King of Sodom

What about the king of Sodom? Sodom means "an abundance of dew." It also means "their secret" and "burning." It was a wicked and sinful place. We look around and we see what appears to be blessing in this wicked world around us, an abundance of dew, perhaps, but don't forget He "sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." Do not let that fool us because Sodom also means "their secret." The secret sin of Sodom soon spilled out into the open and then what happened? Burning, the judgment of God upon that city. And what does the king of Sodom say? "Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself.”
Satan says: Give me the souls; you take the goods. In fact, I will help you get them Go ahead with your education; go ahead with your plans for advancement in the business world. Go ahead with your plans for accumulating wealth. Take it all, but give me the souls.
Here is the decision: maybe you've won a great victory, a spiritual victory in your life. Maybe you have been used for the restoration of someone in your own family like Abram was for Lot. But now the decision comes: are you going to go on for Christ, the King of Salem? Or are you going to be drawn by Satan, the king of Sodom who says, "Give me the souls, and take the goods to thyself." v. 21, margin. That is the challenge for all of us. Satan says: Give me the souls; you take the goods. In fact, I will help you get them. Go ahead with your education; go ahead with your plans for advancement in the business world. Go ahead with your plans for accumulating wealth. Take it all, but give me the souls. We have fallen into that trap of accumulating "goods" while millions of souls are perishing without Christ.
What was Abram's response? Abram said to the king of Sodom, "I have lifted up mine hand unto the Lord, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread even to a shoe-latchet, and that I will not take anything that is thine." A thread speaks to us of our clothes, how we present ourselves to the world and those around us at work and school. The shoe-latchet would speak to us of our walk, our association with this world and our pathway through this world. Abram says that he would not take anything; he would be completely separate, sanctified, and meet for the
Master's use (2 Tim. 2:20, 21). That is the beginning of a pathway of blessing and fruitfulness for the Lord Jesus Christ.
“After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward." What is the prize? Christ! "For to me to live is Christ." Phil. 1:21. "I... count them but dung [refuse], that I may win Christ." Phil. 3:8. Every link formed with the world weakens the testimony and saps spiritual strength.