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Studies in Genesis, Sin Demands Judgment, Lesson XLIV, Genesis 19
We have come to Chapter 19 in our study of the book of Genesis.
It is a chapter that could easily fit into Hollywood’s schedule of movie making for it contains all the necessary lustful and exciting plots one could imagine, plots which the people of the world desire in our time, plots which fit our culture.
So, in synopsis form we tell that three visitors arrive at the camp of Abraham, one was the Lord, and the other two were angels in human form.
The Lord had come to announce the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, destruction that is, unless there was found 10 righteous men.
The two visitors who came with the Lord departed from the camp and headed toward the two doomed cities where they found Lot sitting at the gate of Sodom, some thinking that this indicated that Lot held some governing position.
Lot immediately, as did his uncle Abraham, gave them due respect showing them hospitality by inviting them to stay overnight at his house.
And as we do so much of the time when offered help they at first refused, saying they would stay in the street, but Lot prevailed, providing them a feast including unleavened bread.
But the news of their arrival in Sodom had spread and filled the ears of wicked, lustful men, both young and old who surrounded the house, not coming to give but to take.
For we read in Genesis 19:5, And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.
Now this Bible phrase, delicately used, “that we may know them” is not a desire to befriend them but to engage with them in perverted ways.
But Lot has taken the men in as their host and hospitality demands that he provide them protection even to the extreme of offering his two virgin daughters to them that they may do to these young girls whatever they wish to do.
This offer of Lot would even be unbelievable to movie goers today!
But perversion with women is not their portion for they are perverts with men.
The city is filled with wickedness and evil crying out to God for judgment for sin demands judgment.
And immediate judgment falls on these men who are blinded by the angels with a bright light so none of them can even find the door.
At this point Lot is told to gather his family, perhaps sons, sons in laws, daughters, and grandchildren for God is about to destroy this place: because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the Lord; and the Lord hath sent us to destroy it, the scriptures say.
We then find that Lot had no testimony before his sons in law and they took no mind of his warning.
Therefore, the angels hastened him, his wife and his two daughters but while they lingered the angels took their hands and virtually pulled them out of Sodom before the fire and brimstone rained upon the city.
Told to escape to the mountain Lot prevailed upon the angels to flee unto another city, a city named Zoar.
We read of this in Genesis 19:24,25, Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven; 25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.
But even though warned not to look back, Lot’s wife took no heed, thinking about her comfortable life in Sodom, her house and all her belongings.
Thinking about things she thought of as life itself, things she was compelled to look back on, but in so doing she lost her life, turning into a pillar of salt.
Jesus instructs, Seek ye first the kingdom of God.
But Lot’s wife sought first the comforts of what this world offers, and in so doing she became useless.
The scene changes and we find Abraham in the morning proceed to the place where he earlier debated with God over the fate of the cities.
He looks and sees the smoke and fire rising and by this picture he learns that God did not find ten righteous men in Sodom and therefore judgment has come.
And inserted in the passage is the fact that God remembered Abraham’s faith and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow of the cities in which Lot dwelt.
For God remembered Abraham’s plea, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?
So, the plot thickens for the wickedness and evil of the culture of Sodom does not depart out of Lot and his two daughters, simply because they find refuge in the mountains.
For both daughters engage in a conspiracy to get from their father seed to preserve his line and to provide for their future.
So, Lot is given wine sufficient to get him in a drunken state and in this state both daughters engage in incest and from these acts come enemies of the nation Israel, the nation to come from Abraham’s seed, enemies named Moab and Ammon.
So now, as we ponder this passage, if all we had about Lot was from Genesis, I think we all would conclude that Lot was not saved.
But we are to take in all scripture before we conclude and remember that the Apostle Peter, in II Peter 2:7,8, calls him a righteous man for he writes that Lot was:
vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: 8 (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;
God alone knows the heart.
We are only given to know the outward, we are only given to know the works.
But God knows faith and he knew that Lot was justified by faith as was his uncle Abraham.
Lot, in being vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked, indicates that he did not participate in it but it’s vexing did not cause him to separate from it nor cause him to take his family from its influence.
He tried to do right by refusing the wicked perverted men to take his guests but his solution in sacrificing his daughters was just as if not more perverted.
Lot was so deep into Sodom he had to be dragged from it and from those loved ones who chose to stay.
And so we learn that those who live in conformity to this evil world will suffer tragic consequences.
We are to come out from among them and be separate!
Ezekiel 16:49 speaks of the iniquity of Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.
This is what Lot chose, a choice in his time which would be called the Sodom Dream.
Today we call it the American Dream, a dream which beckons to millions around the world for it is a dream built upon the material, that which only can be known by the senses, a dream therefore apart from God.
And it is a dream without eternal foundation for we see here Lot escaping with the clothes on his back, escaping while leaving loved ones, escaping while leaving a wife turned into a pillar of salt.
Escaping to hide in a cave, escaping to be made drunk and to commit incest with this two daughters who produce enemies of the people of God.
It is a sad picture of a man who sought to gain his life but lost it.
God saved him by His Grace but saved through fire, singed, stripped of everything, by the severe discipline of God.
We are warned through the lessons from Lot to not live for the best of two worlds.
We are not to love the world, we are to love God for only God can guide through this wicked world.
In our home devotions this week my wife and I again were impressed by this admonition by reading:
Psalm 37:1-11, Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. 2 For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb. 3 Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. 4 Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. 5 Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. 6 And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday. 7 Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. 8 Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. 9 For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. 10 For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. 11 But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
God does not call us to the American Dream, God calls us to be faithful to His word and to live and walk by faith and He promises to deliver us from the wrath to come.
Why would anyone, as Lot did, invest his or her life in an investment wherein all will be destroyed?
The world and all its offerings are simply vain things, things that will suffer loss, things that have no place in the glories promised to those who trust in God.
The world hates God’s word which clearly pictures what the world is.
The world proclaims it goodness, it proclaims its pleasures, its comforts, its treasures.
But God’s word proclaims the world as thoroughly corrupt.
Sodom is a picture of our world.
We are not to get on the positive, everything is beautiful bandwagon of the world for it is a bandwagon of lies and deceits.
It is driven by Satan himself who plays the enticing music of dishonesty and treachery calling all to his will while dangling the enticing baubles and trinkets of the world.
There are two loves, both incompatible to the other meaning both loves cannot co-exist.
The Apostle John in I John 2:15,16 tells us this clearly for he tells us to:
15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
Sodom shows us what God allows before the cry of wickedness moves Him to judgment.
For Sodom was a society which openly flaunted sin, openly practicing homosexuality and sexual perversions.
It was a thoroughly corrupt society fitting well into the description of such as given in Romans 1:24-28:
Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: 25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. 28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
So herein God describes the final stages of corruption.
How this brings our minds to think about our own society so near to mimicking Sodom’s openness about sin.
How our society instead of repenting of sins and its consequences tries to find ways to allow sin without consequences.
Consequences such as curing AIDS instead of stopping the activity which brings it about or aborting babies instead of continuing that which brings the unwelcome babies about.
Or raising children apart from the word of God, raising children without consequences, an act which guarantees children who are unable to fear God and will call evil good and good evil.
It is sad to say that like Lot many Christians live in conformity to our corrupt world.
For many of God’s children choose goals in conformity to the needs of the world.
Lot moved to Sodom to be near the well-watered plains, the plains which insured his financial health and well-being.
He did not go to Sodom to reach the city for God.
Abraham thought Lot could have at least reached his own family bringing the agreement with the Lord down to ten righteous men.
But Lot was too busy being prominent to seek first the kingdom of God and therefore even his sons-in-law thought his rantings were foolish and therefore they perished.
There was no tugging of the angels for the sons-in-law to come out of corrupt Sodom for they were lost and under the judgment of God.
Someone has observed that often the only difference between Christians and the unsaved is that they are seen around church buildings more frequently.
The world is directed by Satan and his purposes are plain.
Purposes to erase the knowledge of God from this sphere and to bring all to his throne.
God makes it plain that He will take care of you and that your purpose is not to live life seeking material prosperity but first to seek God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness.
We are to shun the American Dream for it is a dream directed by the enemies of God and its pursuit will eventually bring you into the world’s moral corruption as it did Lot who offered his own virgin daughters to men of corruption to do with as they pleased.
The priority is clear: Seek ye first the Kingdom of God! |