A sickness, a sadness & a sick, sad seduction
Genesis 19:15-17 · Vern Peterman · Jul 20, 2008
Genesis, No. 28
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492617236371

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. We're going to proceed into this chapter. We had Courtney read the introductory portion to kind of give the dramatic focal point of this passage, but we'll want to step through it one bit at a time here and draw some insights from it. One of the things I'd like to caution you about here, I just would like to ask that you brace yourself. There's some pretty raw revelations in this passage, and as you get towards the end of the chapter, it doesn't get any better.

And so I just would suggest that. And just so that you're not in shock, it's typical that I'll drop various pieces of humor and whatnot, you know, when I'll go through a passage. That won't happen here this morning. Okay? All right. So just don't expect it. The passage is a little too rough for that. Okay.

We want to take a look at the big picture on this chapter. Last Sunday, we made this statement that chapters 18 and 19 are like the two halves here of a whole. And this is kind of the second half then, if you will, that we'll be proceeding through this morning. Chapter 19 comes in three parts, and we'll step our way through that.

The first is the initial warning to Lot. and the final events there in Sodom. That's a significant portion of the chapter, and it has a high point that Courtney read for us. The second part there is the escape of Lot's family, but along with that, the loss of Lot's wife. Lot's wife failing to heed the warning that we saw on the initial screen. Courtney read for us, do not look back. And then the next thing is what we call the debasing of Lot by a scheme of his daughters, all just to fulfill a cultural mandate, you must have heirs. As we'll see when we get there, there's also something else that seemed to fit into Lot's daughter's perspective.

And we'll see that in just a minute. things as we step through this is that this chapter is not like a, here is what took place and that's over and done. This is instead a chapter that lays out some things that would have centuries of consequences. Centuries of consequences. We today are seeing consequences of what took place in this short period of time. The escape and warning, that whole cycle, probably took less than 24 hours. It certainly looks like a short period of time for this to take place. The subsequent debasing of Lott by his daughter, similarly, a couple of days, perhaps even less, for that to take place.

Huge, pivotal, momentous events all taking place within a short period of time, all having impacts that would last on into our present day right now. Amazing how pivotal these were. The consequences of these events continue to this day. And they will continue even until the time Christ comes again. That's the only time when things will change radically from the consequences we see here.

The viewpoints on the spirituality and morals that we see indicated in this chapter are likewise making a comeback in our day. We have seen changes in laws. We have seen changes in what is acceptable. We have seen changes in our own day in terms of even what shows are put on television. Impacted by the same spirituality, the same moral mindset, or maybe amoral mindset, that was taking place there in Lotts Day. And we'll see even more as we go through this, the depth of what that means.

One of the things we're going to bring out, I'm going to address it briefly and just let you know about supplements that are available. There's archaeology, geology, ecology, cultural geography, and genealogy. Regarding Genesis 19 that are all very interesting, we're going to take a quick flash at some of those things and we have a couple of supplements for those of you interested in digging into that further. There's quite a fascinating background and so we'll flag that.

There is a supplement entitled, and I need to correct, it's not one page, The Science Behind Sodom and Gomorrah. It's two pages and it's got some full color photos and charts. We'll have some of them on the screen here briefly, but if you want more detail and to take a deeper look at it, supplements are available in the handout on the right as you exit the room.

Here is a photo, air photo from the satellite view. I think Lott and Abraham might have appreciated something like this, if it didn't scare them to death. What we find here is this lower part of the picture I'm going to zoom in on. And the picture that we have is these cities along the eastern side of the southern part of the Dead Sea. are the area where Sodom and Gomorrah and the other cities of the plain were located. Those are about 1,300 feet below sea level. So this is way down there. We don't have anything like that in the whole western hemisphere. This is the lowest place on earth unless you're going to go underwater.

Now, three angels, we looked at this last week in our Genesis 18 passage, three angels came to see Abraham. Two of those were created angels. One, the angel of the Lord. It's those two created angels that continued on and were the ones that we see at the very first verse of this chapter 19 that have come to warn Lot of what is to take place.

It gets rather complicated, I would say even dramatic, in a tragic sort of way. But the next thing is, if you look at it, what were the angels' assignments? What were they sent to do? Their assignment was one, to warn Lot, and that got rather complicated. The second one was to rescue the family by fleeing Sodom.

We'll see shortly, the angels eventually grabbed their hands and said, you've got to get out of here. You must leave. Get moving quick. And finally, to destroy the cities of the plain. So it's interesting. Here you have two angels. Part of their assignment is preserve these people. And the other part of the assignment is destroy the rest. Then, as we go through there, the angels did various other things as needed, particularly in that first part, in warning Lot. Various other things as needed to carry out these three tasks.

Now, one of the things we'll want to highlight this morning, the sins of Sodom are often misunderstood. I think frequently there's kind of a picture in people's minds. We're going to try to clarify that here this morning. What we see here in Genesis 19 are the final hour kinds of events, but it's not the whole picture of what was wrong at Sodom and certainly of Gomorrah as well.

These two cities are brought up many times in God's Word. Christ speaks of them. Paul wrote of them. Peter wrote of them, and so did Jude, and so did John in the book of Revelation. Up to the very last book of the Bible, we find Sodom brought up again. These other passages provide some insights, often overlooked, as to the character and the magnitude of the sins that were going on here in Sodom and Gomorrah and the other cities of the plain. And we'll examine those shortly. Let's just kind of step in a paraphrased fashion through what took place here.

The first verse there talks about these two angels. Remember, these are the two created angels who had been among the three who were with Abraham, now coming into Sodom. As they step into Sodom, Lot meets them. And similar to what Abraham had done when he had seen the three angels, as we read about in chapter 18, bows his face to the ground and here he is as an elder of the city sitting at the city gate and he comes and he greets these two strangers.

So far as he knows they're just simply two men that are coming in as visitors and he's giving them a very hospitable greeting. But shortly after he meets them, they say, well, we'll just stay in the city square. And Lot, I think having some understanding of what would happen, said, oh, no. You don't want to do that. You're going to stay with me, okay? And so then the exchange takes place where Lot is there with these two men who are staying with him as his guests, staying there with his wife and two daughters. So here is Lot. And the men of the city, and this is of all quarters, young and old, come around and they say, Lot, let us have at these two men. And Lot steps out in front of the doorway and says, well, hey, wait a minute here, you guys, you need to think about this. And this is unthinkable. I have a hard time fathoming it. He even offers his daughters. I have no idea why he would think that that's a good idea, even as a joke.

But these men, pressing as they were, came to the door and were ready to break it down. The angels reach out, pull Lot in, close the door behind him, and put blindness on all these men so that they can't find the door. And so this preserves locked in the household for the night. Then, as the morning comes, the angels say, Get going.

Get out of here. You must leave. Here are Sodom and Gomorrah. Why this judgment? I think this is what we want to put some focus on because it's frequently looked upon, oh, well, the whole city was gay men. Well, there's more to it than that. They were destroyed because of their sinfulness. Their prominent sin, certainly in this account, is a same-sex, and we'll see it's actually a crime, But there were other sins. Let's take a look at them.

This Ezekiel 16.49 says that one of their sins was arrogance. Spells out just rank arrogance. The next one says they had abundant food and careless ease. One of the things that attracted Lot to Sodom and Gomorrah to begin with was, he said, that is one lush place. I want to live there. There is abundance. And yet, Ezekiel says, with all that abundance, you do not take care of the poor and the needy. You have ample opportunity to do so, but you do not.

Finally, we have the statement in Jude 7, which really opens the door to other kinds of excesses beyond what's recorded in Genesis 19. It says they indulge in gross immorality, and that really opens the door to anything outside of marriage, and even includes, and what the Canaanites later displayed, was bestiality. really, really gross stuff, and went after strange flesh. That would include, of course, the account that we see there in Genesis 19, but basically it would also include anything. They really didn't seem to care whether it was necessarily human. That's not all.

One of the things we see first off here in Genesis 19, Lot is one of the elders of the city. He sits at the city gate. And they completely disrespect the fact that he is one of the leaders in the city. They say, we don't care if you're a leader in the city, we want what we want and we want it now. We're not done.

In contrast to Abraham, they were profoundly inhospitable to the two strangers. It wasn't just a matter of you don't get a place to stay, but you're a stranger coming into town? Oh, well you need to find out what we do to strangers that come to town. So there was more to it than that. The men of Sodom were basically attempting to carry out same-sex gang rape of these two apparent strangers. They, I'm sure, had no idea that these were angels. They had no idea that these two angels were about to destroy the entire city.

But nonetheless, that was their attempted That was their intent. That is what they wanted to do. And the passage says all were involved. It wasn't just a small group. Neither Lot nor his daughters nor even the same violation amongst themselves were going to satisfy them. No, it must be these strangers. This is the way we treat strangers. This is their initiation. So this is gross. Judah is right. This is a terrible, awful thing that they have proposed to do.

Now we step into the next section here, verses 15 through 29. And we have various artistic renderings of what that may have looked like. And just one thing that is abundantly clear, the passage describes a conflagration of great proportions. Later on the passage, here is Abraham many miles away, but still with the valley in view, is looking at this massive conflagration that's coming out of the area of Sodom and Gomorrah. One of the things that's on the supplement, if you care to take a look at it, Dr. Bryant Wood, who spoke here in this very room in 2002, is I would say one of the men who has done quite a bit of study in the field and otherwise. Here he is in this picture identifying the ash layer in what he has identified as Gomorrah. And you see his hand there on that layer. That ash layer covers, you know, Gomorrah, Sodom, and that entire area.

And one of the interesting things that he points out is the evidence is such that all the roofs on all the buildings caught on fire and collapsed. And it happened so fast that the people were captured underneath the roof and didn't even have time to get out. It hit them hard. It hit them fast. And they were buried right there.

Interesting, you might think of, okay, here's this desert area with hardly any vegetation. At the time, it was very fertile. Excavations are in progress now. But what they have excavated has shown a cemetery with a half million people in the cemetery. So we're talking this is not some minor little town. This is quite a place. Here is one of the pictures from the earlier part of the excavation. And what we outline here is a couple of skeletons.

That's included in the picture set on the supplement. and then the burn material right around it. And the description of what you see right there in Genesis 19 fits exactly with what you find on the ground. All the roofs caught fire very quickly, collapsed on those who were inside, and they died in the conflagration, buried with ash and fire and brimstone. So a question here. Why would God judge Sodom and Gomorrah like that? Why doesn't he do that here? Why would God judge Sodom and Gomorrah this way? I mean, that sounds pretty severe.

Well, we need to answer that question. Now, the first point here is not so much to answer the question as to give us a time perspective. God has carried out, and these are things recorded for us in Genesis, the most intense judgments near the beginning and the end of this present world. And what that says is what you see recorded in Genesis in the early chapters about the flood, about this event, is kind of a beginning of creation and the beginning of this present world phenomenon. That degree of conflagration will come again towards the end. Let's take a look at this in a kind of a picture form. And we don't have this on your handout, so you have to just kind of follow along. Initially in this timeline, here was the creation. We looked at it in more detail as we studied the first couple chapters of Genesis.

At the time of the flood, where except for those eight preserved on the ark, there was a worldwide flood that destroyed the world that then was. There was at this time then the destruction of the five cities of the plain, or the four of the cities of the plain.

And this was one that was brought about as we see described right here in Genesis 19. There will come a time, it could start today, There will come a time when the world will have a conflagration that will last seven years. That conflagration is spelled out in the book of Revelation from chapter 6 on to chapter 19. One of the things we've mentioned is 70% of the book of Revelation is out of the Old Testament.

So the Old Testament also has great description of these very same events. At the end of that seven-year period of time, so that could be as close as seven years from today, the Lord will come again, and that will also be a time there will be those who will be very happy for the Lord's coming, and there will be those who are not.

That will, for some, be a horrible moment, one that they are quite unprepared for. At the end of a thousand years, the end of this present world will come about. the elements will melt, is the way Peter puts it. And so what you have here is this destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah fits into the pattern, the larger pattern of Scripture of conflagrations towards the beginning and conflagrations towards the end. Yet to come, perhaps starting even today.

Alright, every single sin of all time will be judged at the cross in life or in eternity. Christ paid the price for every single sinner, every single sin, for all time on the cross. Every one. But it is only effective for those who believe, right? There is also a payment in this present life. You ever heard of court cases, or you may be personally familiar with situations where justice didn't happen? Well, that's okay. The Lord's going to take care of it. Ultimately, all sin will be dealt with. The Lord is not sloppy in His accounting. All sin will be dealt with. I'm glad that mine are taken care of on the cross. Aren't you?

What God knows that we, of course, cannot know is what further sin and victimization is prevented by a judgment like this. God knows, and we could never know, what will this stop? What will this prevent? Not only for those who are no longer living able to carry things out, but by those who are warned because of what took place. By those who saw this, because remember Abraham saw it, I'm sure many other Canaanites did as well, and backed off and said, whoa, what's happening here? The Lord knows what would have taken place and what will be prevented. We could not. Another thing that we couldn't know is how hearts would respond if there was a warning. And maybe there was some warning that we're not told about.

We have, for example, and that's what this picture is intended to illustrate, the instance of Jonah. Here Jonah was sent to Nineveh. Yeah, he got there in a little roundabout way. But Jonah was sent to Nineveh to warn them. And did they respond? Yeah, they did respond. Much to Jonah's distress, but they did respond. But the Lord knows whether hearts will be responsive. The Lord knows. And in this case, with Sodom and Gomorrah, he knows and knew whether their hearts would respond if there was any kind of a warning anyway.

Perhaps they're too far gone. As the account is told to us, Lot, his two daughters, his wife, head out, leaving Sodom. What's unfathomable to me is that Lot picks this time to start negotiating where he can go. I don't know how he thought that was a good idea. He's told this whole place is going to be destroyed, you know, get out of here, and he begins negotiating. It is unfathomable to me how he thought that was a good idea, but believe it or not, the angels honored it, said, okay, you can go to Zoar. As they were leaving, one of the things that the angels said very clearly, do not look back.

And unfortunately, Lot's wife did. There are various things that are physical features in the area that are sometimes looked upon as, oh, that's Lot's wife. I'm rather doubtful. But it says that Lot's wife turned to a pillar of salt. And there's certainly plenty of that in the area.

Now, Lott's daughters, two of them, and Lott make it away and survive this incident. The account says that they went ultimately to a cave on the eastern shores there. Interestingly enough, the Arab name for the Dead Sea is the Sea of Lott, okay? And on the eastern shores there of the Dead Sea, there is a cave, and this is it, that by tradition says that's Lot's cave.

As a matter of fact, that's the inside. While it would probably never be determined absolutely that this is the one, there appears to be some evidence in its favor aside from the tradition and certainly nothing against it. So this may very well be the place where Lot and his daughters stayed.

Now, but what did the daughters do? The daughters, and if you read the account, it's interesting, they seem to look upon this event as we're the last people on earth. And they have, possibly because of that perception, but probably more so because of the cultural pressure upon them, they come up with a scheme. They come up with a scheme that they figure that they can sell.

You can imagine Lot having lost everything, including his wife, because they had to just run for their lives. And now his wife was lost in the process. He has had massive tragedy come upon him. So perhaps his daughters thought, oh, we can easily sell him on, here, have another glass of wine, and then another, and then another, and then another. Drown your sorrows, Lot. And so they sell him on this idea with the idea that since there was nobody else to carry on the line, mom's gone, that We have to be the ones. And so they appointed themselves as the mothers of Lot's two sons.

They are in a cave there. And so we have another supplement. The caveman in the Bible is the other supplement that's out there. And that is one page. And that's the cabinet to the right. Feel free to avail yourself of that. So here, On the eastern shores of the Dead Sea begin two families, two nations of people.

Ammon is one of the sons of Lot. Benami, the Ben prefix means son of. And then Moab, the other son of Lot, each by a daughter. And so we have the rather strange family tree here. where Lot finds himself in two places in the family tree. The likely meanings, and this is not certain, so I'll just give that as a preface, but this is likely. Ammon, the name appears to mean inbred. And Moab means from father. So, I mean, they didn't try to hide anything there.

The heritage of these two sons is amazing, and that's where we say that there are consequences that last into the centuries, even to our day. The heritage of these two sons and the nations that were produced from them proved to be dismal moral and spiritual failures. Ammon and Moab opposed the nation of Israel as they exited Egypt and in their exodus had to come through the places of Ammon and Moab. Ammon and Moab, the nations that descended from them, opposed Israel as they sought to enter the Promised Land.

It was the king of Moab who decided to hire Balaam to curse them. And this is the account that we find in the book of Numbers. Ultimately, the Lord intervened and yet we still find Balaam mentioned several times in the New Testament. And he ultimately confounded the king of Moab by blessing the Israelites. Okay. Ammon and Moab each took a turn during the period of the Judges. The book of Judges lays this out.

Oppressing Israel. We have pictured here some kind of slavery, but a lot of it was coming in and raiding their food stocks. They would come in and take the food and things that the Israelites had gotten off the land and come in and grab it for themselves. And the Israelites were forced to hide in many of the things that they were doing and to try to hide food from the Ammonites and Moabites.

Ammon and Moab also introduced a horrific, awful pagan god called Molech to Israel. when Moses was warning the Israelites about what they would encounter as they went into the Promised Land. He told them even about this God, the God that was introduced by the Ammonites and the Moabites.

Molech was a horrific God. Why do I say that? The parents, in worship of Molech, were to take their infant sons and daughters, the firstborn, and burn them. and the fire of this idol. It was a gross, horrific religion, and the Jews, believe it or not, you would think, you know, boy, that's awful, and that they would stay away from it.

No, the record is for centuries they were tempted, drawn back into this. It is unfathomable, unbelievable that they would be. Nonetheless, scripture records multiple times that they were. And what's also horrible is that that basic same mentality has come about today, even in our own lifetime, even in recent decades, where doing something quite similar is protected by law. Yet God was gracious through it.

We have in your Bibles the book of Ruth in the Old Testament. Ruth was a Moabite woman, a descendant of Moab. the one whose name likely means from father. She marries a Jewish man named Boaz and that account is found there right near Judges in the Old Testament. Ruth became the great grandmother of King David and whose descendant was Jesus Christ, born of Mary.

Here, a descendant of this Moabite woman, with all sorts of evil things for centuries and yet God was gracious. He used a Moabite woman to bring about our Savior and our Lord. Here's this Moabite surprise. Here's the lineage. of David. And here's Boaz married Ruth, a Moabite woman. So there's the simplified family tree that shows this Moabite woman in the very line of Christ.

Now one of the things I'd like to introduce to you is that Abraham and Lot are spiritual classics. What do I mean by that? Genesis gives us the account here in chapters 18 and 19 of Abraham and Lot. But they're classic examples of two kinds of believers. And in fact, we see those kinds of believers portrayed in the New Testament as well, as we'll see shortly.

I say kinds of believers because Genesis 15.6 says that Abraham believed God and was justified. God accounted for that as righteousness.

And 2 Peter 2.7 says that Lot himself was righteous. Although, as we read this account, you would say, what? Well, let's find out what was meant by that. Abraham typically set himself apart, not always, and he walked by faith, though he certainly stumbled. And, in fact, we'll read about that in the very next chapter.

He did stumble. But Lot, blind to the hazards that he had put before himself, he stewed himself and his family in this moral and spiritual corruption. This city, and he knew the character of those men. He knew the character of those people enough to keep his guests away from them. Yet, he kept his family there. Yet, he got two sons-in-law, at least potentially. from that city. Something's quite wrong here.

The spiritual believer, Abraham being the representative there, brings matters of his own life and those he cares about to the Lord. Notice, Abraham not only talked about himself to the Lord, but he also talked about Lot. Would you preserve things just for the sake of Lot? The spiritual believer considers and values God's character. As Abraham was talking with the Lord in Genesis 18, he acknowledges that God is just. God is a God of justice. That is his character.

Here is what Paul wrote to the believers in Galatia, a young church in terms of spiritual maturity, but he writes this in Galatians 6.1, and you have this also on your handout on page 2. Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, each one looking to yourself so that you too will not be tempted. So the spiritual believer looks to preserve and restore one who has fallen along the path.

The spiritual believer also, and this is the last part of that Galatians 6.1, sees his own moral and spiritual weakness. Does not seek to restore out of arrogance. Oh, I will restore you because I am so grand and glorious a believer. No, that's not the attitude. Does not seek to restore out of arrogance, but instead out of humility and a recognition of who the Lord is and who they are.

The fleshly believer, here's Lot for you, sees how things look from a human viewpoint and an earthly valuation. Lot looked down on Sodom. He didn't think, oh, those are nasty people. He looked down on Sodom and said, those people treat strangers horribly. He looked down on Sodom and he said, that looks good to me. That looks good to me.

It's an earthly evaluation, not a spiritual one. The fleshly believer, like Lot, doesn't ask what the spiritual factors and outcomes will be. If I move to Sodom, what will that do to my family? If I move down to Sodom, what will be the spiritual outcome from that decision? It looks really good, and I don't care about anything else.

The fleshly believer retains the right to decide whether or not he will follow God's wisdom. The fleshly believer prays with his hands folded Except in his heart and in his mind, he's got his fingers crossed behind his back. The fleshly believer prays with his fingers crossed.

He says, God, give me your wisdom and I'll decide whether I like it. God, give me your wisdom and I'll figure out because I'm so wise. I'll figure out whether that's something I want to do or not. I'll figure out whether that's a path I want to follow. But let me know, and God, I'll let you know what I decide.

Paul describes the believers in Corinth this way in his first letter to them. And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, like the ones described in Galatians 6.1, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ.

I gave you milk to drink and not solid food, for you are not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not able. For you are still fleshly, and since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?"

Oh, believers, he told them back in the first chapter, he says, you have been permanently sanctified. In your eternal position, you're permanently sanctified. But you live like you aren't. You still look around to the world to guide and direct your life. What's the difference here?

Abraham is getting to know the Lord. Abraham is talking with the Lord about life, about the things he's concerned about, about people he's concerned about. All Lot wants is, how does it look? Getting to know the Lord is not Lot's goal and point. And the end of that becomes pretty apparent. Getting to know the Lord is what it's about. And that's why as we look at chapter 18 with Abraham and chapter 19 with Lot, we see such a stark contrast. Abraham, does he stumble some?

Yeah, he does. We'll see it soon. He does it again. But in the end, he sees knowing the Lord is where it's at. Talking to Him. Living life in fellowship with Him. That's where it's at. Let's pray and talk to our Lord. Lord, as we look at this passage, certainly there's lots of things we could point out.

But what becomes abundantly clear as we contrast Abraham in chapter 18 and Lot in chapter 19, is such a huge difference for two believers. For two who are saved. And yet one talks to you and shares with you all his concerns. And the other just does what seems best in his own eyes. Lord, we pray that you would draw us to see the difference in our own lives. That we would see the distinction. and come to a place of valuing above all else, knowing you. That's what eternity will consist of. How precious, how wonderful. In Jesus' name, Amen.