Unveiling Lot – Welcome to Sodom

Now we come to the meat of the story of Lot. Up till this point, Lot has really been a side character, but for this chapter, and this chapter alone he suddenly takes the stage for a brief moment in time. It’s not specified how much time has passed between Lot’s rescue by Abraham and chapter 19, however if we run in sequence of events, we are looking at approximately 13 years when taking into account Abraham’s age in Genesis 16:16 & 17:1.

While it’s not made clear in the Scripture, when we look at the pattern with other nations that God dealt with, one could hypothesize that perhaps God was sending a warning to Sodom and the cities of the plain in Genesis 14 when they were spectacularly defeated by the alliance. Such a hypothesis rests on the following:

God is absolutely just. Because He is absolutely just, He will deal fairly with all. If Israel, Judah, Nineveh, Moab, and more have it recorded in Scripture that God sent warnings to them, does it not make sense that God would do the same to the cities of the plain?

I’m going to quickly highlight some points in favor of this hypothesis:

• We know that Melchisedek was king in Salem, that is, Jerusalem, just east of Sodom. Indeed, when one studies the life of Abraham and the surrounding places, there was still knowledge of the One true God existent then, though there was idolatry abounding as well. Thus, it’s not far-fetched to imagine the inhabitants of the cities of the plain could have sought after God and had access to do so.
• The cities of the plain are held up as an example of divine judgement. When God sent divine judgement in Noah’s day, there were decades of Noah preaching and building the ark during which the entire world could have repented. In the days of Judah and Samaria, for decades before the exile, prophets were preaching, calling the people to repentance. When Nineveh approached the place where there was no return, God sent Jonah to call the people to repentance. (Nineveh is particularly interesting as we see not long later after Jonah, Nahum is sent to condemn the city) Nineveh thus is an interesting parallel with Sodom and its cities if we accept this hypothesis because it means that God sent warning some 14 years before hand of coming divine judgement and as we have noted, brought back the people taken captive by means of Lot’s presence amongst them which initiated the armed rescue by Abraham.

Anyhow, let’s move forward! In chapter 18, we find God speaking with Abraham through a theophany, telling him, “Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know.”
It’s an interesting passage because an omniscient God already knew, however, in this final act, He once again leaves a space of time for repentance. We see a parallel in Revelations 9:20 where God sends plagues, and yet, those who remain refuse to repent. As the angels make their way down to Sodom (which by all accounts seems to be the chief city), it is the final chance for the inhabitants of the plain to repent which brings us to the opening of Genesis 19

Genesis 19:1  And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground; 

It’s of interest to us in an allegorical sense that the angels come to Sodom at even. The day had just ended. (remember, the ancients saw a day as running from evening to morning, so when we’re at even, that means the day has just begun, the previous day just ended) In a symbolic sense, it heralds the end of Sodom’s day. Now a night has begun where no man can work. (John 9:4)
Tonight was Sodom’s last night unless by chance, there were enough righteous men in the city. There was no more time to get things in order. No more time to get things together. It was now or never. Either you are righteous or you are not.

We are rapidly approaching that time in our history where there is no daylight left to work. It is now be right or be wrong. Be clean or be dirty. If you’re going to make changes, don’t wait. Do it now, our Lord is coming soon.

We are going to have an in-depth look at the significance of Lot sitting in the gate of Sodom. I vehemently disagree that it was simply ‘to prevent unwary travelers from being entrapped by his wicked townsmen’ (from Clarke’s commentary on Gen 19:1), an opinion many seem to have and is a most shallow look at the situation, however as we have already covered a fair bit of ground here, we will leave that for a study of its own as we look at Lot in the gates.

Instead we will close today with a note on Lot’s hospitality. It was the custom of the times, yes, but worth of note as well, is that Lot displays the same behavior that Abraham did in the previous chapter. Some seem to think Lot didn’t emulate Abraham. I fail to see where such evidence is shown in Scripture. If some insinuate that Lot failed to recognize the divine origins of his guests, then may we also remember that Abraham did not know at first that he was entertaining angels. Instead, let’s take it simply as what we see – Lot showed hospitality.

If Lot knew the character of the people in Sodom as some say he must have (I personally think maybe he thought they wouldn’t be so bold as to attempt what they did), then think of his courage in daring to take in guests. Especially when we understand by taking them under his roof, it now became his duty to protect them, and as we shall see, it does not appear that Lot had an army of trained servants to fight like Abraham did. Perhaps we might then see Lot’s actions in giving hospitality as more than just being hospitable and generous, but also of courage and faith, for faith is acting in alignment with truth, regardless the obstacles.

Next week, we shall look at the fascinating location that Lot is sitting in: the gate of Sodom.