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Speaker 1: Life Audio.

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Speaker 2: Hello, and thank you for listening to your Daily Bible Verse,

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Speaker 2: the podcast that examines one verse each day to help

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Speaker 2: us learn more about God and his will for us.

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Speaker 2: I'm your host, Shaka Hines, and after this short word

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Speaker 2: from our sponsor, will dive into today's Bible verse in

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Speaker 2: Genesis nineteen, verse sixteen. Today's Bible verse is Genesis nineteen sixteen.

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Speaker 2: When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the

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Speaker 2: hands of his wife and of his two daughters, and

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Speaker 2: led them safely out of the city, for the Lord

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Speaker 2: was merciful to them. When my husband and I were

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Speaker 2: newly married, we were traveling through this wintry storm one

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Speaker 2: night down the interstate. A car in front of us.

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Speaker 1: It skidded out of control, spun out on some ice,

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Speaker 1: and came to rest on the side of the road.

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Speaker 1: We pulled over in front of the driver. She seemed

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Speaker 1: totally disoriented and the front of her car was still

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Speaker 1: sticking out into traffic. It was a super dangerous position

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Speaker 1: given the low visibility caused by that storm. Now both

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Speaker 1: my husband and I we hopped out of the car

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Speaker 1: to assist the driver. Her door was stuck. The driver's

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Speaker 1: door was stuck. So she came out the passenger side,

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Speaker 1: and she was this very young woman from a neighboring state,

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Speaker 1: just driving through. Now I decided, okay, I'm going to

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Speaker 1: lean in and get her purse or her backpack that

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Speaker 1: was sitting on her back seat. But by then my husband,

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Speaker 1: he was by our car in front of her, and

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Speaker 1: he was shouting at me to get away from the car.

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Speaker 1: His voice yanked me back to my senses, and I

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Speaker 1: stepped back from the car and walked away right as

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Speaker 1: it was struck by a semi Now it's funny that

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Speaker 1: I can't remember what exactly I was grabbing for, because

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Speaker 1: in the great grand scheme of things, it just wasn't

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Speaker 1: that important. What was important was that I listened to

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Speaker 1: my husband's voice, and his voice snatched me away from harm.

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Speaker 1: And that brings me to Genesis nineteen. We find Lot

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Speaker 1: in his family in a deadly situation. They've settled in Sodom,

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Speaker 1: one of the cities to which God has dispatched angels

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Speaker 1: to assess the situation. In Genesis eighteen, God told Abraham

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Speaker 1: that the outcry against the evil perpetrated by the people

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Speaker 1: in Sodom and Gomora was so bad that he was

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Speaker 1: sending some guys, well, some angels to check it out.

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Speaker 1: When two of God's angels entered the city, lod invited

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Speaker 1: them to stay at his place for the night instead

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Speaker 1: of in the town square. Now, in Abraham and Lot's

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Speaker 1: day and today, it's even common still in Bedouin culture

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Speaker 1: to show hospitality to strangers. One can even say it

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Speaker 1: is mandated by their honor to serve guests who happen

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Speaker 1: upon their tent. And that was the culture Lot was

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Speaker 1: raised in until he's settled in Sodom. So when he

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Speaker 1: sees these two strangers at the town square, it's not

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Speaker 1: out of the ordinary for him to invite them to

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Speaker 1: stay with him. But sometime before bed the young and

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Speaker 1: the old men, including it seems Lot's future sons in laws,

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Speaker 1: they surround the home and demand he send out the

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Speaker 1: visitors so that they can abuse them, and even worse,

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Speaker 1: in a move we cannot even fathom in our day

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Speaker 1: and age, Lot offers his daughters to the townsmen as

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Speaker 1: an alternative to his guests. The rules of hospitality at

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Speaker 1: his time mandated that he protect his guests, even at

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Speaker 1: the expense of his daughters. Now, the angels, they blind

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Speaker 1: the men so they can't break down Lot's door. At

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Speaker 1: his door, and at dawn they tell Lot and his

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Speaker 1: family that they must flee the city because the sin

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Speaker 1: of sodom is so great that God is about to

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Speaker 1: destroy it. After this, the passage reads Lot hesitated. Now

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Speaker 1: the Bible doesn't.

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Speaker 3: Explain the source of his hesitation. We don't know.

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Speaker 1: If, being a wealthy man, he was afraid of losing

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Speaker 1: all of his material possessions, or perhaps even after the

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Speaker 1: miracle of the angel blinding the men, Lot didn't believe

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Speaker 1: there would be total destruction, fear, lack of belief, or

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Speaker 1: some other unnamed reason. We can't know, but we do

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Speaker 1: know that he hesitated to listen to the angels, and

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Speaker 1: at that point the NIV says that the angels grasped

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Speaker 1: the hands of Lot, his wife, and his daughter. Now

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Speaker 1: the Hebrew word transliterated from kazakh is stronger than what

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Speaker 1: modern readers might consider when they read the term grasp

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Speaker 1: Kazakh is to take hold of or to fasten upon,

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Speaker 1: to seize.

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Speaker 3: The angels seize.

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Speaker 1: Lot and his family, and they bodily removed them from

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Speaker 1: the city. The Hebrew words yatsa nuakkus led them to safety.

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Speaker 1: The use of those words often implies relief after movement

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Speaker 1: or danger, not merely physical unrest. Think of firefighters dragging

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Speaker 1: people from a burning building and the relief felt by

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Speaker 1: all those who were carried to safety. And we're told

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Speaker 1: from the text that God rescued Lot and his family

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Speaker 1: not because of the righteousness of those rescued, but because

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Speaker 1: of the Lord's mercy. The Lord's compassion towards these people,

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Speaker 1: toward Lot, and even toward Abraham, moved him to rescue

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Speaker 1: Lot and his family. You know, God's compassion for us

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Speaker 1: moved him to send his son Jesus to rescue all

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Speaker 1: of us from danger.

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Speaker 3: I want you to consider the cause of your hesitation

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Speaker 3: or resistance when God calls you to leave something behind,

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Speaker 3: or break off an ungodly relationship, or step into the unknown.

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Speaker 3: How can it help us to know that God's compassion

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Speaker 3: moves him to sometimes seize you from a place of

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Speaker 3: danger and carry you to a place of rest, relief,

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Speaker 3: and safety. Let's learn from the account of Lot and

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Speaker 3: trust that God's intentions for us are good.

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Speaker 1: Like the voice of my husband crying out, get away

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Speaker 1: from that car, get to a safe distance. God's compassion

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Speaker 1: often moves him to move us. Let's stop resisting God

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Speaker 1: and willingly follow him closer to Jesus. Let's pray ah

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Speaker 1: Ba God, thank you that your plans, your intentions for

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Speaker 1: us are so good. I pray for everybody listening to

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Speaker 1: my voice right now, that you would enable our hearts.

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Speaker 1: God the next time you call us from a place

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Speaker 1: of danger, from a place of destruction, from a place

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Speaker 1: God that is just not where you intend us to be,

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Speaker 1: that we would be quick to listen, quick to follow,

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Speaker 1: quick to obey, because you want to carry us closer

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Speaker 1: and closer to Christ's likeness. You know that in Christ

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Speaker 1: we are the best version of ourselves. In Christ, we

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Speaker 1: are safe in your hands. In Christ is where we're

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Speaker 1: supposed to live. So, Abbah, would you enable us to

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Speaker 1: hear your voice, to respond to your words, and to

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Speaker 1: follow you to safety. Thank you God that even when

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Speaker 1: we don't, you rescue us and you save because your

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Speaker 1: compassion for us is so very great. We love you, Lord,

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Speaker 1: We thank you. It's in Jesus' name, Amen,