Speaker 1: Previously on the chosen people.
Speaker 2: The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is immense. The victims
Speaker 2: of this terrible wickedness plead for justice. The sin of
Speaker 2: both Sodom and Gomorrah is extremely serious.
Speaker 3: Yes, my Lord, your judgment will be carried out according
Speaker 3: to your will.
Speaker 4: My lords, be welcome to the city of Sodom, the
Speaker 4: pride of the great cities of the plain. Please allow
Speaker 4: me to be your host while you stay here in
Speaker 4: these walls.
Speaker 1: Lot was so unattuned to the presence of God that
Speaker 1: he hadn't noticed what Abraham noticed. He did not recognize
Speaker 1: the divinity veiled behind their handsome faces, or the authority
Speaker 1: vibrating from their voices as they spoke. What who is
Speaker 1: it you're hosting in there?
Speaker 5: Who are those pretty men you're keeping all to yourself?
Speaker 1: The wood of the door was immediately met with the
Speaker 1: dull funk of the blade of a dagger, followed by
Speaker 1: two pairs of fists. Just then Lot felt a pair
Speaker 1: of strong, sure hands grasped his shoulders and hurl him aside.
Speaker 1: A blinding light illuminated the street behind the door. The
Speaker 1: light that refracted through the ball frame and the front
Speaker 1: windows was brighter than even the sun at it zeneth Ah.
Speaker 4: I've been blinded.
Speaker 5: Can you see anything?
Speaker 6: Where? Where is the dotal?
Speaker 4: What?
Speaker 1: What did your doros? What fun a saucery is this?
Speaker 3: The evil and vile atrocities have caused a great outcry
Speaker 3: against its people.
Speaker 1: Despite all lod had seen earlier that night, with the
Speaker 1: mob and the blinding light, and even all the acts
Speaker 1: of Abraham's God in the years since they left Haron
Speaker 1: he hesitated. The visitors watched his silent calculation, and as
Speaker 1: if in response, they swooped upon him, grabbing his hands
Speaker 1: and dragging him from the threshold of their home into
Speaker 1: the streets of the city. You need to leave now.
Speaker 3: Or take your wife and your daughters, or you will
Speaker 3: be swept away from the punishment of the city.
Speaker 5: With every step away from the burning city, they faced
Speaker 5: a choice look back and perish, or move forward into
Speaker 5: an uncertain grace. Shall my friends from here in the
Speaker 5: Holy Land. I'm ya l estein with the International Fellowship
Speaker 5: of Christians and Jews, and this is the Chosen people.
Speaker 5: Every day we are transported into a cinematic story inspired
Speaker 5: by the Hebrew Bible. We traversed tales of faith failure,
Speaker 5: love and loss. Through the story of Israel, we'll discover
Speaker 5: what it means to live a life of purpose, what
Speaker 5: it means to step into the calling that God has
Speaker 5: for each one of us. God chose the nation of
Speaker 5: Israel amount sinai, but through their story will discover one
Speaker 5: abiding truth that we are all chosen for something great.
Speaker 5: Let's begin today. We turn to a story inspired by
Speaker 5: Genesis nineteen seventeen to twenty nine, a tale of judgment
Speaker 5: and action. Imagine a night of whispered warnings and panicked footsteps.
Speaker 5: The air is thick with dread as dawn approaches. A
Speaker 5: city is on the break, teetering between the familiar rhythms
Speaker 5: of life and an impending storm of divine judgment. The
Speaker 5: sky one serene, bears the weight to fiery clouds. I
Speaker 5: need to pour down a rain of destruction, And in
Speaker 5: the shadows, a family flees urged on by messengers from heaven.
Speaker 5: What do you clink to when your whole world seems
Speaker 5: to come to an end? And in the end, what
Speaker 5: does the Bible story teach us about justice, mercy, and
Speaker 5: the human condition.
Speaker 1: This episode of The Chosen People with y Isle Extein
Speaker 1: contains explicit content that may be triggering for some listeners
Speaker 1: and inappropriate for young children. Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 2: Get up, keep moving, don't stop, and don't look back.
Speaker 1: Lot stumbled, his knee, stinging as it met sharp gravel
Speaker 1: along the streets out of the city. The two messengers
Speaker 1: were still forcibly dragging Lot and his stunned family, pulling
Speaker 1: them up when they fumbled, and spurring them on with
Speaker 1: words and hands toward the distant gates of Sodom. As
Speaker 1: they fled, Lot's eyes caught sight of the crumbling stone structures,
Speaker 1: delicate fishes, spider webbing beneath his feet. He blinked and
Speaker 1: rubbed his eyes, but the vision remained a harbinger of
Speaker 1: the city's imminent doom. His youngest daughter, Milker, tripped on
Speaker 1: a step, her satchel spilling its precious contents, clothing, heirlooms, trinkets,
Speaker 1: tumbling down the roughly carved steps. Her cry for help
Speaker 1: went unanswered, the messenger hauling her along with a single
Speaker 1: minded determination. Lot turned to protest, but a stern look
Speaker 1: silenced him. There would be no slowing down, no stopping.
Speaker 1: A grumbling far beneath his feet convinced Lot to surrender
Speaker 1: any thought of a second appeal. The great upheaval caused
Speaker 1: Lot to stumble again, and his messenger tightened his grip
Speaker 1: on it his elbow and doubled their pace in the distance.
Speaker 1: Frightened voices began to cry out, and the sounds of
Speaker 1: panic began to rise from every valley, corner and courtyard.
Speaker 1: City guards poured through the streets. Doors rattled in their frames,
Speaker 1: and the very stones shook and fractured underfoot, ashful.
Speaker 7: Pits out of the valley.
Speaker 5: The oncluded the lives of so Renderson.
Speaker 1: Lot's eyes widened at the sight of substantial cracks forming
Speaker 1: in the road. The earth groaned, and the rocks sank
Speaker 1: into the thick sulfuric clime beneath. He remembered the sidin
Speaker 1: valley where King Cadelauma's men had been swallowed by the
Speaker 1: treacherous brimstone pits. Almost impossible to detect, the acrid mud
Speaker 1: held you fast as you sank beneath its toxic depths.
Speaker 1: The pits drew in surrounding debris, so unless you knew
Speaker 1: what to look for, you could find yourself caught in
Speaker 1: its orbit before aid could arrive. The oozing slime was
Speaker 1: incredibly flammable, as the frequency of summer wildfires out in
Speaker 1: the plains had taught them. Lot had always assumed that
Speaker 1: the safety of the Stone City would protect them, but
Speaker 1: apparently the danger had lurked beneath the foundation of the
Speaker 1: city all the long. Chaos reigned around them. Looters roamed
Speaker 1: the streets, arms laden with stolen goods, while others turned
Speaker 1: to drink and debauchory, embracing the uncertainty with reckless abandoned
Speaker 1: Bloody daggers flashed in the hands of n'a duels, and
Speaker 1: lynchings took place in shadowed courtyards. The city in moments,
Speaker 1: had descended into anarchy, Its veneer of civilization stripped away
Speaker 1: to reveal the rotting core beneath. How could such repulsions
Speaker 1: have erupted so swiftly had Lot been blind to the
Speaker 1: simm of these abominations. It was as if scales were
Speaker 1: falling from his eyes as he finally viewed the horrors
Speaker 1: of the place he had come to call home off
Speaker 1: its leash. At last, in one alleyway, Lot spied a
Speaker 1: truly gruesome scene. It appeared that the blind Durac and
Speaker 1: his lackeys somehow found chavar Lot's friend, whom he had
Speaker 1: just defended mere hours earlier. They were brutally delivering their
Speaker 1: version of justice. He had been strip naked and his
Speaker 1: face had been beaten to a pulp almost beyond recognition,
Speaker 1: and he limply hung between Durac and Covin as Turban
Speaker 1: further shamed him right in the very street. Lot's stomach
Speaker 1: turned and bile rose from the back of his throat.
Speaker 1: As this horrific spectacle played out, he knew this would
Speaker 1: have been his own fate if the messengers had not intervened.
Speaker 1: The crumpled body of a city guard laid to the side,
Speaker 1: it appeared there would be no rescue for poor chavar
Speaker 1: Lot didn't look over to see whether his wife and
Speaker 1: daughters had seen. The two messengers deftly navigated Lot and
Speaker 1: his family around the deteriorating ground. They had an almost
Speaker 1: sterile efficiency in moving them through the violence exploding around
Speaker 1: them that left Lot feeling unnerved. He couldn't bring himself
Speaker 1: to look up again until they've reached the city gates.
Speaker 3: What we said we would do, we have done. You
Speaker 3: had been delivered safely outside the.
Speaker 1: City Now you must.
Speaker 3: Run, for little layers, run to the mountains, or you
Speaker 3: will be swept away by the destruction that is about
Speaker 3: to before the city.
Speaker 2: Remember, don't stop anywhere on the plane. You must keep
Speaker 2: going and don't look back.
Speaker 1: With that final warning, the messenger, who had been holding
Speaker 1: him fast throughout their journey, gave Lot a firm push
Speaker 1: through the now abandoned city gate. The moment his feet
Speaker 1: passed the threshold, a different sort of panic washed over Lot.
Speaker 1: His chest felt constricted. He couldn't breathe, He couldn't bring
Speaker 1: himself to be that exposed, that out in the open.
Speaker 1: The terror seized his body. His thoughts raced, and his
Speaker 1: breathing came in and out in shallow puffs. Was he dying?
Speaker 1: Why couldn't he breathe? Lot had next to nothing between
Speaker 1: his pack and those carried by his family, But at
Speaker 1: that moment, he would have given it all to make
Speaker 1: this sensation, this waking nightmare, stop. Something snapped inside of
Speaker 1: Lot's mind. Sheer self, preservation, instinct and desperation bore in
Speaker 1: him an idea. Wildly, Lot squinted into the night before them. Yes,
Speaker 1: there in the foothills, just as he remembered it.
Speaker 4: Wait, my lords, Please, I beg you whatever favor I
Speaker 4: have in your eyes, even if it's on a count
Speaker 4: of my uncle Abraham, I beg you.
Speaker 1: I can't run to the mountains.
Speaker 4: I can't live in the mountains.
Speaker 6: I can't.
Speaker 4: I can't. Oh, oh, disaster, disaster will overtake me and
Speaker 4: I'll die. You just saved my life, but now you're
Speaker 4: gonna leave me to go to my death. Please show
Speaker 4: me this kindness. I cannot be without the walls.
Speaker 3: The stone in my back.
Speaker 1: I need it. I need the stones.
Speaker 4: I need the stones between me and my enemies.
Speaker 7: Father, what do you say?
Speaker 3: What?
Speaker 1: Because I ah, oh, yes, yes, Please please look. There's
Speaker 1: this small town up ahead on the.
Speaker 4: Play used to be a part of the City of
Speaker 4: the Plains Alliance Bella. It was called a small place
Speaker 4: that's close enough for me to flee. To allow me
Speaker 4: the chance to get behind its walls before you bring
Speaker 4: on the destruction.
Speaker 7: Please take pity on us, my lords. What my father
Speaker 7: means to say has don't strip him of any chance
Speaker 7: to earn a livelihood. Surely this small place can be saved. Yes,
Speaker 7: this would surely be better than us living in the mountains.
Speaker 7: How would we survive there.
Speaker 1: Please listen to my daughters and my wife. Let us
Speaker 1: run to this small town. Every breath was still a battle,
Speaker 1: and Lot felt as if a great beast was perched
Speaker 1: upon his chest as he watched the two other worldly
Speaker 1: men consider his family's petition. The first seemed unmoved, but
Speaker 1: after what felt like an eternity to Lot's anxiety, the
Speaker 1: second finally turned to them after receiving an almost impersonapt
Speaker 1: nod from the first.
Speaker 3: We will grant you your request.
Speaker 1: He will not destroy the small town you mentioned, but
Speaker 1: you must go now.
Speaker 2: Remember what we told you.
Speaker 3: Don't look back, and don't stop. Now go. We cannot
Speaker 3: complete our task until you get there.
Speaker 1: Without waiting for the first man to have a chance
Speaker 1: to change his mind, Lot took off without a second
Speaker 1: look back at the two men. As the sun steadily
Speaker 1: climbed into the sky, it assaulted the sky above Sodom
Speaker 1: with its crimson glow. If they had not descended into
Speaker 1: seeing chaos and villainy, the inhabitants would have found it
Speaker 1: ominous and foreboding. But so intent on their evil deeds,
Speaker 1: they also failed to see the gathering clouds creeping over
Speaker 1: the plains like a sly predator stalking its oblivious prey.
Speaker 1: Swirming in the depth of the clouds was a crackling,
Speaker 1: fiery lightly The pent up energy of the storm moved
Speaker 1: high above Sodom, the disciplined breath before a mighty war
Speaker 1: cry that some unseen the signal. The first wave of
Speaker 1: lightning struck the ground below. The strikes ignited the exposed brimstone,
Speaker 1: causing it to melt immediately and catch fire. The dull, yellow,
Speaker 1: acrid mud beneath the surface of Sodom turned blood red
Speaker 1: as flame met sulfur. One depositive inflamed sulfur quickly met
Speaker 1: the others and spread like cracks on ice, spider webbing
Speaker 1: throughout the entire city. A ghostly blue flame sprang up
Speaker 1: and encased the burning ooze of melted sulfur, consuming everything stone, wood,
Speaker 1: and flesh in its path, animal and man alike, whence
Speaker 1: screaming to their fiery deaths. Some evil doors did not
Speaker 1: even look up from their foul deeds before the fire
Speaker 1: and awe consume them. Others hidden cellars or ran to
Speaker 1: roofs in vain. No one and nothing escaped the flames
Speaker 1: of judgment. The lightning strikes intensified a harrowing force of
Speaker 1: nature and judgment. It was as if thick tongues of
Speaker 1: flame were licking the city of Sodom. The bright white
Speaker 1: inferno of lightning from above met the blue flames from below,
Speaker 1: and all that was caught in the middle was melted
Speaker 1: into the molten mess that writhed beneath that blue, purifying fire.
Speaker 1: The flames dancing atop the melted sulphur were like the sea,
Speaker 1: the wind with the fire into waves that rippled over
Speaker 1: the landscape and lapped to charred bones and singed buildings.
Speaker 1: The smell of the acrid fumes burned their eyes and lungs,
Speaker 1: leaving their minds intact just long enough to feel the
Speaker 1: tortuous poison overcome them. Plumes of thick, black smoke sprang
Speaker 1: into the air and could be seen for miles and miles,
Speaker 1: heralding the sickening smell of rotted eggs that could haunt
Speaker 1: the land for weeks and months to come. Obeying the
Speaker 1: commands of the mysterious men, they did not look back
Speaker 1: to the streets of Sodom. Lot's wife kept her head
Speaker 1: from turning, averting her eyes from the destruction. Falling behind them.
Speaker 1: It was when they reached the outskirts of the small
Speaker 1: town of Bella that the agonizing screaming and inhuman shrieking
Speaker 1: of thousands of men and beasts being burned alive began.
Speaker 1: Even at a distance, their anguished chorus made the hair
Speaker 1: on the back of her arms rise, and she covered
Speaker 1: her ears to block it out, but to no avail,
Speaker 1: and nothing could block out the booming thunder and crackling
Speaker 1: lightning that plummeted out of the sky. It was then
Speaker 1: that the smell affronted their senses. Edith's eyes watered instantly,
Speaker 1: and she gathered at the nauseating, rancid smell of selfless
Speaker 1: smoke and burnt flesh. She pulled her hands from her
Speaker 1: ears to cover her mouth and nose, but the smell
Speaker 1: was everywhere. It seeped into her skin, clothes, and hair.
Speaker 1: She felt she may never be clean again. The clouds
Speaker 1: over the city cast dark shadows before them, and they
Speaker 1: were outlined by a bright white light every time the
Speaker 1: lightning illuminated the sky. They reached the pitiful town walls
Speaker 1: that were the once respectable town of Bella, and the
Speaker 1: horrified faces of the townsfolk told them just how harrowing
Speaker 1: the sight behind them truly was. Milker attempted to turn
Speaker 1: and look behind them now that they were nearing the
Speaker 1: city gate, but Lot roughly turned her head back to
Speaker 1: the ground for.
Speaker 7: Them leave her alone. She just wants to see what happened.
Speaker 7: Aren't we four enough away now?
Speaker 1: Edith started to turn around herself when Lot lunged for
Speaker 1: her and took her face in his hands.
Speaker 4: Edith, no, you heard what they said.
Speaker 1: Don't look. We can only go forward now.
Speaker 4: We have to get beyond the walls of the city
Speaker 4: to safety.
Speaker 1: Edith tore his hands away from her face and shoved
Speaker 1: him hard in the chest.
Speaker 7: The walls of the city. You call this a city?
Speaker 7: How are we to live? Look at these people. You
Speaker 7: would have us live in squalor and poverty among these
Speaker 7: country bumpkins.
Speaker 4: Ah, Edith, Edith, you beg these men to send us here,
Speaker 4: same as me. What are you saying?
Speaker 7: I can't I can't do this, Lot, I cannot follow
Speaker 7: you again. We've already lost so much. We crawled our
Speaker 7: way back. I can't do it again.
Speaker 2: Mother.
Speaker 7: Please, we'll find a way to survive. I promise we'll
Speaker 7: find a way together. What do you know of it.
Speaker 7: I've handed you everything. I got you a husband, secured
Speaker 7: your future, and gave you stability. You would have nothing
Speaker 7: without me. Mother. Follow your sister, heed her. She's the
Speaker 7: best chance you have. See if she can provide for
Speaker 7: you as I have.
Speaker 1: To Lot's horror, his wife kissed their younger daughter on
Speaker 1: the forehead and squeezed the eldest's hand before turning around
Speaker 1: to face the destruction of Sodom. She drew herself up
Speaker 1: to her full height, squared her shoulders, and began walking
Speaker 1: in the direction of the smoldering ruins.
Speaker 4: Yes, wait, turn around, What are you doing? Where are
Speaker 4: you going?
Speaker 1: Lot threw his arms protectively around his screaming and stunned
Speaker 1: daughters to keep them from following her. He hauled them
Speaker 1: forward through the final steps that led through the city gate,
Speaker 1: and together they all collapsed to the threshold. The guards
Speaker 1: had long since abandoned their posts to gape open mouths
Speaker 1: at the terrible judgment raining down on Sodom and the
Speaker 1: surrounding plain. Lot's young daughters then broke from his grip
Speaker 1: and ran to roughly human embrasures in the stone wall
Speaker 1: to peer out. Lot shakerly found his feet and followed
Speaker 1: them to the dreary lookout to see what fate had
Speaker 1: befallen his wife. She was no more than a hundred
Speaker 1: paces away, but thicks smoke polluted the air, and she
Speaker 1: was soon no more than an outline. The girls whimpered
Speaker 1: and continued to shout her name in vain. Suddenly the
Speaker 1: wind shifted and she was in full view from the wall.
Speaker 1: She gazed upward as if in provocative protest, arms outstretched,
Speaker 1: and her screen was cut short, and she stood still
Speaker 1: as a pillar. But then her body fell up. It
Speaker 1: did not fall, it began to crumble to lots from revulsion.
Speaker 1: The outline of her very body was falling in on
Speaker 1: itself and dissolving into what appeared to be sult The
Speaker 1: wind carried larger and larger chunks until there was a
Speaker 1: small pile where she once stood. Petrified, his daughters stopped screaming,
Speaker 1: their eyes wide in horror. Time stood still as the
Speaker 1: three of them watched a smoky gust carry the rest
Speaker 1: of her away on a fell wind. His daughter's keening
Speaker 1: cries filled lots he as, driving him to his knees.
Speaker 1: He couldn't bear to watch his city burn again. About
Speaker 1: thirty miles away, Abraham was walking his territory, walking stick
Speaker 1: in hand, surveying the land as he did each day.
Speaker 1: A dark spot in the sky drew his attention, and
Speaker 1: he turned off his path to climb the gentle slope
Speaker 1: of a nearby oak tree grove to get a better
Speaker 1: vantage point. Squinting in the bright sun of midday, he
Speaker 1: saw plumes of thick black smoke steadily overtaking the horizon.
Speaker 1: Even from this great distance, he could see the blurry
Speaker 1: haze of angry red flames, and their outline wavered as
Speaker 1: their heat rose. Sodom Its judgment had come at last,
Speaker 1: just as his God had promised. Though he knew this
Speaker 1: apocalypce was coming, he still stood in terrible awe at
Speaker 1: the magnitude of the destruction. It was final. Definitive generations
Speaker 1: from now would speak in hush tones of Sodom's fate,
Speaker 1: and even further into the future there would be debate
Speaker 1: as to where it actually stood. He trembled at the
Speaker 1: power and might of his God, capable of wiping an
Speaker 1: entire population off the face of the earth and obliterating
Speaker 1: its very history. Even as sick astonishment washed over him,
Speaker 1: he again felt that comforting presence in the back of
Speaker 1: his mind. He knew this was going to happen, knew
Speaker 1: it needed to happen, and he also knew with absolute
Speaker 1: certainty the Lot was safe.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 5: The sheer instruction and wrath of God in this story
Speaker 5: is overwhelming. People consumed by fire and brimstone, cities reduced
Speaker 5: to ash. It's a stark reminder of God's holiness and
Speaker 5: justice aside that we often shy away from. We talk
Speaker 5: easily about God's love, mercy, and grace, but here we
Speaker 5: see his judgment and it's terrifying. Yes, but it's also
Speaker 5: a call to remember his holiness and to take his
Speaker 5: word and his commands seriously. For all the love that
Speaker 5: God has to give us, he also has expectations. I
Speaker 5: can't help but feel for Lut's wife. She's a symbol
Speaker 5: of our own struggles. How often do we look back,
Speaker 5: how often do we long for what we've left behind?
Speaker 5: But this story is a call to move forward and
Speaker 5: to try God completely. In the stories destruction, there's a
Speaker 5: sobering truth that God is just, and in the story
Speaker 5: of Lot's wife there's a poignant reminder obedience matters. It's
Speaker 5: a heavy story, but this one that asks us to
Speaker 5: reflect on who God is and who He is calling
Speaker 5: each one of us to be. But now let's take
Speaker 5: a closer look at this strange and tragic story, this
Speaker 5: story of Lut's wife turning to salt. It's a story
Speaker 5: familiar to most of us, but there's a lot that
Speaker 5: we can learn from it. We've all read and now
Speaker 5: we've actually heard about Lot's wife who disobeys the angelic
Speaker 5: command not to look back at the destruction of Sadom
Speaker 5: and Gamara and is turned into a pillar of salt.
Speaker 5: But this isn't just an ancient tale of an arbitrary punishment. No,
Speaker 5: it actually has a lot of meaning and things that
Speaker 5: we can learn from it. First of all, the story
Speaker 5: of Lot's wife teaches us that we are where our
Speaker 5: minds are, not only where our bodies are. Lootz family,
Speaker 5: including his wife, have escaped the destruction being rained down
Speaker 5: by God in this city in which they've found such comfort,
Speaker 5: such luxury, such corruption. Lot's wife has escaped the city boundaries,
Speaker 5: but still she suffers the punishment of the city. Why well,
Speaker 5: it's not just because she turned round. It's because her
Speaker 5: mind and her heart were obviously still in the city,
Speaker 5: fondly remembering this sinful time she's had there and regretting
Speaker 5: those times would be no more. But this story isn't
Speaker 5: just about Lot's wife or family or regrets or repentance.
Speaker 5: It's not just about being present in your sin. It's
Speaker 5: not just about looking back at things you've done that
Speaker 5: might not have been so holy. No, their story echoes
Speaker 5: the entire narrative of Israel's relationship with God. Time and
Speaker 5: time again, we see Israel turning back and away from
Speaker 5: God in the wilderness after exodus from Egypt. They long
Speaker 5: to turn back, to return to slavery, rather than press
Speaker 5: on to the promised Land. And I'm sure you remember
Speaker 5: in the era of the Judges and Kings, they repeatedly
Speaker 5: turned back, abandoning God for the false gods and idols
Speaker 5: of the nations around them. Even after their return from exile,
Speaker 5: they struggled to fully commit to God's ways, turning back
Speaker 5: time and time again. So here's the question, why does
Speaker 5: God not want his chosen people to turn back? Turning
Speaker 5: back is returning to what is dead, to what is decayed,
Speaker 5: to what is destructive, And when you look at it
Speaker 5: through those eyes, it makes sense. God wants us to
Speaker 5: pursue life, to pursue growth, to pursue transformation, to always
Speaker 5: be growing higher and not be held back by what
Speaker 5: was looking back as a path to stagnation, to falling
Speaker 5: into old patterns of sin and rebellion. God wants us
Speaker 5: to keep moving forward toward him. So the story of
Speaker 5: Lut's wife isn't just a tale of judgment. It's a
Speaker 5: cautionary reminder of our need to trust God's direction and
Speaker 5: keep moving towards his promises. In the grand narrative, God
Speaker 5: is guiding Abraham and his descendants to the promised land
Speaker 5: that's not just for their sake, but to fulfill his
Speaker 5: godly divine plan for all of humanity. Looking beyond this story,
Speaker 5: my good friend Bishop Paulineer has some insights into what
Speaker 5: the Christian Bible says about looking forward and not looking back.
Speaker 6: Thank you so much, child, And you've just spoken to
Speaker 6: this so beautifully, so fully that there's really not a
Speaker 6: lot for me to say. And I spoke so much
Speaker 6: last time. I simply want to address this one thing
Speaker 6: and then I'm through. It is this failed family man,
Speaker 6: And can I talk quickly about Noah. You know that
Speaker 6: the Lord spoke to Noah and said, the world is
Speaker 6: filled with darkness and corruption consequently violence, and I'm going
Speaker 6: to to use the earth to destroy the world, but
Speaker 6: I'm going to preserve you. And that God provided Noah
Speaker 6: this blueprint for constructing an arc that would be the
Speaker 6: salvation of Noah, his wife, three sons, their wives. But
Speaker 6: there's no reference in all that God approached the three sons.
Speaker 6: He never said to them the earth is corrupt before me.
Speaker 6: I've had it with them. I'm going to cleanse the
Speaker 6: earth of their debauchery.
Speaker 1: God never did that.
Speaker 6: But there was something about their father. They believed that
Speaker 6: if my dad, my father says to me, I've heard
Speaker 6: from the Lord, I don't have to understand it to
Speaker 6: believe him. And that had such a profound effect that
Speaker 6: the wives, the daughters in law, who were losing their
Speaker 6: own families, believed their husbands who were believing their father.
Speaker 6: And we get to this Lot. I don't really know
Speaker 6: how big this man's family was. Did he have sons,
Speaker 6: They weren't going The sons in law, the Bible says,
Speaker 6: did not believe Lot when he was speaking to them
Speaker 6: about the judgment that was impending the daughters. They went
Speaker 6: with Lot, but they still weren't where they needed to be.
Speaker 1: Because Lot.
Speaker 2: Wasn't No.
Speaker 6: I've often said, live your life in such a way
Speaker 6: when someone doesn't like you anymore, they still trust your
Speaker 6: prayer life and your walk with God. And I look
Speaker 6: at this Lot, and he had made so many mistakes,
Speaker 6: starting with his uncle and dishonoring that when he didn't
Speaker 6: know how to honor his uncle, his own family didn't
Speaker 6: know how to respect him. I'm just praying, sir, to
Speaker 6: the fathers and the grandfathers and the sons and daughters,
Speaker 6: that God will touch you in such a way right
Speaker 6: now that you begin to know how who it is
Speaker 6: to honor, to esteem, to regard, to appreciate in your life,
Speaker 6: and that it becomes loose towards you.
Speaker 3: Amen.
Speaker 5: There's one last thing that I want to talk about
Speaker 5: before we leave behind the story of Lut's wife turning
Speaker 5: into a pillar of salt. Salt, she turned into salt.
Speaker 5: Isn't that a strange thing to happen, Even among all
Speaker 5: of the supernatural and miraculous strange things that we've seen
Speaker 5: and will see throughout the Bible, It's a little bit
Speaker 5: interesting that she turned into salt. So we have to
Speaker 5: ask why does Lut's wife turn into salt? Why that
Speaker 5: punishment of all things? Well, the Jewish sages suggests that
Speaker 5: lutz wife sinned with salt, so she was punished with salt.
Speaker 5: But wait, how does someone sin with salt?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 5: To answer this, the sages tell us story. When guests
Speaker 5: would come to lutz house in Sadome, he would remember
Speaker 5: his uncle Abraham's famous hospitality, and he hoped to treat
Speaker 5: his own guests in the same welcoming manner. Solut asked
Speaker 5: his wife to add salt to the food that they
Speaker 5: offered guests, to spice it up, to give it more flavor.
Speaker 5: Back then, salt was something that was actually precious. But
Speaker 5: Lot's wife didn't want to keep the important and godly
Speaker 5: customs that Abraham held so dear she didn't want to
Speaker 5: adhere to the old ways, and frankly, she thought that
Speaker 5: sault was too expensive to offer to her guests. Lot's
Speaker 5: wife was the antithesis of hospitality all because of salt,
Speaker 5: and so salt is what she became. So that's all.
Speaker 5: Even as we keep from turning back to old and
Speaker 5: sinful ways, hold on to God's command to his chosen
Speaker 5: people since the days of Abraham. We have to know
Speaker 5: what to hold on to and what to let go.
Speaker 5: God's word is forever. Our sins are thin of the past.
Speaker 5: A command that holds true to us his Chosen People
Speaker 5: even today is to remain holy, to look forward in
Speaker 5: God's word, and to bless others. Here's one final blessing
Speaker 5: for you. Ivarech hashem Vi schmurecher ya heir hashempanave ileha
Speaker 5: verroncher ye sa hashempanave lehra vich.
Speaker 1: Llon.
Speaker 5: May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the
Speaker 5: Lord make his face shine upon you. May he be
Speaker 5: gracious to you. May the Lord turn his face towards
Speaker 5: you and give you peace.
Speaker 1: Amen. You can listen to the Chosen People with Isle
Speaker 1: Eckstein add free by downloading and subscribing to the Pray
Speaker 1: dot Com app today. This prey dot Com production is
Speaker 1: only made possible by our dedicated team of creative talents.
Speaker 1: Steve Katina, Max bard, Zak Shellavaga and Ben Gammon are
Speaker 1: the executive producers of the Chosen People with yaele Estein,
Speaker 1: edited by Alberto Avilla, narrated by Paul Coltefianu. Characters are
Speaker 1: voiced by Jonathan Cotton, Aaron Salvato, Sarah Seltz, Mike Reagan,
Speaker 1: Stephen Ringwold, Sylvia Zaradoc, and the opening prayer is voiced
Speaker 1: by John Moore. Music by Andrew Morgan Smith, written by
Speaker 1: Bree Rosalie and Aaron Salvato. Special thanks to Bishop Paul Lanier,
Speaker 1: Robin van Ettin, Kayleb Burrows, Jocelyn Fuller, and the team
Speaker 1: at International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. You can hear
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