of which, consistently living righteously, the other falling short because his vision of the eternities is blocked by the world’s enticements.

We are going to learn from both, because I like to end on a positive note we are going to start with the negative personality. The guys name is Lot. Lot was Abraham’s nephew (his brother’s son) Abraham and Lot lived together in the same area but there came a time when they both had great substance, so great that they were out growing the land and their herdsmen were having disagreements with one another (Gen. 13:6-7).
What we find out about Lot right away is how he respects his elders and what his attitude is. (Gen. 13:8-10) Abraham suggested that they part ways so there would be no more strife. Abraham said you take the right I’ll take the left or vice versa. Well, Lot being Abraham’s junior should’ve adhered to tradition and respect for the patriarch of their family and given Abraham 1st choice. V. 10 tells us instead he checked out the land and noticed which land he felt was the nicer of the two and chose the plains of Jordan; green and luscious.
v. 12 He dwelled in the plain and pitched his tent toward Sodom (a very wicked city) v. 13 tells us how the people in the city were wicked; in the footnote a it states how the people were lazy and didn’t care for the poor and footnote b states that they practiced homosexuality. So what do verses 10 and 12 tell us about Lot’s personality? That he was selfish, disrespectful to his elders, that he was curious about worldly practices. These traits aren’t unlike some of us today is it? So what happens to a people who are selfish, disrespectful and curious about evil practices?
They become accustomed to the things of the world and start to justify that they are nice people and they have a right to believe what they want. We get taken in just a little at a time until Gen. 14:12 Lot in this verse is a resident in Sodom, not just looking at it from afar but dwelling there now. It doesn’t say how long it took him to move into town, but as we can clearly see it was only 18 verses later.

Now we want to give Lot a little credit for being a genuinely good person after all in Gen. 19:1-2 He did recognize the men of God, as being men of God, walking down the road and took them in and gave them food and shelter for the night. Also in verse 5-7 he attempts to save them from the fate of some apparently awful acquaintances of Lot. They called unto him and asked for some sexual favors of the men that were staying with Lot. He puts them off, he even attempts to give them his virgin daughters. Which would be a horrible parental thing to do but scholars suggest this is in keeping with proper etiquette and good hospitality that one sacrifices his own household over that of invited guests.
Obviously though, the men of God had God on their side and didn’t need protecting, v.11 they smote the men with blindness. They told Lot to get out of the city v. 15. The men brought them safely out of the city and told them to go to a mountain for protection. Lot having his life spared whined about going to a mountain. The Men of God gave him some advice and he whines about it and questions it and begs them to let him go to another city Gen. 19:17-20.

*Does this sound familiar? Do we whine and justify ourselves to the Lord and His messengers? What are some you’ve heard lately? Well, I would pray Lord but none of my family members are home at the same time. Well I would accept a calling, but not that one, can’t I do one I know I can do?

Well they give him his desire; before they could go however Lot’s wife decides that she is going back, whether she changed her mind or she went back to get her other children who didn’t come, or if she went back to get more possessions, it doesn’t say, but Luke 17:31-32 states that Lot’s wife did turn back. That does say a lot for the faith that Lot had in these men and what they told him. Lot and his wife just witnessed a miracle; the men causing the other men to go blind to save their household, but only Lot listened to them; he didn’t go back.
I also quote the Institute manual p. 76 “the scriptures that the phrase “looked back” was an idiomatic way of saying “she turned back” or “returned to Sodom”.”
As far as her turning to a pillar of salt goes, “most scholars agree that the most probable site of Sodom is now covered by the southern part of the Dead Sea, a body of water with a high salt content. If Lot’s wife returned to Sodom, she would have been caught in the destruction. Her becoming a pillar of salt could be a figurative way of expressing this outcome.”

In Jeffrey R. Holland’s, the Best is Yet to Be in Jan. 2010 Ensign p.23, he states that Lot’s wife’s biggest sin is that “her attachment to the past outweighed her confidence in the future.”

Hopefully Lot’s story has a happy ending and he went back to Abraham and learned how to be as good and faithful as Abraham was.
Perhaps his attitude was as Elder Holland suggests we do, “I plead with you not to dwell on days now gone nor to yearn vainly for yesterdays, however good those yesterdays may have been. The past is to be learned from but not lived in. When we have learned what we need to learn and have brought with us the best that we have experienced, then we look ahead and remember that faith is always pointed toward the future.”

Elder Holland also suggests we let others do the same. “Let people repent. Let people grow. Believe that people can change and improve. Is that faith? Yes! Is that hope? Yes! Is that charity? Yes! Above all, it is charity, the pure love of Christ. If something is buried in the past, leave it buried. Don’t keep going back with your little sand pail and beach shovel to dig it up, wave it around, and then throw it at someone, saying, “Hey! Do you remember this?” Splat!”

Lucy Mack Smith illustrates what an attitude of Faith sounds like when the saints were asked to leave their homes, (History of Lucy Mack Smith Ensign Jan. 2001) “I now look around me upon all these things that have been gathered together for my happiness which have cost the toil of years… I now give it all up for the sake of Christ and salvation, and I pray God to help me to do so without one murmur or a tear…I will not cast one longing look upon anything which I leave behind me.”

So how does Abraham stay righteous? How does he live day to day this same attitude? Surely he had visited the city and seen its attempt at enticements. How did he stay pure and keep himself away from the temptation?

Gen 13:8 He was kind, loving and generous in letting Lot choose what he wanted even if it meant that he got the short end of the deal. Most importantly he wasn’t bitter about it. He looked to the Lord for guidance.
How do we know he wasn’t bitter? In chapter 14 Lot gets captured from some wicked kings who were looting all the goods they could and taking with them hostages as well. Well when Abraham found out that they had been captured he went after them. Gen. 14:14

Gen. 13:14 the Lord reminds him of the covenant he made with him and the lands he would inherit.
The Lord can do anything, Abraham knew that, don’t you think that whatever that land looked like the Lord could transform and make fruitful and beautiful; not without work from Abraham of course, but with them both working side by side, anything could happen. Just like us; our lives might seem dismal or heartbreaking but with the Lord it can be overcome. How can this happen? What examples are there of wonderful things happening in your lives that at first seemed dismal? How does the Lord help us out? How can we learn to seek out the positive with faith?

Gen. 14:18-20 Here Abraham is in the middle of a crisis-trying to get Lot back and what does he do? He stops off at the High Priest of the church’s house to partake of the Sacrament, ask for a blessing and pay his tithing.
He could’ve justified that he might need that money to get Lot and his family out of his predicament or that he may need to buy supplies. He didn’t think about what he could do with that money, he knew it belonged to the Lord and it wasn’t even a question for him to pay his tithing, go to church and worship the Lord, even in the middle of a crisis.

What can we learn from his example? How would taking the sacrament, getting a blessing and paying his tithing help him out during this crisis?
I have often been comforted and strengthened as I have come to the sacrament table to repent of some things. I have partaken with a specific purpose and come away strengthened. To be honest I haven’t paid tithing in years, Keith is the one who actually writes out that check, but even though he is the one who physically writes the check, my heart is with that principle and I have truly seen many miracles through us paying our tithing. One I remember clearly. Years ago we wanted to go to Bear Lake with my family. Keith had done the bills and found that we didn’t have money to make the trip. All we needed was $20 to fuel the van because my mom was providing the camp site and food. Well after rebalancing the checkbook he found exactly $20. He has no idea where it came from. Keith is very accurate with his numbers so we both know it was not an over site. We went to Bear Lake and thanked the Lord for providing a miracle for us.
I have also been blessed spiritually by Keith paying our tithing. The promise that the windows of heaven would be opened to us has happened over and over as my prayers have been answered clearly and the scriptures come alive to me as I read and ponder them. As for the blessing, I have received many blessings in my life that have strengthened me, given comfort and specific direction. I know that the power with which my blessings have been given and the specificity of the advise was clearly from the Lord because I didn’t mention what questions I had specifically to the person delivering the blessing. I know that Abraham stopped to do those things because he needed the Lord’s love, support and help in rescuing Lot.

After rescuing Lot, and paying a visit to Melchizedek, the kings came to meet Abraham told him to keep all the loot, but return to him the people he had taken. I loved Abraham’s response. Gen 14:22-23 Keep your dirty money I don’t want any part of it, so that you have no credit to give yourself for my wealth. Don’t you love that? He could’ve had double his wealth, but chose to turn it down. He stayed away from even the worldliness of money.

What kind of person was Abraham? Gen. 18:1&17 one who the Lord feels comfortable appearing to and visiting with often, as well as telling him of His plans to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.
Gen. 18:2 One who entertains men of the church.
Gen. 18:24-33 One who cares for a people he has never even met before, by continually asking the Lord to spare the city if even as few as 10 could be saved. Who loves like that? Only a Man of God who loves Him as well as all his children.

Abraham knew who he was, Abraham knew how to live a righteous life in a wicked world, not with clever tricks or bribery, but with honesty and the power of God; he never looked back and regreted any of his righteous decisions. I pray that we all can live as wonderfully as Abraham, I know that we can if we follow the pattern of those who have gone before us. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen.