Lessons From the Life of Lot

Hello, everyone. Thank you, Mrs. Call, for that. It was very nice. I said, and it got Connor up off of his blanket in his seat, paying attention. Which is not to say anything bad about the sermonette, but Daniel, he didn't quite respond in the same way to your message. I don't think he'll respond the same way to mine, either. So there's something special about beautiful music. And welcome to those imports, Matt. Now, I'm wondering, Mr. Call, there's a camera back there, and there's one here. It's right here. Okay. You're seeing me more up close than you usually like to during services. I would say it's a beautiful day. It's great to be back in Prestonsburg. I didn't get a chance to go around and say hello to everybody, but it seems like it's been way too long. Last week, when I was back in Portsmouth after a while, I said it felt like I was coming home, or I said something like that. And it feels that way now, sort of. Actually, when I pulled off of Route 23, I was tempted to make that left turn to go to Comfort Suites.

But made the right turn and came here to the park, and it is a beautiful day, so I appreciate that. I don't know if I'm in the position yet. I feel like I could say greetings from the home office, because I still feel like a visitor there. But it is enjoyable, and it's starting to go between really hustling and bustling a lot. Like when the Council of Elders was there, and they were filling the halls, and the meeting was going on.

And then it's dead quiet when everybody's gone, especially the day after the Council of Elders. You could have heard a pin drop. Several of the men went out of town for a ministerial conference in Minnesota. The few of us that were there had nice and quiet, which is good. I had a lot of work to do. I was able to do. A week from tomorrow, we have the welcome picnic for the new ABC students. So we're excited about that, and it's amazing to think that it's almost here. Anyways, I could go on for quite a while with that, but I have a message today.

I want to begin with an old saying. I'm sure you've heard this, that says, you can choose your friends, but you can't choose your relatives. Usually, we say this when we're talking about somebody that you were thinking we'd rather not talk about, or the reputation isn't quite the best. And it's usually not like they're a war criminal, or something, you know, a Nuremberg, but you know, sometimes it's often that strange uncle or aunt who seems a little bit off.

You know, the one you don't brag about when you're talking about your family. Although it's interesting, if movies and television have taught me anything, it's that that's the person that'll save the day when they're most needed. But that's movies and TV. They might have higher expectations than we should. But when we think realistically, we know just about everybody, along with having faults and some bad traits, has some good.

And we can learn lessons from everybody, even from the black sheep of our family, whoever that might be. And especially from those who really aren't all that bad, which usually is the case. Even somebody that we think of the one we don't talk about. Generally, you know, they're pretty good. I'm saying all of this to lead up to a discussion of a character in the Bible that we could consider our cousin.

I think we do. Or maybe second cousin, several thousand times removed, since we're going all the way back to the Bible. We, as modern day, we consider ourselves to be the modern-day descendants of Abraham, and Sarah. We're the children of the father of the faithful.

And of course, we've inherited fabulous blessings because of that. But we all know Abraham had a nephew. And that nephew, then, would be our cousin. And you probably realize I'm talking about Lot. Lot plays a limited, but an important role in the Bible, and in the story of Abraham in particular, and the origins of the Israelite people. I've seldom heard Lot discussed at length in a sermon. He's usually a side player, you know, when you're talking about Abraham or about something else. So I thought it'd be nice to focus on that. And I want to look at what we can learn from the life of Lot.

What does it tell us? I want to do that focusing first on who Lot was, on where he went, and on what he did, to the limited degree that we do know. Now, I expect most of us are pretty familiar with the main outlines of the story. We mostly know that he was living in Sodom shortly before the time Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed with fire and brimstone. So that's where the story is going to end up.

So I don't think I'm giving anything away. But we tend to think of that first and not look at anything else. So aside from that, who was Lot? Let's go back to the beginning of what the Bible tells us. Much of what we know about Lot does come from the story of Abraham, because Lot was part of his family. In Genesis 11, where I'm going to go first, much of that chapter gives the genealogy of Abraham going from Shem, Noah's son, down to Abraham.

And of course, since Lot was related to Abraham, that's Lot's genealogy as well. I'll begin reading in verse 26. Now, Terah lived seventy years and begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran. This is the genealogy of Terah. Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran begat Lot. And Haran died before his father, Terah in his native land in Ur of the Chaldees. And so this tells us Lot was Abram's nephew. He was born, and what we understand from history and archaeology was a flourishing cultural center.

It was one of the best places in the world to live. We often point that out when we mention that for God to tell Abraham, leave that place and go out to some wilderness I'm going to tell you about. That was a pretty significant sacrifice for Abraham to make. We could gather, then, that the whole family was probably fairly well off economically. They also originated from the place that archaeologists have determined was the earliest place where reading and writing was common.

It flourished there. I wouldn't say that they necessarily invented it. That's one of those things I'd like to think that perhaps God taught Adam and Eve, and it went from there. But it's very likely that we could surmise Lot knew how to read and write. He had some education. He could probably do basic math. How old was Lot when he lost his father? The Bible doesn't say. Obviously, Haran died younger than expected. There's no mention of any brothers or sisters for Lot.

Perhaps he was an only child. Now, Genesis 11, verse 31, it says, Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter, Lausarii, his son Abram's wife, and they went out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan. And they came to Haran. Now, it's interesting. There's Haran the man. I didn't realize that rhyme until I said it out loud. But the man whose name was Haran, but now they journeyed to a city that was named Haran. So same name, two different concepts.

Notice, though, there's a mention of Abram's wife. No mention of Lot's wife.

Also, it says, Terah took them. Some Bible scholars have speculated that perhaps Haran died when Lot was young enough that he was a miner, and so his grandfather adopted him and took custody of him. I don't know. There's no evidence of that. We could go either way.

Some people even speculate that he was young enough that after Terah died, Abram adopted Lot in his custody. To be honest, I think that's a stretch. I don't think Lot was quite that young, and we'll get to talking about that a little bit later. But at any rate, we move on in chapter 12. Now the eternal had said to Abram, I had said, we think probably earlier, when they first left Ur of the Chaldees, but he had said, Get out of your country from your family and from your father's house to a land that I'll show you. And I'll make you a great nation. I'll bless you. Make your name great. You'll be a blessing, and I'll bless those who bless you. I'll curse him who curses you. And in you, all the families of the earth will be blessed. That's pretty impressive.

So Abram departed as the eternal had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he departed Huran.

I like to focus that phrase, went with him. To me, that's a little different. Actually, earlier in chapter 11, verse 31, it said, Terra took Lot with him. Here Lot seems to be making a conscious choice. Abram's leaving Mesopotamia and going off to this land that God told him to go out in the wilderness, but Lot decides to go with him.

I like to think that perhaps Lot heard of these promises.

I don't imagine Abram keeping it a secret. He probably said, let me tell you what God told me. And maybe Lot was listening to that and saying, that sounds pretty good. Yeah, we don't know much about this Canaan place, but being a great nation and make your name great, and that's a blessing, it makes you think, Lot, if he was of age and made his own decisions, he did something Abram's other brother Nahor did not do. Nahor stayed behind in her hand, but Lot made a choice to go where God said to go.

And that brings us to one of the important lessons that I think we know and talk about in the Church, that God works with, in, and through families.

Genesis 12.1 said, God had called Abram. We don't know exactly when, but it seems like the opportunity to be blessed by following God was available to the entire family.

Terah, Abram's father, was the one who took action first. When he was dead and Abram took leadership of the family, the calling that God gave him seems to have still extended to any that would respond.

Now, we teach that in the Church. I'm going to just quote a couple of scriptures that we use often, but this is a change from many, many years ago in the Church. Probably most of us, many of us that are, I think if you're my age and younger, you've heard it mostly the way we teach now. Acts 2, verse 38 and 39 is where Peter was giving that powerful sermon after that Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out. And they said, well, men and brethren, what do we do? He said, repent and be baptized, and receive the Holy Spirit for the promises to you and your children. God's promise, when you repent and be baptized, the promise is not only to you, but to your children.

Likewise, the Apostle Paul mentioned that in 1 Corinthians, chapter 7. And verse 14 there, he said, the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the believing wife. Or an unbelieving wife is sanctified by the believing husband. And he says, otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they're holy. Now, we know there's strong scriptural evidence that applies to minor children. I'd like to transfer that, and hopefully I'm not stretching it too far, but I think in the life of Lot, we can see that God called Abram, and Lot and Sarah had the opportunity to also respond to that calling. They both went also.

Now, how well would they respond? How would they continue?

It's hard to say. It's not a perfect allegory, but I think there are parallels worth noting.

Of course, at the same time, we all have conscious choices we need to continue to make, and Lot would need to continue to make.

A lesson for all of our young adults, as well as old adults, is that we have to continue making the good choice. Because I'd say Lot made a good choice.

And I wanted to start off by discussing that, because we're going to look at some mistakes Lot made. He doesn't have the most sterling reputation. That was the reason for my introduction. Lot's sort of a black sheep in the family, possibly.

So, one good decision doesn't make a successful lifetime. You have to continue doing that. And that reminds me, I want to look at another decision that he made in probably what was the early part of his life.

I've mentioned, 24 years after leaving, Horan... Well, actually, I didn't mention it. I want to mention this. But Horan...

I'm getting my new Horan, the man Horan. Lot in the family, they left Horan when Abram was 75 years old.

Later, when Abram was 99, God told him, within a year, you're going to have a son. That's the same year that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. The reason I'm mentioning that is because, in that story, there's a reference to it in Genesis 19, verse 31. I'm not going to go there yet because we'll look at the story later. But Lot has a daughter who says, our father's old.

So, by the time Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed, Lot was old. But, you know, how young could he have been when he left with Abram? 25 years earlier, 24 years earlier.

The reason I'm mentioning this is, we know at that point, Lot had a wife.

We don't know a lot about Lot's wife. Matter of fact, we don't even know her name. She's only known in Scripture as Lot's wife. But Lot was a family man. We know he had a wife. He had at least two children, probably four or more. And I'm saying at least two probably because the vagaries of Hebrew make it possible that it could have been only the two that we see mentioned.

But while we're thinking about Lot's choices early in life, I want to focus on how and when and where he chose a bride. We can't know this exactly, but we might make some inferences because of what we do know about her. Matter of fact, we know we should pay attention to her because Jesus Christ said to do so. That's in Luke 17. I am going to turn over there. Luke 17 and verse 32, if I read just the last part of that, I've got it in my notes. I want to make sure I don't want to read other parts. Oh, no, it's not the last part. That's all there is to that verse. Remember Lot's wife.

Jesus Christ said, remember Lot's wife.

What about her we should remember? We have to figure out from the context because there's really only one thing we do know about his wife.

And in Luke 17, Christ was making a point that his second coming would take people by surprise. Back up to verse 40, if you will.

I said, oh, actually, I had a reference to Luke 12. You'd think I hadn't prepared this in advance, even though I had. Luke 12 and verse 40, he says, Be ready! The Son of Man comes in an hour you don't expect.

Now, back in chapter 17 of Luke, I want to get some of that context. In Luke 17 and verse 19, that's not what I wanted. I'm going to get some of that context. Oh, okay.

Yeah, actually, it's in verse 20. He was asked by the Pharisees. Pardon me on that. Luke 17 and verse 20, he was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come. He said, well, the kingdom of God doesn't come with observation. You're not going to be ready and looking for it. Nor will they say, See here or see there. The kingdom of God's among you. And he says to his disciples, the days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man and won't see it. I want to skip down to verse 26.

He says, As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man. They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given a marriage till the day that Noah entered the ark and the flood came. So basically, he's commenting the fact that they're living their lives and taken by surprise. We continue from there. Likewise, it was also in the days of Lot.

They ate and drank. They bought and sold. They planted. They built. But on the day Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so, it will be on the day that the Son of Man is revealed.

Now, I don't want to downplay the sinfulness of Sodom and Gomorrah. We are going to discuss that later. But I don't think that was Christ's main focus here. His main focus was that they were taken unawares. They were caught by surprise.

For that matter, Lot was taken a bit by surprise. He learned that Sodom and Gomorrah were going to be destroyed probably about 12 hours before the fact. And how'd you like to have someone show up at your door and say, in 12 hours your city's going to be destroyed. You better pack up and get out of here. You'd think, wow, you'd be caught off guard.

And so we'll discuss that later. But as we saw down in verse 30, even so, it'll be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. In that day, he was on the house top and his goods are in the house. Don't let him come down and take them away. Likewise, who is in the field? Don't turn back. Remember Lot's wife.

Let's see how we know to remember Lot's wife. What is it we have to remember about her? We find that back in Genesis 19. And I'm circling around. Remember, I'm still talking about some of Lot's early decisions. But as I said, we want to look at his decision on who he married. Genesis 19 and verse 17, it came to pass when they brought them outside. This is the angels brought Lot, his wife, and his two daughters out of the city. As I said, we're going to look at that a little bit later. But they said, escape for your life! Don't look back behind you. Don't stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains lest you be destroyed. So they said, run for your lives and don't look back. And in verse 26, but his wife looked back behind him. She became a pillar of salt.

So Lot's wife directly disobeyed an order from one of God's angels. They were told, don't look back. She looked back.

And it cost her her life.

Now, the question many people have pondered ever since is, why? Why such a harsh penalty for looking over your shoulder? I mean, we look at things all the time. How many times have you been talking to someone and they say, don't look now, but over there? And the first thing you do is you look.

You know, if you don't want someone to look, you shouldn't say don't look. Because you know they will.

But this was a pretty different experience. We're destroying the city, so don't look back.

Well, the common explanation that I've most heard is that she looked back with longing. She really didn't want to leave. She light-sought them. She didn't want to move away from there. She didn't want that to all come to an end.

We do not know for certain if that's the case. You know, when Christ returns, he can clear it up for... But that's the most likely explanation. It makes sense to me.

And some of these possibilities... Or why I wanted to consider this now, and not later in the sermon when I come to what Lot did that night and that morning. Because it pertains to how and when Lot chose his wife.

Assuming that he did. There were arranged marriages weren't uncommon. But if Lot did choose his wife, what lessons might there be in that for us?

Well, let me talk about... Look at two possibilities. It's possible. Most people would even say it's most probable that he was already married when they were living in the town of Haran. That when, you know, Tara died and Abram said, Okay, it's time for us to move on to Canaan. He took Sarah, his wife, and Lot, his nephew. Probably also misses Lot.

But there isn't a mention of her. As I noted, it does name Sarah. Of course, Sarah is important because she was the mother of the faithful. You know, God said, Look, you know, even though you have a child by Hagar, Ishmael, Sarah is going to bury you a son. So maybe that's why Sarah was mentioned and not Mrs. Lot. It's almost not. I really wish they'd given us a name instead of calling her Mrs. Lot. But, you know, since she's not mentioned, I would raise the possibility. Is it possible that she was from Sodom?

That Lot waited, he wasn't married, and he didn't choose a wife until he'd moved to that area?

Now, that's a stretch, but it's not impossible. We know from the stories of both Isaac and Jacob that men in the family sometimes waited and got married later in life.

And by the time Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, we know Lot had two daughters that were old enough to be married and have children. Well, the story will show that. But you could start having children when you're as young as 16, maybe even younger in some cases. So, the circumstances show, and he might have only had those two daughters. Sorry, I'm looking here. Because in the story, it says he went and talked to his sons-in-law who had married his daughters. The Hebrew actually can also be translated his sons-in-laws who had betrothed his daughters. So it could be referring to the same two daughters, that they were engaged.

Just like Mary was considered married to Joseph when she turned up pregnant with Christ, but they hadn't been together. So that could be the possibility with Lot's two daughters. If so, he's been married...

I was talking too fast for my words. He's been living in Sodom for about 20 years.

And remember, he had been 24 years between the time they left Hurran and when Sodom was destroyed. The first four to five years he was with Abram. We're going to discuss that a little bit later. So if he's 20 years in Sodom, his oldest daughter might not be any more than 18 years old.

It's conceivable that he was single, moved into the area, found a very attractive young sodomite woman, and they got married.

Now, I'm pushing the limits of reason here, but it's not beyond the realm of possibility. And the reason I want to discuss this is if that was the case, what a contrast between Lot and his cousin Isaac.

Isaac would wait a lot longer to get married. But he married a woman of his own people.

And things went well. The analogy to God's church today is one mostly for our young adults.

And the simple lesson that I want to draw is it might take a lot longer to find an appropriate mate within God's church. But what a potential difference.

If Lot's wife might represent marrying someone outside the church, and Isaac's wife, Rebecca, pictures marrying in the church, the potential of what could happen could be summed up by Christ's words. Remember Lot's wife.

And I say that as someone who's, you know, before I married, eventually I dabbled with dating outside the church. And, you know, things went a little differently.

Let's consider a more likely possibility. Because it is easier for someone like me to say, marry someone in the church and everything's okay.

But let's say that Lot did marry someone of his own people back in Haran. Let's say she was among those that left Mesopotamia behind when Abram moved the caravan out.

But then later, she chose the ways of Sodom and Gomorrah over God's ways.

How many members of the modern-day Church of God have had that experience?

Way too many.

Quite a few people my age, you know, and a bit older, way back in their twenties. It's weird. Now I'm starting to say way, way back. I remember when my twenties was yesterday. But there were people my age who found someone that went to church.

They liked each other. They got married. But a few years later, leaders of that church started teaching heresy. And in some cases, one member of the marriage said, that's heresy. But the other member said, I like that.

And it was a real strain on a marriage. How many of them could have possibly known and avoided that?

I don't know.

I'd like to think that maybe some could if they'd taken their time and got to know each other a little better.

But you can say they did the right thing, what all the leaders in the church were teaching.

But I've heard of some people who said, you know, looking back, I should have known. You know, I should have known. You know, I like this guy. He was real cute. And he went to church. But boy, he had some other signs that I should have seen that we blind ourselves to.

I don't know. Maybe they and Lot did the same thing. They said, this person's in the right place, seems to do the right things. Perhaps a closer look at the mind and heart would have revealed a depth of commitment that made them change. I don't know. It's a big perhaps. And as I said, I'm drawing some lessons that we just want to examine. Here it is. I'm speculating two entirely different ways in how Lot chose his wife. And there are lessons for us from both sides.

And I'm certainly not wanting to accuse or blame anyone in this.

One of the things I would say is, you can't know for sure when you choose someone and marry them what decisions they might make later. You want to get to know them as well as possible and make a decision based on, you know, your certainty that they will do the right thing. But if your mate turns out to be like Lot's wife, you have to be prepared to do what Jesus said in Luke 14. I'm going to turn to Luke 14, verse 26.

This is something we all look at prior to baptism as we should.

Jesus said, If anyone comes to me and does not hate, and we know this means love less by comparison, but doesn't love less his father, mother, even his wife, or we could say his husband, children, brother, and sisters, yes, his own life also, can't be my disciple.

Now, we're going to see later, when we get to that part of the story, that Lot did hesitate when it was time to leave Sodom. He was lingering. The angels had to grab him by the hand and almost drag him out. But when it came down to it, he did leave. He made the right choice, even having to leave behind a wife who made the wrong choice. And as I said, Lot gets a... We look down on Lot for some things, some things appropriately, but I think it's worth bringing out some positives. Lot might have made mistakes. We know he did make mistakes, but at times, he made crucially good decisions.

When his wife turned back and became a pillar of salt, Lot didn't. Lot didn't look back. He didn't become a pillar of salt. I mean, how many stories do we have in the Bible that exemplify what Jesus said in Luke 14, 26? You know, of saying, okay, I love God first.

Okay, now, this has involved a lot of speculation to come to some lessons. So, I want to move forward in Lot's life. I've been looking sort of at who he was, some of the early decisions, like the decision to follow God's directions, decision about who he married. Let's look at some of his decisions when he was more mature about where he would go in the world.

One of the most significant decisions Lot ever made is described in Genesis chapter 13. So, let's look there. Genesis 13.

Seemed like a good decision at first.

We'll begin reading in verse 5.

Genesis 13 in verse 5. Lot also, who went with Abram, had flocks, herds, and tents. I mentioned earlier in the chapter, it talks about Abram was so stinkin' rich. It doesn't use the word stinkin', but he had livestock, and silver, and gold. But Lot also had flocks and herds and tents. And the land wasn't able to support them that they could dwell together, for their possessions were so great they couldn't stay together. Because a lot of their wealth was in livestock, and animals have to eat the grass and have water to drink, so you can only have so many together at once.

Now, this tells me something important. Lot was not some deadbeat nephew livin' off of his rich uncle. No, he's wealthy, too. He must be reasonably hardworking. Probably pretty smart. He managed his affairs. And of course, he was enjoying the blessings that came from following God. So it wasn't just that he was smart and hardworking, but that doesn't hurt.

Now, continue on in verse 7. There was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock. The Canaanite and the Canaanite and the Perizzites dwell on the land. So they're having strife, and there's these foreigners all around them. So Abram said to Lot, Please, let's not have any strife between you and me, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen. We're brethren. Isn't the whole land before you? Please separate from me. You take the left, I'll go to the right. If you go to the right, I'll go to the left.

So while the herdsmen might have argued, apparently Abram and Lot had no argument. They were getting along fine.

No hard feelings. They didn't have a fight, and they didn't want to.

I note this in particular because I've studied some Bible commentaries that want to portray this as strife between Abram and Lot, that they weren't getting along. I don't see that in the Bible.

What I see is the leader in the Patriarch of the family, Abram, took the lead in suggesting a solution. Said, to solve this, let's put a little space between our holdings.

Now Abram was the boss of the family. He could have just said, okay, you go over there, and I'll go over here. But he magnanimously said, look, I want to give you the choice. And I'm not... I would presume he said, I'm not kidding. Really, you go right, you go left. I'm happy to go either way.

Should Lot have refused to do that? Had the leader of the family telling him, you make this decision. He was basically given a job to do. Some scholars say, no, he should have refused to do that, and had Lot or Abram make the decision. But I think Abram was being honest in what he said.

And it makes good sense, because God had told Abram, I want you to wander around, and I'm going to bless you in this land. So Abram's prosperity wasn't dependent on where he settled, or where he wandered. God was going to bless him anywhere.

So, you know, I think Lot did the right thing. The leader of the family gave him a task, and he did it. And we read in verse 10, Lot lifted up his eyes, and some people speculate that the place they were was at a high elevation, and he literally could see the plain of Jordan. So he looked over the plain of Jordan. It was well watered everywhere, before the eternal destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. I like that it's there in parentheses. We're going to get to that later, but back then it was well watered. It was like the garden of the Lord. So it was almost like Eden, like the land of Egypt, as you go to Zor. So Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east, and they separated from each other. You know, Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent, even as far as Sodom.

Now, what we're going to see here is, Lot made a wise choice based on geography and climate. Bad choice based on the people, which we would become, actually it says in verse 13, the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful. Maybe Lot didn't know that yet.

Now, it's interesting, in the King James version, it says Lot pitched his tent towards Sodom. I like that phraseology, partly because in my old Bible from college, I've got a note written in the margin that one of the instructors told us, sort of a little saying that's stuck in my mind. He said, if you pitch your tent towards Sodom, you're likely to end up in Sodom. So, you know, that's a principle there for us, and we're going to see it turned out true in Lot's case.

As we just read, those men in Sodom were exceedingly wicked.

Now, I don't necessarily think we need to criticize Lot for going that direction in the first place.

But when he started to find out what those people were like, well, let's read a couple of scriptures that show maybe what it should have done next. 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 33. 1 Corinthians 15, 33.

So, do not be deceived. Evil company corrupts good habits.

Evil company can corrupt good habits. You spend time with people that are exceedingly wicked. That's not going to leave you, you know, without any effect.

Also, Proverbs 13 and verse 20. I'm going to head back to Genesis, so we jump to the New Testament. On our way back to the Old, we can stop and look at Proverbs 13 and verse 20.

He who walks with wise men will be wise. So, you want to develop good habits. You want to have good characteristics. Spend time with people that have those. On the contrary, though, but the companion of fools will be destroyed.

These describe a principle that's always been in place. You're going to be affected by who you associate with.

Lot should have soon discerned the type of men that were in Sodom. That they were wicked sinners. He should have started keeping interaction with them to a minimum. Did he do that?

Well, we're going to see a difference. Actually, back in Genesis, I'm not going to read all of chapter 14. Genesis 14 is a story of some confederacies of kingdoms going to war. And one of those confederacies included Sodom. And their side lost the battle. And it says that Abram, when he heard what had happened, he armed his own servants and he got allies with a couple of Canaanites nearby. And they went and defeated those armies and got the people back. But in Genesis 14, verse 12, it tells us, They also took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom.

I want to just bring that out because it's not made a big deal of. Last time we saw him, he was pitching his tent toward Sodom. Now he lives in Sodom.

By the time we end up, it'll go to much further than that.

As I said, I'm not going to focus on Abram coming and rescuing all the people who were taken captive, including Lot. But you wonder, shouldn't Lot have, by this time, started realizing, Hey, good things aren't happening to the people who live in Sodom. You know, bad things might happen again. Maybe I should go elsewhere. When it was all over, Abram didn't stick around. He took off. Maybe Lot should have also. Instead, something very different occurs. If you look at the first verse of chapter 19, Genesis 19, verse 1, Now, there are two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and we'll catch up with why they're there later, but Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom.

This is telling us more than just where he happened to sit his folding chair.

Sitting in the gate in that culture meant something. It meant that this was a person of prominence, perhaps holding an official office.

There's a couple places that demonstrate that. I'm not going to read it, but in the story of Ruth, remember Ruth gleans with Boaz, and later Naomi tells her that she should ask him basically to marry her.

Boaz explains, well, there's somebody that has a prior right, but I'm going to settle this. It says in chapter 4 that he went to the gate. He went to the gate of the city, and he got the appropriate people and did an official transaction with all the elders to witness. I'm not going to turn there, because that was longer, but in Proverbs 31, we see another indication of what it means to be sitting in the gate of the city. This is part of the story of the Proverbs 31 woman. Proverbs 31 and verse 23, it will show us what it means to be sitting in the gate. Proverbs 31, 23, speaking of the Proverbs 31 woman's husband. I wasn't sure how to say that. I could type it a little easier, but her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land. Just imagine this isn't about Lot's wife, but it could be Lot was known in the gates when he sat among the elders of the town. So he started off pitching his tent towards Sodom. Next thing you know, he's a resident in Sodom. Now he's a person of prominence, perhaps a city official.

So he was very much involved in the community, probably.

Now we want to learn some lessons from Lot's life. If this is what he did, was he wrong to have any dealings with the people of Sodom? Was that a sin?

Well, we could say ideally it would have been good to avoid that. But the Apostle Paul says something of note to us in 1 Corinthians chapter 5. 1 Corinthians 5, because we want to see how we can apply these lessons to us today.

1 Corinthians 5 and verse 9. Now he's addressing some serious problems in the congregation of Corinth, so he refers to later something he told them. He said, I told you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Well, sexually immoral people sounds like a very perfect description of the people of Sodom. And he says, so this isn't too lot, but it could have been saying that. I told you not to keep company with sexually immoral people, yet I didn't mean with sexually immoral people of this world, or for that matter, with covetous, extortioners, or idolaters, because you'd have to go out of the world. You'd have to leave the planet to not have any dealings with people who were sinners in the world. So Paul's saying, the world is full of sinful people. And notice he doesn't make sexual immorality a worse sin than other types. He doesn't say, well, it's okay for you to spend a lot of time with idol worshipers, but you better not ever hang out with a fornicator. No, he doesn't say one's worse than the other. Now, you can make a case in certain situations where you remember evil company corrupts good manners, what kind of time you're spending together can make a difference. He doesn't say, it's okay to spend a lot of time with people who drink too much, but you'd never hang out with two people who live together but aren't married, or with someone who's homosexual. Paul doesn't make that distinction. He does make one clear distinction, though, if we carry on there, chapter 5, verse 11.

Now, I've written with you not to keep company with anyone named a brother who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a revile, or a drunkard, or an extortioner. No, not even to eat with such a person. Now, what do I have to do with judging those who are outside? Don't you judge those who are inside? Those who are outside, God judges. And therefore, he says, go ahead, he basically tells them to put away a sinful person, someone in the congregation who was living a sinful lifestyle and not repenting. He said, you need to put them outside of the church.

Now, it's important also, this does refer to lifestyle. He doesn't say if someone's a brother who's ever committed one of these sins, can't be with you. It's if someone's living that lifestyle, and in this case, someone who was boastful about it. They were saying, yeah, we're tolerant, we get along with everybody. But we can back it up to Lot. We could say that Lot was not sinning by living in Sodom. Perhaps he wasn't even sinning by being a leader in the community. That doesn't make it a good idea for him to have been there. We can gain some insight into how he felt if we turn back to 2 Peter. 2 Peter 2. I'm going to start reading in verse 5. This is one of the few places that Lot appears in the New Testament. 2 Peter 2 and verse 5. Basically, speaking of God, did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight. A preacher of righteousness. And it goes on from there in verse 6. And God turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes. So, it says, fire in brimstone. He turned those cities into ashes, condemning the people to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward lived, would live ungodly. And delivered righteous Lot. It says, He delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct for the wicked. For that righteous man dwelling among them tormented his righteous soul from day to day, seeing and hearing of their lawless deeds. Now, I don't need to make this a diatribe against the people of our age, but we know the Bible is clear in condemning sin. It obviously condemns sodomy. It condemns homosexuality. It's amazing to me a lot of people who profess to be Christians want to try to twist and say the Bible doesn't condemn that. The Bible does. And it's clear that there was severe punishment for people practicing those. But, and Lot felt oppressed. He was tortured. Now, there are some... We've got some visitors for those of you up in Portsmouth.

Motorcycles can make a loud noise. There are some people who read this and say, how could you possibly call Lot righteous, considering what he was going to do that night? We'll address that shortly, but for now, let's take it for what it says.

Lot was not corrupted by the wickedness around him. In his mind, he was tortured knowing what was going on. I think that's good news for us. That's good news because it tells us it is possible. A righteous person can be surrounded by evil and wickedness and not be evil himself.

Now, I said possible. I didn't say easy. I didn't say possible without God's help in his spirit.

Those things about evil, wicked company, corrupting good manners, that's still true. And I'd say to be blunt and honest, Lot would have been much better if he'd have moved out of Sodom. He should have got the point a lot sooner. He still would have been living in a world full of sinners, but not in such close quarters. But what about us? We Christians today, we're living in a world that's become Sodom and Gomorrah. To be honest about it, what's going on around us is like what Lot was living in. Not only are homosexuality, bisexuality, transgenderism, adultery, and fornication going on all around, it's no longer done in secret. It used to be considered shameful and aberrant behavior.

But now, today's society's leaders actively advocate. They say, no, I applaud. Someone will come out and say he's a woman when he's not, and they give him an award. You know? And those who are in favor of these things are not only telling us that we must tolerate these things, but they actively promote it. It's not good enough to keep quiet.

The work is to make us actively endorse such things. And that's why I'm saying we live in Sodom and Gomorrah today, right now. I hope we can learn from one of the things that Lot did right. He did some things wrong, but I hope we can feel tortured by what's going on around us when we see and hear of these lawless deeds. I'm going to turn back to Ezekiel 9 for an example, because I want to confess, in some prior years I felt guilty when I've read the story in Ezekiel 9 starting in verse 4, because I wasn't sure I did it quite as much as I should.

Ezekiel 9 in verse 4, this is part of a vision that God gave Ezekiel. He has some angels lined up, and he has one of them there with an inkhorn. He says, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within the city. And to the others, he said, Go after him through the city and kill. Don't spare anyone. Utterly slay young and old maidens and little children and women, but don't come near anyone with the mark and begin at my sanctuary. Now, this is specifically, as I said, about the wickedness of Judah shortly before the Babylonian captivity. But like the story of Lot living in Sodom, it shows that righteous people will have to some extent sigh and cry over abominations that are going around us. That's how we should be feeling about the sins in our country. Now, that doesn't mean you always are crying out loud, but I'll bet you a lot of us here in the last couple months have heard news reports and literally sighed. I know I have. We go, Ah, I can't believe this. And then how are these people right there applauding and cheering? You know, I haven't felt as guilty about this passage of Scripture in the last few months, the way I used to, because I've sighed and cried about how evil it is.

We live in the greatest nation ever. We have the richest, most powerful, and for a long time, one of the most moral. But it's been changing in recent decades. And as I said, the legalization of homosexual marriage more than anything else has made me sigh and cry. And what's worse than the legalization is that it's been pushed in our faces. That's tended to make me fervently pray to God, thy kingdom come. We can learn that lesson from Lot. Lot was in that position of being surrounded by that evil, and he was tortured. Now, there's more for us to learn from him, though, both positive and negative, from what he did when the moment of crisis came. We've been leading up to the dramatic story of God destroying Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone. And as I said, I mentioned that from the beginning because I knew there would be no suspense. But now that we've considered Lot's life and the choices he made leading up to it, let's go to Genesis chapter 19. This is somewhat of the main event, but before I'll summarize a little of what happens in the preceding chapter because it's very closely tied to it. In Genesis 18, the one who we now know was Jesus Christ, he was the Word before he was born in the flesh, came and visited Abraham. He and two angels with him. And, you know, they had a nice dinner. He told Abraham, by the way, and within the year, you're going to have a son. And Sarah's in the next tent, laughed her head off. No, she didn't laugh her head off. She laughed inside. God said, what are you laughing about? I didn't laugh. No, you laughed because I can read minds. And by the way, we're going to name the child laughter because God has a sense of humor, too. Anyways, they had that discussion, but as they're leaving and Abraham's walking them to accompany them on the way, he said, maybe I should tell Abraham what I'm about to do because he's going to be the leader of a great nation. He's going to instruct his children and basically says, I've come down here to check out what I've heard about Sodom and Gomorrah. And if their wickedness is really this great, I'm going to destroy it.

Now, I still think, you know, I speculate that this might have been somewhat of a test of Abraham and how he would react because it's not like God couldn't know what was going on in Sodom and Gomorrah without coming down to look. I think he knew, but Abraham, as soon as God said that, he thought, my nephew Lot lives in Sodom. So his first question, are you going to destroy the righteous with the wicked? And then they go through a discussion. Well, surely the judge of all, you know, won't do this. Surely you won't destroy the righteous with the wicked. What if there's 50 and they go through the progression, you know, and God agrees, no, I don't want to destroy it. I'll spare it if there's 50 righteous. And it goes to 45, to 40, to 30, 20, to 10.

And Abraham, or Lot, yeah, Abraham, now Abraham is probably thinking, well surely there's Lot and Mrs. Lot and their kids, maybe he's taught his sons-in-law. There's got to be at least 10.

Well, when it comes down to it, there's not 10. There is just one, and that's Lot. And that's where we pick up in chapter 19. Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate, we've discussed this, when Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, bowed down himself with his face to the ground. And he said, here now, my lords, please turn into your servant's house, and spend the night, wash your feet, then you can rise early and go on your way. And there's no indication that Lot has any idea these are angels. I don't think there were halos above them or glowing eyes, he just saw two men. It's getting late in the day, you know, and perhaps he has some serious thoughts. But it's interesting, they say, no, no, we're gonna spend the night in the open square. I wonder if Lot's eyes went, spend the night in the open square? He insisted strongly. No, you've got to come stay at my place, you don't know about Sodom, you're gonna come stay with me. So they turned into him. They entered his house, made them a feast, so he fixed a nice meal with unleavened bread, because they didn't have time to make the bread rise. And so they start to eat. As I said, we don't know that he knew they were angels, but he knew they were strangers. So he did the right thing. Lot extended hospitality to a stranger in town. That's a good lesson for us. I find it interesting, you know, we tend to think that it's dusk and Lot's sitting there all alone in his folding chair and these guys come in, but they might have been conducting business, maybe there were several elders of the city, and only Lot said, I'm gonna go, I invite these guys in. He was an example to them. You know, I don't know if there were others there, but he could well have been. And I suspect that Lot knew the dangers that awaited two men who were just out in the open at night. And of course, they would bear out. In verse 4, before they lay down the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter surrounded the house. They called the Lot and said to him, where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them carnally. Now, Bible scholars pretty much all agree now the Hebrew word no means the same for know which way to go to, you know, do you know the way to San Jose or something like that? But used in this context, it always is referring to sexual relations. These men had a horrible, awful crime in mind, and Lot knew it. What did he do? Lot went out to them through the doorway, and he shut the door behind him and said, please, my brethren, do not do so wickedly.

You know, that was pretty brave. There's a group of people coming wanting to assault these strangers, and Lot goes out to face them all alone, and he doesn't keep the door cracked so he can run away. He closes the door, and he faces this hostile crowd on his own. I'd like to give him some points there. You know, he was willing, perhaps, to sacrifice his life for these strangers, to keep them from doing this horrible thing. That's an important thing, because what he does next doesn't seem so good. It raises some pretty strong questions. In verse 8, see now, I have two daughters who have not known a man. Please let me bring them out to you, and please let me bring them out to you, and you can do with them as you wish. Only do nothing to these men, since that's the reason they've come under the shadow of my roof. Parents everywhere cringe when they read this.

Was Lot really willing to sacrifice his daughters to save two strangers?

Now, I know in the Middle East, the obligations of hospitality run pretty high, and if Lot had said, Kill me! I'm gonna make you kill me before I'll let you go in there. We might have applauded him, you know, offering his own life instead of his children. Now, people look for other alternatives. Maybe Lot had something else in mind, and we can speculate, because Peter later said Lot was righteous, and because of that, some of the speculations, people, scholars have said, maybe this was really a ploy. Lot was talking to them to buy time for them to sneak out the back.

You know, that is possible, you know, both the daughters and the angels, but we don't have evidence of that. I've heard others speculate that he said, Look, you're coming for these men. Here are two women. And what he was really saying was, Give up homosexuality. Turn back to what God created you for. There's no hard evidence for that, either. Maybe it's just wishful thinking.

As I said, we know Peter called Lot righteous, and that's the main reason to look for alternatives. You know, alternatives to the idea that Lot was a selfish coward and pretty much the worst dad ever. And maybe he was. I mean, I'd have to say, if that's what he meant, I would use those terms.

And perhaps what Peter wrote refers to everything up to that time. Maybe up to this time, he was tortured by what was going on around him, and he cracked under the pressure. I don't think we're going to be able to know for sure until Christ returns. But we can learn this as a lesson for us, because Lot's later actions in the chapters seem to show that he was a man who was compromised. You know, he'd done right. He hadn't become wicked, living amidst wickedness, but he was affected.

And as we noted earlier, we are surrounded by wickedness and evil. And we have to sometimes ask ourselves, how much am I affected? If I come to the breaking point, will I break? Where will be my breaking point? So we've got to exert every effort not to allow evil to compromise us, not to make the kind of turn that it looks like Lot did. We can't do that on our own.

If we're going to do something like that, we need to be close to God. We need to be studying His Word every day, praying to Him every day, meditating often, fasting regularly. Because God will help us when the challenges come that are greater than we can meet on our own. In Lot's case, He did. The angels reached out and struck the men blind. I'm not going to read through the whole chapter. They would have done that even if Lot hadn't said, hey, I've got two daughters here, you can have them. God was going to deliver Lot. He let him go right up to the breaking point. As I said, probably Lot didn't know they were angels until that moment. How many times do we reach the point where we might say, well, I've got to give in to this or else? And God has an angel right there ready to deliver you if you make the right decision.

Let's read on in Genesis 19, starting in verse 15.

Hmm. I thought I missed the scripture. I'm coming to it later. Genesis 19, verse 15, when the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, hurry! Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here with you, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city. Oh, actually, I skipped in verse 14. He went out to his sons-in-laws who had married his daughters. I referenced that earlier. That could be referring to sons-in-laws who had become engaged to his daughters. There's where the possibility that he had two daughters, or he might have had four. He literally had four daughters, two who were married and two who weren't. Because the sons-in-laws thought he was joking. So Lot lingered. You know, maybe he's like, I got these two daughters. I don't want to leave them. I don't want them to be destroyed. But the angels said, hurry, we can't, you know, arise, take your wife, your two daughters who are with you, lest you be consumed. While he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, his wife's hand, hand of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful. Once again, in there, I want to refer back in 2 Peter. I'm not going to turn there, but 2 Peter 2, verse 9, it says, the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation.

I'll repeat that. The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation.

You can be in the worst situation ever. Can you imagine anything worse than Lot had? Being surrounded by the group of the most evil men ever who wanted to destroy you and your family? And not knowing that there were angels right there willing to deliver you?

But I still wonder what it says. They took their hands and they brought them out of the city. You know, I sometimes picture dragging them by their hands, but being a Star Trek fan, sometimes I wonder if they grab their hands and then it's like when Scottie beams you up and you go, and they're out of the city. Man, that might be possible. God knows how to deliver the righteous. Somehow they got them out. And that can remind us of how much God can save us, far more than our own power. Matter of fact, though, he might have a reason that's beyond our own power. In verse 29, it came to pass when God destroyed the cities of the plain, God remembered—not Lot—it says God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow.

Sometimes God will save us from our troubles less because we deserve it or are asking for it than because someone who loves us is praying to God for us. That's a possibility. When we're weak and not as close to God as we should be, there might be someone out there that loves us who is appealing to God, and God will answer that prayer. It's important for us to remember, though, we should be ready to be the person that's praying for someone else who isn't as close to God. We don't want to relax. Abraham didn't. Abraham knew Lot was in a bad situation, and he did all he could to convince God to save Lot. And God did. Even when we could make the case, Lot might not have deserved it.

We're near the end, but there's another important lesson that we can learn from one of Lot's mistakes.

Because we've reached the end of Lot's story in this chapter, and the latter part of chapter 19 of Genesis describes a rather bizarre incident. Lot and his two daughters at first they escaped to a city called Zohar, and then fire and brimstone, and it says it's going to say they leave there.

Because they're afraid this one's going to be destroyed. They go up into the mountains, and we'll begin reading in verse 31. Now the firstborn said to the younger, that's another one that makes us say, are there only two daughters or four? This might mean the oldest of the two daughters there, though. It says to the younger, our father's old. There's no man on earth to come to us, as is the custom of the earth. So basically, this seems to be saying we think all men on the whole planet have been wiped out, except for dad here, and he's old. We're never going to have children. So she proposes a solution. Come, let's make our father drink wine, and we'll lie with him so that we may preserve the lineage of our father. Now, we can speculate about the girl's motives, and it does say, following up, you know, they made their father drink wine that night. Firstborn went in and lay with her father. He didn't know when she laid down or when she arose. So, as I said, the girl's motives, we can impute sin there. They knew what they were doing. They did something wrong. Our focus today is on Lot, and what he did that we can't allow ourselves to do.

Now, we can't say that he didn't consent to sexual immorality. He didn't even know it happened, apparently. And it happened two nights in a row. I stopped reading. So, we don't want to accuse him of incest, of that. And I wonder, later his daughters are pregnant. I still have this. I can't wait till I can ask someone who will give me an answer. When and how or did Lot ever find out how his daughters got pregnant? You know, earlier he told the man, hey, I've got two daughters who've never been with a man. I wonder if he saw him pregnant. He said, ah, I said you've never been with a man you have. Who's the father? You know, and I wonder, would they keep it a secret or say, well, Dad, you remember those nights you drank too much? You know, I don't know. It's a bizarre story.

And as I said, let's note, as I said, we can't accuse Lot of the sexual sin, but he let himself be manipulated. And he let down his self-control in a way a righteous person can't afford to do.

I can't imagine the girls forced the wine down his throat. The older says, come, let's make our father drink wine. I'm sure they brought him the bottle. I'm not sure, you know, when they fled for their lives, they brought bottles of wine. That's, it makes you wonder what else they brought or didn't bring. You know, don't worry about the rations or blankets. Bring the wine.

I guess that's not a good situation to be telling jokes in, is it? Bad nature. Anyways, you know, but he was probably depressed. He was probably scared. Maybe he was feeling sorry for himself. His wife had just turned into a pillar of salt. They handed him the bottle. And yeah, the drink was good. Perhaps he let down. And, you know, having a drink in a situation like that, I'm not going to say is a sin and not evil. You know, a Christian today can feel experiences like that.

But the lesson from the life of Lot is that we can't let those reasons turn into excuses for letting down entirely. You know, because we can't let ourselves get lax when we survive one intense trial. Lot made it through what was probably the worst trial of his life.

And then he fell into another huge mistake, probably without giving it much thought. And I put this lesson to myself because I'll admit, you know, when I'm stressed or dejected or if I'm exhausted, I like to have a drink. Apparently, so did Lot. But Lot let his daughters push him into getting dropped down blind drunk. You know, that's not the same as, boy, I had a stressful day. I'm going to have a drink and relax. You know, he had another and another and another until he didn't even know what happened to him. That's the type of let down and lapse that a Christian can't afford to have. We have to remain vigilant. Here's a lesson from Lot of what not to do.

Now, this doesn't look very good for Lot. So I want to wrap things up. We've reached the end of his story, but look back and remember again some of his positives. I'd like to believe that the mistakes Lot made at this great crisis were a turning point. And I'm speculating. What I'd like to believe is from then on, he said, boy, did I blow it that night or those two nights, but not anymore. I'm going to worship the God of my fathers. I'm going to do what Abraham does and do things right.

We're not going to know for sure about that until Christ returns, because the Bible doesn't tell us more about Lot's life. Now, it does say all the way back in 2 Peter that he was a righteous man. So that's part of what makes me say, you know, for whatever wrong he did, I like to think he did right. We know that his children, Moab and Ammon, grew into significant nations, and God didn't wipe them out. Now, they became enemies at times of Israel, but he allowed them to live right next door. And we know that Lot made some good choices in his life. Lot made the good choice of going with Abraham. He made the good choice of responding to God's calling in the right way. We know that Lot did well in being appalled and upset by the wickedness in the world around him.

So far, these are things that I hope most of us have done. We've had a calling from God and responded to it. Hopefully, we see the wickedness in the world around us, and we are upset. It does torture our souls. Lot showed tremendous bravery when he had guests in his home were in danger. We can emulate Lot's positive examples in those areas. And we can realize that we need to learn from his mistakes, too. And we need to learn to not do those things. We need to learn to avoid associating with wicked people, because it can weaken us to where we don't stand up in a trial. We need to be vigilant in allowing us to not be spiritually weak when we've been tried over and over again. We need to stand strong continually and not have those lapses. And I'm wondering what other lessons there might be in the life of Lot. This is the one I'm looking forward to the resurrection for that reason. I know there's more to it. I don't know if he'll be in the first resurrection or the second resurrection. But when we get to talk to him, I'm sure we're going to learn even more lessons from the life of Lot.