Have you ever been rescued from the fire, only to return to the proverbial frying pan?
I'm thinking of my own life and the many women I've worked with. Men too, though I work less directly with them usually. Over and over I see us humans being rescued from one predicament only to leap into another or more often, return to a previous well-known and worse predicament. Money situations, bad relationships, drugs, abuse—you name it, I've seen us humans return to it.
I think of Lot, whose heart must have bent toward comfort, riches, or something other than the invisible God of his uncle Abraham. Yes, he went along for the ride and profited well from it. He even seems to follow God to a point—enough that God sends angels to rescue him and his family—but we do not see it transfer to his wife or daughters.
Whatever his "bent," he chose to pitch his tent near Sodom and Gomorrah, eventually living in the city itself. He did this even though the cities' reputation was well-known for unbridled sexual lust and homosexuality (Gen 19:4-5 and Jude 7), selfishness, laziness, and lack of concern for others (Ez. 16:49), and the flagrant display of all of the above (Is. 3:9). When he, his family, his belongings and a number of others were carried off in victory by oppressive kings and their armies, Abraham was sent to his rescue. Abraham and a ridiculously small army of trained servants routed the previously victorious army, rescuing Lot and everyone. The previously defeated kings met Abraham in the Valley of the Kings and gave honor to Abraham's God.
We hear nothing again of Lot until God decides to destroy the two cities. Abraham negotiates with God to spare the cities if there are three righteous men. There obviously weren't. I'm not sure Lot was even ONE righteous man (Peter says he was distressed by the evil around him but he did not leave, so maybe he was), but he was saved. His wife was lost. His daughters had children by Lot, fathering two of the slipperiest enemies of Israel, the Moabites and the Ammonites.
I think what captures my attention in this small side plot to what God is doing in Abraham's life, is that God rescues Lot from being carried off in captivity, knowing fully well he will return to an even greater danger in Sodom and Gomorrah.
God rescues us, even when He knows we are not yet ready to return to Him. He does this over and over and over. Why?
It seems to me God rescues us because He is the God Who Rescues.
It is His nature to rescue us. I have seen fathers and even mothers give up on their children, tiring of the repeated rescue. Yet God never tires. He is unendingly gracious. He is the loving father who waits for the prodigal son or daughter and sees their return from far off. For this, I am grateful and humbled.
Grace looks for our return and brings us home to Him.