Genesis 18:22-19:14

Genesis 18:22-19:14

After Abraham is finally convinced that God is going to stay with Him and keep His promises, he discovers that God is now preparing to destroy Sodom, the city where his nephew, Lot lives. I think that one of the problems troubling Abraham at this point is the fact that God is taking care of him, who has not always been righteous but is now attempting to place all his trust in God, and yet He would go to Sodom and wipe out those who were living a righteous life. So Abraham inquires of God if He would really destroy the city if 50 righteous men could be found. He goes on to question God’s justice asking how a righteous God could treat the righteous just as He treated the wicked. Isn’t this a common question today? Only we state it differently. We ask, why do bad things happen to “good” people? First off, we must remember that no one is righteous, and for the Christian, righteousness comes only from Christ. Secondly, God is just in whatever He does, and Scripture teaches that all men suffer in life, the righteous and the wicked. Abraham’s request in this passage is just another form of the problem of suffering that we have today.

But despite all the theological points behind how God treats the righteous and the wicked, in this particular instance God does choose to spare those who are righteous within the city. But the discussion did not stop with 50. Abraham, apparently unsure that there actually were 50 righteous men in Sodom, gradually lowered the number, going all the way down to 10. Even at 10, God promised that He would not destroy the city for the sake of 10 righteous men. Of course, the whole time God knew that He would not find those 10 men. How many times do we find ourselves bargaining with God? Now, how many of those times are for the sake of others? Many people will pray prayers like this: God if you get me through this one rough time in my life, I promise that I will give up (fill in your sin). But how many times do we keep those promises? We are good about bargaining for ourselves, but I wonder if we pray for others as well. I have found that my prayers can be very self-centered, not just in the instance of bargaining. I tend to pray for the trials entering my life, the big decisions in my future. However, I have to constantly remind myself to pray for my friends and family, not just for the trials in their lives but for their spiritual state as well. Abraham had it right here, life is not all about us. Yes we need to make sure that we are where we should be spiritually. But we must also walk alongside our brothers and sisters, looking out for them as well. So as this chapter comes to a close, God sets out toward Sodom with a promise not to destroy the city if 10 of Abraham’s “brothers and sisters” are there.

Genesis 19 begins with two of the men who appeared to Abraham in Genesis 18 appearing to him. Like Abraham, Lot does not appear to know who they are yet he invites them into his house and provides for them. But when the men of the city come to his house wishing to be with these two foreigners sexually, Lot strongly forbids them not to. At the start, it appears as if Lot might be on the right track, but he makes a horrible mistake. Instead of just refusing and asking the men to leave, he tries to bargain with them. He wants to trade his daughters for these two men. So basically, instead of these two men being the victim, he asks that his daughters can be. This sounds awful at first, but sadly we do the same thing today. Instead of just saying no to whatever temptations may arise in our lives, we try to substitute it for something else. We may back down to one temptation, but we quickly get caught up in another one. The lesson to learn from Lot is to stick to your convictions and not compromise what you believe. It was great that Lot wanted to protect these men (who were really angels), but he should have stayed true to what he believed rather than trying to place his daughters in such an awful situation.

Because of God’s promise to Abraham (and not because of anything that Lot had done) the two men protected Lot and his family, striking the men outside the home with blindness. They then asked Lot to gather his family together so that they could flee the city before the destruction came. But his sons-in-law to be ignored the warning, thinking that Lot had to be joking. When God speaks, whether to us directly or through someone else, we must be quick to listen. Sometimes the consequences are no immediate, and we are able to get by for some time, even having a chance to repent. But there are also those times when the consequences are swift, and we do not have time to change our minds. That was the case for Lot’s sons-in-law, and we will soon see that they did not make it out of the city.

Matt