Genesis 19:30-38

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell putting them in chains of darkness o be held for judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment. (2 Peter 2:4-9)

I just had to turn to this passage from 2 Peter as we finish out this chapter on the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the rescue of Lot and his family, because it puts it all into perspective. Note what Peter tells us about Lot: he was a righteous man who was distressed and tormented by all of the sin around him. Really? Are you wondering about this like I am? If Lot was so distressed by it, why didn’t he move his family out? Why did he expose his daughters to such behaviors? As we’ll see, their acceptance of abnormal behavior indicates that their environment made its impact on them.

Well, I’ve got to go back to what constitutes our righteousness. Is it based on what we do or who we are? No! It’s based on faith in Christ and who HE is, for we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. We have no righteousness on our own - it is imputed to us, blanketed over us, by what Christ accomplished for us on the cross. For this reason, Peter can call Lot righteous. And we know that God spared him as a righteous man, because that was the promise He made to Abraham. Therefore, in God’s eyes, Lot is called a righteous man. Therefore, He calls me righteous! PHEW!! Now this gives me HOPE!

However, our final look at his family is something belonging to a soap opera or Sister Wives!

Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave. One day the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man around here to give us children—as is the custom all over the earth. Let’s get our father to drink wine and then sleep with him and preserve our family line through our father.” That night they got their father to drink wine, and the older daughter went in and slept with him. He was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up. (Gen 19:30-33)

Ye gads!!! Okay, let’s think about their situation. These girls are stuck in a cave (why didn’t Lot go to his Uncle Abraham for help??), they have lost everything, including their mother, and they can’t believe there will be a future for them. So they take matters into their own hands (when will we learn??), and do something so appalling, yet apparently something that doesn’t give them pause. This is the result of Lot’s decision to raise his daughters in Sodom! Please note that we are told that Lot “was not aware of it” when the girls lay with him. So this pretty much lets him off the hook for this specific act. However, there is certainly plenty of blame to go around here! Sin begets sin! So what is the result of the girls’ actions?

...both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father. The older daughter had a son, and she named him Moab; he is the father of the Moabites of today. The younger daughter also had a son, and she named him Ben-Ammi he is the father of the Ammonites of today. (vs. 36-38)

If you remember, the Moabites and the Ammonites are nothing but trouble for the Israelites. However, one ray of hope (because there is always hope in God’s Word), is that Ruth, the great-grandmother of King David, was a Moabite - and she was in the lineage of Christ! Don’t you love how God is constantly redeeming our mistakes? Romans 8:28!!! And this is the glorious part of God’s Word. No matter how bad our sin, God can redeem us from the pit! Our God remembers that we are but dust, He came and lived among us to experience the trials and temptations we face - and yet, did not sin! So He is fully qualified to save us. That’s what this Holy Week is all about!

We’re leaving this family - and I have to say I’m glad to be out of Sodom. But we are not free of the reality stories of God’s people! Abraham blows it again in the next chapter! Oh, our God is so gracious and long-suffering with us, isn’t He? How can we not extend that same grace to others in our lives?
Love to you all!

Genesis 19:12-26

Good morning, all! We’ve been looking at the story of Lot and his family and at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. This is truly a time when we see the wrath of God. I receive a daily devotional from LifeWay (Beth Moore’s publishing house), and this morning’s, interestingly enough, talks about the wrath of God. It says that if we were to look up the texts referring to wrath, anger, or the severity of God in a concordance, we would find “more references to these than to His love, graciousness of tenderness.” We cannot truly understand the love of God apart from His holy character, which requires an action against everything evil. Or, as my pastor says, “You’ve got to understand the bad news so you can appreciate the good news.”

One of the things we look forward to, as Christians, is the fact that the LORD will set everything right at His Second Coming. We will see his justice fully carried out and we will marvel along with the angels. If you read through the book of Revelation, you’ll find choruses praising God for His justice:

“Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, King of the ages.” (Rev: 15:3)

“You are just in these judgements, you who are and who were, the Holy One.” (Rev 16:4)

“Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for true and just are his judgments.” (Rev. 19:1-2)

We rightly long to see His final victory over sin, and a restoration of His righteousness throughout. In Isaiah 60: 19-21, the prophet is giving God’s Word to Jerusalem and telling of a day when all of the injustices suffered by the Jewish nation will be made right:

The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. Your sun will never set again, and your moon will wane no more; the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end. Then all your people will be righteous and they will possess the land forever.


When studying this passage in Isaiah for Bible Study Fellowship yesterday, these verses jumped out at me, because they say that all your people will be righteous, in contrast to what we read in Isaiah 59 and in Romans 3:10-18 that affirms NONE are righteous. I can’t wait for a day when all, including me, will be fully righteous and God’s right order is restored. In the meantime, in our current passage in Genesis, in order to show that He is holy and means business, God judges the evil cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, by raining down “burning sulfur.” Abraham, looking down on the site sees “dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace.” (vs. 28)

The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are purported to be at the south end of the Dead Sea. Where that land was originally described as “well watered, like the garden of the LORD,” in Gen 13:10, now, in chapter 19, it’s a smoking wasteland. Jon Courson describes it as looking like “the aftermath of an atomic bomb... totally, completely, and awesomely arid.”

God means business. In his second letter, Peters writes, “...you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.” (2 Peter 3:3-7)

This is hard to read. It’s the kind of message that makes people uncomfortable. But surely we must be grateful that we have a God who says what He means and means what He says. His character remains true, and the LORD of the earth will do right! I’m thankful for the last verse in today’s passage:

So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived. (vs. 29)
God remembered Abraham and His promise to rescue the righteous. That is truly our hope!!!

Off I go!


Genesis 19:12-26

Good morning, all! I’m going to back up a few verses this morning, because there are just too many lessons to learn in Lot’s story.

The two men said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here—sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here, because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the LORD against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it.”


 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters. He said, “Hurry and get out of this place, because the LORD is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.


With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.”
When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the LORD was merciful to them. As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!” (vs.12-17)

God, in his mercy, desires to rescue Lot and any of his family who might go with him, so Lot reaches out to his sons-in-law and urges them to get out of Sodom. But his sons-in-law thought he was joking. See how Lot had lost his credibility in the community in which he was a leader. Not only did the gang of men dismiss his pleadings for his guests, but even his own sons-in-law laughed at what he said. Courson points out that this is a constant danger with fathers who do not walk the talk before their children. When we don’t seem to believe or act on what we are preaching to others as Christians, why would anyone believe us when we try to witness to them about our Savior? Lot’s lack of a credible witness contributed to the destruction of some he loved. There’s a warning! Why would anyone listen to an adulterer who tells his child to save himself before marriage? Or why would someone accept the invitation to go to church with the gal who was partying at the bar?

I mentioned yesterday how Lot hesitated to leave, so the angels had to pull him by the hand, along with his wife and daughters, out of the city. Lot was told to “flee to the mountains.” Instead, Lot whines that the mountains are too far away and he’ll never make it - “Can’t I just go to that little city over there???” Wouldn’t you just want to smack him on the head at this point? God’s mercy is beyond our understanding!!

The angels also warn Lot and his family, “Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain!” God does not wanting us looking back with longing at the past from which He’s rescued us. We are not to be nostalgic about the “good old days” before Christ pulled us out by the hand. Paul even tells us in Philippians 3:13-14, Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

It can be tempting to look back with fondness on some of our previous experiences, even some which brought some pain. God warns us to not look back but to look ahead to where He is leading us NOW. Having grown up in the ‘50s and ‘60s, I LOVE the music of my teen years. And hearing any song from that era takes me right back there. One day I realized that those songs I loved to hear on the oldies radio station were taking my thoughts where they did not need to go. So I flipped to Christian radio and have kept my radio tuned there ever since. It’s not that there is something necessarily evil in those old songs (although the lyrics are truly suggestive in many of the ones we never used to pay attention to), but they do not edify or lift me up like praise music does.

When Lot’s wife looked back to the place where her home had been, where all their possessions were being burned to the ground, she disobeyed the direct command, and turned into a pillar of salt. Jesus reminds us of her consequences in Luke 17: Remember Lot’s wife! Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it. (vs.32-33)

So many lessons. . . and there’s more... we’ll finish this one next week! Have a wonderful, relaxing weekend!

Genesis 19:1-16

The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. “My lords,” he said, “please turn aside to your servant’s house. You can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning.”
   
“No,” they answered, “we will spend the night in the square.”


But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate. Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.” (vs.1-5)

Okay - here is a really ugly passage of scripture! God does not candy-coat the truth! Note, first, that the two angels who had been with Abraham have come to the city of Sodom without the LORD. God is holy and will not come near sin! And, just in case we’re not clear here, the sin of Sodom is NOT that the men were not hospitable!! The grossness of their sin is why the angels have come to destroy the city. (v. 13) Note, also, that Lot was sitting at the gate. This would indicate that he has a place of honor within the city. Yet, we know from the rest of the story that Lot did not make a moral impact as a leader. In fact, the effects of living in Sodom are seen in the complete dysfunction of his family. The reality is that, no matter how hard we try, we will most likely NOT be the good influence if we’ve surrounded ourselves with wickedness. Instead, if we put ourselves in the midst of people who are blatantly living apart from God, sin will get the pull us down. Remember that Lot chose to live in this city, when he and Abraham agreed to split up, because he liked how it looked!

This does not mean that we stay away from everyone who is not a believer - we are told to be light in the world - to be in it, but not of it. So, we need to be in the world, loving people for Jesus’ sake, and sharing the gospel when given opportunity, but we certainly don’t need to go with the world into the bar or anywhere else where we will most likely trip up.

Lot rushes to meet these two strangers, because he obviously senses there is something special about them. He does offer his home to them, and when they say they will just stay in the square, we read he “insisted so strongly” that they do go with him. My guess is that he knew it was not safe to leave the men out as prey to the evil men of Sodom, for it doesn’t take long for “all the men from every part of the city” to seek out Lot’s guests!

And I’m not sure who is the more evil - the men seeking to rape Lot’s guests, or the father willing to have his virgin daughters gang-raped! We cannot even imagine this! I would not want to see it in a movie, because it’s bad enough having to read it! Yet, we know that even today there are parents who will sell their daughters into sex slavery. There are parents who, themselves, abuse their children. There may be some of you (and statistics tell us it would be so) who have been victims of such abuse, and I am certain this would be a hard passage to read.

Why is it here? Because God wants us to know that He has a limit to how much He will tolerate. He doesn’t mess around with sin. He judges it! Abraham had “bargained” God down to saving the city it there were 10 who were righteous, and God had agreed. Within this city, there weren’t even 10. Heck, Lot wasn’t even righteous! He was not spared here because of his righteousness - he was spared because of God’s amazing grace! We must not presume on God’s grace and keep fooling around where we know He has clearly told us to get out! We try so hard to justify our behaviors or apply relativity to our morality. God has a standard of perfection, which we clearly do not meet. This is WHY we need a Savior - this is WHY Jesus came to die for us. We cannot meet God’s standard, and there is coming a day in which sin will be finally judged. We need to be “grasped” by the hand, even as the angels had to “grasp” Lot’s hand and the hands of his wife and daughters and DRAG them out of the city, because Lot actually “hesitated!” (v. 16)

We’ll pick up here tomorrow... so much more to think about! On this happy note, have a great day! :)