Sunday, September 18, 2016

September 25, 2016 – Teachings from the Rock – Judgment and Rescue


Judgment and Rescue

Genesis 19:15-26 – New International Version (NIV)
15 With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.”
16 When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them. 17 As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!”
18 But Lot said to them, “No, my lords, please! 19 Your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die. 20 Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it—it is very small, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared.”
21 He said to him, “Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of. 22 But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it.” (That is why the town was called Zoar.)
23 By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. 24 Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens. 25 Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land. 26 But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

When did the angels urge Lot to take his wife and two daughters away (verse 15)?

What did the angels do when Lot hesitated (verse 16)?

Where were Lot, his wife and daughters to flee to (verse 17)?

How did Lot respond (verse 18)?

What did Lot think would overtake him in the mountains (verse 19)?

In your opinion, why did Lot think that a very small town would be safer (verse 20)?

How did the angel respond to Lot’s request (verse 21)?

Why was Lot supposed to flee there quickly (verse 22)?

Where was the sun when Lot reached Zoar (verse 23)?

What rained down on Sodom and Gomorrah (verse 24)?

What was destroyed (verse 25)?

When did Lot’s wife become a pillar of salt (verse 26)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

Luke 17:26-37 - New International Version (NIV)
26 “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 27 People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.
28 “It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. 29 But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.
30 “It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. 31 On that day no one who is on the housetop, with possessions inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. 32 Remember Lot’s wife! 33 Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it. 34 I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. 35 Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.”
37 “Where, Lord?” they asked.
He replied, “Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather.”

What will it be like in the “days of the Son of Man” (verse 26)?
How long did people eat, drink and marry (verse 27)?
How was it in the days of Lot (verse 28)?
When did fire and sulfur rain down from heaven and destroy Sodom (verse 29)?
What will it be like on the day the Son of Man is revealed (verse 30)?
In your opinion, why should no one “who is on the housetop, with possessions inside” go down to get them (verses 31 and 32)?
Who will lose their life (verse 33)?
In your opinion, why will “whoever loses their life” preserve it (verse 33)?
What will happen to the two people in one bed (verse 34)?
What will happen to the two women grinding grain together (verse 35)?
In your opinion, what does Jesus mean when He says “where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather” (verse 37)?
In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?
In your opinion, will the ones that are taken, as foretold by Jesus in Luke 17:26-37, be taken by the hands as Lot and his wife and daughters were in Genesis 19:15-26?

1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 - New International Version (NIV)
16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not treat prophecies with contempt 21 but test them all; hold on to what is good, 22 reject every kind of evil.
23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.

In your opinion, what does it mean to rejoice always (verse 16)?
What does Paul instruct us to do “continually” (verse 17)?
How should we react “in all circumstances” (verse 18)?
In your opinion, what does it mean that we should “not quench the Spirit” (verse 19)?
How should prophecies not be treated (verse 20)?
What should be tested (verse 21)?
How should evil be treated (verse 22)?
What does Paul pray for the “God of peace” to do (verse 23)?
What does Paul pray for “your whole spirit, soul and body” (verse 23)?
How does Paul describe “the one who calls you” (verse 24)?
What will “the one who calls you” do (verse 24)?
In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?
In your opinion, why does Paul pray for the God of peace to “sanctify you through and through” in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 while the world eats and drinks, buys and sells, plants and builds as Jesus warns in Luke 17:26-37?
In your opinion, what does Lot’s wife looking back in Genesis 19:15-26 show about her testing and holding on to the good and rejecting the evil as instructed by Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24?

2 Peter 2:4-9 – New International Version (NIV)
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.

How did God treat the angels when they sinned (verse 4)?
Who did God bring the flood on (verse 5)?
Who did God protect when He brought the flood (verse 5)?
What are the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah an example of (verse 6)?
Who did God rescue from Sodom and Gomorrah (verse 7)?
What does God know how to do for the godly (verse 9)?
What does God know how to do for the unrighteous (verse 9)?
In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, how do the instructions that Paul gives in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 help us to understand what it means when Peter says the Lord knows how to “rescue the godly from trials” in 2 Peter 2:4-9?
In your opinion, how is knowing that Jesus, who said in Luke 17:26-37 that one would be taken and the other would be left, is also the Lord who “knows how to rescue the godly from trials” according to 2 Peter 2:4-9 is a comfort?

In your opinion, what can we learn from the fact that Lot, when commanded to leave by the angels in Genesis 19:15-26, hesitated but was rescued anyway by the One who Peter says in 2 Peter 2:4-9 did not spare the angels or the ancient world or the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah?
In your opinion, how do these passages from Genesis, Luke, 1 Thessalonians, and 2 Peter help us to prepare for the day of judgment?
In your opinion, what do these passages show us about ourselves today?


Next, back to 2 Peter 2:10 – (sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)

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