Tag: abraham

Will God judge the righteous along with the wicked?

Have you ever thought about having lunch with Jesus? Your mind might immediately be going back to the gospels and how often His disciples and others ate a meal with Him or how often He fed people who had been with Him for days. But did you know that there was another man, thousands of years ago, who also had lunch with Jesus? His name was Abraham and we are told about that amazing meal in Genesis 18:

“Then the LORD appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. So he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground, and said, “My Lord, if I have now found favor in Your sight, do not pass on by Your servant. Please let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. And I will bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh your hearts. After that you may pass by, inasmuch as you have come to your servant.”
They said, “Do as you have said.””(Genesis 18:1-5)

Now you might be wondering how Abraham knew it was Jesus, because we know that He is not called that in the Old Testament and He was not called that in this story either. Jesus actually tells us in John 8:56 while He was having a discussion with the Jewish leaders who were telling Him He had a demon and was out of His mind:

“Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.”

Clearly, Abraham had a very special relationship with Jesus.

So why am I talking about this lunch? Two reasons. First of all, Jesus tells us in Luke 17:28-30 that during the end times and before the start of the great tribulation, the world will be like the days of Lot. So we need to pay attention to what happened in this whole story. 

Second, although this lunch and the promises given to Abraham and Sarah in this chapter were no doubt amazing, it was what came after that I want to talk about here. After the meal is over, the Lord and His two angels begin to walk away, and Abraham, obviously not wanting their time to be over yet, follows them. It is during this little walk, that the Lord says the following to Abraham:

“And the LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing, since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?” (Genesis 18:16-18)

What was it that the Lord was doing? He was looking at Sodom (verse 16) and then He looks at Abraham and says this:

“Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave, I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to Me; and if not, I will know.”(Genesis 18:20-21)

Did you notice the word “outcry”? It means cries of distress. God heard those cries of injustice, and suffering in heaven, so He was coming down to look around and see if it was true. That alone is astonishing! But before He looked at Sodom He spent time with His friend, Abraham. 

And then the Lord says something to Abraham that we often skip right over or fail to think about. He says to him, should I tell you what I’m about to do? Should I hide it from you? (Genesis 18:17) Why would He ask that? Because He knew that Abraham would intercede. And he did. In verse 23, Abraham draws near to the Lord and says to Him, “Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked?”

But that’s not all Abraham says to the Lord, and this is important. He asks Him the following: “Suppose there were fifty righteous within the city; would You also destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous that were in it? Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:24-25)

And that last question is really the crux of this matter. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? Abraham goes on to barter with the Lord, asking Him if there are only 40 or 30 or 20 or heaven forbid, 10 righteous people in Sodom, would He still destroy it. And the Lord says no, “I will not destroy it for the sake of ten.” But if we go on to read the rest of the story, it becomes clear that there are not even ten righteous people in Sodom! Only Lot, Abraham’s nephew, and his wife and two daughters are considered righteous. And therefore all the cities of the plain are destroyed with fire and brimstone from heaven. If you want to know why, go read the story. What happens next is disgusting to say the least, as the two angels, who look like men, come into the city and spend the evening with Lot. But there is something else that happens that is also really important to understand. 

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.” And while he 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. 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.”(Genesis 19:15-17)

Lot, who is clearly struggling with the whole situation, and truthfully, I don’t blame him, is lingering and trying to figure out what to bring with him. But then the angels say something else to him that I really want to emphasize here:

”Hurry, escape there. For I cannot do anything until you arrive there.”(Genesis 19:22) 

I want to really focus on this last sentence because it’s so important. They (the angels) cannot bring judgment until the righteous are removed! And that one phrase, when you add it to this whole story, brings me to something that has become such a bone of contention, even division in the body of Christ. I cannot believe how many people, many of them pastors, have mocked the concept, the very idea, that God would remove His bride from this earth before He brings judgment on the wicked. What is commonly called the rapture, has become a mockery in the church.

So I will ask you the same question that Abraham asked the Lord on that fateful day. “Would not the judge of all the earth, do right? Would He really punish the righteous with the wicked? Would He choose to beat the living daylights out of His bride, before He marries her? The answer, according to scripture, is no! He cannot, He will not, bring judgment until the righteous, the church, is removed from the earth!

Just as a small point of reference, in the 7 seal judgments in the book of Revelation, one quarter of the earth is killed. Could you survive that? That’s almost 2 billion people!

If you have been struggling with this whole idea, torn between right and wrong, wondering what is the truth, let me assure you that just as the Lord did not destroy Lot and his family with the wicked men of Sodom, He will not punish you and destroy you either, if you have placed your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you have repented of your sins, been born again, and are filled with the Holy Spirit, you are the bride of Christ. He will not beat you up before He marries you. What husband would do that? Not a good one! And we know that God is good and there is only one who would persuade you otherwise, and that is satan. So don’t listen to the mockers and scoffers. Judgment is coming on the evil and wicked people of this earth. All the signs point to it. May I just remind you of all the rich and famous of the earth who visited Epstein’s Island, to mention just a little bit of wickedness.

But if you are His, you will meet Him in the clouds on that glorious day! Do not allow anyone to steal your blessed hope! (Titus 2:13) I will leave you with this word of comfort from Paul:

“For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.”(1 Thessalonians 4:15-18)

God’s promises are yes and amen!

I will never forget the look on my teacher’s face that evening. I was taking a class at my local church on prophecy. That particular night, the teacher felt led by the Holy Spirit to prophecy over each of his students. There were not many of us, perhaps 7 or 8, so it was a small class and did not take too long. He had each one of us sit in a chair in the middle of the group, and then he would speak to them what He felt the Holy Spirit was telling him. When it was my turn, I sat in the chair and closed my eyes, waiting patiently for the teacher to speak. What I heard changed my life. I heard the following: “You have never had a safe man in your life. Not your husband, your father or your brothers. But I am safe and I am your husband, your father and your brother and I will always protect what is yours.” 

After a few moments, I opened my eyes and looked at the man standing in front of me, and I heard him apologize. His honesty was refreshing. He told me he had heard absolutely nothing for me. I told him it was all right and I repeated what I had heard the Holy Spirit say to me. The surprise on his face was priceless. I have no idea why the Lord chose to bypass him and speak to me directly, but He did. What I didn’t know that evening, was that the word I had heard would be tested over and over again in the years to come.

Only months later, the following Summer, my son was in a hospital bed several thousand miles away, so sick, that he was afraid he would die. He’d had an operation and things did not go well. He kept calling me that weekend, because he feared he would not make it. God was silent that weekend. Finally, on Sunday evening, I became angry and I said to the Lord, why are you being silent? Have you nothing to say to me? What I heard, humbled me. “I have already promised you that I would always protect what is yours! Do I need to repeat that promise?” I answered, no. My son lived.

That weekend, waiting for my son to recover, as hard as it was, taught me many things. I began to look for things “that were mine” and ask for protection over them. Obviously, the first ones that came to my mind were my other children, and my brothers. I realized that that promise had actually been activated long before it was spoken to me. I had another son who almost died in a skiing accident. He also walked out of the hospital just hours after the accident. Another skier, jumping the same hill a week later was not so fortunate. He died, breaking every bone in his body. One of my daughters became so sick with a ruptured appendix that she developed sepsis and had to spend weeks on powerful antibiotics. She too lived to tell the tale. It seemed that the enemy had it out for my children. There were other situations, other circumstances where God protected my kids from certain death. He had already kept His promise to me, long before He spoke it to me that night. 

Several years after this word came to me, my husband and I moved to an area that could potentially see hurricane activity. We were assured when we moved here that there had not been a hurricane for decades. We were told not to worry. But not too long after we moved, we had two hurricanes come extremely close to us, within one year, just 11 months apart. They came so close that we were ordered to evacuate. God’s promise came to mind during those times, and each time, He reminded me that He would always protect what is mine. This time it was about my property and my house. The first hurricane was so powerful that the neighborhood behind us suffered enough wind damage that it took months for the city to clean up all the downed trees. They were lined up on the street edge and huge trucks had to come in and remove them. Our house, even our street, suffered nothing. The next hurricane again brought terrible flooding as the tide came in. I remember standing on my front porch, we had not evacuated for this one, even though we were told to, and I saw the water come up from the canal, edging closer and closer to our driveway. I heard the Lord speak to me very clearly at that moment: “rebuke it”. I did and almost instantly it began to recede. The neighbors commented on how fast it came and how fast it left! The neighborhood behind us suffered terrible flooding in many of the homes. Why did God choose to protect us? I have no idea. But I learned that His promises are “yes and amen”. 2 Corinthians 1:20

I could go on with how God tested His word to me, but instead I will share a story from the Bible, where the Lord tested a promise He gave to a certain man. In Genesis 15 we are told the story of a man named Abram (only later was his named changed to Abraham). God told Abram that the land of Canaan would be given to his offspring, the land that is now called Israel. God told Abram the following after Abram reminded God that he had no offspring and that a servant would be his heir:

“And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.” Genesis 15:4

As Genesis chapter 15 unfolds, God makes a covenant with Abram, telling him that his offspring, coming from his own body, would inherit the promised land. Abram and Sarai, his wife, not fully understanding the promise, took matters into their own hands and Abram ends up with a son called Ishmael, born to his Egyptian maid. But Ishmael was not the promised son. Fourteen more years would pass before God once again speaks to Abram in chapter 17 and this time the Lord renames them Abraham and Sarah. And, He tells them that they would have a son, born the following year. Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was 90. That son, named Isaac was indeed born a year later. If you read the whole story however, it becomes very obvious that this “promise” of a son born to both of them, would be tested for many years. They waited 14 years for Isaac to be born!

The final test of this promised son, was still to come, however. Years later, God again speaks to Abraham and this time the test seems too hard to imagine. But Abraham knew the Lord enough by now that he trusted Him enough to obey Him. Here’s what the Lord tells him:

“Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” Genesis 22:1-2

No, God does not want us to sacrifice our children. Absolutely not. This was never about killing Isaac. This was about Abraham’s heart. At the last moment, the Lord calls to him from heaven and says stop. Don’t do it. Why did the Lord ask him to do it then? He tells us in the next verses. 

“But the Angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” So he said, “Here I am.” And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” Genesis 22:11-12

This has always been a hard story for me. It seems almost cruel. We live in a society where Jesus is considered meek and mild, kind and loving and would never do such a horrible thing as to ask that we give Him our children. Or would He? 

In Luke, Jesus tells His disciples the following: “”If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.” Luke 14:26-27

These seem like harsh words. Obviously, He’s not asking us to hate our family. He’s asking us to choose Him over our family. We must love Him more than our own families. And that is exactly what Abraham did. He chose to obey God, rather than protect his own son.

The promise that Abraham received all those years earlier, would affect the whole world. That promised land, given to Abraham and his children, would eventually become the land of Israel. And that land would bring forth our Messiah, the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ. 

But my story is not finished yet. I too had that promised word of protection tested. On January 1 of this year, I heard the Lord say to me that His promise, given to me all those years ago, did not just mean physical protection. It also meant spiritual protection. He would always protect my kids spiritually. From what you might ask? From hell. Two weeks later, to the day, perhaps even the hour, my oldest daughter died at age 35. It came very suddenly. She was in every sense of the word, a prodigal. She had repented of her sins and been born again as a teenager, but as she grew into adulthood, she ran away from the Lord. Her life was a series of bad choices. 

But the morning I received the news of her death, He spoke to me very clearly. As I sat there in shock, He told me that in her final moments of life, knowing she was going to die, she called out to Him because she remembered the God of her youth. Like the father in the story of the prodigal in Luke chapter 15, when she called to Him, He ran to her and He took her home. What the enemy meant for evil, God turned into good. It was not the ending I had hoped for, prayed for or expected. Do I fully understand why her life ended so young? No, I don’t. It would have been very easy for me to become angry and offended with the Lord. But I chose not to be angry. I chose to trust Him instead. Was it easy? No.

But like Abraham, I have come to know my Lord well enough to know that He is worthy of my trust. And that is all that matters. How about you?