As Genesis 18 we see three men (angels) standing by Abraham’s tent. Abraham acts with the kind of hospitality expected in that day. He arranges for water to wash the dust off their feet, then he offers to bring a little bread for them to eat. I think the next verses are funny as Abraham’s “little bread” become bread, curds, milk and a roasted calf. That is some hospitality.

 At this point we realize that Abraham and Sarah have not spoken about his encounter with the Lord and the covenant they made together. The men ask about Sarah and proclaim that she is going to have a son. Sarah, who is listening behind the flap of the tent laughs to herself, the same reaction Abraham had when given the same news. Can you blame them? They certainly have gone well beyond the age that children are expected. This is often true of the way God works in our lives. He waits until we realize we cannot help ourselves and works in our lives to do what seems impossible. If only we could realize our inability to help ourselves earlier, God wouldn’t have to wait so long.

The Lord sends the men on to Sodom. God has a fascinating conversation with Himself. He knows what He has planned for the people of Sodom. He wonders about protecting Abraham form this knowledge but decides that He has chosen Abraham for the purpose of encouraging his family to remain righteous and that Abraham needs to know what unrighteousness will bring.

So God lets Abraham know that He is going to punish Sodom and Gomorrah because of their sin. Abraham pleads for the city. He does so in a bargaining fashion asking God if He would destroy the entire city even if there were some righteous people in it. God says that He would not; He would forgive the entire city for the sake of the few righteous. Abraham works God down to admitting that He would not destroy the city if there were even just 10 righteous people still there.

Have you ever thought that your righteousness may be protecting someone else from judgment? Just as Christ’s righteous protects us maybe our acquired righteousness can extend to others. Perhaps your prayers for those you know are struggling with issues of faith keep them under God’s protecting arm. It is important for us to be faithful in remembering others to God for his mercy.

Since God has promised to save Sodom as long as there are righteous people present He proceeds to remove them, the righteous being Lot and his family. Two angels go to Sodom, to Lot’s house. Lot offers them hospitality but the angels decide to stay in the square. The people of Sodom were inhospitable toward the angels. That is an understatement. They wanted to attack the angels and chased them to Lot’s house. Lot tries to assuage the mob by offering his daughters but the mob goes after Lot and the angels save him. The angels tell Lot that he and his household must escape.

Lot and his household escape Sodom. It is interesting though, that while Lot was considered righteous because of his relationship with Abraham, it appears that this righteousness is somewhat precarious. His wife, of course, looks back toward Sodom even as they are escaping and is turned into a pillar of salt. But Lot, too, struggles with getting too far from the old life. The angels want Lot to flee to the hills but Lot didn’t want to go that far instead he went just far enough to a little town Zoar, which means “little.”

Isn’t that the way of it for most of us? We do just enough to get by: attend just enough worship services to be considered righteous, give just enough to be considered a giver, reach out just enough to be considered helpful. God wants us to go the whole way and yet we stop short and do just a little.

Eventually Lot does end up in a cave in the hills but that unrighteous streak follows him. His daughters get pregnant by him and his offspring become enemies of Israel and to some extent God.

Matthew 7 is still the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is now addressing the issue of judging others. The Pharisees and Sadducees made a point of judging others. They often placed themselves above others by citing the wrong that others did and completely overlooking their own shortcomings.

Jesus discourages us from judging others since we also do bad things. There is no comparison of wrongs in God’s eyes. All sins are equally as bad. We are the ones who want to rank our sin, believing that one is better than another. Even the smallest sin separates us from God. It is only through Christ that we become spotless.  Jesus exhorts us to pursue righteousness in our own lives rather than looking for unrighteousness in others’ lives.

The only area in which we are exhorted to be discerning is in looking at our spiritual leaders. We are to look at the fruit they bear not just listen to their words. If they don’t match up, in other words, if the fruit doesn’t befit the message then we need to keep away. On the other side of the issue, we need to look at our own lives to see if our fruit befits our own words also.

This is a very cursory look at a very deep chapter. I encourage you to read it carefully.