Summary of passage: The angels of the Lord who had been with Abraham now arrived at Sodom and Lot was sitting at the gateway at the time (an indication he was now one of the leaders of Sodom). Lot recognized them as angels and bowed to them. He acted as Abraham did, inviting them to his house to wash their feet and spend the night.
At first, the angels refused but Lot insisted so they obliged. Lot fed them. At nighttime, all the men of Sodom came to Lot’s house and demanded that he hand over his guests so they could have sex with them. Lot went out and offered his daughters instead, refusing to hand over the angels who were his guests.
They pushed him aside and told him he would be treated worse than the angels. The men tried to break in but the angels pulled Lot inside and blinded the men so they could not find the door.
Then the angels tell Lot to get his family for they are going to destroy Sodom because the outcry against the city is so strong. Lot ran to his son-in-laws and told them what was happening but they didn’t believe him. They laughed in his face.
Questions:
11a) Lot tried to reason with the men to not take the angels to sodomize them (verses 6-8) but the men pushed him aside, called him an alien, and threatened Lot as well (verse 9). In verse 14 Lot’s son-in-laws laugh at Lot when he tells them the city is about to be destroyed and refuse to come.
These verses don’t show Lot’s influence on his wife but verse 26 describes how Lot’s wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt because she didn’t want to leave Sodom.
b) I would have thought when Lot got kidnapped by the four kings and he lost all his possessions and Abraham had to rescue him would have been a big clue to leave Sodom (Genesis 14:12-16). But I think because Lot regained all that was taken due to God’s goodness Lot didn’t take the warning seriously.
c) Personal Question. My answer: God often warns us and tries to re-direct our path when we are not following His will but our own. He does this in many ways that often aren’t as dramatic as a kidnapping such as losing a job, a car accident, a death or illness in the family, or any other hiccup in your path that you know deep down inside is God.
The lesson is to heed these warnings and not to ignore them before it is too late and something irrevocable happens.
12) He could have moved his family at any time away from the filth of Sodom to a more Godly environment. Lot was rich enough he could have taken his flocks elsewhere and not suffered financially. Instead, he was blinded by Sodom’s temptations and chose to stay. He ignored God’s warnings and in the end paid the ultimate price: degradation and loss of his family.
Conclusions: God will keep trying to get our attention to move us to His path instead of ours. If He has to take out our family in order to do it (like He did with Lot’s wife), He will. Luckily, I think this is on the extreme side of God’s will for us. But it happens. We must remember God is in control and when we try to take control back from Him, we are in danger of being grasped by the devil and pulled under.
The key to understanding Lot is this: he compromised his beliefs. Yes, he was a believer. And he is in heaven today. But he wanted to live in the world and enjoy life’s pleasures. So he allowed his family to be around evil-doers who unduly influenced them. As Paul says, we must be careful our actions do not become a stumbling block for others who are weaker in the faith (1 Corinthians 8:9-13). Children are undoubtedly weaker.
Lot was in such a bad situation that he felt he had to offer up his daughters to be raped to protect his guests (unjustifiable in any case but we see just how bad Sodom is). He definitely wasn’t acting in his kids’ best interest when he moved to Sodom.
Lot was selfish. He wanted pleasure now. He wanted treasure on earth rather than in heaven. As a result, he hurt (and eventually lost) those around him.
The same is for us. We must heed God’s word and not compromise God’s truths. For the sake of others around us if not for ourselves. Otherwise, our life could mirror Lot’s. Not exactly a role model I admire or want to emulate to say the least.
Life is not about us. It’s about Him. We would do well to remember that.