Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him and said, "No, my friends. Don't do this wicked thing."
-Genesis 19:6-7

I wonder just how horrified Lot must have been to see every man in town surrounding his house, demanding that he relinquish to them his guests, two angels, so that they could have their way with them. The Bible says that every man was there, both young and old.

No doubt, Lot could see people he knew: merchants, neighbors, officials, soldiers and buddies. Sounds like something out of a zombie movie. Indeed, that is exactly what it must have been like.

It is the stuff of nightmares; all of your friends and cohorts suddenly converging on your house, ill intended and bent on sullying the truth of God's goodness. Yet, Lot went outside and faced them...pleaded with them. He stood between the army of darkness and the two angels that he harbored in his home. Such a burden. If Lot ever felt alone for a single day in his life, this was it.

When he came against them, the crowd reacted with vitriol, telling him that he would be treated worse than the two messengers he was protecting. Lot was desperate and determined. In the center of his being, he had to know that the stakes stretched far beyond the scope of his own life. There was something vastly complex and eternal about to happen that had chosen his front yard as a stage to play out.

This was a spiritual battle of unsearchable importance that would ring through the heavenlies for all time. So crucial was this encounter in the annals of humanity, that Lot even offered up his own daughters to the crowd in order to satisfy them. He was willing to pay such a price. But, the crowd would have nothing to do with them. They came for the messengers...God's messengers.

At some point, the angels pulled him inside and came clean about God's intention to destroy the city. As it turned out, Lot and his extended family would be offered clemency; a chance to escape. Sodom was lost, but the determination and intercession of one man, softened God's heart and kept an entire army of evil at bay.

In our own battles, we must come to terms with the fact that our decisions, prayers and spiritual actions advance the overall war effort in the name of the King.

It is never just about our own house. It is never just about our own struggle. It is never just about our own story or legacy. Every time we stand in the gap, determined to come between the enemy and something or someone God loves, we become a sharpened agent of the Most High and, just for a moment, we actually understand the truth of what we are fighting for. Lot saw it too.

It is love that holds us fast against the dark tide that surges at our defenses and that seeks our lives and the lives of those around us. It is love that causes us to open the door and abandon safety for the confrontation of ages. It is love that sustains us as even our friends and neighbors desire to see us destroyed. It is love that wins the war.

Today, I want to encourage you to fight like Lot. Do whatever it takes. But just remember, you are backed by the author of the universe. Though you stand, at times, seemingly alone, God is behind you and his
Spirit is within you. Do you have goosebumps yet?