Do not judge so that you will not be judged. Matthew 7:1

Genesis 18-19

Genesis 18

Abraham’s Visitors

¹ The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat by the tent door in the heat of the day. ² He looked up and saw that three men stood near him. When he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door and bowed to the ground ³ and said, “My lord, if now I have found favor in your sight, please do not pass by your servant. ⁴ Now let a little water be brought, wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree. ⁵ I will get a piece of bread so you can refresh yourselves. After that you may go your way, now that you have come to your servant.”

They said, “Very well, do as you have said.”

⁶ Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, “Quickly, prepare three measures of fine grain, knead it, and make some bread.”

⁷ Abraham ran to the herd and brought in a good, tender calf, and gave it to the servant. He hurried to prepare it. ⁸ He took butter, milk, and the calf which he had prepared, set it before them, and stood under a tree by them as they ate.

Sarah Laughs at the Promise

⁹ They asked him, “Where is Sarah, your wife?”

He said, “There, in the tent.”

¹⁰ He said, “I will certainly return to you at about this time next year, and Sarah, your wife will have a son.”

Sarah was listening from the tent door, which was behind him. ¹¹ Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age. Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. ¹² Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have grown old will I have pleasure, my lord being old also?”

¹³ The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Will I really bear a child when I am old?’ ¹⁴ Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the set time I will return to you, when the season comes around, and Sarah will have a son.”

¹⁵ Then Sarah denied it, saying, “I didn’t laugh,” for she was afraid.

He said, “No, you did laugh.”

Abraham Intercedes for Sodom

¹⁶ The men rose up from there and looked toward Sodom, and Abraham went with them to see them on their way.

¹⁷ The Lord said, “Will I hide from Abraham what I am doing, ¹⁸ since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him? ¹⁹ For I have known him, so that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of the Lord with righteousness and justice; to the end that the Lord may bring on Abraham that which he has promised of him.”

²⁰ The Lord said, “Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous, ²¹ I will go down now and see whether their deeds are as bad as the reports which have come to me. If not, I will know.”

²² The men turned from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord. ²³ Abraham came near and said, “Will you destroy the righteous with the wicked? ²⁴ What if there are 50 righteous people within the city? Will you destroy the place, not sparing, it for the 50 righteous people who are in it? ²⁵ May it be far from you to do such a thing, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be like the wicked. May that be far from you. Shouldn’t the Judge of all the earth do what is right?”

²⁶ The Lord said, “If I find in Sodom 50 righteous people within the city, then I will spare the whole place for their sake.”

²⁷ Abraham answered, “See now, I have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord, although I am dust and ashes. ²⁸ What if there are five fewer than the 50 righteous people? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?”

He said, “I will not destroy it if I find 45 there.”

²⁹ He spoke to him yet again and said, “What if there are 40 found there?”

He said, “I will not do it for the sake of 40.”

³⁰ He said, “Oh do not let the Lord be angry, and I will speak. What if there are 30 found there?”

He said, “I will not do it if I find 30 there.”

³¹ He said, “See now, I have taken it on myself to speak to the Lord. What if there are twenty found there?”

He said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of twenty.”

³² He said, “Oh do not let the Lord be angry, and I will speak just once more. What if ten are found there?”

He said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of ten.”

³³ The Lord went his way, as soon as he had finished speaking with Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.

Genesis 19

Lot Entertains Angels

¹ The two angels came to Sodom at evening, and Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom. Lot saw them and rose up to meet them. He bowed with his face to the ground ² and said, “See now, my lords, please come into your servant’s house, stay all night, wash your feet, and you can rise early and go on your way.”

They said, “No, we will stay in the street all night.”

³ He implored them to come in with him, and they entered his house. He made them a feast and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. ⁴ But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter. ⁵ They called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came in with you this night? Bring them out to us, that we may have sex with them.”

⁶ Lot went out to them through the door and shut the door after himself. ⁷ He said, “Please, my brothers, do not do such a wicked thing. ⁸ See now, I have two daughters who have never had sexual relations with a man. Please let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them what seems good to you. Only do not do anything to these men, because they have come under the protection of my roof.”

⁹ They said, “Stand back!” Then they said, “This one came in to live as a foreigner, and he appoints himself a judge. Now we will deal worse with you than with them!” They pressed hard on the man Lot and came near to break the door. ¹⁰ But the men inside reached out their hand and brought Lot into the house to them and shut the door. ¹¹ They struck the men who were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wore themselves out trying to find the door.

Lot Runs to Zoar

¹² The men said to Lot, “Do you have anybody else here? Your sons-in-law, sons, daughters, and whomever you have in the city, bring them out of this place, ¹³ for we will destroy this place because the outcry against them has grown so great before the Lord that the Lord has sent us to destroy it.”

¹⁴ Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters, and said, “Get up! Get out of this place, for the Lord will destroy the city!” But he appeared to his sons-in-law to be joking.

¹⁵ When the morning came, then the angels hurried Lot, saying, “Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be destroyed in the punishment of the city.”

¹⁶ But he lingered, and the men grabbed his hand, his wife’s hand, and his two daughters’ hands, the Lord, being merciful to him. And they took him out and set him outside of the city. ¹⁷ It came to pass, when they had taken them out, that he said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you and do not stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed!”

¹⁸ Lot said to them, “Please no, my lord! ¹⁹ See now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your loving kindness, which you have shown to me in saving my life. I can’t escape to the mountain, lest disaster overtake me, and I die. ²⁰ See now, this city is near to run to, and it is a little one. Oh let me escape there–isn’t it a little place?–and I will live.”

²¹ He said to him, “I have granted your request concerning this also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken. ²² Hurry, escape there, for I cannot do anything until you get there.”

Therefore the city was called Zoar.

²³ The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar.

Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed

²⁴ Then the Lord rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah, sulfur and fire from the Lord, from the sky. ²⁵ He overthrew those cities, the entire plain, all of the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew on the ground.

Lot’s Wife Destroyed

²⁶ But Lot’s wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

²⁷ Abraham went up early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord. ²⁸ He looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and saw that the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.

²⁹ When God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham and sent Lot out from the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.

Nonconsensual Sex, Moabites and Ammonites

³⁰ Lot went up out of Zoar and lived in the mountain, and his two daughters with him, for he was afraid to live in Zoar. He lived in a cave with his two daughters.

³¹ The firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on the earth to come in to us as is the custom of everyone else on the earth. ³² Come, let’s make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve our father’s family line.”

³³ They made their father drink wine that night, and the firstborn went in and lay with her father. He did not know when she lay down, nor when she arose. ³⁴ It came to pass on the next day, that the firstborn said to the younger, “I lay last night with my father. Let’s make him drink wine again tonight. You go in and lie with him, that we may preserve our father’s family line.”

³⁵ They made their father drink wine that night also. The younger went and lay with him. He did not know when she lay down, nor when she got up. ³⁶ Thus both of Lot’s daughters were with child by their father. ³⁷ The firstborn bore a son and named him Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day. ³⁸ The younger also bore a son and called him Ben Ammi. He is the father of the Ammonites to this day.

Matthew 7:1-14

Do Not Judge

¹ “Do not judge, so that you will not be judged. ² For by whatever rule you use to judge, you will be judged by it. By whatever measurement you measure, it will be measured to you. ³ Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the beam that is in your own eye? ⁴ Or how will you tell your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye,’ and the beam is in your own eye? ⁵ You hypocrite! First remove the beam out of your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother’s eye.

⁶ “Do not give that which is holy to the dogs, nor throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn and tear you to pieces.”

Ask, Seek, Knock

⁷ “Ask, and it will be given you. Seek, and you will find. Keep knocking, and it will be opened for you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened. ⁹ Or who is there among you, who, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, who will give him a snake? ¹¹ If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

¹² Therefore whatever you desire for men to do to you, you shall also do to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”

The Narrow Gate

¹³ “Enter in by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter in by it. ¹⁴ How narrow is the gate, and restricted is the way, that leads to life! Few are those who find it.”

Psalm 8

How Majestic is Your Name

For the Chief Musician, on an instrument of Gath. A Psalm by David.

¹ O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens!
² From the lips of babes and infants you have established strength,
because of your adversaries, that you might silence the enemy and the avenger.

³ When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have ordained;
⁴ what is man, that you think of him?
What is the son of man, that you care for him?
⁵ For you have made him a little lower than the angels,
and crowned him with glory and honor.
⁶ You make him ruler over the works of your hands.
You have put all things under his feet:
⁷ All sheep and cattle,
yes, and the animals of the field,
⁸ the birds of the sky, the fish of the sea,
and whatever passes through the paths of the seas.

⁹ O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Proverbs 2:6-10

⁶ For God gives wisdom.
Out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.
⁷ He lays up sound wisdom for the upright.
He is a shield to those who walk in integrity,
⁸ that he may guard the paths of justice,
and preserve the way of his saints.
⁹ Then you will understand righteousness and justice,
equity and every good path.
¹⁰ For wisdom will enter into your heart.
Knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

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