Lot, Abraham's cousin, was a wealthy business man that lived in a city called Sodom. Sodom was a thriving community with the necook upessary infrastructures to support Lot’s agric business. Although the city was thriving economically, it was decaying morally. In the midst of Sodom’s decaying culture, Lot stood out as a godly man. He didn’t get interact much with the people of Sodom neither did he partake in their immoral ways. He worshipped his God quietly, performed his civil obligations and provided for his family.
However, beneath his saintly looks, Lot was a tormented soul. The culture of the people afflicted him, what he was exposed to everyday was very depressing. Lot was able to maintain his righteous stand but from the bible it is clear that his family didn’t have his level of resistance against the onslaught of an evil culture.
When God sent angels to destroy the land because of the prevalent evil culture, the angels were determined to rescue Lot and his household. This event shows the effect of an immoral culture, when the godly do nothing.
· The men of Sodom demanded homosexual relationship with Lot’s guests.
· Lot did not take his stand instead he offered his two daughters to the men of Sodom.
· Lot’s daughters were engaged to the ungodly men of Sodom. Lot’s sons in - laws to be even made fun of him when he warned them about God’s coming judgement.
· When God’s judgement came, he lost all his investments in the city.
· Lot’s wife had become so materialistic that her heart never left the city; she looked back and lost her life in the process.
· After escaping, Lot’s two daughters conspired to have and incestuous relationship with their father. Although his daughters had let Sodom, the culture of Sodom had not left their heart. The evil culture that Lot was indifferent to ultimately destroyed his investments and tore his family apart.
On the other hand, Daniel was another godly man that found himself in an ungodly culture. While Lot functioned as a businessman in the private sector, Daniel was a civil servant in the public sector. As a teenager he was taken captive into Babylon and was enrolled in a special academy so he could serve the king of Babylon. In this academy, Daniel was exposed to all the evil practices of the Babylonians; magic, idolatry, drunkenness etc and Daniel was expected to participate in these practices.
Daniel, from his teenage years, began to engage the culture around him; he was determined not to allow the culture defile him. He approached the director of the academy requesting to be excused from activities that he believed would compromise his godly stand. He was bold enough to challenge the director to put him to a 10 - day test, after which the director discovered Daniel looked and performed better than those that ate from the king’s table.
Daniel had a simple but effective method of influencing his environment with his godly culture. His simple approach was: LIVE OUT YOUR GODLY CONVICTIONS EVERYWHERE, AT ALL TIMES, IN EVERY SITUATION.
This was the method employed by Daniel in the midst of a godless culture, with this principle he was a relevant and respected figure to 4 different regimes.
When Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that nobody knew (not to talk of interpreting), all the wise men of Babylon were to be executed. When Daniel heard, he took his stand and told the King about the God of heaven that revealed secrets. When Daniel told the king the dream and its interpretation he bowed and worshipped Daniel’s God.
The same thing happened with Belshazzar and the hand writing on the wall and with Darius when he put Daniel in the lion’s den. In each case Daniel took his stand publicly against the evil prevalent culture and at the end the name of God was magnified in the land. Daniel remained a top government official until the reign of Cyrus who eventually released the Jews from captivity.
Christians now live in a culture similar to that of Lot and Daniel, a culture plagued by all sorts of immoral vices. We live in societies given to corruption, selfishness, tribalism, mediocrity, intolerance and irresponsibility. All these have become a way of life (NOTE: culture means way of life). The sad fact is that Christians too are not excluded and the effect is very evident all around us.
God will not come down to change our culture! (that is our responsibility) but if we don’t actively and strategically begin to engage our society then we become victims of our culture just like Lot was. Our godly convictions must advance beyond our heart into our public acts. Active faith is an advancing faith and to claim to be indifferent is to admit you are defeated.
Sometimes we think the government is solely responsible for the prevalent culture in the land. Even though the government is involved, there are other institutions; the family, schools, religious organisations and the media. These are major institutions that shape the culture of any society and to change our culture we must engage these institutions with godly values.
Prayer is very important so we must start with prayer; Daniel was a deeply spiritual man but Daniel was also a man of skill and understanding. So we must also take action based on skill and understanding to see the cultural change we desire in our land.
God said
“Ask of Me, and I will give You
The nations for Your inheritance,
And the ends of the earth for Your possession”. (Ps 2:8NKJV)
Selah.
