We begin by looking into the Psalms:
Psalm 1
1 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
4 Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. 6 For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
Lot did not follow the precepts of this Psalm - first he pitched his tent towards Sodom. Then he moved into Sodom - then he sat in the gates of Sodom. The closer Lot moved to the center of Sodom, the more Sodom moved to the center of Lot.
And even though Lot was distressed by the sin around him - it made his life totally fruitless. Even so - he was a member of the covenant family and so God rescued him - it is a testament both to the grace of God - how He rescues us from His wrath - and to the results of steeping yourself in the world as a believer.
Verse 1 - 2
Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom. He’s become an important part of the city (at least he thinks so). Lot does not react in the same way as Abraham. He said "sirs" - different than Abraham who said "LORD". He knew they were new in town. He offered them hospitality - it was expected.
Verse 3
He urged them strongly - "you don’t want to stay in the square." Lot knew what would happen - why didn’t any of that sink in to Lot that maybe he was living in the wrong town? Perhaps the angels wanted him to be thinking about that. There wasn’t any danger to the angels, of course.
Verse 4 - 5
Word must have spread that there was new meat in town. That’s the way lust and giving in to sensuality and immorality is - it’s never enough.
Ephesians 4:17-19 17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.
It was homosexual rape - no doubt about it. Some explain it away - "they just wanted to see if they have their travel papers." Another: God judged them for a lack of hospitality. Read it and understand what it says. This culture was so debauched - that two men who came into the area were in danger of being raped homosexually.
Look too what it says; "both young and old." This society had become so rank that even the young people were infected. We must be careful what is taught to our young people as well.
Verse 6
At least Lot was no coward.
Verse 7 - 8
He offers his two virgin daughters to these rapists. Can you imagine Abraham saying this? Something has happened to Lot’s character. Not to really give Lot any credit - but in that society, women were little better than property - so culturally he could have gotten away with it - but spiritually and morally it is cruel and unbelievable.
There is always a danger when we use the norms of the culture around us to gauge our behavior. Lot figured that male guests were more important than his female daughters - that was just the way it was done in that culture - if we live in a cesspool then all we have to work with is poop!
That’s why we look to God’s Word - as the ultimate standard for behavior. Just because society says things like abortion are legal does not make murdering an innocent unborn child right.
Verse 9
They never really saw Lot as part of their culture. Sometimes the world knows that we don’t belong in places we know we shouldn’t be.
Verse 10 - 11
It was a selected kind of blindness - simply can’t find the door.
Verse 12 - 15
I’ll bet the angels already knew what was going to happen. But in a sense, this is like the plea to share the gospel - "if you know anyone, tell them there is a way of escape."
Perhaps it was a way to show Lot that you can’t redeem the ungodly simply by associating with them - it’s the other way around - the unrighteous make the righteous dirty.
The fiancés treated it as a joke - as will many the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Verse 16 - 17
Lot hesitated - he was not aware of the judgment of God. He didn’t really take it seriously. It shows how far he’d really fallen. God’s compassion had the angels grab and drag Lot out.
Verse 18 - 22
I guess Lot figured he’d be safer in a town - I’m not sure why.
The Zoarites never knew how God saved them thanks to Lot.
Verse 23 - 25
What destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah? Archeologists have found what are believed to be the ruins: Bab edh-Dhra, thought to be Sodom, and Numeira, thought to be Gomorrah. Both places were destroyed at the same time by an enormous conflagration.
There is ample evidence of subterranean deposits of a petroleum-based substance called bitumen, similar to asphalt, in the region south of the Dead Sea. Such material normally contains a high percentage of sulfur. It has been postulated by geologist Frederick Clapp that pressure from an earthquake could have caused the bitumen deposits to be forced out of the earth through a fault line. As it gushed out of the earth it could have been ignited by a spark or surface fire. It would then fall to earth as a burning, fiery mass.
It was only after Clapp formulated this theory that Sodom and Gomorrah were found. It turns out that the sites are located exactly on a fault line along the eastern side of a plain south of the Dead Sea, so Clapp’s theory is entirely plausible. There is some evidence for this scenario from the Bible itself. Abraham viewed the destruction from a vantage point west of the Dead Sea. The Bible records what Abraham saw: "He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace" (Genesis 19:28). Dense smoke suggests smoke from a petroleum-based fire. Smoke rising like smoke from a furnace indicates a forced draft, such as would be expected from subterranean deposits being forced out of the ground under pressure. (from www.ChristianAnswers.com)
Two archeologists (Graham Harris and Tony Beardow) think the cities were destroyed by an earthquake that liquefied the soils and swallowed up Sodom and Gomorrah.
Some suggest a Volcanic destruction.
Verse 26
Lot’s wife turned around and the word means she turned with longing ("to look intently at: nabat’) or even perhaps began to go back. She decided she really didn’t want to go this way of redemption - and died because of it. The Hebrew word can also mean "powder" so if she was making her way back to Sodom then the intense heat of the fire or volcanic activity and ash could have done to her what was done to the residents of Pompeii.
Verse 27
Abraham was due west from the Dead Sea in Hebron. It’s maybe 10-15 miles to the Sea. He saw the smoke.
What did Abraham think when he looked out over the plain? Did he worry about Lot? Did he wonder - "so Lot didn’t even have 9 righteous friends?"
Lot was part of the covenant even though he didn’t live like it. God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the city. God remembered the intercession that Abraham had made on Lot’s behalf and answered his prayer.
Verses 30 - 36
Did somehow the girls think that the whole world had been destroyed? What good would it have done to have babies if there was no one for them to marry? Flawed logic through constant exposure to wickedness.
What could they have given him to make him that drunk? Or - how much did Sodom really seep into his character? It’s really a warning for us who fool around with the world and try to also serve the Lord. You cannot have two masters you will hate the one and love the other.
Lot became totally unfruitful for God and very fruitful for the world - rotten fruit.
Verses 36 - 38
Two races came from the union - the Moabites and the Ammonites. They also hated Israel. God forbid the Israelis from wiping them out because they were relatives but in Deuteronomy 23:3 he forbid any Ammonite or Moabite from entering the assembly of God - even to the 10th generation.
Even as Lot lived on the edge of the covenant, so did his descendants.
1. There is real wisdom in understanding judgment.
Judgment is not pleasant - but it is a certainty and is the backbone of every God says. 2 Peter 2:1-10 (see below). Ex 34:5-9 (I AM good and just - but I will not allow the unrighteous to go on)
2. If God doesn’t judge evil then He Himself is evil.
3. Judgment is not a secret to humanity but it still surprises the unsaved. Luke 23
There are real risks to marginal faith.
Ruth was from Moab - came into the lineage of Jesus (descendents from Lot). So God can redeem even our most awful mistakes.
This is a picture of the Rapture:
2 Peter 2:6-9 if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7 and if he rescued Lot , a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men 8(for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)- 9 if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment.
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