Last week we spoke from Genesis 18. We are reminded about how important our involvement is in the plan of God and how God works in and through our lives to accomplish His will. It’s amazing how Abraham spoke face-to-face with God and how he interceded for his nephew Lot and his family.
Today we will be looking at Genesis chapter 19. In review, we know that Abraham and Lot traveled together to Canaan but then they went their separate ways when their herds and flocks became too big for the area. Lot chose to move east to the city of Sodom because the land was well-watered, green, like the garden of Eden, and good for grazing. From a business perspective, Lot made a very wise choice. However, from a spiritual perspective, it was a poor decision as we will see how corrupt and lawless Sodom had become and how it affected him and his family.
Lot married a Canaanite woman, raised a family, and became a ruling elder in Sodom. In other words, he chose to blend in with his surroundings instead of standing out and over these 20 years, his relationship with God waned. He covered it up with his wealth and success.
But Abraham loved his nephew and as we heard last week, stood face-to-face with God interceding for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah as well as for the surrounding cities. There were actually six cities in this valley and it’s hard to imagine that there weren’t even 10 righteous people to be found. Maybe Abraham was wondering “How is God going to rescue Lot from the impending judgment?” If you have your Bible, please turn with me to Genesis 19. And I have asked Daniel Hayes to read the passage for us:
Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he stood up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. 2 And he said, “Now behold, my lords, please turn aside into your servant’s house, and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise early and go on your way.” They said, “No, but we shall spend the night in the public square.” 3 Yet he strongly urged them, so they turned aside to him and entered his house; and he prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. 4 Before they lay down, the men of the city—the men of Sodom—surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter; 5 and they called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have relations with them.” 6 But Lot went out to them at the doorway, and shut the door behind him, 7 and said, “Please, my brothers, do not act wickedly. 8 Now look, I have two daughters who have not had relations with any man; please let me bring them out to you, and do to them whatever you like; only do not do anything to these men, because they have come under the shelter of my roof.” 9 But they said, “Get out of the way!” They also said, “This one came in as a foreigner, and already he is acting like a judge; now we will treat you worse than them!” So they pressed hard against Lot and moved forward to break the door. 10 But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. 11 Then they struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, from the small to the great, so that they became weary of trying to find the doorway.
12 Then the two men said to Lot, “Whom else do you have here? A son-in-law and your sons and daughters, and whomever you have in the city, bring them out of the place; 13 for we are about to destroy this place, because their outcry has become so great before the LORD that the LORD has sent us to destroy it.” 14 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, and said, “Up, get out of this place, for the LORD is destroying the city.” But he appeared to his sons-in-law to be joking.
15 When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.” 16 But he hesitated. So the men grasped his hand and the hand of his wife and the hands of his two daughters, because the compassion of the LORD was upon him; and they brought him out and put him outside the city. 17 When they had brought them outside, one said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you, and do not stay anywhere in the surrounding area; escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away.” 18 But Lot said to them, “Oh no, my lords! 19 Now behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your compassion, which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountains, for the disaster will overtake me and I will die; 20 now behold, this town is near enough to flee to, and it is small. Please, let me escape there (is it not small?) so that my life may be saved.” 21 And he said to him, “Behold, I grant you this request also, not to overthrow the town of which you have spoken. 22 Hurry, escape there, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” Therefore the town was named Zoar.
23 The sun had risen over the earth when Lot came to Zoar. 24 Then the LORD rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from the LORD out of heaven, 25 and He overthrew those cities, and all the surrounding area, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. 26 But Lot’s wife, from behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
27 Now Abraham got up early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before the LORD; 28 and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the surrounding area; and behold, he saw the smoke of the land ascended like the smoke of a furnace.
29 So it came about, when God destroyed the cities of the surrounding area, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the destruction, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived.
Why did God bring judgment on these cities? Because of the outcry from all the victims who suffered as a result of their extreme wickedness. The book of Ezekiel gives us some more insight as to what this “wickedness” comprised. Ezekiel wrote
Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me (Ezek 16:49-50).
The sins of Sodom included pride, apathy, complacency, idleness, abetting criminals, showing no pity on the needy and openly doing detestable things without any remorse. “Detestable” refers to something that is morally disgusting. Some people believe that God was judging Sodom simply for the sin of inhospitality. But in reality, Sodom and Gomorrah had rejected God and for decades had given themselves over to every form of unbridled sexual immorality, perversion and evil. God heard the cries of those who were being abused and oppressed and was about to bring judgment.
The sermon prep team met to study this text and there were certain things that really stood out to us:
1. There weren’t even 10 people in 6 six cities who did what was right
2. No one took the warning of impending judgment seriously
3. God heard the cry of those who were being oppressed
4. God, in His mercy, sent His angels to rescue Lot and his family
Like Abraham, when Lot saw the two men coming to the gate of the city, he offered them hospitality - welcoming them into his home for food and a good night's rest. Even though these men initially refused Lot’s offer and wanted to sleep in the square, Lot insisted, even pressured them to stay at his house. Maybe Lot was fully aware of the evil that would take place during the night and was hoping that his guests could slip in and out of the city unnoticed.
We see in v. 5 that when it was time to turn in for the evening, the men of Sodom, young and old and from every quarter of the city, surrounded Lot’s house and demanded that he bring these men out to them so they could abuse them. Their blatant shamelessness, lack of restraint and sexual violence was what characterized the men of Sodom.
But Lot wouldn’t give his guests over to them and pleaded with them not to engage in these destructive homosexual act. Lot calls the Sodomites “brothers,” treating them as equals in an attempt to appease them. And yet, in the next breath, Lot was willing to sacrifice his own daughters to this lustful hoard. As one scholar observed: "To diffuse an explosive situation Lot degrades himself by proposing something unconscionable.
Lot, as a ruling elder in the city, may have thought that his words carried some authority but this was obviously not the case. The people of Sodom saw him as an outsider and had never accepted him. Instead they mocked and rejected his so-called moral leadership. Lot had jeopardized his daughters, enraged his townsmen, and finally required rescue by those he was trying to protect.
Here, again, we see the heart of God. He didn’t write Lot off as a lost cause but tried to rescue as many people as possible before it was too late. After the angels pulled Lot into the house, shut the door, and struck the men with blindness, they asked with urgency, “Do you have anyone else here in your house, in your family or anyone else in the city that you could save because God is going to destroy this place.”
We saw the same type of urgency regarding the impending judgment back in Genesis 6. Noah was a preacher of righteousness, knew God was going to judge the whole earth with a flood, and was warning people about it (1 Pet 2:5). It probably took Noah about 100 years to build the ark and while he was building it God, in his mercy, waited with the door of the ark open for anyone to enter (Heb 11:7). But just like Lot’s sons-in-law didn’t take him seriously, neither did the people take Noah seriously and mocked him.
Jesus said in the gospel of Luke:
And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so will it also be in the days of the Son of Man: people were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, and they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. 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, and they were building; but on the day that Lot left Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all (Luke 17:26-29).
It was just like the sudden destruction of Pompei. God had given the people of these cities time to repent. Just 15 years earlier He used Abraham to deliver Sodom and Gomorrah and the four other cities of the plains from the kings of the north (Gen 14). The king of Sodom knew Abraham, and after Abraham rescued him, he brought all his people and possessions back to the king. The people of Sodom knew about Abraham’s testimony, heard the conversation between him and Melchizedek and their belief in the most high God. They were given many opportunities to know the God of Abraham.
On one hand we see the perfect justice of God, dealing with the evil and injustice in Sodom but on the other hand we see the perfect mercy and compassion of God, who was willing to save anyone in Sodom who would come to Him. God was willing to save the most depraved civilizations of the day if they would have repented.
Are we interceding for those around us? For the people in this city? Are we warning people of the coming judgment, whether or not they are willing to listen? Do we write them off? When we do outreach on Saturdays, people are listening, they are open to hearing the good news of God’s redeeming grace, they are considering their eternal destiny. I believe God has given us a door of opportunity to share the gospel openly and freely for this moment in time. There will be a time, however, when that door is shut and it will be too late for some.
So we see in v. 15 that morning came, and the angels warned Lot and his family to run to the hills to escape the destruction that was about to fall on the city. But how did Lot and his family respond? They hesitated or “lingered.” The Hebrew word for lingered means they were in a state of shock, traumatized, immobilized by fear and uncertainty. Lot was about to lose everything he owned and lived for, his treasure was there in Sodom. He believed what the angels were saying… but had no urgency, capacity or ability to obey God because his heart was still rooted in Sodom.
Time had run out for him, his family, and the people in these cities so the angels had to literally take Lot, his wife and his daughters by the hand and pull them out of the city. Once they were out of the city, they told them, “Run to the mountains and don’t look back or you will be consumed and swept away.” Despite all that had happened in Lot’s life, how deeply rooted he was in the world, God had compassion on him.
Yet, instead of simply being grateful for God’s mercy and trusting his rescuers, he started to argue with the angels about where he should escape to. He begged them to let him go to Zoar, perhaps just to keep a bit of his old way of life intact. (Zoar means “small ”) which means its sins won’t be too bad....Note that God didn’t prevent him.
Here again we get a glimpse of God’s patience and mercy towards Lot. The angel guaranteed that he wouldn’t destroy Zoar as originally planned and would wait to punish Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities until Lot and his family safely arrived there. As soon as Lot and his daughters made it to Zoar - fire and brimstone rained down upon the cities and destroyed everyone and everything in an instant. But Lot’s wife looked back and was caught up in the destruction. The phrase for looked back can be translated: “intensely gazed”, “longed for”, “lagged behind”, or even “went back.” God’s desire was to save her, but she loved her old life better and wouldn’t let it go.
When Jesus talks about His second coming He says:
Remember [what happened to] Lot’s wife (imperative tense) [when she looked back]! Whoever seeks to save his life will [eventually] lose it [through death], and whoever loses his life [in this world] will keep it [from the consequences of sin and separation from God] (Luke 17:32-33).
So fire and brimstone rained down on Sodom and Gomorrah - wiping out five cities but not Zoar (v. 24). There are several archaeological sites in the region today that have layers of ash which signify severe destruction. One area in particular was recently unearthed near the lush green valley above the Dead Sea. In this area, they found a layer of soil that had been super heated into a form of glass. It was the same effect that occurred in Nevada when the atomic bomb was being tested and the intense heat from the bomb melted the top layer of soil which became like glass.
In the same area scientists discovered that over 3,600 years ago (during the middle Bronze Age) a meteor entered into the atmosphere and exploded above this area, creating flash heat of over 1100 degree Celsius, devastating 400 square miles. Every living thing died and many pottery shards and some bones from the destruction layer were encrusted with large salt crystals.” (Bunch et al., p. 48).
Recent archaeological discoveries in the area believed to be Sodom and Gomorrah, found a large and very prosperous fortified city, with a huge temple, with possibly about 8,000 inhabitants. The destruction in this area was so severe that no one lived on the land for the next 700 years.
After the judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah, (vv. 27-29), early the next the morning Abraham leaves his tent and goes to the very place he had the conversation with the Lord. He wanted to remember what he discussed with the Lord. Abraham looks toward the valley and sees the smoke going up like a furnace and could only conclude that everyone had been wiped out. By sight, God didn’t answer Abraham’s prayer for Lot but Abraham didn’t realize that his prayers were answered and Lot had been rescued.
Here we see the dual outcomes of Sodom and Gomorrah - we see God’s judgment on sin and His mercy on Lot because he had an advocate. We see how Lot’s wife and Abraham both looked at the destruction of the cities but with very different outcomes. Like how believers and unbelievers look at death. As believers we look on the loss of life differently than unbelievers. We know that there is a heaven and hell and that people will spend eternity in one or the other. When Abraham saw the destruction and all the smoke billowing up from the plains he was quiet. It was very sobering.
But God remembered Abraham and rescued Lot before the incredible destruction took place. The only reason Lot was rescued from death and destruction was because of his connection to Abraham, with whom God made a covenant. In the same way, the only way we can be saved, rescued from sin and its destruction is through our connection with Jesus through whom God made a new covenant with us. Lot was in an impossible situation by sight but...
2 Peter 2:9 the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their trials, even while keeping the wicked under punishment until the day of final judgment.
I do not know what you are facing or why you are facing it, maybe it looks like there is no possible way you will make it through, but God made a promise to you that He is able and willing to deliver in the midst of trying times, even when it seems you are paralyzed by you situation God knows how to bring you through.
