What really happened to Lot? (Gen. 19:2-11)

SPIRITUAL DIARY 09-07-2006

My Worship Time                                                               Focus:  What happened to Lot?

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Genesis 19:2-11

            Message of the verse:  “2 And he said, ‘Now behold, my lords, please turn aside into your servant’s house, and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise early and go on your way.’ They said however, ‘No, but we shall spend the night in the square.’  3 Yet he urged them strongly, so they turned aside to him and entered his house; and he prepared a feast for them, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

4  Before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter; 5  and they called to Lot and said to him, ‘Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have relations with them.’ 6 But Lot went out to them at the doorway, and shut the door behind him, 7 and said, ‘Please, my brothers, do not act wickedly.  8  ‘Now behold, I have two daughters who have not had relations with man; please let me bring them out to you, and do to them whatever you like; only do nothing to these men, inasmuch as they have come under the shelter of my roof.’  9 But they said, ‘Stand aside.’ Furthermore, they said, ‘This one came in as an alien, and already he is acting like a judge; now we will treat you worse than them.’ So they pressed hard against Lot and came near to break the door. 10 But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them, and shut the door.  11 They struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves trying to find the doorway.”

            Peter writes that Lot was righteous and if he had not written that in his letter it would have been difficult to see that from the passages that tell about Lot in Genesis, and this passage here gives little evidence to support Lot being righteous, yet it is the Lord who saves people and sometimes when a person is saved he does not act like there has been any changes in his life, and in the case of Lot it was because he was a friend of the world.

Lot does offer a place for these men to stay, and it is doubtful that at that time he knew that they were God’s angels.  The hospitality that he shows to them is not the same that Abraham had shown to these men when they were in his tent.

Lot realized that the acts that the men of Sodom were doing was wrong, yet he had no influence on them to cause them to want to stop their homosexuality, which is a horrible sin before the Lord.  In order to protect these men when the men of the city came to as for them in order to have sex with them Lot would stoop so low as to offer his two virgin daughters to them instead of these men, but the men would not allow this to happen by striking the men of the city with blindness.  Now these men of Sodom were not only spiritual blind, but also physically blind too.

How are believers to act when it comes to the sin of homosexuality?  Believers are never to treat any sin as something that is right, however it has been said many times that as believers in Jesus Christ we are to love the sinner, because that is what Jesus Christ has done for all sinners, but we are to hate the sin.  There is a difference and the example is set by our Lord who came to earth in order to pay for the sins of the world, and His example while on earth was that He truly loved sinners, but because He died for sin we know that He hated sin.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As I look at what worldliness had done to Lot it surely makes me not want to be affected by the world, but more important it makes me want to realize that this world is not my home for I am just passing through, and because of that I don’t want the world to put its snare on me so that it becomes more important to me than serving the Lord.

The Word of God has been both convicting and also it has presented a challenge to my heart as I read and studied it this morning.

My Steps of Faith Today:  I have been asking the Lord to teach me to be content this year and this goes along with this portion of Scripture in that if Lot would have been more content with his lot in life, then he would not have been so tied to this world. (No put intended).  I would also ask the Lord to direct my path.