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BIBLE
STUDY LESSON
For
the week beginning Sunday October 28, 2018
SODOM AND
GOMORRAH DESTROYED
Genesis
19:1-29
Genesis 19 chronicles the destruction of all of the morally
bankrupt cities that were located on the plains of Canaan, including Sodom,
Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim, and Bela. Today there is great geological proof that
those cities now lie beneath the southern end of the Dead Sea. It is an area
that once held large deposits of highly flammable bitumen, and archeologists
believe that that, along with this area’s geological instability, became the
natural weapons that GOD used to judge the godless citizenry who resided there
in those days.
After leaving the presence of Abraham, the
two angels of GOD who delivered the message that he and Sarah would conceive
and birth a child within a year’s time, now arrive at the entrance of the city
of Sodom to fulfill the second part of their earthly mission. Lot, the nephew
of Abraham, was sitting at the city gate (the traditional place where judges
sit) at the time of their arrival, and when he saw them, he arose to meet them
and welcomed them as he bowed low to the ground. He then invited them to be
quests in his home for the night.
The two men (angels) initially declined the
invitation saying that they would, instead, spend the night in the open square
of the city, however, Lot, knowing the dangers of homosexual predators on the
streets at night, insisted that the men reconsider and stay the night in his
home. The angels eventually accepted his invitation, and that night, Lot set up
a great feast for them and they ate until they were filled.
After dinner, as they were preparing to
retire for the night, all of the men of Sodom, young and old, came from all
over the city and surrounded Lot’s house, demanding that he release the men to
them so that they can have sex with them (Vs.4-5). Lot stepped outside the
house, shutting the door behind him, and what he proposes to them turns out to
be just as vile and evil as the homosexual crowd’s demands were. Here, Lot, in
the most hypocritical fashion, offers his two virgin daughters, whom were
already engaged to two other men, to be raped by the men instead.
Lot, whose mind had become twisted with
fear, and also fogged with the “spiritual contamination” that living in an
ungodly atmosphere can cause, had now come to the ridiculously evil conclusion
that, it was better for a man to rape a woman (his virgin daughters), than for
a man to rape another man!
Lot’s experience in Sodom will forever
stand as a teachable moment for all Christians who choose to remain in a worldly
environment, because of the perceived material advantages that that environment
may provide. When we lose our hearts to the things of this world we make
ourselves extremely vulnerable to satan, and we begin to long more and more to
partake in his offerings. Remember, at first Lot pitched his tent outside the
city of Sodom (Genesis 13:12), but here in this chapter of Genesis, we see that
he is now living inside the city of Sodom, and his mind has been unwittingly
influenced and twisted by Sodom’s evil
environment.
In verse 9 we see that Lot’s twisted
negotiations with the men of Sodom failed, as now the throng of homosexual men
threatened to take him instead, if he did not comply with their demands. They
reminded him that he was only there as long as they allowed him to be, and that
his preachings certainly had no influence over how they wanted to live their
lives.
Just then the hostile gay men lunged at Lot
in an attempt to get by him and break down the door, but the two angels reached
out and grabbed Lot and pulled him back into the house, and bolted the door.
Then the two angels miraculously blinded the men of Sodom so that they could no
longer see what they were doing.
We are reminded in 2 Peter 2, verses 7-8, by
the Apostle Peter that Lot was a righteous man who was distressed and
unwittingly influenced by the filthy lives of the people of Sodom. Yet, we see
that he stayed there and continued to take advantage of the healthy economic
conditions and grand living and culture in Sodom, rather than to take a stand
against the evil acts that by now, was dominating the community. His
willingness to compromise and live large, nearly, cost him his life.
The next morning the angels told Lot to
gather up his family and get out of Sodom in a hurry, because the LORD GOD had
sent them to destroy the five cities of the plains, for the stench of their
sins had reached Heaven itself. Lot first, rushed out to tell his daughter’s fiancés
about the pending doom of Sodom, however, the young men didn’t believe him,
thinking that it was a joke (Vs.12-14).
Early the next morning, with the clock
running out on Sodom and the other cities, the angels became more insistent
that they make haste for the city limits, if they wished to accept the mercy of
GOD’s salvation and favor. Yet and still they had to end up, quite literally,
dragging Lot and his family out of the sinful metropolis.
For Abraham’s sake, GOD had granted Lot and
his family mercy, and even then, they, for the most part, were reluctant to
accept it. In verses 18-20 we see Lot still trying to inject his own “human
ingenuity” into GOD’s plan. There he tells the angels that he “cannot” go to
the mountains where the angels of GOD were trying to carry them to salvation. In
other words, he was saying to GOD, I cannot obey YOU, I do not trust or have
faith in YOUR plan for my life. And so he insisted on stopping short of the
total salvation process. He believed that his own plan would save him, not
GOD’s.
When we decide to choose to go our own way,
the LORD will most certainly allow us to do it. What we see in verse 21 is
precisely that, as the angel grants Lot his request to go his own way, and from
that day forward, the place Lot chose to go to, was called “Zoar”, which means
“a little one”. Before that time, the area had been a part of the city of Bela,
which was destroyed along with Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim. Zoar would
forever stand as a reminder to future Israelites of the fate of Lot, as he was
reluctantly dragged to safety, and fell short of the destination (salvation
plan) that was chosen for him by the LORD.
By sunrise Lot had reached his destination
and the LORD rained down burning sulfur from the sky and destroyed all forms of
life, people, animals, and plants alike, that lived in the five cities of the plains
of Canaan. Lot’s wife, who was equally reluctant to leave the plains area,
turned for one last look, and scripture now famously records that “she became a
pillar of salt”.
LOT AND HIS
DAUGHTERS
Genesis
19:30-38
After the destruction of the plains by the LORD, Lot began to see
that he had made a bad choice, and he became afraid of the people of Zoar, the
small city that he had insisted on going to. And so he moved to the caves of
the mountains where the LORD had instructed him to go in the first place, with
his two daughters.
Like their father Lot, the two daughters,
not trusting GOD’s plan, and having no faith in what GOD was trying to do in
their lives, became concerned about their future and came up with their own
plan of survival (human ingenuity), and what resulted from their scheme, became
the origin of two of Israel’s greatest future enemies, the Moabites, and, the
Ammonites.
Remember when Lot came up with the
irrational plan for the homosexual men of Sodom to rape his daughters, instead
of raping the two men (angels) that were guests in his house? Well, now his
daughters come up with their own incestuous, irrational plan to get their
father drunk, and then, rape him (have sex with him without his consent), so
that they might secure the families future with an offspring.
They both eventually became pregnant by
their drunk and unwitting father, Lot, first the elder daughter, and then the
younger. And the older daughter named her son “Moab”, who became the father of
the nation of the Moabites. The younger daughter named her son “Ben-ammi”, and
he became the father of the nation of the Ammonites. These two nations would be
a thorn in the side of future Israel for many generations to come.
Whenever we choose to go our own way, we
automatically move farther and farther away from GOD, and in the end, GOD is
reduced in our mind, to just an obscure figure, whom we once knew. Our last
glimpse of Lot shows him as a destitute and drunk, pitiful figure of a man, who
chose to go his own, lying senseless in a mountain cave. His close attachment
to the world cost him everything he had, and benefited him nothing but grief.
And even though GOD had mercifully spared him from physical doom in Sodom, he
still defiantly continued and insisted on doing things his way, a way that
eventually led to the rebirth of Sodom (sexual immorality) in the isolation of
a cave.
A Sunday school lesson by,
Larry D. Alexander
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