I remember getting caught “with my hand in the cookie jar.”
I was in elementary school, and back then, it was apparently cool to have fancy pencils. I would watch other students line up with their quarters to purchase these colorful, sparkly, shiny, “cool” pencils.
I didn’t have those. My parents didn’t waste a penny. We bought in bulk. So, I had the yellow pencil that I deemed “most uncool.”
What did I do? I asked my parents for a few quarters to buy some of these cool pencils. When my parents refused, I found a way to get them anyway. I permanently borrowed quarters from my dad’s chest of drawers. My parents discovered it, and it didn’t go well for me.
I’m sure we’ve found ourselves damaging our witness for the Lord in more serious ways. These instances are much more dire than just spending 75 cents for pencils.
We can get ourselves in trouble with a slow, gradual process. It begins with fixating too long on something. We obsess until our desire drives us to sin.
In the Bible, Lot found himself in that same position. At the end of Genesis 18, the supernatural visitors left Abraham. While en route, the Lord had a conversation with Abraham about the future of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham negotiates with the Lord for the cities to be spared for ten righteous people. And here we are at Genesis 19:1-17:
1 The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. 2 “My lords,” he said, “please turn aside to your servant’s house. You can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning.”
Genesis 19:1-17, New International Version
“No,” they answered, “we will spend the night in the square.”
3 But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate. 4 Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. 5 They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.”
6 Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him 7 and said, “No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing. 8 Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”
9 “Get out of our way,” they replied. “This fellow came here as a foreigner, and now he wants to play the judge! We’ll treat you worse than them.” They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door.
10 But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door. 11 Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door.
12 The two men said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here—sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here, 13 because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the Lord against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it.”
14 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters. He said, “Hurry and get out of this place, because the Lord is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.
15 With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.”
16 When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them. 17 As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!”
The city gate should have been a symbol of safety and refuge. However, as Lot insists, it’s not safe for strangers. This is a great and tragic irony in the ancient world.
Lot’s hospitality was not as great as Abraham’s (from chapter 18), but Lot did provide for them. Yet even Lot’s home was not a safe haven for the Great Guests (verses 4-5). Their intentions were very clear, and they made no pretense about their business with these men.
The sin of these cities was multi-generational and was a sad commentary on Lot. Even his influence in the city meant nothing.
To protect the angels, Lot offers his “two daughters who have never slept with a man” (verse 8). He might have even been trying to protect his own neck. Considering what these men could have done, Lot sacrifices his daughters to protect his guests.
Lot was choosing the lesser of two evils. Hospitality customs required the protection of strangers. Treating strangers poorly by handing them over to this mob would have drawn the attack of other cities. Lot was caught between turning his daughters into prostitutes or risking the destruction of the entire city.
When you pitch your tent near Sodom, bad things happen!
The Lord’s mercy spared Lot, his wife, and his two daughters. It was not Lot’s righteousness or good sense that saved them from the judgment. This judgment was about to befall the inhabitants of the cities on the plain. They’re commanded to leave and leave now.
Lot went from pitching his tent near Sodom (Genesis 13:12). He was living in Sodom by Genesis 14:12. By the beginning of Genesis 19, he was sitting at the city gate. Like a moth to the flame, sin draws us in and leads us to do what we would think we’d NEVER do.
Do you understand how seriously God takes sin? Do you know how easily we can slip into sin? Sin’s allure makes you think and do strange things.
James 4:4 warns us, “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.”
May we remember our purpose here: to be salt and light to the world. We should be different in such a way that they see the God we serve. They should see how we have changed.
Life Meets Theology 