Lot – The struggle of righteousness
Genesis 18:16-33
This is a classic passage because it depicts something that we somehow know we should not do, bargaining with God. Abraham, out of concern for his nephew Lot, in an episode that sounds like an auction, begs God to be merciful.
Five times, Abraham presents a new limit to God, generally going down in ten person increments, asking God to spare the city for the sake of a few.
We actually know more about Lot than we do about Isaac, and it is mostly questionable at best and criminally reprehensible at worst. Here are the stories about Lot
• When offered his choice of land by Abraham, he chose the best pasture land
• He was kidnaped by warring kings and rescued by Abraham
• He lived in Sodom where the people were notoriously evil, without having, it seemed, any righteous effect on it at all
• Abraham bargained for his rescue when God chose to destroy the city
• When angels were in his house, in danger of being attacked by the violent homosexual citizens, He offered his daughters instead, though they were rejected
• When he ran from the city, his own wife looked back, against the instructions of the angels. She was instantly killed
• Out of fear he went to live in a cave with his two daughters with whom he became drunk, had incestuous relations, and fathered sons
This is not a good resume’. And yet the Bible gives us two opinions that we should consider before passing final judgement on Lot.
One is the passage we read today, in which Abraham bargains for Lot’s safety as a righteous man. And yet, what we read in Genesis does not describe him as a righteous man at all. So what gives?
The argument Abraham uses is one that we tend to see as instinctively fair:
Far be it from you to do such a thing--to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike.
Just a few days ago I heard a man speak of his friend who was experiencing all kinds of calamity and it seemed so out of place, because he was not a bad man. In our estimation, a loving, just, and merciful God does not treat wicked people and righteous people the same. He punishes the wicked and rewards the good.
In Abraham’s thinking, clearly there must be 10 people worth saving in the city. In his thinking, Lot was a righteous man worth saving. If, as is the case many times, near one righteous person you find others, there might be:
• Lot
• His wife
• His 2 daughters
• And his daughters’ fiances
So he was starting with a potential 8 people. If Lot, as a righteous man could influence his own family and just two others, the city would be saved.
But it was not the city Abraham was concerned about. He was concerned about his nephew getting trapped in a wicked place while it was going up in smoke. And he thought is nephew did not deserve that end.
The other opinion is given to us by the Apostle Peter. From his perspective, there was some justification for Abraham’s opinion.
... 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 2:7-9 TNIV)
According to Peter, Lot was actually a righteous man, whose spirit was distressed and tormented by the wickedness he saw around him. When we look at this picture, we see a different side of Lot than we see in Genesis. We see someone who lived in a horrible place, for whatever reason, constantly resisting and crying out to God about the horrible things he saw. Just like Abraham, Peter saw a righteous man being rescued from the fate of the wicked.
• Abraham bargained for the rescue of a righteous man
• Peter called Lot a righteous man
So, what can we conclude? Genesis shows us a guy who makes bad, even horrible decisions. Two highly respected sources argue that there is more than meets the eye.
I would say that in light of Abraham’s and Peter’s words, we should carefully interpret Lot:
He took the fine pasture land when Abraham offered it. That might make him selfish. But the Bible does not say it was the best land. It does say that Abraham offered freely for Lot to take what he wanted. In his thinking, the whole land was his to choose what he wanted.
So, it might just make him a discerning shepherd.
He was captured by the warring kings and was rescued by Abraham.
That does not make him bad, it just puts him in the wrong place at the wrong time. Who among us has not needed help at some point?
He lived in Sodom.
This looks on the surface like a bad choice since it was such a wicked place. However, when in the history of God’s people have we been told to avoid wicked communities? We are sent to be salt and light in communities that are dark. I don’t know why Lot chose to live where he did, but I’m not sure why Christian people live in Amsterdam or Vegas. As many can attest, it is often not a choice so much as it is the culmination of many factors that result in a person just being where he is.
We cannot fault Lot for the attitudes of his family.
People make their own choices. His future sons-in-law thought he was joking at a most serious time. Who among us would take a man seriously who came to us and said that God was going to rain down fire on our city? It is a standard joke, the crazy looking man standing on the street corner with a sign that says "The End Is Near."
Perhaps we cannot find so much fault in Lot for not being able to influence Sodom.
It was bad. It is one of the few places in history God singled out for specific judgement. A place does not even have to be inherently bad to resist influence. In the 1800s, it took Andoniram Judson 7 years to win his first convert in Burma.
We are left with two episodes that I don’t see any way around.
• How could he offer his daughters to be violated and perhaps worse by a dangerous crowd?
• How could he allow himself to be put in a position to himself treat his own daughters so disgracefully?
Admittedly, in the second episode, the idea was not his, it was his oldest daughter’s, and she made sure he was drunk enough to comply. But that is hardly an excuse for his behavior. These are clearly horrible sins that are not open for reinterpretation.
Here is what I think: Lot was more weak than evil. He gave in to fear and dissipation and did things he would not otherwise have done.
No excuses, Lot, just an attempt at understanding.
The beauty of it is this:
After all the weak things Lot did, after all the wickedness he fell into.
He could still be considered righteous. ....... How?
From a Christian perspective, the answer is really quite simple.
Nobody is considered righteous based on their own goodness. Ever. The fact is, when we look down on Lot, we are being hypocrites of the worse kind. We have taken a few sins and placed them in contrast to other sins, and that is not where they belong.
Sin is most properly placed in contrast to God’s righteousness. Against that pure and pristine background, even what we think of as little white lies stand out.
All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. (Isaiah 64:6 TNIV)
I like the way David describes himself. It sounds a lot like the only way I can understand Lot:
LORD, hear my prayer,
listen to my cry for mercy;
in your faithfulness and righteousness
come to my relief.
Do not bring your servant into judgment,
for no one living is righteous before you.
The enemy pursues me,
he crushes me to the ground;
he makes me dwell in the darkness
like those long dead.
So my spirit grows faint within me;
my heart within me is dismayed. (Psalms 143:1-4 TNIV)
How hard it is for us to swallow the truth that David sees so clearly. "No one living is righteous before" God. Even a comparatively good man like David sees himself crushed under evil attacks and finds himself in need of mercy.
And that is the truth. Nobody gets a free pass. Ever since Adam and Eve ate from the conscience tree in disobedience to God, everyone is subject to sin. We all want to think we are better than others, so we weigh our sins against people that, in our opinion are worse, but Isaiah tells us the truth, that even our righteousness is tainted.
Forgiveness is the only righteousness
This is difficult for us, because we think of sin in isolation, but sin is not an isolated thing. It is a relational thing. Sin is by definition, a thing against God. Thus, the only cure for sin is reconciliation wtih God. In other words, the relational offense, can only be cured relationally. We know it is true, when we have hurt a person, the only way to make the situation right is to make it right with that person. All reparation is meaningless, without reconciliation.
Paul is helpful here:
... God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
(2 Corinthians 5:19-21 TNIV)
Like any sin sacrifice mentioned in the Bible, Jesus took upon himself the penalty for sin ... As God in the flesh, He could take all of it ... all the sin of the world ... including mine and yours. God’s justice is satisfied. Since He took the penalty, we have an opening to go to God for reconciliation.
A life is a big thing to ruin. And it takes more effort to ruin a big thing than we might imagine.
Ruin is to damage something beyond repair or usefulness. It means to completely destroy something so that it is useless.
The only hope for Lot was to be reconciled to God at every turn, to take even his heinous sins and humble himself before God for forgiveness.
• An incestuous man
• A weak man
• A drunk
• A man of no redeeming influence
• Sometimes a heartless man
• Perhaps a selfish man
His reconciliation to God is implied. By many lights, two of the most influential opinions that could speak, aside from God Himself, have called him righteous. It is the only answer I can find to this paradox.
The only hope for us is the same thing, to be reconciled to God at every turn, to take even what we see as small sins and humble ourselves before God. God has made it easier for us in Christ, showing us how He has paid the price for our sins.
Like Paul, I am His ambassador, imploring you: Through Jesus, be reconciled to God.
In God’s hands, nothing is useless. Even the most ruined thing, placed in the hands of the Powerful One who created the whole Universe, can be renewed.
