Genesis 19.12-22-Deliverance of Lot
Wednesday February 8, 2006
Genesis: Genesis 19:12-22-Deliverance of Lot
Lesson # 96
Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 19:1.
This evening we will study the deliverance of Lot from the destruction of Sodom, which is recorded in Genesis 19:12-22.
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.’”
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.’”
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.”
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.”
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.”
Genesis 19:12, “Then the two men said to Lot, ‘Whom else have you here? A son-in-law, and your sons, and your daughters, and whomever you have in the city, bring them out of the place.’”
Notice that the Lord is concerned about the salvation of Lot’s entire family, even his son-in-law.
The Lord’s generosity is demonstrated in that Lot could bring anyone with him that he wanted to.
They would be protected because of their relationship with the Lot who was a believer even though they were unbelievers.
They did not have to be righteous in order to be delivered from the judgment since it was enough that they were connected with Lot.
Genesis 19:13, “for we are about to destroy this place, because their outcry has become so great before the LORD that the LORD has sent us to destroy it.”
The angels were the agents used by the Lord to not only deliver Lot and those related to him but they were also to carry out the destruction of Sodom.
Psalm 78:49, “He sent upon them His burning anger, fury and indignation and trouble, a band of destroying angels.”
“Their outcry” refers to social oppression in Sodom (Isa. 1:10, 17), as well as adultery, lying and abetting criminals (Jer. 23:14), arrogance, complacency and showing no pity on the poor and needy (Ezek. 16:49).
Isaiah 3:8-9 records that the Sodomites did not conceal their homosexual behavior but flaunted it.
Genesis 9:4-11 records that the Sodomites were in violation of guests, and of personal property and privacy, homosexual conduct, gang rape, assault and battery.
In Genesis 9:4-11, the Sodomites are guilty of presumably the worst sexual offense, namely, attempted homosexual gang rape (cf. Judges 19; Jude 7).
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!
The wickedness of the Sodomites has been confirmed by two credible witnesses as required by divine jurisprudence as recorded in the Mosaic Law, namely, the two elect angels (Deut. 17:6).
The angels have confirmed that the inhabitants of Sodom are indeed wicked and unrepentant and have therefore been ordered by the Lord to destroy the place.
Genesis 19:14, “Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, and said, ‘Up, get out of this place, for the LORD will destroy the city.’ But he appeared to his sons-in-law to be jesting.”
In those twilight hours before sunrise, Sodom saw more evangelistic activity from Lot than in all the previous years.
His efforts were not trained upon the men of the city, however, but were a frantic and futile effort to save his own family, whom he had neglected to win.
Lot’s daughters were engaged and were therefore under the authority of their future husbands.
In the days of Lot and Abraham, marriages were arranged by parents for business purposes or social advantage.
Therefore, we can infer that Lot had arranged a marriage for his daughters with unbelievers in order to further his business ventures in Sodom and to advance himself socially in the place.
This indicates his love for Sodom and therefore, his love for the cosmic system of Satan, which explains his delay and hesitation in leaving Sodom.
“Joking” is the verb tsachaq (qj^x* ) (tsaw-khak), which in the piel stem means, “to mock,” thus indicating that Lot’s future sons-in-law mocked and did not take his warning seriously.
They did not respect Lot or his relationship with the Lord because he had sold out to the cosmic system.
They did not take him seriously because he had never mentioned his relationship with the Lord before since it wasn’t that important to him.
His top priority in life was never his relationship with the Lord but rather his business ventures and politic ambitions in Sodom.
Lot’s words were not a repetition of his life¬-long warnings of sin and judgment but were something totally new and novel.
His future sons-in-law could see that Lot’s priorities were not his relationship with the Lord but rather his priorities were acquiring wealth, his business and politics as evidence in the fact that Genesis 19:1 records him sitting in the gate of Sodom.
His compromise with Satan’s cosmic system had destroyed his witness in the city meaning that he was a poor representative and ambassador of Jesus Christ.
Christians are ambassadors for Christ and are commanded to keep their behavior excellent before the unbeliever in order to win the unbeliever to Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:20, “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”
1 Peter 2:12, “Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.”
Lot’s sons-in-law were unbelievers indicating that Lot had violated a spiritual principle taught in the Word of God that no believer was to marry an unbeliever.
This too was evidence of Lot’s apostasy or reversionism and sell out to the cosmic system of Satan.
2 Corinthians 6:14, “Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?”
2 Corinthians 6:15, “Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?”
“Reversionism” is the act of reverting to a former state, habit, belief or practice of post-salvation sinning (2 Tim. 4:4) and is a reversal of your priorities, attitudes, affections, the object of your personal love (Gal. 4:9).
Reversionism and evil are actually two sides of the same coin in that evil is what the reversionistic soul thinks whereas reversionism is the condition of that soul.
Notice that Lot does not go to warn his own sons.
Remember in Genesis 19:12, the angels told Lot warn his son-in-law, his sons and daughters but here in Genesis 19:14 we see him warning only his future sons-in-law who were engaged to his daughters.
This indicates that his sons were deeply involved in the Sodomite wickedness by this time and knew that it would be useless to even bother warning them.
As you can see, Lot’s compromise with the evil of Satan’s cosmic system has caused the disintegration and destruction of his family.
Genesis 19:15, “When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, ‘Up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.’”
Morning came and no one had gotten saved.
In Genesis 19:12, the angels are described as “men” since from Lot’s perspective they appeared to be simply men but in Genesis 19:15 they are called “angels” since by this time in the narrative Lot recognizes that his guests are not of this world but in fact, angels in human form.
Genesis 19:16, “But he hesitated. So the men seized his hand and the hand of his wife and the hands of his two daughters, for the compassion of the LORD was upon him; and they brought him out, and put him outside the city.”
The fact that Lot hesitated in leaving Sodom was evidence that he was in love with Sodom, which was totally driven by evil and a part of Satan’s cosmic system.
Bruce K. Waltke commenting on this, writes, “Lot felt more secure inside an evil city that outside of it with God” (Genesis, A Commentary, Zondervan, page 278).
The fact that the angels had to take the hands of Lot, his wife and two daughters was indication that all of them were in disobedience to the Lord who had sent these angels to remove them.
Therefore, the fact that they were brought out by the angels was according to God’s grace and mercy meaning that they didn’t earn or deserve this treatment from the Lord.
Lot’s wife and two daughters leave the city with Lot and the two angels because they knew Lot’s guests were able to carry out the destruction.
The Lord is manifesting His compassion to Lot by forcibly removing him from Sodom.
Psalm 103:8, “The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.”
Genesis 19:17, “When they had brought them outside, one said, ‘Escape for your life! Do not look behind you, and do not stay anywhere in the valley; escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away.’”
The angels stress to Lot and his family the urgency of leaving without any delay, even without looking behind them in order to escape the destruction of the cities of the plain.
The lesson for us believers is that we are to flee from the cosmic system of Satan without looking back with regrets or longing in order to avoid being injured or destroyed when the cosmic system is judged.
Genesis 19:18, “But Lot said to them, ‘Oh no, my lords!’”
Genesis 19:19, ‘Now behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your lovingkindness, which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountains, for the disaster will overtake me and I will die.”
Again, we see Lot attempting to compromise.
Lot does “not” recognize or acknowledge that these angels were the agents used by the Lord to deliver him since he attributes his deliverance to the angels and not the Lord who sent the angels.
This is another manifestation that he is in apostasy or reversionism as a result of honoring the temptations of the cosmic system of Satan.
When the angels tell Lot to flee for his life, he thinks he will not be able to make it to the mountains since he must have been an old man.
If Abraham was ninety-nine, Lot must have been at least in his seventies, maybe in his eighties and so he figures that he will not have the stamina to run that far and that long.
So he drives a hard bargain to go to the city of Zoar and his request is granted.
The presence of Lot at that place guarantees the safety of the city.
Lot’s fear demonstrates the irrationality of unbelief.
The irrationality of Lot’s unbelief is manifested in that he does not trust that the Lord would protect him in the place that He told Lot to flee to.
You would think that Lot would consider the fact that if the Lord spared him from being killed in Sodom, the Lord could and would protect him in the place that He told Lot to flee.
The Lord sent these angels to rescue Lot and his family and yet Lot still fears he will not be protected indicating he does not believe that the Lord will deliver or protect him.
Genesis 19:20, “now behold, this town is near enough to flee to, and it is small. Please, let me escape there (is it not small?) that my life may be saved.”
Lot’s request to flee to a town rather than escape to the mountains is evidence that he cannot face life apart from living in a city.
Bruce K. Waltke commenting on this verse, writes, “Lot is pleading that God spare Bela (see 14:2), one of the cities of the plain otherwise under God’s judgment (19:25). He argues that, since the walled village is small, its quantity of sin is less and/or it is not worth bothering with. His argument betrays a lack of faith, a jaded spiritual evaluation of justice, and an effete taste for depraved urbanity (see note on 19:18). His selfish plea that God spare Zoar as a place for him to live without regard to righteousness functions as a foil to Abraham’s plea for Sodom on the basis of God’s compassion and righteousness” (Genesis, A Commentary, Zondervan, page 278).
The Lord’s intention was to deliver Lot and He would have therefore, suspended the destruction of Sodom until Lot was safely in the mountains.
Genesis 19:21, “He said to him, ‘Behold, I grant you this request also, not to overthrow the town of which you have spoken.’”
Genesis 19:22, “Hurry, escape there, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there. Therefore the name of the town was called Zoar.”
Lot did “not” request that the angels not destroy the city of Zoar for the sake of its inhabitants but for his own selfish interests and convenience and more evidence that he was in reversionism or apostasy.