We’ve been learning life lessons from Lot and we notice Lot’s salvation before destruction. Unfortunately for Lot, most of the lessons he teaches us are negative ones. Although he is righteous, Lot lacks wisdom and is caught in many compromising situations.
In my last issue on Lot’s life, I described his unwise decision to live in the land where Sodom and Gomorrah were built. That decision has consequences in this issue as we see him and his family continue to not realize the situation and compromise.
Compromise can have several reasons for a Christian but it should never lead us to continually make unwise decisions in our culture and life. We must stand for what is right and not allow our conscience to be eroded by our compromises.
Lot Knew the Culture of Destruction (Genesis 19:1-11)
Anyone could argue that cities are not the most morally upright places to raise a family. Some cities are better than others, but Sodom and Gomorrah have a biblical reputation obvious to most. Still, Lot chooses to settle in the valley where Sodom and Gomorrah are.
Sodom knew corruption on a whole other level. It was famously associated in Bible times, and today, with homosexuality, among other vices. I am not writing this to offend anyone in our society today. I am stating historical and biblical facts about this city.
Some may deny this connection with Sodom, but it is clear from this text in the Bible what the men of the city wanted and stood for. This is a place Lot chose to live, raise a family, and continue to dwell.
We know he was well aware of the public and private sins of the city because when the Angels come to visit him, they suggest they will just sleep in the streets. Lot is vehemently against this idea. I think the Angels said this to him to point out how he could not be innocent of the facts surrounding his home and place of business.
Lot either realized the Angels were new to the city and perhaps unaware of its dangers or he perceived them to be more than mere men. They appeared as men, for the men of Sodom recognize them as such. The Bible is very clear that all the men of the city, both young and old, have these unnatural desires.
Like many sinful practices, these men of the city come to Lot’s house at night, before they went to sleep. When they say, “Where are the men who came into your house tonight? Bring them out to us so that we may know them…” the word in Hebrew is a word that has a range of meaning.
To know someone in Hebrew is an experiential term for sure, but it is specifically used for sexual relations. You cannot deny this fact when you study this word in its various contexts in the Old Testament. The men of Sodom are not interested in conducting an interview with the two angels.
They perceive them as men and want to have sexual relations with them. Look at how the word continues to be used. First, Lot knows exactly what these men want. He calls it a wicked act. It’s not wicked to get to know someone. But righteous Lot knows what they are saying. He knows the culture that he has surrounded himself with.
We do not get a choice as Christians. We live in a sinful and fallen world. Jesus put us here to do His ministry. But Lot had a choice, and he chose to live in the city of Sodom. He knew its cultural and social mores and did not move away. He is righteous but he’s also foolish.
These men desire to do this evil thing to these angels so much that they surrounded his house and became violent when they didn’t get what they wanted. Lot then responds with the same Hebrew word (to know) when he is willing to give up his virgin daughters who have not “known” a man rather than to let them have the Angels.
It is clear that is what this word means in the context of this chapter, to have sexual relations with someone. Many of us today cannot understand why the Bible calls Lot a righteous man When He Is Willing to his daughters to these men for such evil purposes.
What we do not understand is that these men were perverted into rather having homosexual relations with other men than natural heterosexual ones. In some small way, Lot wanted to go against this culture of the city and give them proper relations in place of their perverted ones.
The men absolutely refuse this offer. We can offer natural and righteous alternatives to our sinful culture but that does not mean they will accept.
The men react to Lot’s righteous principles as though he is a judge among them to decide matters of justice and righteousness. Often times when we offer the world something different and better and morally good, they will just see us as “holier than thou” people who are pushing our values on them. At some point, it was more about Lot’s salvation before his destruction than letting him continue to dwell in such a place.
Lot puts himself in danger by stepping out of his house, closing the door behind him, and trying to reason with these men. Sometimes people will not listen to reason. They won’t accept what you have to offer. When you offer pure and righteous ways to carry out passions, they will not hear you out.
Lot is in this dangerous and volatile situation because he chose to live in Sodom. Knowing the culture around him did nothing to change their hearts. Why did he want to live in this city? To put his family members in danger and strangers? That’s a good question.
Let me offer that Lot became calloused about the Wiccan culture around him. He might have figured he was safe since he was righteous. Maybe he figured he could change people’s hearts. When a righteous man sees the wickedness around him and thinks it is okay to stay there when he could leave, that man deceives himself and becomes calloused to that wickedness.
I see us becoming desensitized to the wickedness of our culture. We as Christians must be careful for this to never become the case with us. The next step after becoming calloused toward wickedness around you is to let it become part of your behavior and speech. May it never be for us!
Perhaps you think you will be the one to influence the world with your righteousness, and the world will want it after they see it in your life. This is probably not the case. It is more possible that the world will influence you, desensitize you, and eventually make you “okay” with what you see around you. We will see this is what happened to Lot the longer he was around it.
Warning of Destruction and Compromises (Genesis 19:12-26)
As we are studying Lot’s salvation before destruction, we must take the warnings God gives very seriously. Lot does not. In fact, he will try to compromise instead. The Angels give him the strong warning that God has sent them to destroy the city.
If Lot was truly concerned for his family and himself, he would not have responded to them the way he did. They are concerned more than he is for his family and any other people associated with them.
He goes to men who will become his sons-in-law and warns them of the destruction but they do not believe him. They think he is joking. Why is it that people living in wickedness they will be safe and allowed to pursue it forever? This is not the case when it comes into direct opposition to God’s righteousness.
The young man are not going to come along with him. It’s amazing to see Lot’s reaction to the urging of the Angels. In the morning, they tell him to take himself and his family and get out of town. They have waited long enough to destroy Sodom as God commanded them to do.
There are three words that give Lot’s surprising response to the obvious destruction that is about to befall the city. Genesis 19:16 begins with these words, “But he lingered.” When we become so used to the sinful things happening around us or we let sin in our own lives make us think we are in control, we are in the most precarious and dangerous position.
As I have already asked this question before, I ask again not for rhetorical effect but for a powerful reminder for all of us. What made Lot surely he knows God’s power and what God can do in His judgment.
Why would he not want to get out of that place as soon as possible? What makes us think we will be okay? Do we think our righteousness will shield us? At one point do we suffer the same judgment as the wicked people around us? Take the lifeline!
Because God cared about Abraham, the Angels forcibly remove Lot and his family from the city. At the moment Lot lingered, God could have righteously said, “If that’s the way you want it, Lot, I gave you fair warning. Let your blood be on your own hands.” I am thankful God never treats our lingering with kid gloves over sin that way.
Lot’s salvation before destruction happens because of God’s grace toward him and God’s love for Abraham. God always shows Himself more righteous, loving, and kind then we could ever say about ourselves.
But for the grace of God, where would I be? Where would you be? How would our lives be different today but for God’s grace? Let’s not ever find ourselves in that place again!
God gave Lot and his family a command through the Angels that proves fatal when they don’t completely listen. The Angels tell them to get out of town, run for the hills, and to not look back. Lot still things he has a hand to play.
He and his family still do not want to completely flee from Sodom. He asks the Angels if they could go to a small city (comparatively) to Sodom and stay there. He talks about this smaller city as “Is it not a little one?” as if Sodom was just too big of a city to stay in. For some reason, Lot thinks Sodom is too big. The issue is not population control. The issue is wickedness and sin.
Do we try to make conditions of how much we will obey God or make concessions so we can still be in the same vicinity as our sin? This doesn’t work. God is trying to free us from the places and temptations around us. He is not concerned with how comfortable we want to feel.
God only grants this because He sees Lot will not change his mind or want to completely get away from this wretched city. God is gracious to us even when we don’t realize the grave dangers that lie before us.
As Lot barely experiences salvation before destruction, listen to his false reasoning. The Angels tell him and his family to flee to the heels away from the valley that God will completely lay waste to. He says, “Oh, I can’t go to the hills. What if the destruction overtakes me? How about I go to the little city in the valley.”
God is going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding villages and cities. Lot he can stay in the Valley of destruction. He thinks God will spare this one little city while He obliterates the whole place around it.
Could God do this? Of course. But the point is that God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah because of His anger. He is still making compromises. You can take the righteous man out of the city of sin but you can’t take the heart of sin out of the righteous man.
I find this whole exchange ridiculous, but Lot’s salvation before destruction is something God is wholeheartedly committed to – so much more than Lot is. How often do not realize the dangers around us, but God always knows what is there and is always willing to protect us even when we don’t see it.
God grants him even this grace. He will destroy every city around it, but Zoar (meaning “small”). He will protect him because that is what Lot wants. Why does Lot think this city will protect him from God’s wrath against the whole valley?
When God tells you to run to the hills instead of compromising for another place He did not tell you to go, have the wisdom to do exactly as He tells you. Only in obedience is their safety.
Lot’s salvation comes before his destruction only because of God’s grace. It is not because of his towering intellect or refusal to accept the sinful culture around him. God works in his and his family’s favor out of His goodness alone.
Sadly, this tale of compromise is not yet over. God waited for Lot to arrive at Zoar before He judged the Jordan River Valley. The sun rose as God rained down sulfur and fire to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and the smaller cities around them.
God will not use a flood As He did during the time of Noah. Instead, His mode of judgment now seems to be fire and sulfur, of which we will see at the end of time. Lot’s wife continues the compromise in this family that lived in Sodom.
The Angels specifically told them to not look back as they fled Sodom. But she looked back, not just at the city as it was destroyed, but this must have been a longing for the city, perhaps sorrow that God destroyed it.
She did not receive God’s judgment because she looked back. She received it because her looking back was a longing for the city and a sadness at its destruction. She wanted to go back to that sin city. That was why she was judged along with it. She stopped and looked back.
The text does not tell us how Lot reacted. The pillar of salt is unique to this passage. What that looked like, or if it lasted beyond the destruction with sulfur and fire no one knows. I don’t think you can find it today.
As Jesus describes the days of the end of God’s destruction, He refers to both the days of Noah and the days of Lot (Luke 17:32). He instructs people to not turn back and grab their supplies or go back into their houses.
Then He says, “Remember Lot’s wife. People who longingly look back at the destruction of the wicked will be judged by God for their longing for those times and that lifestyle.
Lot’s Salvation before Destruction for Abraham (Genesis 19:27-29)
Wmhen Abraham looked down on the destruction of the Jordan River Valley, he accepted what God did. Remember that Abraham had a prayer conversation with God asking if He was completely righteous if He destroyed the righteous with the wicked.
He starts at 50 in the city, which probably even he does not expect there to be that many. He ends at 10 righteous people. For Abraham, anything less than those 10 would still mean God was righteous in his eyes. As I mentioned before in our life lessons from Abraham volume, God goes further than Abraham.
He rescues Lot, his wife, and his two daughters. That’s only four people. God’s righteousness is greater and deeper than we could ever imagine. He will go to the uttermost. We can always trust in God’s righteousness over our own.
Genesis 19:29 states that God rescued Lot and protected him and his family because of Abraham. When it says, “God remembered Abraham,” it is not that God forgot Abraham. It is that God rescued Lot because of Abraham. Because Abraham was concerned about his nephew, God cared about Lot also.
It is not that God did not care about Lot without Abraham, but that Abraham had showed concern for his nephew. God did this for Abraham. Lot was not willing to leave the city. He was not willing to leave the Valley. It required the Angels forcing Lot to leave Sodom and he even argued with them about where to go to avoid God’s destructive judgment
at no time during those challenges by Lot did God have to continue being gracious to him. And yet, He did. It was because God is righteous that He did this for Lot. Lot’s salvation before destruction was also the result of Abraham’s care for him in consideration of God’s righteousness.
Can you imagine how Abraham reacted when he found out Lot had been saved even though he had not gone the whole way down to the four people in Lot’s family? He knew then that the confirmation of God’s righteousness was greater than he could ever imagine.
Life Lessons from Lot’s Salvation before Destruction
We can learn many lessons from Lot in Genesis 19. He made so many mistakes as a righteous person that we gain a lot of insight from his mistakes. First, do more than just knowing your culture. Lot knew about the wickedness of Sodom. He knew it so well that he refused to let the Angels sleep outside.
And yet, Lot did not have enough of an impact on his culture and city. Even the men of the city criticized him for being “a judge” over them. Even though he sat at the entrance of the city, suggesting that he might have been a city elder, he did nothing to change his culture.
He only tried to keep the Angels from the results of that culture. As Christians, we need to do more. Our efforts may not be effective, but if we do nothing, what will they say about us when we stand before the Lord? Will they pointed at us and say, “This person never told me anything about the wickedness I was involved in or around. They didn’t reach out to me.”
We need to reach out to others around us, expose the wickedness of our culture, and do what we can to leave this world better than we found it. Even if we utterly fail, at least we tried when most will not. Be one of the roadblocks to Hell for those around you.
Second, Lot rescued the visiting Angels but did not have the wisdom to rescue himself and his family or go along with God’s salvation before his destruction. Even after you can help others be saved out of this wicked world, you must have the wisdom to heed God’s salvation for yourself.
Do not argue with God when He is saving you. Do not tell him where you want to go or how you want that salvation from destruction to happen. Listen to what God has told you and obey Him. God is very gracious to us in our stubbornness. But even He will not wait forever for us to heed His instructions. Always obey God.
Another life lesson we can learn from Lot’s salvation before destruction is that we can be righteous but not wise enough to avoid compromise. There are so many destructions and temptations this world. We need to stay clear of as many as we can.
Even after Lot chose to live in the Jordan River Valley, he also chose to dwell in the city of Sodom. He knew what was happening around him and that it was not of God. He was a righteous man, but he and his family were riddled with compromise to the culture around them.
Do not be like the frog that is boiled in the water because it could not tell the temperature rising. Recognize the corruption of the world, avoid compromise to it, and ask the Lord to keep your heart sensitive to His Spirit. Ask God to make you increasingly more sensitive to the corruption and keep your heart pure so you do not compromise.
The next lesson we can learn from Lot’s salvation before destruction is not only to be righteous but to ask God for wisdom in how to deal with this world. Lot was righteous but unwise. He left himself open to many compromises because of his lack of wisdom.
It could have kept him and his family from God’s gracious salvation. Even after Lot began to argue with the Angels about how to be saved, God was still gracious. We do not want to be those Christians who are so unwise that they try to direct God in how to do what He is doing in their life.
God is the all -wise God who knows what is best for us. He will do things the way He wishes, and will gain much praise and glory from others when they see and hear what He has done. We do not know better than Him. The wisest thing we can do is submit to God’s will and let God be God.
James teaches us that whenever we are in a trial and do not know what to do, we can ask God in prayer and He will give us wisdom (James 1:5-8). He says God is so generous with His blessing of wisdom that if we ask, it is guaranteed God will give us the wisdom we need. Don’t be afraid to ask.
And do not doubt when you’re asking. Why would you ask God for anything if you doubt He will do it? We must have the wisdom not only to ask God for wisdom but to ask Him with open arms and hands
The last life lesson I see in this issue is that we need to thank God for those who intercede for us. We may not know who they are. But know that you are probably being prayed for by many people behind the scenes.
When we see God’s hedge of protection around us, His provision and blessing in our life, and the counsel we received from others, we can be sure that people interceding for us in the background of our life thank God that people care about you so much that they would intercede for you.
Abraham Interceded for Lot even though Lot probably did not know he was doing so. We may not know who is interceding for us but we know somebody is. We need to be thankful for those who intercede for us because they are doing a glorious and precious thing for us.
The Saga Continues…
We are not finished with life lessons from Lot’s life. I have one more issue from this volume. I want to finish talking about these life lessons we can learn from Lot by talking about the effects of his decisions on his daughters and how they did not have proper morality to deal with the destruction of Sodom.
