Read: Genesis 14
THEME: There are some incidents in Abraham’s life that are hard to explain unless we see how God’s grace towards us can make us gracious towards others.
Although, when choosing land, Lot believed he was selecting the best, it turned out to be the worst, with two very sinful cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, right in the midst of it. It was also a region renowned for strife, with rival kingdoms fighting over the territory.
On one occasion Abram had had to mount a rescue, riding hard with his friends and household to release Lot, and his fellow inhabitants of Sodom, who had been taken into captivity. It was on his return from this battle that Abram was blessed by Melchizedek, God’s High Priest, named as King of Righteousness and King of Peace.
In his commitment to Lot, Abram never wavered. Years later when God determined to judge Sodom, Abraham stood and prayed over the city, believing that even a handful of righteous people, as few maybe as Lot’s wider family, could bring a sinful city to repentance.
Abraham was not presuming upon the grace of God in thinking in this way (as we know, an unrepentant Sodom was destroyed) but he did know the power of God’s grace in his own life and wanted to extend that grace to others.
May we today find ways of extending God’s grace to others.