Summary: So great was Lot's love of Sodom, the angels had to drag him and his family out. Sin had such a hold on them and they left with nothing. He should NEVER have been in Sodom in the first place. We look at Lot's offering his daughters to be gang raped. A disgrace.

LOT – PART 4 – A LOT OF TROUBLE FOR GOD – FOR ABRAHAM – AND FOR HIMSELF – GENESIS 19 - LOT OFFERS HIS DAUGHTERS TO BE RAPED - ANGELIC DELIVERANCE

INTRODUCTION

We will repeat the ending of the last message just to lead into this one –

{{Genesis 19:8 “Now behold, I have two daughters who have not had relations with man. Please let me bring them out to you, and do to them whatever you like, only do nothing to these men, inasmuch as they have come under the shelter of my roof,”}}

We now arrive at one of the most difficult verses in the whole bible. Was Lot prepared to sacrifice the morality of his daughters for the hospitality of the two angels (men)? On face value this looks a monstrous act and it probably was so. Excuses are made for Lot saying his intentions were honourable, as the integrity of strangers and hospitality was more important than the integrity of his daughters. I am going to give you the comments of seven men here that explore this issue. My own mind is established on this. I make no excuse for Lot in any way. I think he is a reprobate man. Even those who confess the Lord, when they are outside His leading, can act in a vile way. I am aware of what the New Testament says about Lot but I leave that for the end of the last message. I think Lot is a disgrace.

Now for the various opinions held by a handful of commentators:-

QUOTATION 1. [[“From the praise of this man Lot we have come to his disgrace: he made every effort on behalf of his guests . . . because they came under the shadow of his roof, but he is ready to appease the men of the city by abandoning his daughters to prostitution! This bespeaks nothing but an evil heart for it shows that the matter of prostitution of women was not repugnant to him, and that in his opinion he would not be doing such great injustice to his daughters.”]] (NAHMANIDES (RAMBAN) COMMENTARY ON GENESIS, 13TH CENTURY (JEWISH))

QUOTATION 2. [[“What marvellous virtue in the just man! He surpassed all the standards of hospitality! I mean, how could anyone do justice to the good man's friendliness in not bringing himself to spare even his daughters so as to demonstrate his regard for the strangers and save them from the lawlessness of the Sodomites.”]] (ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM HOMILIES ON GENESIS (43))

QUOTATION 3. [[“Do we not shudder at that crime which the Sodomites were trying to commit upon the guests of that just man as to think that whatever might have restrained them should have been done. We are so much moved, also, by the man himself, who by merit of justice was saved out of Sodom, that we also attribute to his justice the fact that, since it is less evil for women to suffer violation than men, he preferred it to happen to his daughters rather than to his guests . . . we must consider whether Lot's action is an example that we ought to imitate or that we ought, rather, to avoid. It seems the more noteworthy and remarkable that, when his guests were threatened . . . with so dreadful an evil which he wanted in vain to avert, even the soul of a just man could be so confused. In defence of this man one might confine himself to the difficult position of maintaining that, since it is better to suffer wrong than to do it and since those guests were not going to do wrong but suffer it, the just man preferred his daughters to suffer the wrong instead of his guests . . . in view of his authority over his daughters . . . it was as if he offered his slaves to be slain by wicked men in order that his guests not be slaughtered.”]] (ST AUGUSTINE AGAINST LYING)

QUOTATION 4. [[“... I excuse Lot and think that he adopted this plan without sinning. He did not plan to expose his daughters to danger, for he knew that they were not desired by the frenzied men; but he hoped that this would be a way to soften their wrath. Therefore this speech should be regarded as hyperbole.”]] (MARTIN LUTHER LECTURES ON GENESIS)

QUOTATION 5. [[“As the constancy of Lot, in risking his own life for the defence of his guests, deserves no common praise; so now Moses relates that a defect was mixed with this great virtue... For being destitute of advice he devises an unlawful remedy. He does not hesitate to prostitute his own daughters, that he may restrain the indomitable fury of the people. But he should rather have endured a thousand deaths, than to have resorted to such a measure.”]] (JOHN CALVIN COMMENTARY ON THE BOOK OF GENESIS)

QUOTATION 6. [[“Lot's readiness to sacrifice the honour of his daughters, though abhorrent to Hebrew morality, shows him as a courageous champion of the obligations of hospitality in a situation of extreme embarrassment, and is recorded to his credit.”]] (JOHN SKINNER COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 1910)

QUOTATION 7. [[“Lot's proposal, so atrocious in our ears, may have been deemed meritorious in an Eastern country, where no sacrifice was considered too great to maintain the safety of a stranger who had been received in hospitality. That Lot should have thought of imperilling the honour of his family, and not have hazarded his own life is due not so much to the weakness of the man as to the terribly low estimate of womanhood which prevailed at the time.”]] (HERBERT RYLE THE BOOK OF GENESIS 1921)

I have absolutely no time for the comments of Luther and Skinner above. I don’t know what planet they were on. NO EXCUSE CAN BE MADE FOR LOT’S ACTIONS. The greatest liberating factor for women has been the gospel of Jesus Christ. When God formed woman, Adam said {{Genesis 2:23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called Woman because she was taken out of Man.”}} “Bone of my bone; flesh of my flesh”. Away with you who say women have lesser value than men. Lot did a vile thing and nothing will condone his action. He was prepared for his daughters to be gang raped.

{{Genesis 19:9 but they said, “Stand aside.” Furthermore, they said, “This one came in as an alien, and already he is acting like a judge. Now we will treat you worse than them,” so they pressed hard against Lot and came near to break the door,”}}

This is the world’s reaction to sham professors/sham Christians. The world will despise one who says he maintains a righteous testimony and is still heavily involved the world and dubious behaviour. It just won’t work. This awful truth came rushing upon Lot. His whole world is falling apart. No doubt Lot thought he was doing well for himself and his family when he moved to Sodom but the results showed how greatly he erred.

The sodomites turned on Lot which goes to show there is no respect for those not in their camp. The vindictiveness also comes out in the way they were going to treat Lot. The hateful militarism of the homosexual lobby in our day when they are having Christians dismissed from their jobs and persecuted, and taking moves to have the bible declared as an offensive book because it is not supportive of homosexuality. Activism in homosexuality is one of the worse types of activism because it is based in the strong evil of Satan.

They turned on Lot accusing him of being an alien. Lot thought they accepted him but they did not. They tolerated him but when an issue arose, then their true colours emerged. It is no different for us either. If we put our head in a noose, someone sooner or later will tighten that noose.

{{Genesis 19:10-11 “but the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. Gen 19:11 They struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves trying to find the doorway.”}}

Divine protection. There are times I believe when our own foolishness will land us in trouble and very awkward situations, but God’s graciousness will often help us in our distress through those times. The Lord understands we are weak and I am sure helps us even when we have messed up our own nest. It is essential that we are sensitive enough to the Lord to know we have messed up and repent and come back in full trust. The Lord will help us. We have such a caring God.

There was no struggle to get Lot back behind the door because angels are powerful, supernatural beings who just plucked him up and drew him inside. Then they struck the lusting wicked mob around the house with blindness, and that combined with their sinful madness, was enough to keep them from entering the house. As it is, those sodomites were so blind to begin with – spiritually blind. Their outlook was black. However let us remember that all who are in sin (and that means the whole unconverted human race) live in spiritual blindness. Jesus is the light of the world and that is the secret. The blindness of governments that support all this homosexual legislation is truly gross blindness.

LOT EXPOSED AS EMPTINESS. VERSES 12 - 14

{{Genesis 19:12-14 Then the 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, Gen 19:13 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.” Gen 19:14 Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law who were to marry his daughters, and said, “Up, get out of this place, for the LORD will destroy the city,” but he appeared to his sons-in-law to be jesting.”}}

There was no need to ask Lot the question about his family as they already knew the situation but it was to confirm with Lot his own situation. What sort of family did he have? From what we know, and from what is to happen, his family was very uncommitted to the Lord; no relationship. It was a wicked family, and who was to blame for that? There is such a thing in scriptures as “the federal head of creation”. That is, God has placed in man the responsibility for his household. As Christ is the head of the Church, man is the head of the family. I know this is decried in these days of feminism, but in spite of all protestations, God’s truth is not altered.

When a man does the wrong thing as head of his family, then sorrow results. Sadly Lot was a horrible head to his family. He brought them into Sodom; exposing the family to some of the worst sin in the Old Testament in a callous disregard for the results. It is no wonder that he was looked on with disdain.

Lot was told to round up his family and bring them to the place of safety and that was near the two angels. However when he spoke to the potential sons-in-law, they laughed him away. He was a joke to them. This says a whole lot about the sick testimony of Lot – definitely the lack of one – that Lot had in Sodom. He had so compromised any trust he had in the Lord that he was a disgrace in Sodom and in his family. (Yes, as I have already said, I know what the New Testament says about Lot, and will deal with that at the end of the last message).

“Don’t talk the talk but walk the walk.” Did Lot do this? His testimony was such that his words were empty words to the men who were to become his sons-in-law. This man was marked by inconsistency, and even hypocrisy. His credibility was long gone.

C H Macintosh has put it so very well – [[“We can not profit by the world and at the same time bear effectual testimony against its wickedness. Lot had come in to live among them but had become judge with them. This will never do. The true way to judge is to stand apart in the moral power of grace. To attempt to reprove the world’s ways, while we profit by association with it, is vanity. The world will attach very little weight to such reproof and testimony as shown with Lot’s testimony to his future sons-in-law - “he seemed as one who mocked,” as the KJV puts it. It is vain to speak of approaching judgment while finding our place, our portion and our enjoyment in the very scene which is to be judged.”]]

In looking at verse 13 sins will have their day. The account of men’s sins is true, and the cup always fills up until it is emptied. God emptied the cup of Judah’s sins by using Nebuchadnezzar. He emptied the cup of Sodom’s sins by fire and brimstone. This current world is building a sinful house that will come into awful judgment and will crash down to dust. The cup of sins in the present world is great and almost full, and it will be emptied in the coming Tribulation judgement. Sin will always have its day. The outcry to heaven from all over the earth right now is screaming out for judgement. 73 million unborn babies are murdered through abortion yearly. The criminal activity is so widespread. Homosexuality and gender destruction of children, and almost any distortion of values are monstrous. Sin WILL have its day!

What does God say to this present generation? Very loudly he calls for repentance and the need to turn to the Lord as the only shelter from wickedness and judgement. Will men listen? We see already in the world that they mock God; laugh at these warnings and continue in sin – just like they did in Sodom, and before the flood for that matter

Because of our testimony, does the world only judge what we say as mocking (KJV), jesting (NASB), joking (NIV)? Lot’s moral testimony was such that the world ignored him.

SODOM IN LOT’S HEART – IT REMAINED. VERSES 15 - 23

{{Genesis 19:15-16 When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot saying, “Up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city,” Gen 19:16 but he hesitated, so the men 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.”}}

Verse 16 - “But he hesitated.” The angels’ command was urgent, BUT he hesitated. It is the goat act - always “butting”! Why did Lot hesitate? The evil world had laid hold on his heart fully. Lot was worthless as a believer and married to Sodom. To put it simply, he did not want to leave. His heart was Sodom. In those circumstances, God would normally say, “Go your own way,” but here there was this extraordinary extra in God’s perseverance and the reason is not hard to find. It was the earnest intercession of Abraham we had earlier for his wayward nephew. God answered Abraham’s request.

So reluctant was he to leave that the angels dragged them out by force from the city. Only four of them were saved from destruction, but personally I do not think any of Lot’s family, including Lot, had any desire to leave the den of iniquity. They loved it there. They loved the sin. They hated separation from wickedness, and the angels had to drag them away for the wickedness.

The angelic beings could have shielded them in the fire and brimstone or even carried them out (remember Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego) but they chose to drag them out because it had to be absolute separation.

Again the commentator C H Macintosh sets out the case clearly for us and I quote:-

[[“There are two methods the Lord graciously adopts in order to draw the heart away from this present evil world. The first is, by setting before it the attractiveness, the stability and the truth of the “things which are above”. The second is by making aware the shakable and crumbling “things on the earth”.

“Now it is much better to be drawn by the joys of heaven than to be driven by the sorrows of earth. The believer should not wait to be shaken out of present things. He should not wait for the world to give him up, before he gives up the world. He should let the power of the things above fade the things of the world. Thus if we are realising our portion in the unshakable realities of heaven, we shall find little difficulty in giving up the delusive joys of earth.”

“O that our hearts longed for the heavenly more, so that instead of having, like poor Lot, to be dragged by main force out of the world, casting a lingering look behind, we might with the clear truth, bound forward like a racer towards the goal.”]] (End of quotes)

Verse 16 says the compassion of the Lord was upon them, BUT Lot did NOT deserve that because of his terrible living, BUT that is what grace is all about. It is the gifting favour from God that we do not deserve. Thank the Lord for His mercy and grace that saved us. Look at this from verse 16 – {{and they brought him out and put him outside the city.”}} Outside the city is where he should have been all his life raising his animals in wonderful communion like his uncle Abraham, and nowhere near Sodom! He hankered after sin and when sin had its way with him, all he had was nothing but three other individuals. Everything was gone – all the personal effects and mementoes. Just nothing. That is what sin does to us. It strips a man’s life of everything.

What happens after this we will study in the next message. God bless you all.

ronaldf@aapt.net.au