Moral Lessons from Immoral Acts | Genesis 19:23 - 20:18 | Session 35 | Verse by Verse Bible Study

Have you ever grappled with the darker tales of Genesis and their relevance in our lives today? Our latest verse by verse Bible study episode ventures deep into these narratives, starting with Genesis 19's harrowing account of Lot and his daughters.  We examine how Lot's trajectory from wealth to destitution serves as a stark reminder of the consequences of life choices, yet also illustrates the flicker of faith that persists through adversity. 

The conversation then shifts to the duplicity of Abraham and Sarah, juxtaposing their moral failures with the integrity of the non-believer Abimelech. Such contrasts provoke a reassessment of our own ethical compass and the complex dance of sin and repentance. Join us for this enlightening expedition, as we continue to seek out the treasures within God's word to navigate the moral landscapes of our daily lives. 

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:19

We're working our way through Genesis and we're in chapter 19. The city of Sodom and Gomorrah have just been destroyed by the Lord, but God sent his angels and they pulled out Lot and his family. Lot's wife looked backwards and was turned to a pillar of salt. Now we have Lot and his daughters that have fled to the city around him and, ultimately, the mountains, and that's where we pick up the story and we find another one of these very graphic stories that we wonder why God's put this here. But we can learn from it nevertheless. I'll to stay in Zoar. And he stayed in a cave, he and his two daughters. Then the firstborn said to the younger our father is old and there is not a man on earth to come to us after the manner of the earth. Come, let us make our father drink wine and let us lie with him that we may preserve our family through our father. 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. 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. 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. Thus, both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father. The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day. As for the younger, she also bore a son and called his name Benab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day. 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.

Speaker 1 2:12

With this we have this very graphic story. If we ask ourselves why in the world we would put this here, well, one of the reasons is the book of Genesis is the book of beginnings and it has the beginnings of all these nations. This was the beginning of the nation, these two, the Moabites and the Ammonites, which become players later in the Bible. But, steve, what might be the other reasons? I mean graphic stories like this we normally think. Well, god's supposed to be moral. Later, in the Mosaic law we're told not to have incest and not to marry close relatives, but yet here we have this story. Why would God include such a story like this in his holy?

Speaker 2 2:53

word, one of the main things that we can look at here. We see drunkenness again and we see that the drunkenness leads to something that is not a good thing. We saw that with Noah, now we see that with Lot, and it's kind of curious that, as after Noah had been rescued from the destruction that happened, we see him get drunk and we see what happened with his sons there. Lot now has just been rescued from this calamity that took place on the cities there on the plain. Now he has this drunkenness and we see what happens here. I think for sure we can take out of it that drunkenness is not a good thing and leads to not good things.

Speaker 1 3:35

Very, very little in the entire Bible that talks anything good about alcohol. There's actually a fairly large amount of passages about alcohol, alcohol there's actually a fairly large amount of passages about alcohol, and in our day we would include drugs along this as well. But yes, it speaks quite a bit about alcohol and the vast, vast majority of places are in situations like this, where alcohol is spoken of in a negative way. There's a very, very few places and we'll mention those when we get to them. But, my Christian friend, you should be cautious with alcohol. That's the overwhelming message of Scripture is that alcohol plays this ugly rule.

Speaker 1 4:14

Now the daughters again had been raised in Sodom and had been attached to Sodom. Their betrothed husbands apparently had died and they didn't know anything else other than this culture from Sodom. Since those had been destroyed, their immediate thought was well, the world's coming to an end, there's no people left. But they were hiding in the mountains and they should have trusted the Lord to know well, god will do what's best for us. But they take matters into their own hands and have this incestuous relationship with their father. The lessons are Lot should have known better, lot should have stayed sober. These daughters should have known better. They should have trusted God. The story shows how severe human nature is, and it also shows how severe the destruction was, because all the people these girls knew were destroyed. That's what they were saying. There's no one here to marry us Now, there would have been other side of the mountains, things like that, but nevertheless they didn't believe it. That's the lesson. Lot should have controlled himself. These girls should have trusted the Lord.

Speaker 2 5:23

We see the progression of Lot here too, from having wealth in great flocks. When Abraham comes to him and says, let's go separate ways so we don't have strife between our two herdsmen, lot chooses this plush area down on the plain. He goes down there. He goes and becomes a dweller in the city. He has a house there Presumably maybe he still has his flocks that are being taken care of by other people. He becomes a official of the city sitting at the city gate, and now we find him a refugee in a strange city. Now we find him living in a cave, and then the situation that he's in here. Here are choices that Lot has made. Here are things that has led to them to be where he is, but through it all, his faith in God has allowed him to at least survive the destruction that took place.

Speaker 1 6:22

I found, steve, over the years that many of these stories back here in the Bible just aren't taught in many churches. When people hear us as we go through all of the passages of Scripture, they are surprised to hear some of these stories. Oh my goodness, didn't know this was here. The answer of why stories like this would be in the Bible is that God records truth, even if it's an ugly truth. He's recording history. Also, just because this is recorded here doesn't mean God is causing this or approving of it. It accurately records the sin of these people and it's often put here as examples so that we would know not to follow along.

Speaker 1 7:01

Sometimes the lesson is don't follow the example of the people in the story. But nevertheless the Word of God is true and it can help us if we just read it and take it to heart. But God doesn't approve of things like this. He finds it quite horrible and sinful. Now, in chapter 20, we turn back to Abraham and we find some more sin that is in Abraham. So we're going to go ahead and read the entire story here, starting in chapter 20. So, steve, could you read that?

Speaker 2 7:32

Now Abraham journeyed from there toward the land of the Negev and settled between Kadesh and Shur. Then he journeyed to Gerar. Abraham said to Sarah, his wife, she is my sister. So Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent and took Sarah. But God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night and said to him behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is married. Now. Abimelech had not come near her and he said Lord, will you slay a nation, even though blameless? Did he not himself say to me she is my sister and she herself say he is my brother? In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands, I have done this. Then God said to him in the dream yes, I know that, in the integrity of your heart, you have done this and I also kept you from sinning against me. Integrity of your heart, you have done this and I also kept you from sinning against me. Therefore, I did not let you touch her Now. Therefore, restore the man's wife, for he is a prophet and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.

Speaker 2 8:40

So Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his servants and told all these things in their hearing, and the men were greatly frightened. Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him what have you done to us and how have I sinned against you that you have brought on me and my kingdom a great sin. You have done to me things that ought not to have been done. And Abimelech said to Abraham what have you encountered that you have done to me things that ought not to have been done? And Abimelech said to Abraham what have you encountered that you have done this thing? Abraham said because I thought surely there is no fear in God in this place and they will kill me because of my wife. Besides, she actually is my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife.

Speaker 2 9:24

And it came about when God caused me to wander from my father's house. But I said to her this is the kindness which you will show me everywhere we go, say of me, he is my brother. Abimelech then took sheep and oxen and male and female servants and gave them to Abraham and restored his wife Sarah to him. Abimelech said Behold, my land is before you. Settle wherever you please. To Sarah, he said Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. Behold, it is your vindication before all who are with you and before all men. You are cleared. Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maids so that they bore children, for the Lord had closed fast all the wombs of the household of Abimelech because of Sarah, abraham's wife.

Speaker 1 10:17

We have here the story of when Abraham travels to the far southern part of the land of Canaan, to where there was another king, king Abimelech, and the chapter talks about this interaction between Abraham and King Abimelech. Don't miss what happens at the very beginning of the chapter he physically moves. Is there anywhere in here where God tells him to move down there? No, we don't see that. Abraham takes it upon himself to go, and where this was was either on the edge or possibly out of the land that God had promised him. This Abimelech was a Philistine king and so he was at or near the Philistines, which is physically not where God really wanted him to be. And therefore, what happens to Abraham whenever he leaves out of where God wants him to be? And therefore, what happens to Abraham whenever he leaves out of where God wants him to be, when he physically goes away, what happens to him morally?

Speaker 2 11:11

He once again becomes fearful. It's like when he went to Egypt, he told the same story to the Pharaoh down there. He hasn't learned the lesson that happened down there. It's for some reason, whenever he leaves and gets out of the guidance of the Lord Yahweh, he falls back into this fearful state and instructs Sarah to concoct and come up with this story, Because for some reason he's fearful.

Lessons on Sin and Repentance

Speaker 1 11:41

He falls back into the same sin that he did before when he went to Egypt, which is lying about Sarah not being his wife. The other thing I learned here, steve, is that Sarah must have been beautiful. She must have been very beautiful, because at this point in the story she's pushing 90 years old. Even though she was of that age, this king finds her appealing. Even though she was of that age, this king finds her appealing. Abraham again lies, but the king finds her appealing and is about to marry her, or possibly went through the ceremony. Abraham had already lied like this once to Pharaoh, and here he's going back to the same sin again. Why would Abraham and Sarah too? She's part of it. Why would Abraham and Sarah return to the same sin?

Speaker 2 12:27

Doesn't that happen to us from time to time, that, even though we have salvation and faith in Jesus Christ, that we find ourselves being pulled back into the world and doing worldly ways? It's a picture, in a way, of us and even in our life. How can we really point fingers at Abraham and Sarah whenever we experience not necessarily these type of things, but we experience our going back and doing some things that are not pleasing to the Lord ourselves?

Speaker 1 12:58

Why would Abraham and Sarah fall back into sin? Same reason you and I would fall back into the same sin. Why do I go back and return to sin? It's because I'm not trusting the Lord at times. The good news is is that we can always repent. What did the Lord Jesus say? The dog returns to its vomit, and so the sin is ugliness, and the child of God should never look back, should never go back to our own sin. We should learn the ways of the Lord and follow him. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. The Lord Jesus said so.

Speaker 1 13:32

Notice here how Abraham was supposed to be the one following God, but yet Abimelech is the one who is actually following God. Abraham was supposed to be the one that knew God's ways and ought to be going down telling this Philistine king about God. There's no indication here that Abimelech knew God or worshiped God, necessarily. But who is the one that's actually in sin? It's Abraham. And who's the one that's actually following God's advice and hearing from God? It's Abimelech. Look at verse 9. Abimelech is more concerned with sin and morality than Abraham is. Is it ever the case, Steve, that a child of God can be in sin and a lost person can be more?

Speaker 2 14:22

moral. How did these lost people come to Abraham and correct him? Same thing happened with Pharaoh. God got a message to Pharaoh of what the real situation was. He gets a message to Abimelech through a dream of what the real situation is. While both of them are in a lost state of not following Yahweh, he still goes to them to correct the situation. To come back to Abraham yes, he has made it to where Abimelech's family and household aren't going to have any other children, but at the same time, he recognizes that Abimelech is innocent in this and he warns him through a dream and gives him instructions on what to do in order to get out of it. For us, sometimes there might be lost people that come to us and say I know that you're a Christian, but what you're doing is not right. We should heed that because, guess what? That might be God working through them to give us some instruction, and we shouldn't overlook it, because they might not be Christians themselves.

Speaker 1 15:31

In this account, abraham goes and tells this lie again. It's the second time he's done this. Later, in Genesis, his son Isaac, tells the same lie in the same land about his wife not being his wife. Sin can run in a family. The good news is, so can righteousness. Righteousness can be generational and run in a family. We should always strive to raise our families in righteousness and following God's ways.

Speaker 1 16:00

These stories of Abraham sinning and when Lot sinned and things like that, these stories are here for our benefit. These stories are here to warn us about how easy it is to fall into sin and to remind us how much God hates sin. It's easy to fall into sin, but for the child of God, we should feel this pull of God's Spirit pulling us towards Him and away from sin. We should take heed of these stories and realize how easy it is for the flesh to take hold. Therefore, we should live in the Spirit and feed our spirit and not feed our flesh, because it is so easy to slip into sin and many a Christian has fallen.

Speaker 1 16:46

Many a pastor, many a Christian leader, many a church member has fallen into sin because they got too close to Sodom and Gomorrah. They got too close to people that were sinning and they weren't listening to the Word of God. Here's a question, steve, along these lines. We have here Abraham that was chosen by God and he had faith and was accounted as righteous, but he has now repeatedly sinned. Is it possible for someone to be a Christian and repeatedly sin?

Speaker 2 17:20

The answer to that is yes, they can do that Now. Should they do that? No, if they do something or they practice the sin that they're doing, scripture is very clear that they need to get back. We have the story of the prodigal son that went and wasted his money, yet the father was waiting for him to come back and to return. The key verse in that story is when the prodigal son came to his senses and realized where he was.

Speaker 2 17:47

We have other stories of people repenting, of being far off from God, repenting and coming back to God. We have that assurance of that when we have salvation, that we're protected by God and that he's always going to be there for us. And yet we have that Holy Spirit that pulls us back to God and we need to heed that. We will be restless if we're continuing to sin and we're away from God. The other thing I think Glenn here is is that this is a unilateral covenant that God has made with Abraham. While Abraham does do this sinning, god is still going to bring about the things that he has told Abraham that he's going to do. To me. That's a good lesson out of all of this is that, while we can falter, once we have faith in God and believe in him, believe in Jesus Christ and what he's done. While we can falter, we can still come back to him and he'll welcome us back. He wants us to come back. All we have to do is to confess that sin and get back into that relationship with Jesus Christ.

Speaker 1 18:57

If we ask the question can a child of God continue in sin? Then I submit a couple of passages from the New Testament. In 1 Timothy, the Apostle Paul is towards the end of his life and he's writing to his protege, timothy, and he says that Jesus can save sinners of whom I am chief. He says Now notice, he didn't say I was chief, he says it in present tense I am chief and he also the same person, the Apostle Paul, wrote the last part of Romans, chapter 7, where he's talking about himself struggling with sin and having this internal war going on inside of the Christian between the new nature and the old nature. I submit no one could write that section of Romans 7 unless they had been a saved person that was struggling with sin.

Speaker 1 19:48

I think that even the Apostle Paul struggled with sin. But what the message there is that we shouldn't live there, we shouldn't stay in that spot. It's wrong. If we continue in sin, we should always repent and go back. We can wake up and find ourselves like the son in the parable of the prodigal son. We can wake up one day and come to our senses and say wait a minute, I'm down here in a pigsty and I want to go back to the father's house. Here's a question, steve. In the parable of the prodigal son, what's the difference between the son and the pig?

Speaker 2 20:25

Well, the son can come to his senses and know that he's in a place where the pig is and where he shouldn't be. The pig is just doing what he normally will do.

Christian Ethics and Moral Accountability

Speaker 1 20:32

They both smell like a pig and they both act like a pig. They both do things that pigs do. What's the difference between the son and the pig? The difference is the son's a son and the pig's a pig, and the pig likes it down there in the pigsty and the son hates it down there in the pigsty. The son may find himself down there in the pigsty, but he's going to hate it down there and he's going to want to get up and go get cleaned up and take a bath and go back to the father's house. The pig loves it down there in the mud.

Speaker 1 21:05

How do you know you're a Christian? It's whether you hate the sin. That's the answer to this whole question of whether a Christian can continue in sin. You may find a Christian that's sinning over and over, but deep down they're going to hate it, they're going to despise it. If they're comfortable there living in that sin, then we need to ask the question whether that person's truly saved. They could call themselves a child of God, but if they love it down in the pigsty, then, my friend, there's something wrong with that person.

Speaker 2 21:35

I would also add to that that if you are a member of a church or have a pastor or a spiritual leader that tells you that you can continue to live in a particular sin, that is noted in Scripture that it is a sin and that it's okay for you to stay there and live in that sin while at the same time claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ, I would say that you need to run from that type of a spiritual leader. I would say that you need to run from that type of a spiritual leader because Scripture is clear that if you are a born-again Christian, believer in Jesus Christ, you will not be able just to stay living in that sin without some sort of remorse or guilt or pull from the Holy Spirit to get back in a relationship with the Father. And if you have a spiritual leader that tells you, no, no, it's okay, you can do that. Run from that spiritual leader. You're not getting very good spiritual leadership.

Speaker 1 22:31

If you find yourself in a church like that, you should run, not walk, to the nearest exit. Christians are saved because of our repentance, not because of our failure to sin. It's not because I lived a righteous life that I'm saved, not because of our failure to sin. It's not because I lived a righteous life that I'm saved. It's because I put my trust and faith in the Lord. I repented of that sin and I put my trust and faith in the Lord God, in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if Christians sin, we can be forgiven of the sin, but what happens to the earthly consequences of that sin? Can we avoid the earthly consequences of the sin? We can avoid the earthly consequences of the sin.

Speaker 1 23:05

We can avoid the heavenly consequences by God forgiving us. But what happens to the earthly consequences of our sin.

Speaker 2 23:11

Remember back when we talked about Eve and the decision that she made, and Adam as well, back in chapter three of this book, genesis.

Speaker 2 23:20

You can control the decision that you make, but you can't control the consequences. There's going to be consequences to control the decision that you make, but you can't control the consequences. There's going to be consequences to all the decisions that we make. We should ensure that before we make major decisions, that we consult the Lord and know of which direction we should go With some of the decisions that we make that aren't big decisions. We need to have the Word of God and knowledge of what the Word of God says to that, so that as we go through our daily life with the small decisions we make, we don't need to consult God on it. We have the Word of God in us, the knowledge of it, and we know oh, I shouldn't do that, that's not something I should do, I don't need to do that. Something I should do, I don't need to do that. Then we can have our path directed and guided by God through knowledge of the Word of God and what it says.

Speaker 1 24:10

In this passage, in verse 3, god appears to this pagan king, abimelech, and gives him very specific instructions. He appears to him in a vision and then, in verses 4 and five, abimelech pleads with God that all I knew was the lie that Abraham told me Because, remember, abimelech had taken Sarah and he took her because he thought she was Abraham's sister. God appears to King Abimelech and says you're in trouble because you took this woman. This idea and this concept here brings up two very critical, important theological teachings, a couple of concepts. The first is that he had taken this woman, but God says I'm not holding that against you because Abimelech had integrity of heart. He didn't intend to sin. The second theological concept is that God says to sin. The second theological concept is that God says I kept you from sinning against me is the exact words that God uses. Let's take those two concepts here and work through them one by one.

Speaker 1 25:12

First, God measures our intentions. In Abimelech's case, god knew that he did not intend to sin. Therefore, god does not hold Abimelech accountable for that sin. This is a great comfort, knowing that God knows the thoughts and intents of our hearts. However, that said, it's also a problem that God knows the thoughts and intents of our heart, because what happens in our lives as a matter of fact is that we lie to ourselves. We lie to ourselves about our own intentions. We oftentimes intend to sin and then lie to ourselves and say, no, I really didn't.

Speaker 1 25:52

In Abimelech's case, he really didn't intend to sin, yet he had taken the steps to sin. God says I understand your heart, I'm not holding you accountable. That's a great comfort, because sometimes we will find ourselves in a mess and God can measure the intents of our heart. And if we truly didn't intend to, then God is fair, he is a fair judge. The problem again comes to what I just said. Oftentimes we lie to ourselves and try to lie to God and say, oh God, I really didn't intend to, when really I'm just lying to myself and I really did intend to. That's the first lesson is that God knows the thoughts and intents of our heart, and sometimes that's good, and sometimes he catches myself in a lie to myself. We can take comfort in knowing that God is always a fair and impartial judge.

Speaker 1 26:45

It's not the case that people are always fair and impartial, but we can take comfort in knowing that God is always fair and impartial. Now the second spiritual teaching that we got from this God has the power to prevent us from sinning. The last part of verse six says this this is again God speaking to King Abimelech I also kept you from sinning against me. Therefore, I did not let you touch her. I find this interesting because we have here God plainly saying to this Philistine king I kept you from sinning no-transcript King Abimelech from sinning. Why didn't he stop me from sinning and why didn't he stop you from sinning, and why doesn't he stop the people that are sinning against us on a daily basis? Fair question. Here's a fair answer. How do you know he isn't? How do you know he isn't keeping you from sinning? We could all think of times where we could have sinned worse, or other people could have sinned worse. How do you know he's not restraining sin? Now, Well, then it gets into a question of how much sin does he restrain and how much does he allow? And as, seeing as how he's infinitely wise and I'm not and you're not, then it could be that we could defer to God's judgment and his wise counsel and knowing when he's going to restrict things and when he's not. What does Jesus say in the model prayer over in the Gospels Lead us not into temptation. He's praying that we not be tempted by sin.

Speaker 1 28:18

I think, Steve, we could draw a pretty fair case that God does indeed restrain sin. It's just he doesn't restrain all of it. If we think of what would happen if he did restrain all sin, if he restrained every evil thought, every evil word, every evil action, what would it turn us into? We would then be robots that would be pre-programmed. He would have removed the image of God from us. We would be more of a machine than a person and restraining the ability to walk away from a perfectly holy and deserving God. If he keeps us from doing that, then he has forced us to love, which is nonsense, and he has removed the ability to have things like love, because a machine and a robot can't love. That's the answer to the question. I just find that to be these real gold nuggets back here, Steve, that we kind of have these theological topics that we can chew on for a bit.

Speaker 2 29:16

Another thought on what you said how do we know that he's not keeping us from sin, for both persons that are saved and lost Is how often do we not heed those situations, whenever people come to us and say you shouldn't be doing that, well, why shouldn't I be doing it? Because it's immoral. Well, who says it's immoral? God says it's immoral, yet we go ahead and proceed with it. Says it's immoral. God says it's immoral, yet we go ahead and proceed with it. That's another thought. Is that, while God might be keeping us from doing particular sins, what is our response? If our response is to go ahead and go with it, well then who's to blame for the sin that's committed? It's not God, for sure.

Speaker 1 29:56

There's several wonderful things in this chapter, a couple of them still towards the end, and we'll deal with those briefly. One is that this shows us how very, very serious God takes adultery, because he tells this king of Bimelech if you would have gone ahead and taken this woman, sarah, to marry her as your wife, it would have caused your death and the death of those around you. God takes adultery very seriously. He said I prevented that from happening because Abraham and Sarah are the ones I want to work with. He takes adultery very, very serious.

Speaker 1 30:35

Our culture today has softened adultery and our culture doesn't think it's such a bad crime. God seems to think it's a high crime. The other thing we learn is the last couple of verses in the chapter. It's very clear there that God controls the womb. Because he says so? It says he had closed the wombs of the people in the land there they were in, but yet then, after they repented and got right with God again, he opened their wombs again. It says, not only here but many other places in scripture God controls the womb.

Speaker 1 31:09

Now I say that, steve, knowing that there are many families out there that have a real heartache in not being able to have a child. I merely point them to. Yes, that's a great heartache, but look at Abraham and Sarah. They were in their 90s when they finally had Isaac and I'm not going to sit here and promise that. But what I can promise is that Sarah had 90 years of heartache, yet God blessed her.

Uncovering Hidden Lessons in Scripture

Speaker 1 31:37

It's entirely possible that, just like Sarah and Abraham, god might be working something in your life that's even greater than what you can imagine, because now Sarah is blessed beyond her ability to imagine. My friend, god can still do a work in your life, even though you may be suffering now, steve. The other thing I find here in this passage, this entire chapter, the story of Abimelech in many of the commentaries is either skipped over entirely or it's a little footnote and then moved on. I find that one of the values of what we do, which is we go through all the verses, then we can dig out all these wonderful gold nuggets that are just laying here for the taking and for the study. If we just merely do a slow, careful study through the word of God, we can find all kinds of wonderful lessons that apply to our lives today.

Speaker 2 32:32

I was just thinking about that in regards to how many books that we have already gone through and how many more we have. And you would think, how can you get that much information out of God's word? But it's there. All you have to do is go through it verse by verse.

Speaker 1 32:49

We have not plumbed the depths of the word of God yet, so we'll be back here next time attempting to reason through it. We trust that you'll be back here with us as well.

Speaker 2 32:58

Thank you for watching and listening, as always. May God bless you.