Learning A Lot From Lot

Lot’s name is mentioned only 4 times in the New Testament. Three times in Luke 17 and once in 2 Peter 2:7. In both places the scriptures are talking about God’s judgment.

Here are the places and contexts: Luke 17: 26 And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: 27 they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. 28 It was the same as happened in the days of LOT: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building; 29 but on the day that LOT went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. 30 It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed. 31 On that day, the one who is on the housetop and whose goods are in the house must not go down to take them out; and likewise the one who is in the field must not turn back. 32 Remember LOT'S wife. 33 Whoever seeks to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. 34 I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other will be left. 35 There will be two women grinding at the same place; one will be taken and the other will be left. 36 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other will be left.”

That is the first three times, now here is the final mention of Lot.

2 Peter 2: 4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; 5 and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter; 7 and if He rescued righteous LOT, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men 8 (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds), 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority.

Similar, are they not? In both places Noah and Lot are mentioned together as examples of God's wrath and judgment against sin. Luke and Peter want us to take seriously how dangerous sin is and how God rescues those who are His when He punishes those who are not. Today we will see that unlike Noah, Lot's choices brought him very close to destruction. It appears that His relationship with Abraham was critical to his relationship with God and ultimately his rescue from complete demise.

As we begin, we all know about Abraham, but who is Lot?

If the New Testament was all you had to go on, you wouldn’t have a clue as to "who is Lot?" Lot is a sort of fifth wheel with Abram in his sojourn as Abraham followed God's call, that is until we come to Genesis 13. There Lot leaves Abram and then things literally go down hill for Lot.

Let me read to you all the verses in Genesis that have the name of Lot in them:

1. Genesis 11:27 Now these are the records of the generations of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran; and Haran became the father of Lot.

2. Genesis 11:31 Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans in order to enter the land of Canaan; and they went as far as Haran, and settled there.

3. Genesis 12:4 So Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

4. Genesis 12:5 Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew, and all their possessions which they had accumulated, and the persons which they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan; thus they came to the land of Canaan.