Lot is Snatched Away from God's Wrath || Genesis 19:12-29 | Session 34 || Verse by Verse Bible Study

A question from today's verse by verse Bible study is could the unraveling of society's moral fabric be a sign of divine judgment similar to the fate of Sodom? This episode takes an in-depth look at the sobering concept of God's judgment, both in the ancient narrative of Sodom and its possible echoes in the world today. As we walk through the harrowing escape of Lot and his family, we confront the gripping tension between spiritual obedience and worldly attachments. The skepticism many believers face, emphasizing the critical need for persistent faith-sharing in a world that often seems to recoil from the truth. Join us on this journey through Genesis, where ancient narratives shed light on contemporary dilemmas, and faith endures as our compass through the complexities of life.

Transcript

God's Judgment on Sodom and Nations

Speaker 1 0:19

Today in the book of Genesis , we're going to study how God had realized that the city of Sodom had filled itself up with sin . God's patience was gone . He has sent his angels in to destroy the city . Today we're going to see how God gets Lot and his family out of Sodom , or at least what happens when he tries to . So , Steve , if you could read in Genesis 19 , starting in verse 12 and going down through 16 , we'll find out what happens when the angels interact with Lot and his family .

Speaker 2 0:52

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 , 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 . Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law , who were to marry his daughters , and said Get out of this place , for the Lord will destroy the city . But he appeared to his sons-in-laws to be jesting . When the morning dawned , the angels urged Lot , saying Take your wife and your two daughters , who are here , or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city . But he hesitated . So the man 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 .

Speaker 1 1:44

This is God and his angels preparing to destroy the city , and they're pulling out Lot and his family . One of the questions I have , Steve , that I think of when I read this passage . I always compare these two . Today , Do you think God is going to send judgment on people and nations today ? If we look at people and nations , I mean there's evil going on today . We have these stories back here in Genesis , where God destroyed these people because of their sin . Would God do that today ?

Speaker 2 2:14

God is definitely going to do that . Scripture is clear that there is coming a judgment day for the nations of the earth . Just like the iniquity of the Amorites had not been complete when God was telling Abraham that his descendants were going to be in slavery for 400 years and that he's had the patience here for Sodom , same thing is happening in our day on the nations that aren't following God . There is coming a judgment time for the nations . It's going to fill up and God is going to come and take care of it .

Speaker 1 2:52

I don't think we can go too far in predicting exactly which nation is going to get judged and blessed by God . I think we should leave those things up to God . But scripture is quite clear in saying that God will judge nations and that he is the one that controls what happens on the earth as far as national things . He says that in several places . I find today , Steve , that a lot of people just don't believe that God will judge nations and judge people . What I see , Steve , is there's things around me that I really don't have any other explanation for other than God removing his what's called common grace , or at least backing it away .

Speaker 1 3:35

In the Gospels , God says that he will send rain on the just and the unjust . Rain is a blessing to an agricultural person , so he sends blessings on just people and unjust people . Well , with that , I think we can draw a few conclusions that God is in control of that . If he wants to withdraw his blessings from people , he can do so . There's enough craziness and enough people committing enough Seems like every year there's a sin that I never would have thought of doing that before , but yet now it's out on public display and it seems that the world is just spinning out of control .

Speaker 1 4:14

I don't have any other explanation for it other than God is backing away his spirit and his common grace and letting the depravity of man go wild . His common grace and letting the depravity of man go wild that's what's happening here in this is that God , through these messengers , he's pulling out these people , Lot and his family , out of the city

Lessons From Lot's Hesitation and Obedience

Speaker 1 4:37

before they destroy it . Let's look at verse 14 . Steve , what happens at the end of verse 14 ? The angels had gone to Lot and said tell your family what happens in verse 14? .

Speaker 2 4:43

The reaction of the sons-in-law in verse 14 is that they just laughed off what Lot was telling them . Lot came and said the Lord's going to destroy this city and they just laughed it off . That's the same reaction that the vast majority of people have today . Jesus is a hoax . Jesus is a myth . There is no God . There are people that laugh it off and just think that it's funny and nothing's going to happen . Same thing happened here with Lot's sons-in-law . They just thought Lot was just kidding and they just thought it was just something to be laughed about .

Speaker 1 5:17

We've got a few comments about our materials . We put out the Word of God and we've had some lost people say , oh , this is total nonsense . The Word of God makes no sense to people unless God has prepared their hearts . God has to prepare our hearts and our minds . Then we are a little softer in accepting it . But God's Word to a lost person often sounds like nonsense . It sounds like why would anybody ever want this ? But nevertheless it's the truth . The truth needs to be said . What should we do , steve , if the people around us , like our family members or our friends or those we know , if we tell them about the Lord and they don't receive it , they think it's oh , you're just another religious nut ? What should we do in cases like that ?

Speaker 2 6:05

We should pray for them and we should continue to talk to them . We should have discussions with them . We should not give up on them and we should press forward and reason with them . Do the things that we're doing here Engage with them and continue to tell them about God's love and how they can have salvation .

Speaker 1 6:25

We should pray for wisdom and boldness and clarity in knowing when to speak and when not to in front of our friends . Jesus said don't cast your pearls before swine , but that doesn't give us an excuse to not ever deal with those around us and never tell them about the Lord . We should indeed , but we just need to be wise about it and , as you said , pray first . In verse 15 , the angels warned Lot yet again . Then , at the very beginning of 16 , what happens there ?

Speaker 2 6:55

Steve . It says right there , at the very first part of it , that he hesitated . Here is Lot . He's seen what's happening , with the man pressing forward to even put a threat on Lot himself . Through all of this , lot is still hesitated . You get this sense , glenn , that he's connected to this city and these people , even though they are exceedingly wicked . He knows that the city's fixing to be destroyed . He's hesitating .

Speaker 1 7:22

Lot knew these men were from heaven verse 1 of this chapter he saw these heavenly beings do a miracle by striking these people blind . He had enough faith to where he believed that these people were really from God . These were heavenly angels , and they gave him a message and he hesitated . I find this fascinating , simply because he knows the Word of God , he knows what's about to happen , but he hesitates . I think of the man in scripture , steve in the gospels , where he says to Jesus yes , I believe , help my unbelief . I think all of us have a little bit of lot in us in the sense that , yes , we believe , but there's times when we hesitate and there's times when we have to not hesitate . This is one of the times where a lot doesn't need to be hesitating not here , not now . Now's the time to go . That was the message that they were telling him . They said in verse 15 , up , take your wife and your two daughters or you will be swept away . They're saying go now , it's time . But he hesitates . Are we ever like that .

Speaker 2 8:25

Another thought comes to my mind is that Lot's hesitation might be tied to his other daughters that are with his sons-in-laws , and that they're not there in the house . They haven't showed up . His hesitation might be that of what about my other family members ? The lesson out of that is is that we can't make the decisions for other people . It's not our responsibility . We shouldn't have the burden of people not having faith in God . Our responsibility is to tell them about God , about Jesus Christ and what he's done . It's on them in order to believe and have faith in Jesus Christ . We can't hesitate when the time comes to go and to leave . They've made their decision and they've got to live with their decision .

Speaker 1 9:10

What does Jesus say in the gospel ? He says blessed are those who is willing to leave your family , your father , your mother , your sister , your brothers for the kingdom's sake . What does he tell the man who says Lord , I want to follow you , but I have to go home and take care of my father until he's dead so I can bury him ? Jesus says let the dead bury their own dead , follow me . That's our message . We have to follow the Lord , we have to go when he says go , and we can't be held back .

Speaker 1 9:35

I submit here , in verse 16 , he knew what was happening . Why did he hesitate ? He hesitated because Lot has attachments to what was in Sodom . Sodom is a representative of evil . Because it was evil , lot had some attachments there . The way I heard it phrased , steve , is it's easier to get Lot out of Sodom than it is to get Sodom out of Lot . Lot had a little too much of Sodom in him and that's why he hesitated . My Christian friend , when God's word is sitting there saying up , now , go , don't hesitate , then now is the time to do it right this minute , don't hesitate . That's the lesson here .

Speaker 2 10:19

Aren't we glad to see here that the angels actually seized them and took them out . His hesitation didn't have an ill effect . God took action through the angels and they actually took them , all of them , seized them by the hand and pulled them out . Do you think , glenn , that's ever going to happen to us someday , possibly whenever God's wrath is about to come on and judgment of the nations ?

Speaker 1 10:44

Well , I think it happened to me at salvation . I think he grabbed me by the hand and pulled me in . At least his Holy Spirit drew me . I think that with all my heart , because I at the time wasn't really very spiritually minded . But he pulled me in and I think at the end , yes , he will pull us out , because that's what's happening here .

Speaker 1 11:03

His lot had some faith , but he had partial faith . He hesitated . God sent his messengers to get them . What does Jesus say happens to the one sheep that's lost ? He leaves the 99 and goes and gets his lost sheep and brings it back . That's the message here is God knows his children , he knows exactly how many he has and he will go and bring them back . He will draw men to himself , even though we hesitate . He will grab us by the hand and pull us out of the city of destruction and into his blessings . I find that just great . They take the hands of Lot and his family and lead them out of the city . Quote , for the compassion of the Lord was upon him . I find this interesting . The family gets taken out because the compassion of the Lord was upon Lot . Steve , is it possible that our families can get a spillover , blessing by somebody in the family that's a spiritual person . That's really righteous before God .

Speaker 2 12:02

We've seen that many times that the spiritual leader of the family leads his family members to belief in Jesus Christ . But that is an important role , especially for the father of the family , to have that relationship and to stay steady in faith with Jesus Christ so that his family can come to belief in Jesus Christ and have salvation .

Speaker 1 12:29

The next lesson I learned here from this story , steve , is that it was uncomfortable for Lot and his family to be drawn out of Sodom . They hesitated , they didn't want to come . God will move us , even if it's uncomfortable for us . Sometimes it may be comfortable for me to stay , but God sends his messenger , sends his word , and he draws me out and pulls me to where he wants me to go , and sometimes that's painful . We're going

Lessons From Lot and His Wife

Speaker 1 12:57

to learn here . In the next passage we read the angels were saying go over here . Lot didn't want to go over there , but yet the angels are encouraging him , sending him that way . Anyway , will God today pull us out of one place and send us to another , even though it may be uncomfortable ? Maybe more comfortable for me to stay in Sodom ? But God has another purpose . Does that ever happen ?

Speaker 2 13:20

today , I think it does all the time . The question is , how much of a resistance do we put up ? Another thing is how many times do we do something on our own to try and make it come about , rather than letting God direct our path and our way ? In either instance , whether we're taken out by God or whether we're trying to do it on our own , the bottom line is we need to follow God , and whenever he says we need to move , we need to move .

Speaker 1 13:47

The big picture here is really obvious . Sodom and Gomorrah were sinful . God reaches in , sends his messengers , pulls out the people that had faith in him before he destroys the city . He saves Lot and his family . From a big picture standpoint , what does that tell us , steve , about the character of God , the nature of God and what we can do to trust God ?

Speaker 2 14:12

It shows us , just as what the text says , he has compassion on those who have a relationship with him . We should take that learning and we should be comforted by it . It we should also stay in a relationship with him and , knowing that as these perilous times come about , that he will have compassion on us , and we should keep that always at the forefront of our mind .

Speaker 1 14:41

One last thing before we leave , minor point , but it can have some importance . In verse 14 , notice they call the men sons-in-law , even though they had not yet married the daughters . Because we find out later , the daughters had not yet married and he had called them virgins . At the beginning of the chapter they were still called sons-in-law , which tells us that the marriage arrangements in those days there's a betrothal period where they're considered legally married but they had not yet come together . That was what Mary and Joseph were at the time of Jesus' birth . Minor little point to support that . We'll mention it again when we come up to the Gospels . Next we find out what actually happens .

Speaker 1 15:24

Let's read Genesis 19 , starting in verse 17 , says this 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 . But Lot said to them oh no , my lords . Now behold , your servant has found favor in your sight and you have magnified your loving kindness , 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 . 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 be saved ? He said to him Behold , I grant you this request also not to overthrow the town of which you have spoken . Hurry , escape there , for I cannot do anything until you arrive there .

Speaker 1 16:16

Therefore , the name of the town was called Zoar . The sun had risen over the earth when Lot came to Zoar . Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven and he overthrew those cities and all the valley and all the inhabitants of the cities and what grew on the ground . But his wife from behind him looked back and she became a pillar of salt . Here the word of God comes through these messengers . The word was to escape to the mountains , but Lot didn't want to go to the mountains . He asked to go to another valley At the end of verse 19, . Steve , why did Lot not want to go to the mountains ?

Speaker 2 16:58

I think we get the indication there that he didn't think that he had time to make it up into the mountains and that he wasn't going to be able to get out of the way from whenever the destruction came , out of the way from whenever the destruction came . I think that's an indication of why he's afraid that he's not going to be able to escape what's fixing to happen . Didn't have enough time .

Speaker 1 17:18

Didn't have enough time to get there . He's kind of attached to the valley . Mountains seem like a long way away . Mountains aren't where I'm used to being , things like that . He's still attached to the valley and didn't feel comfortable enough . Even though the word of God had just told him go there , he's still partially obeying . We find here that Lot was afraid to go where God had told him to go . Are we ever afraid to go where God tells us to go ?

Speaker 2 17:45

I think many times we are , and it's mainly based off of that . We don't necessarily know where the end is , and there's a little bit of fear in that and not knowing exactly where the end is . Sometimes , there's a direct pulling of God says this is where I'm going to put you . You have confidence in that . There's other times , though , whenever God just says no , you need to go , you need to leave . Trust me as to where you're going .

Speaker 1 18:13

Then we have this story of Lot's wife Steve . What happens to Lot's wife and what's the lesson for us ?

Speaker 2 18:19

The angels gave them instructions not to look back . Lot's wife does look back and she's turned into this pillar of salt , Another directive that's given by the angels that not everyone heeds to , and they pay the consequence for that , or at least Lot's wife does .

Speaker 1 18:37

She must have had some attachment to Sodom . That's why she looked back . She wanted to see what God was doing , or she had some attachment . I'm sure she could probably hear what was going on . And the angel had said don't look back . But she looks back and gets turned to a pile of salt .

Speaker 1 18:53

The surface lesson here seems awfully severe in the sense that why would looking make someone punishable enough to where they would die ? But again , what's the message here ? The message is move forward and not backwards . Sodom was the place where all the sin was , and forwards was a place where God's blessing was . She had this longing for the old life . The angels had come and said the old life's going to be destroyed . You're headed off to a new one . Head to the mountains . That's where God wants you to go . But she looks back .

Speaker 1 19:28

So , steve , when I try to apply this to the Christian life , many of us have experiences of before , when we lived a sinful life and then , after salvation , god takes us out of the city of sin and lostness and he brings us into the city of salvation . Do Christians ever look back ? Can we look back ? As Christians , do we ever look back to the old life and wonder what would it have been like if I'd have been there ? What does God say ? Don't look back . Don't look back to the old life . Is there a way in the Christian life , once you're truly saved , can you go back ?

Speaker 2 20:04

No , you can't go back . You're a new creation . Paul tells us every day we should put on the new man and forget about the old man . It is something that we need to be conscious of and to do , but no , we should look forward , and what we have forward is even more greater than what we could ever expect to happen . We're a new man , we're a new creation . There should be no looking back .

Speaker 1 20:30

In the Christian life . The old life is gone . What does it tell us ? The old things are destroyed and gone away . Everything is a new creation in Christ . The old ways are lost . All things have become new . That's what it tells us in the Word of God . So we can't look back that's the message here is to the Christian life . Looking back to the old way we did things before we knew the Lord Jesus only leads to destruction . There should be no longing for the old ways simply because the old ways were a way of death . The old ways were the evil ways we should trust . What the Word of God tells us is to move on to the new life , to move on to the mountains where God is . That's the message here is that don't look back . If we look back , it's only death and destruction . We should always trust the Lord and move forward . He destroys Sodom and Gomorrah by doing what ? How does he destroy it , steve ?

Speaker 2 21:29

Says there in verse 24 , that the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven .

Speaker 1 21:37

I've heard that from some geologists and there's some Bible scholars that have gone to this area . What do we know about that area where Sodom and Gomorrah were as far as today ? What does that area look like today ?

Speaker 2 21:50

Yeah , there has been some archaeological excavations in an area southeast of the Dead Sea and it's in a plain area there . There's five cities , communities , that have been excavated there in that area , two of them to the north of the middle city . They have found sulfur balls and other things that are there . They have found evidence of it being burned . They've also found evidence on the two cities south of that middle city that has also had sulfur balls and shows that the city was destroyed by fire and by burning . Then , as I mentioned , that city in the middle was not destroyed at all .

Speaker 2 22:32

Here we have these five cities that are mentioned in the Bible . Here they're in the same location where it says that they should be through the description of where Abraham was and where Lot went to settle down . We have this one city that is not destroyed where Lot says , oh , I'm not going to have enough time to make it into the mountains , but this city is close enough . The angels say , ok , go ahead and go into that city and that'll be protected . And then we have these cities to the north , cities to the south , clear evidence that they have been burned and destroyed through fire . And you can actually pick those sulfur balls up today and set them on fire . So isn't that a coincidence , glenn ?

Speaker 1 23:15

What a coincidence . Of course it's not a coincidence at all . When God destroys a city , he destroys a city . We can have confidence in that . Let's move on to the next section , starting in verse 27 , says this Now , abraham rose early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before the Lord and he looked down towards Sodom and Gomorrah and towards the land of the valley and he saw and behold , the smoke of the land ascended like the smoke of a furnace . Thus it came about , when God destroyed the cities of the valley , that God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out in the midst of the overthrow , when he overthrew the cities in which Lot lived . From this Steve , it says there that Abraham went to the place where he had met the Lord .

Speaker 1 24:01

The flavor of the passage seems to be saying that it was Abraham's custom to get up early in the morning and go to this place and worship the Lord . So he gets up this morning and he goes there and he looks down over the valley and he sees Sodom and Gomorrah burning . This tells me that the place where Abraham worshiped he could see Sodom . I would like to think that he would pray for Lot there in the mornings , that he would go there and he comes out in the morning and he would pray for his nephew Lot , because he knew that the city was evil and he knew that Lot had been down there a while . I suspect Abraham was a fairly wise man . Would you think , steve , that Abraham would be an intercessory prayer for his nephew ?

Speaker 2 24:48

I think he did . That's one of the reasons why he had that conversation with the Lord earlier . Talking about Lord , if you can find at least 10 people there , would you not destroy the city ? I think he had a lot in mind during that whole conversation with the Lord .

Speaker 1 25:03

Look , at verse 29 . God saved Lot when he remembered Abraham . God remembers his faithful children . I think there are spillover blessings to godly people . Now that doesn't fall into salvation . We're each to stand before the Lord with our own salvation , but with heavenly blessings God can indeed bless those around you . We should pray daily for those , especially our family members , who need to be closer to the Lord . We should pray daily for these

Intercessory Prayer and Learning From Stories

Speaker 1 25:36

people . Abraham had been interceding in prayer for Lot , as well as for Sodom and Steve . I can take comfort in that .

Speaker 2 25:43

It's great to know that intercessory prayer by other people can be beneficial for us , as well as us having intercessory prayer for other loved ones that we have . It is good to know that God listens to all of our prayers , whether it's for us or on behalf of other people .

Speaker 1 26:04

From there , we'll stop for today . We're out of time . Next time we're going to learn another one of these very horrible stories that are recorded here in Genesis , but it's one that we can learn from . As we do always , we'll be continuing to reason through the book of Genesis , and we hope that you'll be back here to join us next time .

Speaker 2 26:22

Thank you for watching and listening . May God bless you .