MEN ALIVE: Jim Cunningham & Paul Estabrooks' Podcast
Programs to help men become transformed to the image (character) of Jesus Christ.
MEN ALIVE: Jim Cunningham & Paul Estabrooks' Podcast
MEN ALIVE 226 - Lessons From Lot
As we navigate the patriarchs' tales, we resonate with the human condition—flawed, yet striving for divine virtue. By examining Lot's choices and the cultural and emotional trials akin to those faced by modern immigrants and refugees, we gain a perspective that transcends time, encouraging personal growth and a deeper faith. Dr. Cunningham's expertise illuminates our path as we seek to understand the paradox of Lot's virtue in an environment rife with immorality, providing timeless lessons to enrich our journey towards righteousness.
Welcome to Men Alive, a biblical journey to help us conform to the image of Jesus Christ. I'm your host. Paul Estabrooks, Our teacher, is my longtime friend, Dr Jim Cunningham, consultant in adult education, director of Go Teach Global and author of the book Men Alive. In Peter, chapter 2 says God rescued Lot out of Sodom because he was a righteous man who was greatly distressed at the shameful immorality of the wicked people around him. Jim, are there life lessons we can learn from this man called Lot?
Speaker 2:One could say we learn a lot from Lot, no pun intended. Several men in the Bible are identified by God as righteous men. These men were fully human, like us. They made mistakes. They were not perfect, yet their heart was right and their actions were morally correct to be called righteous in God's eyes. Genesis 6.9 says Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God. Ezekiel says that Noah, daniel, job were righteous men and Matthew 1.19 says Joseph, to whom Mary was engaged, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly. Many others are called righteous in the Bible and the Bible says, yes, lot was a righteous man who was tormented in his soul by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day.
Speaker 2:Lot's story began some four thousand years ago. Lot was a nephew of Abram, the son of Abram's brother, haran. Lot's father, haran, died when they lived in Ur of the Caldeas, which would be modern Iraq way. Today, we do not know how old Lot was when his father died, nor how old he was when his grandfather, tara, took the family and moved away from Ur of the Caldeas, heading for the land of Canaan. For some unrecorded reason, grandpa Tara stopped at a town called Haran, same name as Lot's father, and settled there until he died at the good old Biblical age of 205.
Speaker 2:Sometime in this journey, the Lord said to Abram the name had not yet been changed to Abraham leave your native country, your relatives and your family and go to the land that I will show you. God said. I will make you a great nation, I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the families on earth will be blessed through you. Then the Bible says so. Abram departed as the Lord had instructed, and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he left Heran.
Speaker 1:And the Bible says Abram lived to be 175 years old. So by our life expectancy today, if someone lived to be 80, that would be something equivalent to them moving away from their family in their early 30s. Jim, you and I understand that feeling. You left your family in Toronto and moved to Vancouver. I left my family in London, ontario, and moved to the Philippines. As every immigrant or refugee knows, it's a huge adjustment to change communities and cultures, even subcultures, especially if it also means a change of language.
Speaker 2:Lot had many adjustments no parents, no culture but he observed and learned from his uncle's faith and actions. Lot likely watched and maybe even assisted uncle Abram build an altar at Shechem, modern day Nablus. Lot heard the blessing promised to Abram when God said I will give this land to your descendants. Lot was there when the famine struck and his uncle moved the whole tribe to Egypt. Lot knew the story of his beautiful aunt, sarah being taken into Farrell's palace as a candidate for marriage until Farrell discovered she was more than Abram's half sister she was Abram's wife. During this time, lot learned his uncle's skills with sheep and cattle and became wealthy, so much so that disputes arose over grass and water for their flocks and herds. Rather than having a family feud, they agreed to peacefully separate. Abram gave Lot first choice. Lot chose the well watered, fertile plains of the Jordan Valley that resembled the garden of the Lord the garden of.
Speaker 2:Eden or the beautiful land of Egypt along the Nile River. Those who have been to Israel recently know that Sodom today does not look like a well watered, fertile region, but this story is taking place. Some 4,000 years ago, lot chose the lush Jordan Valley and moved into Sodom. It appears he had a position of influence among the city officials because it says he was sitting at the gate where the civic leaders used to sit. But all was not well. Ezekiel 1649 says Sodom's sins were pride, gluttony and laziness, while the poor and needy suffered outside her door.
Speaker 2:Hmm, jim, does that sound like places we know today, unfortunately, the answer is yes, but Pablo, like lot many men today, are tormented in their soul by the wickedness they see and hear day after day. Our world is filled with people who are proud and committed testable sins. Some may try to argue that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was just neglecting the needs of the poor and the needy in the city of Sodom. But Ezekiel added in the next verse 50, and they were haughty and committed abomination before me. Therefore, I took them away as I saw fit. That's the Lord speaking. The book of Jude, verse 7, says Sodom and Gomorrah gave themselves over to sexual immorality and went after sexual perversions, thereby suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
Speaker 2:We see an example of what the Bible calls sexual immorality and strange flesh in this story of Lot. The Bible is clear. In the beginning, god made man in His image, male and female. He made them Adam and Eve, in the image of God. Going against God's creative order must grieve God. Plus, it puts humanity at risk of unforeseen consequences. Today, sexual immorality and strange flesh would include fornication, adultery, incest, pornography, prostitution, bestiality, homosexuality and body mutilation. Apart from a divine intervention by a holy God to answer our prayers, we are headed for more clashes between what our culture demands and what God commands.
Speaker 1:You are listening to Men Alive with Dr Jim Cunningham of Go Teach Global. I'll share his contact information with you at the end of the program.
Speaker 2:The reputation of Sodom is referenced in Isaiah 3, 8, and 9, when God says Jerusalem stumbled and Judah is fallen because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of His glory, the look on their countenance witnesses against Him, and they declare their sin as Sodom. They do not hide it. Woe to their soul, for they have brought evil upon themselves. In other words, we today flout our sinful behavior without fear of consequences from law authorities or from God Himself. The prophet Jeremiah quotes God referencing Sodom as a negative example, in chapter 23, 14, when God says Also I have seen a horrible thing in the prophets of Jerusalem. They commit adultery and walk in lies. They also strengthen the hands of evil doers so that no one turns back from his wickedness. All of them are like Sodom to me and her inhabitants, like Gomorrah.
Speaker 1:Jim, I agree. We're living in a world where what our culture demands conflicts with what God commands. It's interesting that Lot is identified as one of the leaders of Sodom who sat at the city gate to settle civic matters, but while he may have tolerated the evil that existed, there is no record of his publicly defending his faith in God or Yahweh. As we will later see, his sons in law think he's joking about God destroying Sodom.
Speaker 2:The night before Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, two angels came to the entrance of the city of Sodom. Lot was sitting there, and when he saw them he stood up to meet them. Many welcomed them and bowed with his face to the ground. My lords, he said, come to my home to wash your feet and be my guests for the night. You may then get up early in the morning and be on your way again. Oh no, they replied, we'll just spend the night out here in the city square. But Lot insisted. So they at last went home with him. Lot prepared a feast for them, complete with fresh bread made without yeast, and they ate.
Speaker 2:But before they retired for the night, all the men of Sodom, young and old, came from all over the city and surrounded the house. They shouted to Lot when are the men who came to spend the night with you? Bring them out to us so we can have sex with them. So Lot stepped outside to talk to them, shutting the door behind him. Please, my brothers, he begged, don't do such a wicked thing. Leave these men alone, for they are my guests and under my protection. Stand back, they shouted. This fellow came to town as an outsider and now he's acting like our judge. We'll treat you far worse than these other men. And they lunged toward Lot to break down the door. The two angels reached out, pulled Lot into the house and bolted the door. Then they blinded all the men, young and old, who were at the door of the house. So they gave up trying to get inside.
Speaker 2:Meanwhile the angels questioned Lot, do you have any other relatives here in the city? They asked Get them out of this place your sons-in-law, sons, daughters, anyone else? For we are about to destroy this city completely. The outcry against this place is so great that has reached the Lord and he has sent us to destroy it. So Lot rushed out to tell his daughters', fiancés, quick, get out of the city, the Lord is about to destroy it. But the young men thought he was only joking.
Speaker 2:At dawn the next morning the angels became insistent Hurry. They said to Lot, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, get out right now, or you will be swept away in the destruction of the city. When Lot still hesitated, the angels seized his hand and the hands of his wife and two daughters and rushed them to safety outside the city. For the Lord was merciful when they were safely out of the city, one of the angels ordered run for your lives and don't look back or step anywhere in the valley. Escape to the mountains or you will be swept away.
Speaker 2:Lot reached the village of Zor just as the sun was rising over the horizon. Then the Lord rained down fire and burning sulfur from the sky on Sodom and Gomorrah. He utterly destroyed them, along with the other cities and villages of the plain, wiping out all the people and every bit of vegetation. But Lot's wife looked back as she was following behind him and she turned into a pillar of salt. So you see, the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their trials, even while keeping the wicked under punishment until the day of final judgment.
Speaker 2:He is especially hard on those who follow their own twisted sexual desires and despise his authority. Our encouragement to every listener is to follow the instructions of scripture. Lot was a human, as we are. Lot was not perfect in every decision, but his heart's desire was to be obedient to the path in which God assigned him to walk. On June 6, 1944, the day of the invasion of Normandy, to conquer the evil of Hitler's Nazi Germany. The invading general's final words to his soldiers were Keep going forward, do not stop, do not turn your back.
Speaker 1:There you have it, men. That's our challenge and our world of spiritual opposition. Let's keep going forward, Do not stop, do not turn back. Contact us at menaliveantogottacom. Menalive is the production of the ministry. Go Teach Global. Go to goteachglobalcom today. Until next time, I'm Paul Easterbrooks, on behalf of Dr Jim Cunningham, encouraging you to become men alive, transformed into the image of Jesus Christ.
