OVERVIEW:
Two angels visit Lot; Sodom destroyed; Lot’s wife; Lot and his daughters; Abraham and Sarah sojourn in Gerar; the conflict between Abraham and Abimilech over Sarah; the birth of Isaac; Hagar and Ishmael; the covenant between Abraham and Abimilech.
HIGHLIGHTS & INSIGHTS:
There’s “a lot” to learn from the life of Lot!
It’s easy to read over the simple phrase in 19:1, “and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom”, and miss the incredible significance. But recognize, in the Old Testament, “sitting in the gate” meant that you were “somebody”! I mean, when you spent your afternoon’s hanging out with the fellas down at the gate, you had achieved some pretty major status in the community! But let me assure you, being a “big-wig” in a city as morally corrupt and whacked out as Sodom is not the position any God-follower ever wants to attain! In the words of James, I think that might be called “friendship with the world”! (James 4:4) And recognize also, this wasn’t a position Lot attained overnight! It was actually the culmination of Lot’s gradual downward spiral into a life of carnality, worldliness, and ungodliness. God carefully details Lot’s downward spiral into a life of sin through about a seven-chapter span in the book of Genesis.
Check out the progression…
- Lot “LIFTED UP HIS EYES” toward Sodom. (13:10)
- Lot “PITCHED HIS TENT” toward Sodom. (13:13)
- Lot “DWELT” in Sodom. (14:12)
- Lot “SAT IN THE GATE” of Sodom. (19:1)
- Even after God confirmed its destruction, Lot “LINGERED” in Sodom. (19:15-16)
The thing we must make certain we don’t miss, is that this pattern is repeated over and over in the lives of many in Scripture, as well as the lives of many believers right up to the present day! Seldom, if ever, are Christians suddenly overtaken by the world. As in the case of Lot, it begins with FRIENDSHIP with the world (James 4:4); then becomes LOVING the things of the world (1st John 2:15); until finally, the ways of the world have become such a part of the fabric of who we are, we become completely ENGULFED by Satan’s diabolical system of evil (Ephesians 2:2), much like we were before God delivered us out of it at salvation. (2nd Timothy 2:26; 2nd Peter 1:9)
Satan makes this world’s system look attractive, promising, alluring, and enticing, but it’s designed to chew us up and spit us out! When Abraham gave Lot the choice of the land he wanted (13:8–11), Sodom appeared to Lot to be a place of peace, prosperity, and protection. In the end, it turned out to be a place of conflict, compromise, and casualty. Lot went into Sodom with his communion with God, his wife, his testimony, his character, and his wealth, and came out with none of them! None!!! Oh, that God would help us to see this present evil world for what it is!
Lot, who in this passage lost everything to the fire of God’s judgment (19:15–29), pictures for us the life of a worldly believer who loses everything to the fire of God’s judgment at the Judgment Seat of Christ. (1st Corinthians 3:11–15) God affirms through Peter (2nd Peter 2:7–8) that Lot, (like many believers today), was “saved”, “yet so as by fire” (1st Corinthians 3:15).
Just a brief note to husbands and fathers, Lot’s life screams out the urgent warning of how the decisions we make effect our wives and children. (19:26, 30–38).
In ISAAC – Genesis 21:12 (Genesis 17:19; Galatians 3:16)