Sermons

Genesis 19 - Mercy for Lot, Mercy for Us

May 20, 2012 Speaker: Series: Genesis

Topic: Sunday Worship Passage: Genesis 19:1–19:38

[Text: Genesis 19)

Scripture Intro: This sermon was going to be part 3 in a series asking the question, “Why did God come down?” We can still answer the question from this passage. God came down here to demonstrate His justice and His mercy. But what strikes me now is the sharp contrast being drawn between Abraham and Lot in chapters 18 and 19 and how this text reaches into my heart and leads me to recognize my deepest need to be rescued…from myself.

[Read and pray]

It’s easy for our attention to focus on the men of Sodom in the passage and that’s not surprising. What was happening in that place is deeply disturbing. But if this passage is only a proof text for us to point at the certain sins of others in our community or nation, then we’re missed the MAIN point of the text. Yes, we’ll call sin “sin” today and the guilt of Sodom is part of the story. But the story revolves more around Lot than anything else; his choice of where to live, his welcome of the strangers, his ineffectiveness in being a blessing to the city, his cowardice, his lacking respect in the eyes of his future son-in-laws, his reluctance to leave Sodom even in the face of destruction, His disbelieving bargaining with the LORD. Lot is a righteous man, mind you. The Scripture testifies to that reality in several places. He has embraced the LORD and is seeking to walk with Him. But he has made his home in Sodom and as a result, Sodom has made its home in him.

Before I go any further, I want to shut down a line of thinking that is common for many in the church today and has been since the early centuries of the Church. This is not a text that justifies any sort of retreat from the world. This is not about the fundamental evil of “the city.” This is not about forming “safe” communities isolated from “sinners” so that we may live in peace. The moment I try to lock sinners out of my life I will only find that I have imprisoned myself with the worst kind of broken person…me. No, there can be no “holy-huddle” that is faithful to God.

No, for the people of Israel who first received this story and for us today, this text is leading us somewhere else – into our very own hearts. It is inviting us to consider the outcome of our decisions, to identify our own sin and weakness and brokenness before the LORD. As the text contrasts Abraham and Lot, I find that being like Lot is a lot more familiar to me than being like Abraham. And the call then of the text is to run for my life … into the arms of a God who has mercy on broken, weak sinners.

Chapter 19 opens similarly to chapter 18 and the parallelism is meant to draw out the comparisons and contrasts between Abraham and Lot. But to get the fuller picture, we have to remember how Lot ended up in Sodom in the first place. About 25 years earlier, Lot had moved his tents outside of Sodom, a place known to be full of rebellion against God’s good plan for life, because the benefits of living there were obvious – lots of water, fertile land – everything a person needed in that day. But he wasn’t willing to move into the city, it seems, because of the wickedness of the people living there.

In chapter 14, we found Lot living inside Sodom. There’s no explanation given why he moved within the walls, but there he is living under the authority of the King of Sodom, a man who would deeply dishonor Abraham in chapter 14.

Now the angels show up at the gates and there is Lot sitting in the place where the elders, the leaders of the city, would sit. There are enough positive parallels between Abraham and Lot for us to understand that Lot has not completely abandoned his faith. His actions show that he still embraces the LORD and seeks to live out of his understanding of who God is and what He does: righteousness and justice. He and Abraham greet the visitors, both bow to them and show them honor, both offer hospitality and a feast. But there are some subtle differences, too, that seem to lead us to recognize differences between the men.

Abraham runs to greet the visitors. Lot just stands up. Abraham’s wife and entire house are involved in preparing the food. Lot seems to be the only one concerned with the presence of the guest. Abraham’s guests have no need to fear the safety of their host’s home. Lot must urge the guests with all his might to convince them not to spend the night out in the open because he knows what would likely happen. Abraham stood by while the guests ate – a position of deep humility. It’s possible that the plural “they ate” of v. 3 implies that Lot is sitting as an equal with the guests.

These things seem so small as if we could just write them off, but isn’t it the small things that shine like neon signs illustrating where our hearts are in relation to God? Where do our little thoughts go when we see the obvious sin or faults of others? Mercy or Pride? Where do our little desires go when we see the attractiveness of the toys of this world? Contentment or Lust? Where do our little attitudes go when we think ourselves right on matters of theology or politics or in any argument with a family member?

Little sin does not remain little sin. Lot began with tents outside of Sodom, favoring the benefits of the land over the promises of God. It’s the same for us, little sin and little compromise does not stay little for long. See what happens next after the men of the city come to call on Lot. Now he will escape the justice of God only narrowly through great mercy shown by the LORD.

The men of the city – every man, young and old, to the very last man – surround Lot’s house calling out to him to give up the visitors. Their intentions are purely evil and they intend to abuse the men over and over and over again. Imagine the pressure, the fear, the kicked-in-the-gut feeling of having perhaps thousands of people screaming at you to give up the stranger inside your house.

He pleads for this not to be done. And then he breaks. He offers his own two daughters up to the mob. Some say that Lot was not truly offering his daughters, but trying to subtly show the men the wrongness of their desire by saying, “I’m an elder in this city and you wouldn’t do this evil to my daughters, so why would you do it to these men with me?” Then Lot’s actions (and the men of Sodom’s response as they recognize his condemnation) might make sense. They hear their desires being called wicked and wrong and they react strongly. But if that is the case then it’s too little, too late from Lot. There has been no transformation of the city by his presence. He calls them “brothers” in a last ditch attempt and they hate him for it.

But let’s say that he really is committing, as one person put it, “the sin of seeking to avert sin by sin”[1] as he puts the ancient rules of hospitality above his responsibility as parent and protector of his girls. If he really is offering up his own two girls to this broken, twisted, abusive, Godless culture, may we point a finger at him and consider ourselves guiltless if we have offered ourselves and our children up to a broken, twisted, abusive and Godless culture of our own?

See how the little has become the big? How small compromise and justified excuses for little sin creates opportunity for human depravity to be fully expressed? God, have mercy on me and on us - people who compromise with sin every day!

And mercy is what God has. As Lot’s failure is about to claim his life, the angels reach out of the door and pull Lot through it. And the men who were pressing hard to lay hands on Lot found their physical condition matched their spiritual condition: they have been blind to the righteousness and justice of God and now they would be blind to the judgment soon to fall. But notice that even while blind their hatred and anger and lust was not lessened, but they wore themselves out trying to find Lot’s door.

That’s how sin works. You’re blind and hungry and the desire drives you until there is nothing left of you. Sin gives no lasting satisfaction, no rest, no peace. There is no rest for us apart from the mercy of God.

By v. 12 the angels have seen enough. They urge Lot to bring anyone who belongs to him out of the place because the outcry against Sodom will be silenced by justice. The LORD’s long patience with the place (and His holding out the hope of transformation through the presence of the righteous man, Lot,) is at an end. Again, it has been about 25 years since chapter 13 when we first discovered that the people of Sodom were in deep rebellion against the LORD. Now there will only be one more sunrise for them.

But Lot can’t find anybody who will listen to him. He goes to his future sons-in-law and they laugh at him, thinking his talk of judgment is a joke.

Dawn came and Lot was still in the city. The angels warn him to go so that he isn’t swept away in the punishment of the city. But look at Lot. Sodom has become a part of him and he can’t bear to part with it. 2 Peter 2:8 tell us, “(… as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard).” Lot was torn between a true desire for the LORD, a fear of the judgment against evil that was about to fall and a desire to stay just where he was in comfort and provision. It’s like an addict who hates what he does and then runs to it as if his self-loathing of the night before wasn’t even reality. He can’t get away and, worse, part of him doesn’t want to get away.

But look how God deals with the people He means to rescue. The angels grab Lot, his wife and two daughters – just four hands of angels for four people trapped by sin – and brought them outside of the city. That is the mercy of God toward the broken and the weak, to those who cannot save themselves because there is even a part of them that does not want to be saved. He shows Himself to be faithful to His Word and His promises even when humanity is not.

The angels tell Lot to make for the hills and don’t look back or stop. But Lot’s fear and unbelief overcome him once again. Listen to his response and how deeply he is affected by sin. In v. 18 Lot says, “Oh, no, my lords.” WHAT?!?

He goes on. He knows he has found favor and that kindness has been shown to him. He says his life has been saved, BUT…

But he can’t go to the hills because then the disaster will overtake him. WHAT?!? Does he believe that God would rescue him and show mercy to him only to let him perish after all? Yes, in this moment he believes that more than he believes the LORD’s word and actions toward him. Have you ever believed your circumstances were outside of the LORD’s ability to rescue you? Have you ever believed that God would remove His mercy from you once He has decided to give it?

So Lot makes a deal with the LORD…a compromise which the LORD grants to him. He can escape to a small city (which is what Zoar means) to continue living in the comfort and ease in which he is used to living. Notice his reason for wanting to go there in v. 20. He already acknowledged that the LORD has saved him, but here he says that if he can only live in Zoar and not in the hills, then “my life will be saved!”

Just because the LORD grants Lot his request does not mean that we should think it a good one. The LORD often gives us the desires of our hearts. When we desire the LORD He graciously gives Himself to us. When we desire things other than the LORD, He will often give them to us as well. Only the consequences will not be pretty. Lot believes that he will be saved if only he can live in Zoar when salvation and provision has already been promised in the hills. Lot’s uncle Abraham had more than enough to provide for him! He could have sought refuge with him. See how deeply Lot is broken by his unbelief. He is almost as blind as the men of Sodom.

Yet the LORD continues in His mercy toward Lot. It is not until Lot is safe within Zoar that the judgment is let loose. The phrases of the text show that this is not mere lightening storm that sparked a little fire that grew, but massive, divine justice raining down over the cities, the villages, the plants, the animals, indeed, even the vegetation of the whole valley. And the chunks of fire that fell from above ignited the tar pits that filled the valley, which we learned about in chapter 14, and consumed the whole valley…except for the little town of Zoar. But Lot’s wife, who was behind him, presumably a good ways off and moving slowly, looked back in longing for her old home and was caught up in the fire. She would remain until the end of the world in the valley of death that she loved.

V. 27 brings us back to Abraham. We don’t know what he expected to see as he looked toward where his nephew lived. Perhaps he was hopeful that there were at least 10 people with Lot who had transformed that place of evil so that the mercy of God would be shown toward the whole place. But what he saw was the smoke of a furnace, billowing up and up into heaven itself. The righteousness and justice of God had been demonstrated in the earth once again. But for the sake of Abraham, God had mercy on Lot and rescued him, weak and foolish as he was. For the sake of the covenant God had made and His intention to renew the brokenness of this world, he had mercy on Lot.

And still there were consequences for Lot. In the last verses of chapter 19, we see how Lot’s fear continues to drive him. He was afraid of the city to which he asked God to allow him to escape. Instead of feeling saved by arriving there like he thought, he found himself paralyzed by his new home. Maybe Zoar looked a little too much like Sodom. Maybe not. But Lot runs to the hills with his daughters seeking to escape the brokenness he now fears. But he discovers (very much like Noah after the flood) that the brokenness of sin has come along with him. Sodom is part of his family now and his daughters take advantage of him in a twisted effort to save their family.

See how little sin becomes big, deep, wide sin that overwhelms even the people of God? See how little sins of a single man reverberate and crescendo into a crashing brokenness in his family and the generations that follow? There are no little sins. There are no little consequences. Except for the mercy of God, even Lot would have been lost as he lingered over his torn and broken desire to stay in Sodom – hating the idea and the reality of the place and yet finding himself unable to tear away from it.

This is the last time we hear about Lot in the book of Genesis and nowhere else does Scripture reveal what happened to him after this time. And yet the testimony of Scripture is that he was counted as righteous before God. That is completely baffling to many who have just heard about what a failure broken-and-unbelieving Lot was in this Story. How could God have mercy on him and not on all the men of Sodom?

Was Lot better than them? No. Was he more deserving of mercy? Still no. Lot was not rescued because of Lot. Lot was not rescued because of his moral lifestyle. Lot was not rescued because he was wise or pure or brave or fearless or faithful. Lot was saved because of one single reason…

…(v. 29) – “God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the (destruction)….”

Lot was counted as righteous and rescued because when God looked and acted toward him, the LORD was remembering someone else. It was Abraham who had prayed for the LORD’s mercy to be shown to the righteous. And God was remembering His own oath and promise that Abraham would be a blessing to others. And as Lot embraced the same God and covenant to redeem the earth that Abraham embraced, the same blessings of salvation and protection and forgiveness and compassion would fall on him, too.

Lot’s rescue and life came from a righteousness from outside of himself, embraced through faith and yet not depending on his faithfulness. Now consider your life.

As you and I recognize ourselves in Lot – in his weakness and unbelief, in his lingering around sin even though he hates it – we are forced to admit that there is nothing we can do to save ourselves from the justice of God against human rebellion against Him.

It is into that darkness, that hopelessness, that fear and that weakness that Jesus shines the light of salvation as he comes to us with words of comfort and forgiveness and peace for our souls. He says, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.” (John 10:14-15 ESV) ”My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:27-30 ESV)

Jesus is the fullness of the mercy of God toward us because Jesus endured for us the fullness of the wrath of God on our behalf. Your salvation is free in Christ, but it was not cheap. You know that God is righteous and just, which means he could not simply wink at our sin and excuse it like we are so apt to do. No, for His people Jesus paid the debt in full on the cross and there is nothing left for you to pay.

I want us to see that the reality of God’s justice is far darker and terrifying than we are often willing to admit. I also want us to see that the light of His mercy toward broken people shines with the brilliant hope of forgiveness in Christ. He has ransomed our lives, laying down his own life to pay our debt to God, and rescued us when we would have been content to linger in sin until fire began to fall around us.

So when the fear of judgment and hell looms in your mind, you have no further to run than to the cross of Jesus, pleading the blood of Christ shed for you. He has saved you and he will not cast you out into darkness again and no one can snatch you out of the hand of your Father. He knows your weakness. He knows your sin and still He sets His love on you in Christ. Yes, turn away from your sin. That is always the right response to love given. But turn to Christ in faith that puts all confidence in him and none in yourself. Lot was not saved because of Lot. You are not saved because of you. You are saved because of the work of Jesus Christ alone.

The mercy of God toward you in Jesus is complete. And for the people of God throughout time, this story has sought to shape their hearts in at least a couple of other ways:

- It urges them to fulfill their call to be a blessing in the place where God has put them. Abraham’s prayer in chapter 18 was that the people of God would be a transforming presence in Sodom. But when the people of God look like everybody else, how can they shine like lights in the darkness? Although Lot did not change Sodom that is not the pattern we see in the New Testament with the giving of the Holy Spirit. The people of Christ take on a powerful transforming presence because of the Spirit at work among them. Believe that now and let’s act in line with that!

- It also assures them of the reality of God’s justice. It has come before and God has promised it will come again. 2 Peter 2 (and other texts) hold Sodom out as only a hint of the justice of God that will be displayed against those who reject the LORD. So then there is a warning here, both for the people of God and for the world.

God is always merciful and always keeping His people for Himself. No matter how deep Lot’s brokenness ran, his faith, even his little, weak faith, was in the LORD. So his unfaithful actions were covered by the faithfulness of God to His promises. And yet we are warned in the New Testament that our own works will be shown for what they are as God examines them. “For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. (1 Corinthians 3:11-15)

But for the world there is a warning that the patience of God with unrepentant people will one day come to an end. And although each day goes on like every day before it and nothing seems to change, there will be one day where the sun rises for the last time on this broken creation and the Lord returns again to demonstrate His justice in righteous anger against all wrong.

Hebrews 12 may have for us the best summation of the call of this passage. It says, “let us … lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

You and I are so easily ensnared by sin and yet for those who have set their hope in Christ there is no condemnation for sin. We simply run the course of our broken lives looking to Jesus, who came to us when we weren’t looking for him and himself gave us the gift of faith so that we might be rescued from ourselves.

[1] Keil, Pentateuch, 233.

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