Beyond The Basics

Transcript:

Welcome to the Beyond the Basics Bible Study Podcast. My name is Dan Snyder and I am your host. Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of Beyond the Basics, where we are exploring the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, one chapter at a time.

Alright, well this episode we’re going to be going through Genesis chapter 19. And this is going to continue our story from the previous chapter when three men had arrived at Abraham’s tent and two of the men had gone on to Sodom. One man stayed behind who we come to find out was the Lord. The Lord had told Abraham what he was going to do. He was going to destroy Sodom and so Abraham interceded for the city.

So now we pick up the story in Genesis chapter 19. And in this chapter, the two angels that had left Abraham and went on to Sodom, they went to see the city and to see if the outcry against the city was true.

And just a disclaimer, if you are with young children, you may want to listen to this episode at a time when they are not around because there’s some pretty disgusting things that the men of the city of Sodom try to do and, listener discretion advised.

And so they came to Lot, Abraham’s nephew, who was sitting at the gate in the evening and they stayed at Lot’s house. And while they were there that evening, all the men of the city came to his house because they wanted to rape the two angels. So the angels struck the men of the city with blindness and told Lot that they were going to destroy the city and that they needed to leave.

So finally the two angels grabbed Lot, his wife and his two daughters and brought them outside to the city. They told Lot to flee to the hills and then God rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah to destroy them.

So then after Lot had fled to Zohar, he left the city of Zohar and moved to the hills where he was supposed to flee originally. And there in the hills his daughter made him drink wine for two nights in a row. The first night, his oldest daughter slept with him and gave birth to Moab. The second night, his youngest daughter slept with him and gave birth to Ben-Ami, which is the ancestor of the Ammonites.

So let’s get deeper into the chapter.

So in verse one, we have two angels that came to Sodom. And this is actually the first time that they’re identified as angels. If you’ve read these stories several times, you probably automatically think of them as angels in chapter 18. But chapter 18 doesn’t actually say that they’re angels. It just identifies them as two men.

Here, this is the first time they’re identified as angels. But there’s no indication that Lot knew that they were angels. They’re only known as angels to the reader.

So they arrive in Sodom and Lot is sitting in the gate of Sodom.

Now, there’s several parallels between Lot’s greeting and Abraham’s greeting of the angels. In chapter 18, of course, the angels show up to Abraham’s house. In chapter 19, the angels show up to Lot’s city. So, there’s several ways where these two greetings compare and contrast. So, I’m going to detail these for you.

And if you go to the website http://www.beyondthebasics.blog you can subscribe for only $6 a month. You can get these study guides. You can download this particular study guide and you can follow along as you’re listening. And I don’t know about you, but I find that having a visual when I’m comparing and contrasting different events in the Bible, having that visual really helps me. So you can get this study guide, you can follow along. I have all the notes here for you.

So, in chapter 19, the angels came to Sodom and Lot was sitting at the gate. So this is an important distinction because Abraham lived in tents as a nomad. He fully trusted and relied on God as a nomad. Abraham stayed away from the cities intentionally.

We’ll find out why because Lot did not stay away from the cities. He did originally. When he left Abraham, he moved to the area outside the city of Sodom. But now he finds himself sitting at the gate of Sodom where business would have been conducted. So not only is Lot living in the city, but he’s probably likely a government official or working with government officials or doing business with other businessmen or government officials.

So this indicates that Lot was living in compromise. The Bible tells us that Lot was a righteous man, but he lived in compromise. Psalm 1 verses 1 through 2, take note of the progression here in the first two verses of this psalm. It says: Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

So first in this psalm the man is walking, then he’s standing, and then he’s sitting. And this seems to parallel the journey of Lot. He went from being a nomad walking with Abraham to standing in the way of sinners. He was standing outside the city. He pitched his tent outside the city. And now he’s sitting in their seat.

So this highlights the compromise that Lot had been living in. And we’re gonna see how that affects him as we go through the chapter. Well, you already heard how it affects him because we did the chapter overview, but we’ll detail it.

All right, so in verse two, Lot has several specific requests that he makes of these men who he addresses “my lords.” And these actually parallel Abraham’s specific requests really well. And again, if you get these study guides, have these color coded so that you can see the parallels so you can see how they correspond to the previous chapter.

So first he says, “Please turn aside to your servant’s house.” Abraham had said, “Do not pass by your servant.”

Then Lot said, “Spend the night.” Abraham said, “Rest yourselves under the tree.”

Lot said, “Wash your feet.” Abraham also said, “Wash your feet.”

Lot said, “Rise up early.” Abraham said, “Refresh yourselves with bread.”

Lot said, “Go on your way.” And Abraham said, “Then you may pass on.”

So these are very similar requests that both Lot and Abraham make of these men that come to their houses. So as you can see so far the author is very clearly making a parallel between the way the men approached Abraham and the way the men approached Lot. You have to wonder if Lot is going to be given the same opportunity to intercede for his own city that Abraham was given. But as we’ll find out he seems to love his city in all the wrong ways.

So in verse four, it says, both young and old surrounded the house. So what do these men do? They called to Lot. They said, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.”

So this is, to put it bluntly and grossly, a scene where these men in the city want to gang rape the men who had come to see Lot. And one criticism that a lot of people have about the Bible is that it never says that homosexuality is a sin. So how can Christians say that it’s a sin if the Bible doesn’t say it’s a sin?

But this is something that’s really important to remember about the Bible. The Bible rarely provides commentary on people’s actions. It simply tells us what happens and expects us to meditate on the results. There are very, very few times where the author of the Bible will tell us what happens and then say, “This is wrong,” or, “This is a sin.”

It’s not how the authors of the Bible intended it to be. They intended the Bible to be meditative. We need to spend time with it. We need to wrestle with the text and take the time and figure out what it’s trying to tell us. And so it’s clear in this chapter that there’s not gonna be any commentary on these men’s actions, it’s simply going to tell us what happened and it’s our job to decide was this good or was this bad.

Now to be fair the Bible does expressly condemn homosexuality and I want to be clear homosexuality is a sin that is no different as far as what it does to our eternal state. It’s no different than lying or cheating or anything else. It has the same effect on our eternal state.

But Romans 1 verses 26 through 28 says this. It says: For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions.

Talking about people in times past that had decided that they would refuse God’s way and refuse to acknowledge God’s law and God’s moral guidance.

So it says: For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.

So that very clearly says that homosexuality is a result of God giving people over to their passions because they have rejected God. And it results in a debased mind. It results in a mind that can no longer tell right from wrong. So the immediate results of homosexuality, the author of Romans says those immediate results are much worse than just any other sin.

Now that doesn’t mean that people that are in the homosexual lifestyle cannot be saved. Of course they can. Like I said, it’s not any different than any other sin as far as our eternal consequences go. We’ve all sinned. We’ve all fallen short of God’s glory. We all deserve death. No one is any better than anyone else. So we need to recognize that homosexuality is a sin. It’s not any worse than any other sin in regards to our eternal state, but it does have significant negative effects to a society and to a person’s mind.

And we see that in this chapter in Genesis 19 and we see that in our society today. We see the rapid, rapid decline of a moral compass in our society ever since society has accepted homosexuality as a normal lifestyle.

Alright, so now that I’ve lost all my listeners, let’s move on.

Verse 7. So these men are trying to have sex with these two men that are staying at Lot’s house. And Lot comes out and says, “I beg you, my brothers.”

So he calls them his brothers. He’s come to think of the Sodomites as his family. It’s as if Lot forgot who his true family was. He forgot that his heritage is righteousness. He came to think of himself as one of them, but they remind him that he’s not from there. See, they were accepting of him until he tried to stand against what they wanted to do. And then they rejected him.

In verse nine, they say, “This fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge!”

They said, “You’re not even from here and you want to judge us?”

So Lot says, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly.”

He says, “I have two daughters,” in verse eight. This is the depths of Lot’s compromise. He’s willing to trade his daughters for strangers. I mean, really, like how sick is this? Who would do this? This is very, very disturbing. You don’t even need to have kids to recognize how disturbed this man must be to be able to offer his daughters to be gang raped by the men of the city in the place of strangers.

This should give us pause. This should be a warning to us when we find ourselves slipping into compromise, when we find ourselves getting a little too friendly with the world. This is what can happen. We can start to offer trades. We can start to offer compromises that are not godly, that are not righteous, that are not good, that are downright disgusting and despicable. We can find ourselves in very, very difficult situations. This is a warning to us to stay away from compromise.

So the two angels struck these men with blindness so that they couldn’t find the door. They tell Lot, “Grab your sons-in-law, your sons, your daughters, anyone you have in the city and get them out of here because we’re going to destroy this place.”

They say, “The outcry against its people has become great before the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.”

So Lot goes to his sons-in-law who were to marry his daughters. So they weren’t married yet. They were betrothed to his daughters. And he says, “Oh, get out of this place.”

Lot received a warning. And Lot passed that warning on to his sons-in-law. And God is going to warn the righteous to leave before he judges a place. This is very comforting. And also important to know, because God does still judge and there’s going to be a day when He’s going to judge the whole world. And the time before Jesus comes back, there’s going to be a great judgment.

But God always warns the righteous. Jeremiah 51 verse 6 says, “Flee from the midst of Babylon; let everyone save his life! Be not cut off in her punishment, for this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance, the repayment He is rendering.”

So Jeremiah is warning the people in Babylon to flee Babylon. He’s saying God’s judgment is coming on Babylon, so get out of there.

And in Revelation 18, verses four through five, it says: I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.”

So this voice from heaven is, it’s talking again about Babylon and God is gonna judge Babylon and at the end of the age. And whether that’s the city of Babylon or a figurative Babylon, that of course is debated. I personally believe that it’s a literal rebuilt city of Babylon, but we’ll get into that much later as we get through the prophets and the book of Revelation.

But this voice from heaven is saying, “All of you who are God’s people, get out of the city because if you stay, you’re gonna be destroyed along with this city, because this city’s sins are sky high and God’s not gonna let them get away with it anymore. So you better get out or you’re gonna be destroyed along with this city.”

And even now, whether our modern day planet faces God’s judgment or not, this is still a call to remove ourselves from the world systems so that we don’t get caught up in its judgment.

Now does that mean that you should trade in all your cash for gold and buy guns and go live in the forest and get yourself off the grid and make your own electricity and whatever? That’s not what I’m saying here. That’s not what the Bible is saying. It’s saying spiritually we have to remove ourselves from the world. We are in the world but we are not of it.

So as Lot said this, “Get out of this place,” it says that he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting or to be joking. See, his warning didn’t hold any weight because of his compromise. Lot was saved from destruction, but his life was wasted.

That’s another risk that we face when we allow compromise into our lives. I believe there’s a strong case that one can lose their salvation. I believe that the Bible makes that case. I also think that a follower of Jesus can give themselves to compromise. They can still be saved on the judgment day, but their life can be wasted. And their witness can be wasted.

Lot’s witness was wasted on his sons-in-law. didn’t believe him. When he finally said, “The Lord is coming, God is coming, and He’s going to destroy the city. You need to get up and get out of here. He’s offering salvation to you, but he’s going to destroy this city. So get up, get out of here.”

His witness was wasted. They didn’t believe him because he had spent so much time taking part in the culture and in the systems of that city.

Now, to be fair, he isn’t to blame for their decision. They still made their choice. He still presented them with an option. Lot still said, “The time has come to leave. We need to leave.”

And they made their choice to stay.

So we need to be careful assigning blame when it comes to other people. But when it comes to ourselves, we want to make sure that we’re not allowing compromise into our lives because it can hurt our witness and it can waste our lives. We don’t want that. We don’t want to put other people’s life at risk because we want to do whatever we want to do.

And in verse 17 the angels tell Lot, “Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.”

And Lot said, “Oh no, oh no, I can’t do that.”

Lot says, “Look, I’ve found favor in your sight. You’ve shown me this great kindness. You’ve saved my life, but I can’t go to the hills. I cannot escape to the hills.”

Even now, Lot is unwilling to fully leave behind his previous life. Even after seeing the consequences of what happens. Even after seeing the consequences of living a compromised life. He lost his sons-in-law, his city was destroyed, he lost the position that he held, the influence that he had, he lost everything except for his wife and two daughters. All he had was the clothes on his back. And he still was unwilling to leave behind his previous life.

So he wanted to go to another city and he says, “See, it’s, is it not a little one? It’s just a small city. It’s not as big as these other cities. It’s not as bad. It’s only a little bit of compromise. It’s not big compromise like I was in before. It’s just a little bit. See, it’s not as bad. Can I please go there?”

He points out the city of Zohar, which is in the same valley as Sodom and Gomorrah. And so the angels said, “Behold, I grant you this favor also.”

So he allows Lot to continue to live in his compromise. This is very, very, very concerning when God allows us to live in compromise and disobedience. When he tells us to go do something, to go somewhere, or to leave something behind, and we say, “Okay, but not fully.”

And God says, “Okay, do what you want to do.”

It’s very concerning. And we’re going to see why as we continue to go on the chapter.

So he goes to Zohar, which again, Lot had emphasized how small of a city this is. He minimized the amount of the sin in the city. “It’s not as big as Sodom and Gomorrah. There’s not as much sin. There’s not as much compromise. It’s gonna be okay if I just go there.”

This is compared to Abraham in the previous chapter, who minimized the amount of righteousness required to spare a city.

You see that contrast?

Lot minimized the amount of sin that was acceptable in a city. Abraham minimized the amount of righteousness that’s acceptable in a city. Lot said, “There’s only a little bit of sin. I can live with this little bit of sin.”

Abraham said, “There’s only a few righteous. Let the city live because of just a few righteous.”

This is the contrast between the heart of an intercessor and the heart of a righteous man who is compromised by sin. This should be convicting to us.

So Lot gets to Zohar and then in verse 24, the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah, just like the flood. This is the language of judgment. That’s the word rained. Of course it is, it reminds us of the flood, just like water rained down from the sky. Now sulfur and fire is raining out of heaven on these two cities. And this foreshadows the day of judgment.

In 2 Peter 2:6 it says: If by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly.

And Peter tells us that in Sodom and Gomorrah, the way that they were judged, this is an example of what’s going to happen to the ungodly one day when God judges the earth again. He’s not going to judge the earth with a worldwide flood, of course, but he is going to judge the earth with fire. So this is an example. This is something that points us towards that last day of judgment.

So unfortunately, as God is judging these cities, Lot’s wife looked back. She was told not to look back, but she did anyway, and she was turned into a pillar of salt. Which seems so weird. Why would she be turned into a pillar of salt?

So salt was used as a preservative, right? It was used to preserve meat and other food back then. They would pack it in salt to preserve it. Lot’s wife tried to preserve her life by looking back. Luke 17:32-33 says, “Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.”

So this juxtaposition that Jesus makes saying, remember Lot’s wife, if you seek to preserve your life, you’re going to lose it. What he’s saying to us is that Lot’s wife tried to preserve her life. She was looking back at the city to preserve her life. I don’t know how she thought she would preserve her life, but that’s what Jesus is telling us. she was turned into a preservative. She was turned into salt.

But Jesus tells us whoever loses his life will keep it. If we choose to leave behind the ungodly systems and the compromise of the world and lose the life that we had back then, we’ll keep our life. But if we try to look back, we risk losing our life.

So Lot’s wife turns into a pillar of salt and now we shift to Abraham. In verse 29 it says: When God destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham.

Just like God had remembered Noah. God remembers his faithful ones in the midst of judgment. He does not forget us. Even when he’s sending judgment on the earth, whether it’s to a city or a nation or the whole world one day, God remembers those who are faithful to him and those who walk with him.

So then in verse 30, Lot went up out of Zohar. So he had gone to Zohar to escape Sodom and Gomorrah. He had begged the angels to allow him to live there. Now he’s leaving. Seems like this is probably not much later. He was afraid to live there potentially. For a few reasons, possibly.

Maybe his compromise would catch up with him again. We don’t know. Maybe he got there and realized, I’m gonna find myself in the exact same situation as I did before. I need to get out of here. Or maybe the people were afraid of him. Maybe the people thought that he was the reason Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. Maybe it became dangerous for him. Maybe the people tried to kick him out. Maybe the people threw him out of the city, because they didn’t want their city destroyed.

So he went up out of Zohar and lived in the hills in caves, which is worse than if he had just stayed with Abraham and figured out a way to make it work. Do you see the decline of the life of Lot? What happens when we give in to compromise in our lives?

But it gets worse because in verse 32, his two daughters start plotting together and they say, “Let’s make our father drink wine.”

And they made their father drink wine. And the first born went in that night and lay with her father. And he was so drunk. He didn’t even know that she did it. Meaning she went in, had sex with her dad to try and have a child. And the reason why is because they say, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come into us after the manner of all the earth.”

Meaning they thought there was not a single man left. Imagine if all they had known was these two cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, and they had just been destroyed, and the only city that they knew of that was left had just kicked them out, or that they had left because they weren’t welcome. From their perspective, they thought that they were never gonna have children, and in those days, a woman without children, it was very difficult to get by. They decide to drug their father and go rape him in middle of night.

So the first daughter does it the first night and she has a son named Moab and then the second, the youngest daughter does it the second night. They do it again, rapes her father and has a son named Ben Ami.

Now, if you’re noticing a parallel to Noah, that’s good because the parallel is there. Just like Noah had drank wine and became a victim of sexual sin after being rescued from God’s judgment, Lot drank wine and became victim of sexual sin after being rescued from God’s judgment. This is the exact same story, two different people.

And just like Canaan had been the offspring of sexual sin, now we have two more cursed children that are born, Moab and Ben Ami, that are the offspring of sexual sin. They became the Moabites and the Ammonites, and these two nations became bitter enemies of Israel. And you’re going to see a lot as we get through the prophets, especially the Moabites. They are under special judgment because they are related to the Israelites, their brothers, their cousins. And God places them under special judgment because they should treat their brother Israel as family and they don’t. They become enemies and so they’re cursed.

So how does this chapter point to Jesus?

So this is the second time that God has brought disaster as a judgment against sin. And both times, sin has remained in the lives of the righteous after that judgment has taken place. We saw that with Noah. Again, it’s the exact same story. Noah, after the flood, got drunk and was sexually abused or a victim of sexual sin by his son and Lot, after Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, got drunk, and was the victim of sexual sin by his daughters.

So both times the sin has remained after the judgment has taken place, which tells us that God’s judgment has not solved the problem of sin. And so it continues the storyline. It continues the theme that we need a righteous seed who can emerge from judgment sinless. And we’re going to see that in Jesus.

So here’s some questions for reflection.

And if you want to subscribe on the website, you can download this study guide and there’s spaces on the study guide for you to answer these questions. There’s also gonna be additional questions that will challenge you to study a bit further and a bit deeper some of these themes that I’m not gonna go over on this episode, but you can get that on the study guide.

So first question, how does the Bible challenge our modern view of how we should be involved in politics and local government? Are we more likely to change world systems or are world systems more likely to change us?

What effect does a compromised life have on our witness and our testimony? What kind of fruit can we expect to see?

Would you be able to leave everything behind if an angel came and told you God is going to destroy your city?

How deep is your attachment to the world? Have you experienced times when it was difficult to leave your former life behind?

Have you experienced consequences of not leaving behind your former life?

What emotions does God’s judgment on the wicked stir up in us? How should we respond to God when he does this?

Last question, did Abraham know that God rescued Lot? How would you respond to God if he answered your prayer but didn’t tell you he answered your prayer?

Thank you again for listening to this episode. I would greatly appreciate your support if you would like to follow on your preferred podcast app. Go ahead and click follow, rate the show, give me a five star rating that will of course help the podcast get noticed, increase the reach so that this study can hopefully reach many others to be pointed to Jesus. So we’d love your support in that way. Thank you once again for listening and join again next week for Genesis chapter 20.