Genesis 19 - Sodom and Gomorrah
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Prayer
With all that is going on in our world to this particular chapter should stand as fair warning to America and the World of what is on the horizon. Jesus, said of Capernaum;
23 “And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day.
How much more to us as Americans who have seen the grace of God in our own lifetimes.
So last time we ended with Abraham bargaining with God to save the righteous, if any, in Sodom. In that, he was pleading for the lives of Lot and his family.
We remember that Abraham asked a poignant question of God which was;
25 “Far be it from You to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?”
Built into that question is another key question - Is God just or is God fair? Those who know Him know that He is. So when something causes you to question His Justice always remember that you do not have the whole story.
So let stand as we get into our text tonight;
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.
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.”
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.
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;
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.”
So here the angels leave their conversation with Abraham and go Sodom and find Lot sitting in the Gate. Meaning Lot was acting as a judge or elder for the city of Sodom. Lot had fully acclimated to the culture of Sodom. It seems that Lot had become so desensitized to the culture of Sodom that it no longer bothered him. Be careful to not be lulled to sleep because sin is all around and is accepted.
Jesus died for these very things and we are to have no part in it.
Notice in verse 2 Lot’s reaction to the angels saying they would just stay in the street. It’s like living in a filthy house. You become so desensitized to the clutter and mess but when someone comes over you wake up to the fact that your house is a disaster.
Well here Lot wakes up to the situation in Sodom and pressed the angels to stay at his home. Why did he press them? Because he knew what would happen. So before they could go to bed, the men of the city, notice from every quarter surround the house and demand that the men come out that they might rape them.
Remember, from last week God telling Abraham,
20 And the Lord said, “The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave.
21 “I will go down now, and see if they have done entirely according to its outcry, which has come to Me; and if not, I will know.”
Here the LORD gets His answer. The entire city had been infected with the perversion of homosexuality. Almost like rabid dogs. Now, Homosexuality is just one of the sins in the universe of sins for which Christ died.
However, it has an insidious nature that undermines Gods created order of monogamous heterosexual unions in marriage. The very nature of man and his drives are held in check by the nature of the woman.
But men in their fallen state with no checks can become what Sodom became.
It has become fashionable to be “gay” in our culture, even applauded, however the word is very strong against this sin in both OT and NT.
22 ‘You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination.
23 ‘Also you shall not have intercourse with any animal to be defiled with it, nor shall any woman stand before an animal to mate with it; it is a perversion.
24 ‘Do not defile yourselves by any of these things; for by all these the nations which I am casting out before you have become defiled.
25 ‘For the land has become defiled, therefore I have brought its punishment upon it, so the land has spewed out its inhabitants.
These were the practices of the Canaanites that brought the judgment of God.
In Romans Paul says;
24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.
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.
26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural,
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.
Additionally, 1 Cor 6:9
9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals,
Note- the warning is not against being tempted but against the action and more importantly the life style.
We are all dealing with different temptations of all kinds and at times we fall. However, the thief does not campaign to change the morays of our culture to say that stealing is ok because I feel compelled to steal.
Jesus died for all including homosexuals and adulterers and all other sins. We cannot expect the world to act like Christians. They are not.
But when one is born again they cannot continue in these sins and for the church to deem this sin as acceptable is wickedness and the beginning of the end of that part of the Church.
Now clearly homosexuality was not the only issue in Sodom. According to Ezekiel;
49 “Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy.
I find it interesting that you could substitute America for Sodom and it would stand just as true. Arrogance, believing we are better. Adundance of food - even our poorest eat regularly. We throw food away. Careless ease - excess leisure, too much idle time. these are all earmarks of our country up to this moment.
The one positive for America is that we have helped the poor and needy. More than any other nation.
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But I fear this is all about to change.
Back to our story;
6 But Lot went out to them at the doorway, and shut the door behind him,
7 and said, “Please, my brothers, do not act wickedly.
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.”
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.
10 But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them, and shut the door.
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.
All we can say is that verse 8 is upsetting just to read. How can he disregard his daughters like that but it reveals the culture of the day.
Notice however that the men of the city had no interest in the two daughters of Lot.
The daughters are described by Lot as virgins yet they were both married as we learn. It is believed that they were in their betrothal period which was binding but had not yet consummated their marriages.
The angels now reveal to Lot what the plan is;
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;
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.”
Here we learn of the son in laws and the urgency of the moment.
Based on verse 13, Do you wonder how loud the outcry is against our country!
Genesis 19:14–22 (NASB95)
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.
Note if our witness before the world is weak, we will not be taken seriously either!
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.”
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.
Note- the angels had to nearly drag Lot out. Why?
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.”
18 But Lot said to them, “Oh no, my lords!
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;
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.”
21 He said to him, “Behold, I grant you this request also, not to overthrow the town of which you have spoken.
22 “Hurry, escape there, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” Therefore the name of the town was called Zoar.
Notice here in verse 22 is the answer to Abrahams question in chapter 18, will the Lord destroy the righteous with the wicked?. The answer is no.
“Hurry, escape there, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.”
So rest assured any one who is born-again you are not appointed unto the wrath of God.
Genesis 19:23–29 (NASB95)
23 The sun had risen over the earth when Lot came to Zoar.
24 Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven,
25 and He overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
26 But his wife, from behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
Now what this means is unclear, whether she just looked back turning her head or actually lingered behind. On Lot’s wife Luke writes;
28 “It was the same as happened in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building;
29 but on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.
30 “It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed.
31 “On that day, the one who is on the housetop and whose goods are in the house must not go down to take them out; and likewise the one who is in the field must not turn back.
32 “Remember Lot’s wife.
So I guess the message is don’t linger behind. Here in reference to the second coming.
Back to Gen 19;
27 Now Abraham arose early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before the Lord;
28 and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the valley, and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land ascended like the smoke of a furnace.
29 Thus it came about, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.
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Now if it couldn’t get any worse let’s look at the last verses;
Genesis 19:30–38 (NASB95)
30 Lot went up from Zoar, and stayed in the mountains, and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to stay in Zoar; and he stayed in a cave, he and his two daughters.
31 Then the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of the earth.
So they think the world was destroyed and no one else is left.
32 “Come, let us make our father drink wine, and let us lie with him that we may preserve our family through our father.”
33 So they made their father drink wine that night, and the firstborn went in and lay with her father; and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.
34 On the following day, the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father; let us make him drink wine tonight also; then you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve our family through our father.”
35 So they made their father drink wine that night also, and the younger arose and lay with him; and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.
36 Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father.
37 The firstborn bore a son, and called his name Moab; he is the father of the Moabites to this day.
38 As for the younger, she also bore a son, and called his name Ben-ammi; he is the father of the sons of Ammon to this day.
So that’s where Ammon and Moab come from who then become enemies of Israel.