Genesis 19.6-11-Lot's Futile Attempt at Compromise with the Sodomites
Tuesday February 7, 2006
Genesis: Genesis 19:6-11-Lot’s Final Compromise with the Sodomites
Lesson # 95
Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 19:1.
This evening we will study Genesis 19:6-11, which records for us Lot’s final, futile attempt to compromise with the wicked mob of gay men in Sodom who attempted to gang rape Lot’s two guests.
Lot’s two guests were in fact angels sent by the Lord to confirm that Sodom was justified in being destroyed.
Genesis 19:1, “Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground.”
Genesis 19:2, “And he said, ‘Now behold, my lords, please turn aside into your servant's house, and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise early and go on your way.’ They said however, ‘No, but we shall spend the night in the square.’”
Genesis 19:3, “Yet he urged them strongly, so they turned aside to him and entered his house; and he prepared a feast for them, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.”
Genesis 19:4, “Before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter.”
Genesis 19:5, “and they called to Lot and said to him, ‘Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have relations with them.’”
The angels evidently were very attractive to the gay men of the city since both old and young come out from every quarter of the city.
The fact that both the old and young were involved in this attempted homosexual gang rape indicates that the lifestyle of homosexuality was promoted and practiced up to the third and fourth generation.
This illustrates the principle taught many times in Scripture that God visits the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.
Numbers 14:18, “The LORD is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generations.”
The conduct of the men of Sodom towards the two elect angels sent by the Lord who appeared as men was confirmation for the elect angels that in fact the Sodomites were wicked and justified in being destroyed by the Lord.
The narrator (Moses) gives the reader these sordid details so that the reader can know that God was justified in destroying the Sodomites since they were “all” wicked unregenerate and unrepentant individuals.
Genesis 19:3-5 indicates that the men of Sodom were not only looking to perform homosexual acts upon the angels but they want to do it against their will.
Thus we see that collectively the men of Sodom wanted to rape these angels!
This passage clearly indicates that the men of Sodom did not consider homosexuality a sin since they attempt to rape the angels publicly.
Both old and young men throughout the city were involved in this heinous crime!
Their collective conscience was seared since they had rejected the law of God imbedded in their souls, which prohibited such conduct.
This was because they had exchanged the truth of God for lies and have been given over by the Lord to their homosexual lusts and would be judged accordingly!
Romans 1:18-32 teaches that homosexuality is “not” biological or something one is born with and can’t control but rather a failure to acknowledge God as Creator and to adhere to His laws.
Romans 1:25, “For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”
Romans 1:26, “For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural.”
Romans 1:27, “and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.”
Romans 1:28, “And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper.”
Jude 5-7 states that God judged the Sodomites because of “gross immorality” and for going after “strange flesh” referring to committing homosexual acts.
The Scriptures condemned and prohibit homosexual behavior (Lev. 18:22).
Leviticus 20:13, “If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltiness is upon them.”
The men of Sodom did “not” conceal their homosexual behavior but were blatantly open about.
This explains why the Lord said in Genesis 18:20 that the “outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great and their sin is exceedingly grave.”
It should make us wonder as Christians living in America in the 21st century what the Lord thinks about the present day promotion of homosexuality as an alternative lifestyle.
The Word of God’s teaching on homosexuality indicates clearly that God is not pleased with the propagation in the media of homosexuality as an alternative lifestyle and He will judge it!
We must remember that God hates the sin of homosexuality but loves the sinner (Jn. 3:16-17).
This is manifested in the fact that Jesus Christ died for the homosexual in order that they might be saved and be freed from the bondage of homosexual sins.
2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”
Genesis 19:6-7, “But Lot went out to them at the doorway, and shut the door behind him and said, ‘Please, my brothers, do not act wickedly.’”
Lot courageously puts himself between the mob and his guests.
When Lot uses the term “brothers” he is appealing to the shared citizenship that he had with the mob indicating that Lot is attempting to play politics and compromise with the mob.
For twenty years Lot had lived in Sodom, yet he was still an alien to the men of the city.
He was left alone by these men because they still remembered the military might of his uncle Abraham and had he’d been attacked they would have had Abraham to deal with.
Lot rebuke was too much for the mob and they turn on him.
Genesis 19:8, “Now behold, I have two daughters who have not had relations with man; please let me bring them out to you, and do to them whatever you like; only do nothing to these men, inasmuch as they have come under the shelter of my roof.”
Lot demonstrates that he has been influenced by evil in that he is willing to make such a despicable compromise by offering his two virgin daughters to this mob in order to spare his guests!
These two virgin daughters of Lot were engaged to be married according to Genesis 19:14.
In Mosaic Law, the violator of a betrothed or engaged woman’s sanctity was subject to death by stoning (Deut. 22:23-27).
Therefore, by handing over his daughters to this mob of gay men would have implicated Lot in this crime and made him guilty and worthy of death in the eyes of God.
On the other hand, if Lot hands over his guests, who he at this time, believes are merely mortal men, he would be guilty of a crime as well.
If Lot hands himself over to the mob, there would be no one to protect his guests or his family.
Therefore, Lot is caught between a rock and a hard place from the human perspective.
But from the divine perspective, he should have cried out to the Lord in prayer to deliver him from this mob.
The Lord would have delivered him since this was one of the reasons why the angels were sent to Sodom.
So we see that Lot attempts to avoid the sin of the mob by committing sin and handing his daughters over to them.
This compromise is another manifestation that Lot is under the influence of Satan’s cosmic system of evil.
Genesis 19:9, “But they said, ‘Stand aside.’ Furthermore, they said, ‘This one came in as an alien, and already he is acting like a judge; now we will treat you worse than them.’ So they pressed hard against Lot and came near to break the door.”
The statement, “This one came in as an alien and already he is acting like a judge” expresses the contempt that the Sodomites have for Lot and that they never had accepted him as one of their own.
The mob rejects Lot’s offer of his virgin daughters and now threaten to rape him and ridicule him for attempting to reach a compromise with them.
Lot is now paying the price for compromising with the cosmic system of Satan.
His treatment by this mob of unregenerate, cosmic, gay rapists teaches the cosmic system’s contempt for a cosmic believer.
Genesis 19:10, “But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them, and shut the door.”
Genesis 19:11, “They struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves trying to find the doorway.”
Lot goes from attempting to rescue his guests to his guests rescuing him!
Finally, the angels intervene and stop this mob in its tracks by striking it with blindness.
This blindness did not leave its victims sightless but rather was a blindness of confusion so that they could not identify where they were.
Consequently, they were unable to find the door to Lot’s home and open it.
Now, Lot knows that his guests are not of this world but are in fact angels sent by the Lord to destroy Sodom and deliver him and his family.
This supernatural act was to exact some sort of repentance in the mob so that the Lord wouldn’t have to judge them.
But it doesn’t and so right to the very end, the Lord was attempting to save them but they refused these attempts to bring them to their senses.
Genesis 9:4-11 records several crimes committed by the Sodomites: (1) Violation of guests (2) Violation of personal property and privacy (3) Homosexual conduct (4) Attempted rape. (5) Attempted assault and battery.
In Genesis 9:1-11, the Sodomites are guilty of presumably the worst sexual offense, namely, attempted homosexual gang rape (cf. Judges 19; Jude 7).
The Bible also records other sins committed by both Sodom and Gomorrah such as social oppression (Isa. 1:10, 17), adultery, lying and abetting criminals (Jer. 23:14), arrogance, complacency and showing no pity on the poor and needy (Ezek. 16:49).
Therefore, the conduct of the Sodomites and their unrepentant attitude towards their Creator Jesus Christ confirmed to the angels that the Lord would be justified in destroying them and this He did!
Many times the Lord gave the Sodomites opportunities to change their wicked ways and believe in Him so as to be saved from eternal condemnation but yet they refused many times.
One of these attempts was when the Lord gave Abraham a great military victory over the Four Eastern Mesopotamian Kings who had defeated the Dead Sea Kings and carried away the inhabitants of Sodom as prisoners of war including Lot.
Their deliverance and Lot’s was clearly Divine Intervention since Abraham was completely out numbered and yet he defeated the Eastern Coalition with just 318 men and the small armies of the three Amorite princes.
You would have thought that this great deliverance would have humbled the Sodomites and yet it had not but the Lord continued to be patient with them and withheld judgment so that they might be saved.