Lay It on Me

W HEN THE U NEXPECTED H APPENS / 17

mankind would continue on. As a result of this scheme, two sons were born. One was named Ben Ami, and he was the father of the Ammonites. The other was named Moab (Genesis 19:37, 38). As Lot watched Moab grow up, he was constantly tormented by his past. Moab was a living reminder of that terrible night in the cave when, in a drunken stupor, Lot begat a son by his own daughter. In Moab, people are reminded of the "one-night-stands" that birthed the unexpected. Bad things happen in Moab. Three godly men died there. It is a place of sorrow. Linger in Moab, and you are reminded, repeatedly, of past failures, of the affair you had, of the time you backslid. Thoughts of tragedy and "what-if" haunt you. Moab represents events in your life you'd rather forget. In Mark 5, the man of Gadara was possessed with 2,000 evil spirits (Mark 5). He lived among the tombs; he resided in a graveyard (Mark 5:3). A graveyard is a place of death. Dotting the landscape of a graveyard are headstones, macabre reminders of a person's past. You see, a graveyard has no future. A cemetery is simply a memorial to a life that used to be. When entering a graveyard, people who are still living spend most of their time weeping. Into this kind of environment, the devil drove the man of Gadara. He was stranded in the wilderness, living among the ruins of the past. The Enemy wants you to stay in Moab. He wants to remind you of your failures. As long as you dwell in the tombs of yesterday you will not move toward a