How does God choose who he shows mercy to? Watching the events in Haiti over the last couple of weeks, you hear of many survivors who have had limbs amputated, others who died quickly and painlessly, still others who slowly and painfully passed away, and then a fellow was pulled out two weeks after the earthquake somehow having enough water to keep him alive until the very day he was rescued.
It makes me wonder if God is really micromanaging everything. Does he intervene or is it just the luck of the draw in a fallen world? If he intervenes what are his criteria? He obviously doesn’t just show mercy on this earth to believers.
I had a great uncle that lived to over 100 who smoked and drank everyday of his life, while recently I hear of a seemingly healthy 14 year old having a fatal heart attack. Innocent Josh Fehr falls on the ice and ends up like George Friesen, God forbid.
Can we make sense of this? Do we need to? No. God said “My thoughts are not your thoughts, and my thoughts and ways are higher than your ways and thoughts.” So no, we will never understand his ways on this earth. All we can know for sure is that he is there whether he is engineering every situation or not.
Is that good enough for us? Well, it has to be, and it’s really all that God wants from us, to acknowledge Him for who he is, believe he exists, and live like we do believe. This was the problem throughout the Old Testament including our text today.
God shows in Sodom that there is judgment and consequence for living as if he doesn’t exist, for rejecting Him. If you really believe he exists, you have to live as if he does, or you are showing that you don’t really believe he does.
And the point here is that the consequences in 2010 are exactly what they were back then, destruction. Yes it may look different now until the final judgment, but then again everything will be destroyed by fire, and even now if we die without acknowledging Jesus as Lord we face destruction in the Holy fire of hell.
But what is hidden in all of this fire and brimstone is the mercy of God to all who simply say yes God, even if they hesitate.
So let’s begin today by looking at:
I. The Declaration of the Angels (vv 12-14)
In chapters 12 and 13 the Angels tell Lot what the Lord had already told Abraham, that if there were no righteous people in Sodom it would be destroyed. And now we see:
A. The Gravity of the Situation (vv 12-13)
The Angels clearly didn’t find 10 righteous people and they give Lot the opportunity to round up his family, and let him know that they are now definitely there to destroy the city because the outcry against its people has become great before the Lord.
But where is this outcry coming from? It certainly isn’t coming from the people of Sodom, they’re perfectly content with their ways. Remember back in Genesis 4 after Abel killed his brother Cain and it says his blood cried out from the ground? Obviously blood can’t cry but it’s a metaphor that God can hear and see everything.
He created everything, so it could be here in Sodom, that the blood, or souls of those who have been abused are calling out, or the earth, the trees, the water that God created, could be calling out, or it might just be a symbolic way of saying that I, God have heard about and seen what is happening through my angels.
Bottom line is that God is so disturbed by this that he sees the need to completely destroy Sodom because there’s no hope for them. They have lost their opportunity to repent. Something we haven’t seen since the flood. Lot believes the Angels and we see:
B. The Seriousness of Lot (v. 14a)
as he immediately follows the advice of the Angels and goes to warn his sons-in-law that they must prepare to leave. But how do they respond to Lot? They think he’s joking, “yeah right Lot, we’ll get going right away.”
Ultimately:
C. The Levity of the Sons-In-Law (v. 14b)
brings their demise and causes the daughters who were betrothed to them, to later take desperate measures.
However it also seems to have caused Lot to doubt a little as well, because even though he seems very serious before going to the sons-in-law he starts to hesitate from there on.
Now as we move on to verse 15 we have:
II. The Deliverance of Lot’s Family (vv 15-22)
Take a look at:
A. The Exhortation of the Angels in (v.15)
The angels urged or hastened Lot (basically told him to hurry), get up, take your wife and daughters and get out of here now! But then there’s:
B. This Hesitation of Lot (v. 16a)
He lingered. Here he was being commanded to leave his whole life just like that, if he wanted to be saved. He urgently goes and tells others in his family, but of course he hesitates now, he has it good here, lots of stuff, a solid position in the community. And unlike Abraham who went when God said go, Lot lingers. He doesn’t want to give up what he has.
It reminds us of 1 John 2:15, “Do not love the world or the things in the world, it’s all passing away”. We know that Lot has been a lover of the world ever since they came out of Egypt. This lingering could very well be Lot taking a moment to consider whether he wants to take the chance of perishing by staying put and keeping all that he has.
But even though Lot is having trouble deciding, and believing the angels, we witness:
C. The Compassion of the Lord (v. 16b)
as his angels grabbed Lot and his wife by the hand and set them outside the city. The Lord is compassionate and merciful to those under his promise even when we don’t follow His instructions, and clearly at times he does physically intervene. I think this is a message that our salvation is guaranteed once we are God’s children, even if we are not perfect Christians. Nothing can grasp us from his hand once he has us.
So Lot and his family had to be dragged out of the city and then under:
D. The Compulsion of the Angels (v. 17)
they are told to escape to the hills because the whole valley is going to be swept away, and they are not to stop anywhere or look back. In other words don’t long for what you had, don’t look back, but proceed single-mindedly and wholeheartedly to the Lord. Trust Him completely.
But still Lot hesitates, takes advantage of this mercy, and tries to deal. Here’s the:
E. The Negotiation of Lot (vv 18-20)
He starts whining with no gratitude, because he still wants the city life. “Oh no we can’t do as you say, that’s too far what if the disaster overtakes me and I die?” Well they just said he would be OK if he went to the hills.
“Can I go to this city nearby instead? It’s just a little one.” And just like Abraham bargained with the Lord previously, Lot gets his way and we see:
F. The Concession of the Angels (vv 21-22)
Unbelievable, inexhaustible mercy, because God made a promise. Do you see, in the midst of destroying an entire culture, God is showing ridiculous grace to this whining sinner? Probably a good lesson for us that if we are to be Christlike, we need to show incredible patience with people who frustrate us.
However, finally God’s righteous judgment takes place and we witness:
III. The Destruction of the Cities (vv 23-29)
But I’d like you to first notice:
A. The Delay of God’s Judgment (v. 23)
They rustled Lot out of the city early the previous morning, and when the sun rose again the next day Lot came to Zoar. They had not yet arrived but were approaching the city, so the Lord gave them a whole day to get away from Sodom before:
B. The Display of Divine Judgment (vv 24-25)
is described. First:
1. It Was Catastrophic (v. 24)
The Lord rained sulfur and fire out of heaven. I think we can imagine something like burning meteorites falling to the earth like rain, with the horrible smell of sulphur. It would have been an awesome and terrifying sight, and:
2. It Was Comprehensive (v. 25)
Nothing was left. Every person, plant and animal was utterly burned up. All the cities of the valley like Gomorrah were destroyed, every one except Zoar where Lot had fled to. This echoes the complete destruction of the flood, only this is contained to a small area because God promised to never destroy the whole earth again.
But it vividly demonstrates God’s righteous wrath against sin, his mercy in rescuing his people from destruction, and the certainty of the final judgment to come. What is described in Revelation is not unheard of in biblical history. Unfortunately we also see:
C. The Disobedience of Lot’s Wife (v. 26)
Now they were almost there and she goes and looks back, gotta be harmless now right? Nope, instantly she becomes a pillar of salt, possibly sulfur. What a graphic demonstration of how we are expected to be obedient to a tee when God gives a blatant command.
This looking back represents, longing for something in the world rather than for God, and God is a jealous God who gives us the free will to choose the world with all its consequences. She was probably a member of the country club, the sewing club and every other club. She didn’t want to leave, her heart was there.
Vernon McGee relates this to how modern Christians say they want to se the Lord come, but they don’t live like they mean it. We find it just as hard sometimes to pull ourselves away from the TV and other things we love to come to church, or do other spiritual activities.
But more importantly perhaps is that she looked back because she didn’t believe God. Apparently Lot did because he didn’t look back.
Some have asked, well she went to heaven right? Because she was saved, even though she turned into salt, her soul went to heaven didn’t it? Nobody knows, I would say probably not, because we have to wonder if she ever believed God, or was just dragged around by the lead of her husband. The fact that we never even hear her name is a big clue that she was never one of God’s.
This probably represents what will happen in the final judgment where one spouse believes and the other doesn’t. You don’t get to tag along to heaven on anyone’s coat tails. It is your faith that saves you.
Now Abraham is still living in the wilderness and let’s look at:
D. The Devastation He Witnessed (vv 27-28)
All he could see was the smoke billowing up like a furnace from the valley, perhaps he could smell the stench of burning flesh and sulfur depending on the direction of the wind, but no doubt his heart would have been troubled, now knowing that there were not ten righteous people in Sodom, and not knowing whether his nephew was saved.
If we look at Ezekiel 16 we get an idea of the other sins of Sodom as he compares the spiritually adulterous Jerusalem to Sodom. He says in verses 47 to 50, “you walked in their ways according to their abominations, your sister Sodom and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have. Sodom had pride, excess of food, prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty and did an abomination before me, so when I saw it, I removed them.”
They were completely removed from his presence and from the earth forever.
Finally we again get:
E. The Demonstration of God’s Faithfulness (v. 29)
God remembered Abraham, answered his prayers, and saved Lot. Whenever it says God remembered, it’s not that he forgot, but that he considered and had mercy on someone. God faithfully saves Lot according to Abraham’s intercession. He didn’t find ten righteous people so he didn’t save the whole city, but he did save the righteous that were there.
You know, when we were in Florida we went on a little safari and saw elephants, and I remembered that an elephant’s trunk can uproot a huge tree, pick up a peanut, and hold an egg without breaking it.
And I don’t know why, but the thought of God came to my mind. Incredible strength and ability to destroy, but also tender mercy and the desire to protect His own.
There is no contradiction in God. He is a jealous God who righteously unleashes His wrath against evil for the protection of good. He is also a patient, tender and merciful Father. Isn’t that what we all wanted in our earthly fathers, strength and protection with tenderness and love?
We must remember that everything God does or allows to happen that looks like tragedy, comes from his love, and we can trust that no matter what happens, he is there, and that our earthly life is far less important than the greater plan that we barely understand.
Should we fear God? Absolutely. Just as we should fear the police if we are breaking the law. Should we trust God? Absolutely. He is there for our good, just as the police are. Do we hate the police because they arrest law breakers, shoot bad guys, and give us speeding tickets? Of course not. We’re usually angry with them because we’re angry with ourselves for being stupid, or getting caught. They’re just doing their job and trying to maintain order in a chaotic world.
This kind of fear is different than worry. Worry is anticipating something where the outcome is unknown to you. But fear of God is something that can completely eliminate worry. Follow him, repent when you don’t and the outcome is certain no matter what happens in this life.
This fear is about something you can do something about, the outcome is in our hands through the choices we make. And if we choose God’s way, we never have to worry again. So as I see it, the fear of God is simply having a very active conscience, paying attention to what we do, and making sure it aligns with what would please God.
God will wipe out evil forever. He will do it once and for all at the end, but he still does it in little spurts today. And perhaps some of the righteous get swept up in it. Tragedy? Maybe to us, but glory for those who go to be with Him.
So we shouldn’t fear God for the fact that he can wipe us out of this life. We should fear that we are choosing the side of permanent destruction over eternity with Him. We should fear making the wrong choices. Destruction is imminent, it’s coming, the question is, where will you stand when it happens? That’s what we should fear. And it’s possible to know for sure where you will be, so if you’re not sure, you got some work to do, and I suggest you do it with some urgency.
Action Plan:
Read Mark 13. Do you believe what Jesus says here? Are you willing to warn your loved ones and neighbors about this as Lot did? They may not listen, but we have received the word of the Lord and it needs to be shared.
