WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOD DOING?
GOD’S KINDNESS IS OFTEN REJECTED
GENESIS 19: 30-38
INTRODUCTION
As you probably noticed when Steve read the text for this morning the
details of this story are quite shocking. This story deals with human
behavior that most of us would rather not talk about. This is not a pretty
story with a happy ending but rather a sordid tale of human passion, plotting
and perversity. Most of us, if we were to see an ad on the TV for a movie
about Lot and his two daughters would turn off the advertisement and would
make sure no one in the family saw the show. Yet, God included this story
from the life of Lot for a reason.
Parents, I am going to use words that you probably are going to have
to answer questions about when you get home. I know this may make some
of you uncomfortable. However, our children are going to find out about
these things sooner or later and it is far better they learn of the evil
that is in the world from God’s word than from their friends or the media.
Let me quote from James Boice’s commentary on this passage. Evil is "never
mentioned in the Bible without being accompanied by the stern warnings
that God hates sin and punishes it. It is far better for children to learn
the facts of life from the Word of God where sin is condemned than from
pornography on the internet, or from lewd stories. No one can escape knowledge
of sin, but anyone can be protected from the power of sin by being encompassed
in Christ."
The question I’ve been wrestling with all week is why is this story in
the Bible? God didn’t have to include it. The story of Sodom and Gomorrah
ends quite nicely in v. 29. The wicked people in Sodom are justly destroyed
and Lot is saved by God’s mercy because of Abraham’s prayer and through
his believing the warning of the angels and fleeing to the town of Zoar.
It’s such a perfect picture of how God saves people. Why does he muddy
the waters with this perverse story? It does muddy the water. It muddies
the waters because this doesn’t fit what we believe should be the outcome
in a person’s life if they are saved. How can this happen in a family
that has been saved by God in such a remarkable way? What are we supposed
to do with Lot? Is he in heaven right now or not?
I am convinced that Lot is included in the story of Abraham in order
to warn us. He is the classic picture of the person who is trying to have
it both ways. He knows the gospel from his uncle, Abraham. He has experienced
the happiness of living in the fellowship of God’s people. He has witnessed
remarkable signs of God’s deliverance. Yet his heart is really set on
the world. What Lot really loves is the affluence and comfort and prestige
that are his in Sodom. He is a double-minded man. While he is uncomfortable
with the wickedness of Sodom, he is unwilling to abandon his life there
and pursue his life in God in the company of Abraham. Yet we cannot escape
the fact that God did deliver him out of Sodom. Based on Abraham’s prayer
in Genesis 18 he is clearly portrayed as a righteous person. In fact,
we are explicitly told in 2 Peter 2:7-8, "…and if he rescued Lot, a righteous
man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men (for that righteous
man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul
by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)..." Does this mean Lot’s life shows
us that you can sin quite a bit here on earth and still go to heaven?
Does this mean you can be a half-hearted Christian and still end up enjoying
the bliss of heaven? I don’t think so.
What Lot’s life shows is that while salvation is entirely a work of God’s
grace, yet each person must exercise faith. His life warns us "to work
out our salvation with fear and trembling because it is God who is at
work in us to will and to act according to his good pleasure", as Paul
warns us in Phil. 2:12-13. His life shows what happens when we violate
this command from Heb. 2:1, "We must pay more careful attention, therefore,
to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away." Every true Christian
wants to know, "How can I be sure that I am not drifting away?" I’m assuming
that each of you has come to church this morning because you have at least
some level of interest in having a relationship with God. I’m assuming
you care about whether you are going to spend eternity with God in heaven
or separated from him forever in hell. Lot’s life, especially this story
in vv. 30-38, is written to show us how to recognize the signs of drifting.
It stands as a warning against being half-hearted in your relationship
with God. It shows the consequences in a person’s life of not wholeheartedly
fleeing sin and pursuing Christ. Here are the signs that characterize
a person who is drifting away from Christ.
MAIN POINT
When you are drifting away from Christ…
I. You are easily panicked (vv. 30-31)
In v. 30 we are told that Lot and his daughters left Zoar and went into
the mountains. At first, this might appear to be a good thing. He’s finally
doing what he had been commanded to do by the angels in v. 17, "Flee to
the mountains. Don’t stop anywhere in the plain." However, why does he
go to the mountains? He goes because he is afraid. What is he afraid of?
First, it is safe to say that it is not a good fear. God promised to protect
him in Zoar. So, he is not leaving in obedience to God but for some other
reason.
Remember that Zoar is one of the five cities that were allied in opposition
to the invading kings in chapter 14. This city is economically and culturally
related to the cities that God has just destroyed. They share a common
religious and moral point of view as well. Zoar is as wicked as Sodom.
You can bet there were some difficult questions asked of Lot and his daughters
when the destruction of the other cities coincided with their arrival.
"How is it that you are the only ones to escape from the four cities?
Why were you not swept away with everyone else?" Lot tells them what happened.
How would the people of Zoar respond to Lot’s description of the wickedness
of Sodom and the angels rescuing only them out of the city? Might they
have been just a little hostile to such a self-righteous claim? "You mean
to tell us that you were the only one worthy to be saved out of Sodom.
All our friends and allies were too wicked for this God of yours to rescue?
Who do you think you are?" He was afraid of being disapproved of and possibly
persecuted by the people of Zoar. He didn’t go there as a missionary but
to reestablish the lifestyle he enjoyed in Sodom. But the people of Zoar
were not so willing to welcome him and allow him into their midst when
he is so clearly identified with the God who destroyed their allies.
Here is a clear sign that you are drifting away from Christ, that you
are loving the world and not God. You are afraid to let those around you
know that you are a Christian. You fear the disapproval of others so much
that your lifestyle is in no way offensive to others. You laugh at the
same jokes, you complain about the boss in the same way, you admire the
same things as everyone else, you never let anyone know that you are a
follower of Christ because you fear their rejection. This fear manifests
itself in one of two ways. You either live like a non-Christian when you
around them or you organize your world so that you never have to interact
with non-Christians. Both of these actions, while they might look very
different, originate in the same fear and show a heart that is drifting
from Christ.
Lot’s daughters show us another form of the panic that characterizes
those who are half-hearted in their pursuit of Christ. Look at what the
older daughter says in vv. 31-32. What is it that she fears? She is afraid
of never having a husband and a child. She is afraid of the same thing
Sarah feared back in Genesis 16. She must have a child in order to be
happy. She must preserve her family line in order to consider life worth
living. She panics and exaggerates the danger. The NAS gives the literal
interpretation of what she says. She literally says, "There is not a man
on earth to come in to us after the manner of the earth." What she says
is, "We’ll never get married. We’ll never have a family. Our life is hopeless
and useless and doomed for emptiness and loneliness." What these two girls
love and need is a family. For them, the only thing that matters in life
is having a family. You must see the hardness of their hearts. Think about
what they have just been through. Shouldn’t they be happy to be alive?
Shouldn’t they be amazed that God saved them out of the corrupt cities?
Shouldn’t they trust this great God who has had such mercy on them? Especially
when we see the action they propose to get what they want, shouldn’t they
be terrified of doing such a wicked thing after what they have just witnessed?
Shouldn’t they fear God above all instead of fearing never having a husband
or children?
Those who are drifting from Christ are easily panicked at the thought
of losing earthly pleasures and treasures. When asked, "what must you
have in order to be happy?", the person who loves the world cannot honestly
say, "I must have my sins forgiven and a relationship with God." People
who are drifting have their minds filled with the pleasures that this
life offers. They fear losing relationships or possessions or positions
or jobs infinitely more than they fear losing God forever in hell. When
they hear that the stock market has fallen 400 points their mind fills
with fear over what they will do for retirement. When their child is sick
they are consumed with terror over the thought of losing the child. When
rumors of layoffs circulate they can’t sleep at night because of the anxiety
of losing their job. When a teenager begins to act up they are full of
the fear of being labeled a bad parent. When the girlfriend or boyfriend
begin to show signs of disinterest they are overwhelmed with despair.
What you and I fear shows what we love, what we must have to be happy.
People who are half-hearted fear the disapproval of men and fear losing
the things of this world infinitely more than they fear the disapproval
of God and losing him forever in hell.
When you are drifting from Christ…
- Your are easily panicked
- And…
II. You avoid the places of spiritual safety and easily succumb to
temptation (vv. 30 & 33)
Notice that Lot is living in a cave in the mountains, alone with his
two daughters. When the angels commanded him to flee to the mountains,
did they have any place in particular in the mountains in mind? We have
been told several times that Sodom was in the valley. What makes a valley,
a valley? There are mountains on both sides. Who do we know lives in the
mountains on the west side of this valley, in the land of promise? Abraham
lives there. Which mountains does Lot eventually flee to? The mountains
on the east side of the valley. He is living in a cave in the eastern
mountains. Lot knows that the same God who destroyed Sodom and sent the
angels to warn him to flee to the mountains has promised Abraham that
all the nations will be blessed through him. He knows that the God who
so powerfully poured out his anger on these cities has promised all who
live in peace with Abraham a blessed life. Why didn’t Lot go to Abraham?
Why didn’t he return to the place of safety? I’m not just making this
up. The way this story is written is supposed to make us ask that question.
Notice what is said in vv. 27-29, just before we are told that Lot is
living in a cave. We are shown Abraham looking down towards Sodom and
seeing the destruction. Why is Abraham looking down there? He is concerned
for Lot. He wants Lot to be safe, to be saved. What possible reason could
Lot have for not going back to Abraham, especially when we have seen Abraham
to be such a godly and compassionate person? How can he possibly believe
that living in a cave is a better life than living with Abraham?
There are many possible reasons why Lot did not go back to Abraham. Perhaps
he didn’t want to give Abraham the opportunity to say, "I told you so."
Maybe he didn’t want his lifestyle "cramped" by Abraham’s devotion to
Christ. Maybe he was ashamed to return in such a destitute state, so obviously
needy. Maybe he didn’t think Abraham would accept him back. Whatever specific
reasons he had they all boil down to a love for the ways of this world
and a pride that refuses to admit weakness and sin. Lot prefers life in
a cave rather than life with Abraham because he does not love Abraham
and his ways but loves the world and its ways. While he may be down on
his luck for the moment he is sure that life in a cave is better than
life with God. This is always why people avoid coming to church and pursuing
Christ in the company of Christians. It’s always an issue of the heart.
They love the world and its ways and not God and his ways. They are more
confident they will be able to make themselves happy than they are convinced
that God can make them happy. When you stop going to church, when being
around Christians makes you uncomfortable, when bible study and prayer
are the most boring things you can imagine, it usually is a sign that
you are drifting away from Christ, that you love the world and not God.
Now notice what happens to Lot because of his refusal to flee to the
place of safety, the company of Abraham. His daughters get him drunk.
Did his daughters hold him down and squeeze his nose so that he had to
open his mouth and then they poured the wine down his throat? Did they
force him to get drunk? NO. Did they tell their dad, "Hey let’s tie one
on tonight!"? NO. They served him a meal and gave him a bowl of wine and
said, "Dad, you’ve been through a lot. You must be weary from all our
travels and the stress of the past few weeks. You’ve taken such good care
of us. You saved us out of that wicked city Sodom and now you’ve rescued
us from the people of Zoar. But you must be stressed out. Here have another
bowl of wine. It’s such a sad thing to have lost mom. It’s hard to understand
why God let her die like that." So with soothing and reassuring words
the two daughters seduced their father into getting falling done drunk.
Would this have happened if he were in Abraham’s camp? No. There would
have been no need and no opportunity. But even if such a temptation had
come he would have easily resisted through the emotional and spiritual
support of the community of believers.
Here is the reason not only to come to church but to also aggressively
pursue relationships with other Christians. God is present among his people
and that is why we need to be with his people. However, coming to church
is not enough. You have to be with Christians in more intimate settings.
That’s why we have our Discovery Groups. I can guarantee you that if you
do not meet with Christians to talk about Christ and pray together at
another time during the week you are going to drift. It’s not because
Christians are perfect people but because God is present among his people
in ways he is not present in the world at large. It is extremely unlikely
that anyone living outside of the company of Christians will make it to
heaven.
When you are drifting from Christ…
- Your are easily panicked
- You avoid the places of spiritual safety and easily succumb to
temptation
- And…
III. You will do whatever is necessary to get what you want (vv. 31-35)
Read vv. 31-35. As we observe the calculated manner in which these two
daughters set out to get what they want we see that when you love the
world and not God, the ends always justify the means. Desire is always
a sufficient justification for a particular behavior. Most of us cannot
even imagine doing what they did. But isn’t their motive and the way in
which they justify their behavior something that all of us can relate
to? It’s so easy to look at these girls and the millions of human beings
in our world who engage in similarly perverted behaviors and write them
off as somehow more wicked than ourselves. We must not permit the perversity
of their actions to dull us to the universality of their motive and the
manner in which they justify their behavior.
Their desire is to have a family. Is it wrong to want a family? No. However,
is it wrong to want a family so badly that you will do anything, even
commit incest, to get it? Yes. How do we know that committing incest to
obtain a family, which is a good thing, is evil and wrong? It seem ludicrous
to ask such a question for the answer seems so obvious. But the answer
is not at all obvious. Let’s just imagine that we were to have a conversation
with Lot’s daughters about their proposed course of action. How might
they justify their actions?
"I couldn’t help but overhear you tell your sister about your plan to
get your dad drunk and then have sex with him in order to have children.
You can’t do that. It’s very disrespectful to treat your dad like that.
It’s morally wrong to commit incest. It’s a great evil and goes against
everything that we know to be true and good."
Lot’s daughters reply, "Says who? We’ve known many friends and neighbors
that regularly engaged in this kind of behavior. Besides, it’s not right
for us to never have children just because our dad is too chicken to live
in town. We’ll never be married and have children living out in this cave.
You want us to live out our whole lives without the comfort of children
and without children to care for us when we are old. I’d like to see you
live like that. Again, if we don’t do this, our dad will have no heirs.
His family name will die with him. He probably wouldn’t agree to our plan
but he will in the long run. He’ll be happy to have grandsons and to know
that his daughters will be cared for after he is gone. I’m sure he’ll
come around. Besides, he won’t even know what happened. He’ll just be
happy that we’re pregnant."
How will you argue with this kind of reasoning? This is how our culture
reasons. This is how all of us naturally reason. I can’t tell you how
many times I’ve heard this kind of reasoning in my conversations with
people. It’s the college student who tells me that his parents will kill
him if he gets another bad grade so he has to cheat in order to pass the
class. It’s the wife who tells me her husband is unkind and uncaring and
never helps and constantly criticizes and so she has to divorce him. It’s
the young man who tells me he is in love and he has such strong feelings
for his girlfriend and their planning on getting married and so it’s right
for them to have sexual relations. It’s the worker who tells me that his
boss doesn’t pay him enough and works him too hard and so it’s OK to take
the tools home from work. It’s the person who buys a used car and says
the government already takes too much of my money and I get nothing in
return for all I pay. So when he registers his car he puts on the form
that he bought the car for $100 when he actually paid $10,000 in order
to avoid the sales tax.
There is only one way to answer the reasoning of Lot’s daughters, which
is the natural reasoning of all our hearts. You can’t commit incest to
get a child because God says it’s wrong. You can’t cheat on the test because
God says it’s wrong. It is always wrong to intentionally engage in any
behavior that stimulates sexual desire in yourself or another person unless
it is behavior with the person to whom you are married because God says
so. It is always wrong to divorce your spouse unless they have broken
their vows to you and refuse to repent because God says so. It’s always
wrong to take what doesn’t belong to you because God says so. It’s always
wrong to break the laws of your government because God says so. Here is
the sure and certain mark of the person who is drifting, it doesn’t matter
what God says because God doesn’t really matter to the person. They will
do whatever is necessary to get what they want, because the only thing
that matters is what they want.
When you are drifting from Christ…
- Your are easily panicked
- You avoid the places of spiritual safety and easily succumb to
temptation
- You will do whatever it takes to get what you want
- And…
IV. You can never be sure that you are going to heaven and not to
hell (vv. 36-38)
There are many people in the world who don’t care about heaven and hell.
They don’t care either because they don’t believe it exists or they foolishly
believe that hell will be fun. I’ve had numbers of people tell me that
hell will be great because all their friends will be there and it will
be just one big party. I have nothing to say to you if you are in that
condition other than you will one day have a very rude awakening unless
you repent of your sinful independence and give yourself wholly to Christ.
Lot’s daughters are such people. They have no remorse for their wickedness.
Their plan succeeds, so what’s to be sorry about? They each have a son.
They are happy in this world and give no thought to the next world. The
hardness of their hearts is seen in the naming of their sons. The firstborn
daughter names her son Moab, which in Hebrew means, "from father". The
second born names her son, "Ben-Ammi" which means, "son of my people."
These are both brazen declarations of correctness of their behavior. Not
only are these girls not repentant of their sin but they are proud of
their achievement. It is easy to see how the firstborn’s son’s name celebrates
her wickedness but the second is not quite so obvious. She is saying that
this child is a son in the image of the people of Sodom and thus she is
declaring her affinity with the Sodomites. These daughters are clearly
portrayed here as belonging to the company of the wicked that will be
destroyed forever in hell.
But there is another person here this morning. Some of you presume you
are going to heaven even though you are very half-hearted in your devotion
to Christ. You know that Christ has died for sins and you would say that
you believe in him. But you don’t find church very interesting and reading
the Bible is boring and prayer is a waste of time. You are far more interested
in sports or cars or girls or boys or school or children or work or whatever,
than you are in God. You are Lot. You would never say that you don’t believe
but you are at best half-hearted in your faith. If you were to honestly
evaluate your life you would find many of the signs of the person who
is drifting from Christ in your life.
You need to know that Lot stands as a warning for you this morning. The
Bible is very ambivalent about the outcome of Lot’s life. In just this
chapter we are given a very conflicting picture of this man. On one hand
he welcomes the angels into his home, defends them against the murderous
mob, flees Sodom and doesn’t look back and in this last passage does not
participate willingly in the sin of his daughters. But then he is shown
in a very bad light as well. He offers his daughters to the mob, he hesitates
to flee the city, he tells the angels the mountains aren’t safe even though
they’ve said they are. He asks to flee to Zoar one of the wicked cities
of the plain. He flees Zoar after God promises to protect him and flees
to a cave in the mountains because he is afraid. He doesn’t go to Abraham.
He allows himself to get drunk. He impregnates his daughters. All the
references to Lot and his descendants, Moab and Ammon, in the OT are equally
vague. Sometimes they are seen to be righteous as in Ruth who was a descendant
of Moab and other times they are shown to be wicked as when Balak, the
king of Moab, tries to get Israel cursed by a prophet. So what are we
to conclude about Lot? Is he in heaven or not?
I don’t think we can know the answer to that question and I think the
Bible is so unclear on purpose. If Lot would have fled from Sodom and
gone to be with Abraham there would be no doubt that he is in heaven.
But because his story ends in this perverse way we do not know. That is
what I must tell all of you who say you believe in Christ but are not
aggressively pursuing Christ and fleeing from sin. If you are indifferent
to your sin and find pursuing Christ in his word and prayer and in the
fellowship of his church uninteresting and boring then you cannot know
for sure that you are a Christian. If your fear of being rejected by people
keeps you from standing for Christ and righteousness and you are more
afraid of losing the things of this world than of losing God forever in
hell, then you can’t know you are a Christian. If you avoid the places
of spiritual safety and thus easily succumb to temptation, you cannot
know you are a Christian. If you are doing things that God clearly says
not to do in order to get things you think you need to be happy, then
you cannot know that you are a Christian. There is only one way to have
the assurance of salvation and that is to flee from sin and pursue all
your happiness in Christ with all your might. God wants you to live in
the joy and freedom of his favor, not in a cave, far from his presence
engaging in perverse sins. You don’t really want to live in a cave, do
you? Wouldn’t rather live in the happiness of Christ’s presence? God says,
"If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge
of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation
of judgement and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God."
When you are drifting from Christ…
- Your are easily panicked
- You avoid the places of spiritual safety and easily succumb to
temptation
- You will do whatever it takes to get what you want
- You can never be sure you are going to heaven and not to hell
© Copyright
2000 John Swanson.
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