Genesis 19--The Rescue of Lot and the Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah

READ:  https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2019&version=ESV
LISTEN:  https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Gen.19

​God Rescues Lot

19 The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed himself with his face to the earth 2 and said, “My lords, please turn aside to your servant's house and spend the night and wash your feet. Then you may rise up early and go on your way.” They said, “No; we will spend the night in the town square.” 3 But he pressed them strongly; so they turned aside to him and entered his house. And he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

4 But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house. 5 And they called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.” 6 Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him, 7 and said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. 8 Behold, I have two daughters who have not known any man. Let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please. Only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.” 9 But they said, “Stand back!” And they said, “This fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them.” Then they pressed hard against the man Lot, and drew near to break the door down. 10 But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them and shut the door. 11 And they struck with blindness the men who were at the entrance of the house, both small and great, so that they wore themselves out groping for the door.

12 Then the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone you have in the city, bring them out of the place. 13 For we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.” 14 So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, “Up! Get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city.” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting.

15 As 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.” 16 But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. 17 And as they brought them out, one said, “Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.” 18 And Lot said to them, “Oh, no, my lords. 19 Behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness in saving my life. But I cannot escape to the hills, lest the disaster overtake me and I die. 20 Behold, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Let me escape there—is it not a little one?—and my life will be saved!” 21 He said to him, “Behold, I grant you this favor also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken. 22 Escape there quickly, for I can do nothing till you arrive there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.

God Destroys Sodom

23 The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. 24 Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven. 25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. 26 But Lot's wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

27 And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord. 28 And he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley, and he looked and, behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.

29 So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived.

Lot and His Daughters

30 Now Lot went up out of Zoar and lived in the hills with his two daughters, for he was afraid to live in Zoar. So he lived in a cave with his two daughters. 31 And the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of all the earth. 32 Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father.” 33 So they made their father drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and lay with her father. He did not know when she lay down or when she arose.
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34 The next 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 offspring from our father.” 35 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. 36 Thus both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father. 37 The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day. 38 The younger also bore a son and called his name Ben-ammi. He is the father of the Ammonites to this day.

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A couple of notes before beginning today.  For those that don't know these particular parts of the Genesis account, it's going to get a bit "graphic" in some parts today.  I'll do my best to keep it as PG as possible, but might have to slip into some more "adult" topics so that I do justice to the text today, as I don't think that I should skip over things that that Bible clearly talks about just because we find them unsettling, perverse, or disgusting.  We need to take heed unless we too let our society and our households--even the people of God--to become degenerate like what we're going to read about.

With that said, let's dive into today's passage.  Remember that while God stayed behind to speak with Abraham and let Abraham plead for the city of Sodom, God already sent the angels on ahead to rescue Lot and his family.  The angels came to the city in the evening and Lot seems to be at the city gate and welcomes them to come and spend the night with him.  The visitors at first refuse and say they want to spend the night out in the city square, but Lot insists that it is not safe to do so and that they need to come with him and quickly.  He baked them a feast and probably cooked them unleavened bread simply because it is faster to cook because you don't have to wait for the bread to rise.  This is the very reason God told the Israelites to make unleavened bread during the Passover when we get to the book of Exodus because they would have to eat quickly.  While you're reading this I want you to think of similarities to three other Biblical events to see how God works in similar ways through history.  First, the Flood that we've seen in the portion of the narrative about Noah.  Next, would be the Passover that we won't study until the book of Exodus (we'll probably study that next after Genesis).  If you are unfamiliar with this, then read Exodus 11 and 12.  Last, would be the coming Day of the Lord that is talked about in so many places in the Bible, especially the minor prophets, the New Testament epistles, and the apocalyptic prophecies of Ezekiel, Daniel and Revelation.  We also see some important descriptions in the gospels and in other places as well.

One thing that seems consistent is that God always sends prophets to the people before He brings judgment on them.  God's desire is for everyone to repent and to give them the opportunity to do so before bringing destruction.  We saw this with Enoch and Noah preceding the Flood.  In a way, we see that God sent Lot to these people to live among them and show them that there was another, better way.  We don't have any words of Lot but we are told in the New Testament that he was righteous and that his soul was tormented by living among the sin of these people day in and day out.  Last, we see that in the end times, God will send two witnesses (prophets) and even angels to share the gospel with the entire world before He brings destruction on them.  He has also sent the Church to the entire world at this time to be His witnesses and to preach the message of salvation for all who will believe, but at some point in all of these stories time ran out.  With Noah, God told them His remnant to get in the Ark and He closed the door behind them and no one else was getting in at that point.  In the story we'll see the angels warn Lot and his family that they need to get out of town before sunrise so that they might not be swept up in the coming judgement, and we see that in the end times there is definitely a point where all men have made their decisions and those who have chosen to rebel against God will do so willingly, even though God's messengers are raised from the dead and taken to heaven before them and the angels of heaven themselves testify.  The men of that time know that this wrath is being brought upon them by the Lamb who sits on the throne, but instead of crying out to God for salvation, they instead cry out for the rocks to fall on them that they may die, supposing that this will hide them from the wrath of God and end their misery, but it will not, because all of these judgement are but warnings to men of the final judgment that is to come for those that are outside of Christ when the day of the Lord comes and all heaven and earth melt away before Him and He judges the living and the dead.

Something else we see in common in all these accounts is that God lets the wickedness of the people reach a particular threshold before His wrath is poured out on them.  The people in each account seem to be described as always doing, saying, and being evil in all ways at all times in every given opportunity.  This was the description of the people before the Flood, it would certainly be fitting of the men of Sodom that you can read about here as they immediately formed a rape mob to try to attack the visitors that were in Lot's house, and we'll see this in the end times when the people will kill the prophets that were sent to them and throw a party because they think they have beaten God and they will join their armies with the demonic forces to crate war against God and His people.

Anther thing that we see here is that God protects the righteous and God seems to extend that protection to those that are in their care who have themselves chosen to take refuge inside of the plan that God has laid out--whether that was the ark in the days of Noah, the city of Zoar here with Lot or those that were taken to heaven to escape the coming wrath in the book of Revelation, as we see the saints and the redeemed there--the elders, the saints, and the martyrs crying out for the Lord to judge the wickedness of those people.  There are also people that will refuse God's plan like the husbands of Lot's daughters and those like Lot's wife that seem going along with God's plan, but they turn around and want to take one last look at the world and the things that they are leaving behind because they love the world and the things of the world and in doing so, judgment comes upon them and they don't have time to escape--these could be people that say that they are having too much fun to become a Christian now and they will believe that Jesus died to save them from their sins, but they don't want to worry about Him being Lord of their lives right now because they are young and want to have fun, and what does it matter, if Jesus already paid for their sins?  This is not the gospel message of the Bible.  Jesus did not come simply to give people "fire insurance," though that is a large part of the salvation that is to come.

Unfortunately, we also see in the first two cases that sin quickly enters the scene again right after the judgment when God has dealt so severely with it.  In the case of Noah, he gets drunk and falls asleep in his tent naked, and Ham saw this and told his two brothers about it instead of covering his father up.  This sin lead to Ham's child Canaan being cursed and these citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah were direct descendants of that line, and it is that "little" sin that grew and become this wicked and perverse lifestyle of sin of these cities.  However, the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah did not stop there as since Lot had lost his wife and the daughters had lost their husbands they decided to comfort one another by having sexual relations which we would have to believe at this point would have been known to have been wrong--we even see how Lot had been conditioned to not thing twice about offering his virgin daughters to the rape mob of men who wanted to attack the angels.  Living among evil people leads even righteous men to compromise and affects the values of their loved ones.  This is why we are commanded in the New Testament to be in the world, but not of the world, and to not be conformed to the image of this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds in Christ Jesus.  

​These children that Lot fathered through his daughters would become the enemies of the people we would later know as the Israelites.  The were many of the people that the people of God had to fight with in their time wandering in the wilderness and God and we'll see them be an almost constant thorn in the sides of the people of God.  In nearly every case where the people God saved were rebellious that turned entire generations and kingdoms of people away from God, sometimes forever.  There will be a day though when God will remove us from the power and presence of sin and the all the wicked will be cast into the lake of fire and the people of God will live in the presence of God in the New Heaven and the New Earth in the new Jerusalem and there will be no more rebellious generations.  Oh, how I long for that day, but I realize that there is still work to be done because there are still people that need to come inside the ark of Christ for salvation.  Let us as the Church be effective in going out to all the world and preach the gospel with is "good news" to those who are ready to accept it, but "bad news" to those who chose to continue to live in rebellion towards God.  It is not your job to save them, but it is your job to tell them that they can be saved, but they themselves must make the choice to get in the ark (in the days of Noah) or to run to the place of safety (like here with Lot and his family).  God cannot and will not let the righteous (those that have been declared righteous in Christ) be swept up in the wrath that it to come which is being stored up for the the wicked and ungodly.

The judgement on Sodom and Gomorrah wiped out not just them but all the surrounding areas (except for the one place that God protected for the sake of Lot).  The Flood killed everyone who was not inside the ark, and eventually the coming judgment of the Day of the Lord will bring final judgment to all those who are outside of Christ.  That place which many call hell (the Bible calls it The Lake of Fire) was meant for the devil and his angels to punish them for their rebellion against God.  It's purpose was never meant for man, but when man fell and like the devil chose to try to be like God and rebel against God, then all those who die in the sin of Adam are like their father the devil and will share in his eternal punishment.  Only those who are in Christ will be like their father God and will share in His eternal life and blessings which we think of as "heaven."

While there is no such thing as "hell on earth," God does use historical events like the Flood and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah to warn us of the coming judgment and just how bad it is going to be when those who are outside of Christ experience the full wrath of God for all eternity.  Hell is not going to be a place to party with your friends.  It is also not a place of purification or reformation where people to until they have paid for their sins as we can never pay for our sins--that is why we needed Christ to pay them for us.  Every man makes his or her individual choice and it is appointment man once to die and after that the judgment, but "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. " (Romans 8:1).

Additional verses:
John 3:36
Romans 1:18
Romans 5:9
Ephesians 5:6
Colossians 3:1-10
Revelation 14:14-20 (there are two harvests--the grain is the "harvest of the righteous' and the grapes is the "harvest of the wicked."  Only the grapes are thrown into the winepress of the wrath of God).
Revelation 15 & 16 (The Bowls/Vials of the wrath of God)
Revelation 19:15

And there are many more passages where we could look at the day of the Lord and the destination of the unrighteous as it is probably one of the most talked about topics in the Bible.  Jesus talked about hell and the lake of fire at least twice as much as he talked about heaven.  Sodom and Gomorrah remind us that God will not wait forever to judge the ungodly.

One final note.  Does this mean that every natural disaster is the wrath of God being poured out on mankind?  No!  It seems clear that the wrath of God is stored up and poured out on the ungodly in ways that only the unrighteous are affected.  Natural disasters affect the godly and the ungodly alike and while this is a consequence of the Fall, we should not assume that all those who die in such disasters are "the wicked."  Some people in Jesus' time made this assumption when a tower fell on some people and they asked whose sin was being punished that all these men died, and Jesus' answer was that no ones' sin specifically was being punished but that death was a reality that all men needed to face and we never know when it will happen and that we need to be ready for it whenever it may happen.  (see Luke 13:1-4)

That's probably enough for today, but if you have questions about heaven, hell, the Day of the Lord and God's plan of salvation in Christ, please contact me.  I'd love to talk with you.  Contact me through Facebook or through my Discord server.