Genesis: AUTHORITY
The Lesson Of Lot Continued: Genesis 19:30-38
Pastor John Weathersby
Sunday April 23, 2023
Notes/Not a Transcript
Let’s quickly survey where we are and what has transpired before we plow into the text for this Lord’s Day.
Genesis 19:29 (ESV)
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.
This wrapped up the story that started in Genesis 18. Visitors came to Abraham; in verse 17, we read that the Lord shares his plan for Sodom’s destruction (remember the reputation of Sodom Genesis 13:13). In verse 20, we read:
Genesis 18:17 (ESV)
17 The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do,
Genesis 13:13 (ESV)
13 Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord.
Genesis 18:20–21 (ESV)
20 Then the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave,
21 I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know.”
So they do. As we read last week, two of the angels with Abraham continue to the city. They find Lot and end up staying at his home. The townspeople work to break in and rape the angels. Lot offers up his betrothed virgin daughters instead. The angels take over the situation. They strike the men of the town, trying to break in blind and have Lot escape with his family because of the coming destruction.
Scripture documents the total annihilation of Sodom well.
Jeremiah 50:40 (ESV)
40 As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring cities, declares the Lord, so no man shall dwell there, and no son of man shall sojourn in her.
Isaiah 13:19–20 (ESV)
19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,
the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans,
will be like Sodom and Gomorrah
when God overthrew them.
20 It will never be inhabited
or lived in for all generations;
no Arab will pitch his tent there;
no shepherds will make their flocks lie down there.
The city that Genesis 13:13 declared was wicked even as great sinners against the Lord was, in a moment, no more. Simply a testimony of destruction and smoke.
Deuteronomy 29:23 (ESV)
23 the whole land burned out with brimstone and salt, nothing sown and nothing growing, where no plant can sprout, an overthrow like that of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger and wrath—
Isaiah 13:19–22 (ESV)
19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,
the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans,
will be like Sodom and Gomorrah
when God overthrew them.
20 It will never be inhabited
or lived in for all generations;
no Arab will pitch his tent there;
no shepherds will make their flocks lie down there.
21 But wild animals will lie down there,
and their houses will be full of howling creatures;
there ostriches will dwell,
and there wild goats will dance.
22 Hyenas will cry in its towers,
and jackals in the pleasant palaces;
its time is close at hand
and its days will not be prolonged.
Zephaniah 2:9 (ESV)
9 Therefore, as I live,” declares the Lord of hosts,
the God of Israel,
“Moab shall become like Sodom,
and the Ammonites like Gomorrah,
a land possessed by nettles and salt pits,
and a waste forever.
The remnant of my people shall plunder them,
and the survivors of my nation shall possess them.”
God’s work of judgment was swift and compete:
Lamentations 4:6 (ESV)
6 For the chastisement of the daughter of my people has been greater
than the punishment of Sodom,
which was overthrown in a moment,
and no hands were wrung for her.
2 Peter 2:6 (ESV)
6 if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly;
And so here we are, the ground is hot and smoking, and Abraham and His two daughters are all who survived; Lot has even lost his wife, who looked back against God’s command.
Here we find righteous Lot, in verse 31, afraid.
Genesis 19:30–38 (ESV)
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.
Lot who negotiated to be able to go to Zoar just before the destruction:
Genesis 19:17–22 (ESV)
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.
…is now hiding out in the caves and hills because of fear.
31 And the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come into 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.”
Several interesting things to note here, and I want to land squarely on the concept of righteousness.
1) They think perhaps they’re alone
2) They believe that to sleep with their father, they’re going to need him to be drunk first
The destruction we said was complete. For some reason, Lot is fearful of Zoar. They’re not on Twitter and watching Tik Tok videos or Facebook reels. They just know they watched their entire city gets wiped out and be a smoldering pile, their future husbands were in that fire, and mom is gone. So they devise a plan.
Our second observation is, I think, very important to who Lot is and a key to his righteousness.
They need to get him drunk. If you’ve ever had the misfortune of trying to talk sense to a drunk person, you know that getting someone in that heavily drunken state so that they’d be reasonable is a fool’s errand.
Why? Because drunk people are absolutely unreasonable.
They do things they’d NEVER do sober, inhibitions are switched off, and they’re in go mode.
His daughters know they need him this way so that they can sleep with him and produce offspring.
There is a hint in the New Testament reflection Lot in 2 Peter 2:7.
2 Peter 2:7 (ESV)
7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked
This, I think, is the key.
A righteous struggles with sin. Why? Because we see in Romans 3:10 that: none is righteous, not a single one. Then we continue to see that:
Romans 3:10 (ESV)
10 as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
Romans 3:21–24 (ESV)
21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—
22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
The New Testament reality is the future for Abraham and Lot. Christ would come, the law would come, and the concept of a perfect lamb would come – but the believer will always struggle with being outside of God’s perfect character. Paul wrote to the church at Corinth:
1 Corinthians 6:9–11 (ESV)
9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,
10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Abraham and Lot didn’t have Christ, but they had faith in God.
The city, we learned in Genesis 18, would have been preserved for even 10 righteous – but perhaps there was only 1 Lot.
How were they righteous? Consider Abraham
Genesis 15:6 (ESV)
6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
If Lot is considered righteous, as we see in 1 Peter 2:7, it can only be because, like Abraham, he believes in God. Was he righteous because of his acts? No, but Church, and praise God for this, neither are you.
When God saves, He directs our affections. He changes our hearts. His great mercy and love takes our stony heart and makes them more fleshy. We care about what God cares about, and see that in Lot. That is why 2 Peter 2:8s admission of Lot’s struggle with the sexual sin at Sodom is helpful. It gives us a looking glass. It’s why perhaps Lot’s daughters were betrothed and virgins. Maybe he leads his household differently. We don’t know that, but it seems out of place in a city where the men do wickedness against God.
I hope you, like me, are encouraged by Paul’s words in
Galatians 3:9 (ESV)
9 So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
Why should we be so happy:
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.
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.
Righteous Lot met a wife, created a family, and led them in a city that was judged as wicked against God and hated Him.
Why should this insane story encourage us?
Because if Lot can be described as righteous, then you can too.
Though we saw the example list of behavioral traits that show we’re far from God in Corinthians, it’s just a word picture of what it means to be human and far from God. This is not a list that differentiates particularly good or redeemable men and women from non particularly redeemable, this is a picture of what it is like to be dead in sin and trespasses, and it describes us in our natural state. This is what it is like to be far off from God.
1 Corinthians 6:9b-10 (ESV)
Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,
10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
Why, because God judges the acts? Partially but the acts point to a greater truth – that we’re not joined to God, trusting God to understand all of life, we’re bound to Adam and trusting fallen logic, like the serpent suggesting his word against God’s we’re in the lie not in the truth.
Remember the picture Romans painted:
Romans 3:21–24 (ESV)
21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—
22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
What a great truth for us, but thinking on Lot’s righteousness, think about this, and I love this part:
Romans 3:27–28 (ESV)
27 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith.
28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
We are justified. We are made just as if we’d never sinned, legally connected to God in Christ through the finished sacrifice of Jesus. He doesn’t see us as acceptable because of our obedience, but rather through Jesus and our exercise of faith, like Abraham and Lot’s.
Does this fee you? It should!
When you’re justified, and in God, you’ll be like Lot – convicted of sinful lusts and temptation but secure in God’s grasp because of Christ. And this will propel you on to greater and increasing obedience. This is the lesson of Lot.
Pray, Observe, Apply.
