Genesis 19:12-17 Then the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone you have in the city, bring them out of the place. For we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.” So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, “Up! Get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city.” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting.As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.” But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. And as they brought them out, one said, “Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.”
As I read the passage in Genesis for today, chapters 18-20, I was struck by a few verses in the middle. Do you see the progression?
- The angels WARN Lot of the danger ahead. Lot had been informed that his city was about to be destroyed. His family laughed at him, thought he was jesting. Instead of “getting out of Dodge”, Lot LINGERED! He hung around instead of taking the warning seriously.
- Then what do the angels do? Let him stay and discover he was wrong? No, the Bible says that the LORD was MERCIFUL to Lot by “seizing” him and his family by the hand and bringing them out of the city. MERCY in the form of seizing. God pursues with amazing mercy.
I was reminded of the old English poem, “The Hound of Heaven.” God pursues us and is MERCIFUL to us, even when we are running from Him. Isn’t grace amazing?
Knowing God through His Word ... Day by Day 
Reblogged this on My Delight and My Counsellors.
We think we are searching for him, but it is really the other way around. He seeks us constantly.
Awesome! Very true and prophetic to write this today. I was just having this conversation with my Husband. God is merciful to warn us…but we must heed the warning and obey. Strangely, this story seems just as it is today. God gives the warnings and people just laugh and do not take it serious. It is very serious and the great judgements that are ‘at the door’ are very serious and imminent.