PRESENTER'S NOTES

Dawdle NOT!

Genesis 19: 12 Then the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Son-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city—take them out of this place! 13 For we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.”

14 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters, and said, “Get up, get out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city!” But to his sons-in-law he seemed to be joking.

15 When the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, “Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city.” 16 And while he (DAWDLED) lingered, the men took hold of his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. 17 So it came to pass, when they had brought them outside, that he said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed.” … … … dropping down…
26 But Lot's wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

This is not a discussion per se of our Christian life, the race that is set before us. This is not necessarily a discussion about enduring to the end, or about the day-in and day-out battles we fight. This is a two-fold reminder that God was and is our salvation and He expects us to respond to Him with haste; a sense of urgency. This is about what someone must do when God calls them AWAY from something bad to something good.

Lot hesitated to leave, yet his wife who looked back paid with her life.

DISCUSS RIGHTEOUS LOT’S REASONS THEN INTRODUCE SCRIPTURE TO HELP EXPLAIN HIS WIFE’S REASONS.

Luke 17: 28 Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; 29 but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. 30 Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed?

31 “In that day, he who is on the housetop, and his goods are in the house, let him not come down to take them away. And likewise the one who is in the field, let him not turn back. 32 Remember Lot’s wife. 33 Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.

EXPLAIN THE MINDSET OF LOT’S WIFE

Joseph requested his father Jacob not delay moving to the land of Goshen, but to make haste because God had used Joseph to make that land a safe place for Israel to dwell.

Genesis 45: 4 And Joseph said to his brothers, “Please come near to me.” So they came near. Then he said: “I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. 5 But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. 6 For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. 7 And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. 8 So now it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

9 “Hurry and go up to my father, and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph: “God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me, do not tarry. 10 You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near to me, you and your children, your children’s children, your flocks and your herds, and all that you have.

EXPLAIN REASONS WHY IT WAS IMPORTANT TO MAKE HASTE

1. Avoid starvation     2. Fulfill God’s will (prophecy, times)

These Days of Unleavened Bread are a premier example of mighty ability to save though we had no power to save ourselves. And it is our job to dawdle not but follow Him with diligence.

Exodus 12: 33 And the Egyptians urged the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste. For they said, “We shall all be dead.” 34 So the people took their dough before it was leavened, having their kneading bowls bound up in their clothes on their shoulders. 35 Now the children of Israel had done according to the word of Moses, and they had asked from the Egyptians articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing. 36 And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians so that they granted them what they requested. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.

37 Then the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides children. 38 A mixed multitude went up with them also, and flocks and herds—a great deal of livestock. 39 And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they had brought out of Egypt; for it was not leavened because they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared provisions for themselves.

Israel knew they were slaves, and they knew they were miserable. They cried out for salvation to a God they had all but forgotten. The Lord, in His great mercy and according to His predetermined plan, set the stage so that they would not only leave Egypt a free people but that they would need to leave quickly.

Sin is something, once revealed to us by God, that must be left behind in haste with due diligence in order to throw off its burdensome yoke, as we make haste toward God’s saving power. God created a scenario that exposed sin for what it was, and He made an otherwise treacherous, even humanly impossible, escape, a walk on dry land in the midst of a great sea.

In the story of Lot, the story of Joseph/Jacob, and the story of Israel, we find it is God, and only God who has the power to deliver His people from sin. It’s God who exposes the sin and empowers us to escape its clutches. Like Lot, Jacob, and Israel, however, it is our job not to tarry when God urges us away from a bad situation to follow Him.

Zephaniah 3:17 The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing. (ESV)            

We Christians have God’s favor not because we obey to appease Him or fulfill our role in some mutually agreed bargain. God’s favor is on us who obey Him out of a growing belief and trust in Him. God’s favor is on us who are eager to follow Him who saved us from slavery and death. We haven’t a chance to save ourselves from this world, but our victory is in the bag if we love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, obeying His commandments, worshipping God in Spirit and truth.

Praise God our Father and Jesus our Brother and King for subduing our enemies and leading us daily in the safety of THE way!

Dawdle NOT! And experience the salvation of the Lord!