Lot – Part 5 – A Lot Of Trouble For God – For Abraham – And For Himself – Genesis 19 Lot Compromises; Lot's Wife; And Sodom Overthrown Series

LOT – PART 5 – A LOT OF TROUBLE FOR GOD – FOR ABRAHAM – AND FOR HIMSELF – GENESIS 19 LOT COMPROMISES; LOT’S WIFE; AND SODOM OVERTHROWN

INTRODUCTION

In this message we will continue from where we left off last time when we considered these verses - {{Genesis 19:15-16 When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot saying, “Up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city,” Gen 19:16 but he hesitated, so the men seized his hand and the hand of his wife and the hands of his two daughters, for the compassion of the LORD was upon him, and they brought him out and put him outside the city.”}}

We will continue to see the flawed behaviour of Lot after he came out of Sodom. Absolutely nowhere do we read of faith or trust or repentance or prayer or seeking the Lord. I do not think Lot had any of that.

{{Genesis 19:17 It came about when they had brought them outside, that one said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you, and do not stay anywhere in the valley - escape to the mountains lest you be swept away,”}}

That is exactly what should have happened. One angel told the four of them to run for their lives. Don’t linger; just go. Don’t hanker for the old life but flee. That was hard for Lot who would never have left Sodom on his own accord – ever! It took the power of the angels to remove him out of the town. The mountains were the place of refuge – I will lift my eyes to the hills; from where does my help come? We know the Lord is our mighty help but how does that get through to stubborn goats?

The injunction to them was great urgency. “Do not stay anywhere in the valley. Escape to the mountains.” No wastage of words with angels’ instructions. The command was not to look behind. Why do you think that command was given to them? Well the fact is that any successful walk with the Lord is a walk forward not backwards – {{Philippians 3:13-14 “Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, Phil 3:14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”}}

No less was required from Lot and his family. There was danger in looking behind. An alcoholic must not return to what is behind him and back into drink. That look in the backward direction will have the man returning to the old life. Lot was so married to Sodom that any look back and hankering after its sin would have overcome him as it did his wife.

{{Genesis 19:18-19 BUT Lot said to them, “Oh no, my lords! Gen 19:19 Now behold, your servant has found favour in your sight, and you have magnified your loving kindness which you have shown me by saving my life but I cannot escape to the mountains lest the disaster overtake me and I die.”}}

In verse 18, notice the second “BUT”. What is up? I always like to look to motives. In these days, don’t take anything at face value because words are not what they seem any more, but in Lot’s era we look to motive. Why did Lot not want to flee to the mountains? Well, it was not the mountains that were the problem as Lot tried to make out. It was that he did not want to separate from Sodom. The towns of the plain were as bad almost as Sodom and Gomorrah and Lot did not want to live a separated life. He wanted to live in sin. He wanted to be close to sin and wickedness. What a feeble excuse came from his lips. Disobedience is again at work. How many feeble excuses we find when confronted with the will of God for us! We try to find ways to get around God’s will and commands for us. [[“O that our hearts longed for the heavenly more, so that instead of having, like poor Lot, to be dragged by main force out of the world, casting a lingering look behind, we might with the clear truth, bound forward like a racer towards the goal.”]] – C H Macintosh

The mind of Lot was working to find a compromise for himself so he would have to give up the very least he could get away with. Sin is so binding and it shackles a man so firmly that only the power of God can break it. Lot was not willing that God would break his shackles. He loved them too much. Don’t make excuses to God.