Jesus Humbles Himself to Save Us from Destruction – December 3, 2021

“Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.”
Luke 17:26-29

Jesus Humbles Himself to Save Us from Destruction

Eating. Drinking. Buying. Selling.

Those are four activities people do countless times every day in places all over the world. They were happening long ago as well, Jesus points out, on the day “fire and sulfur rained down from heaven” when God destroyed the cities of Gomorrah and Sodom on account of their sin.

In many ways, the lives of those who died that day were no different than ours. Their average day involved eating and drinking, buying and selling—normal activities that require multiple daily decisions and consume so much of our thinking. But suddenly, they received a reminder that those daily decisions weren’t the most important thing.

That’s not to say they aren’t important at all. What you buy, where you work, how you manage your money, what kind of food you provide for your family, and what home you live in consumes a great deal of our thinking. The lives of people we love are often affected by those decisions and impact the quality of our living.

Just not as much as God can. The many people who died that day in that destruction didn’t believe that.

But Lot did. On the day Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, Lot took his family and fled from where he had been doing all his eating and drinking, buying and selling. Not because he wanted to destroy the quality of their lives, but because he believed there was only one thing they needed.

They needed the God who had promised a Savior that would one day not flee from the cross where God’s anger rained down on him as the willing sacrifice for our sins. They needed the Savior who would provide for them something even more satisfying than the very best deals or meals you can find on earth. They needed the Savior who could satisfy our souls forever with the gracious gift of eternal life in everlasting perfection. They needed the same Savior we have been given.

Prayer:
Father in heaven, thank you for the gift of Jesus our Savior, who alone graciously saves me from eternal destruction. Amen.