Genesis 11:31-19:38--A Lot of Trouble
I don’t know if there is a man in the Bible who is
more frustrating to me than Abraham’s nephew, Lot. In many ways, I
liken Lot to an alcoholic who chooses to live next door to a bar.
He’s like a nicotine addict who works for a tobacco company. Nearly
every account of him involved some crisis directly attributable to
his poor choices.
We’re first introduced to Lot when Terah takes
Abram, Lot and Sarai to Haran (11:31). After Terah died, the Lord
directed Abram to leave Haran and go to a land God would show him
(12:1). Though the Lord didn’t tell Abram to take Lot with him, we
see Lot went anyway (12:4). Again in Genesis 13:1, as Abram was
heading out of Egypt, Lot was with him. He was the consummate
follower.
A few verses later (13:5-11), a problem developed
between the herdsmen of Abram and Lot. To settle the issue, Abram
gave Lot first choice of the land around them. Lot looked the area
over and chose what he viewed as the best and richest real estate.
But in spite of all the land he owned, where did Lot choose to live?
We see in verses 12-13 of chapter 13 that he “dwelt in the cities of
the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom.”
In Chapter 14, we find that just because of the
close proximity in which Lot lived to Sodom, he and all his
possessions were taken into captivity. Basically, he was guilty by
association. Uncle Abram learned of his unfortunate circumstances,
so feeling a sense of responsibility for his brother’s son, he armed
his servants and proceeded to rescue Lot. But did Lot learn his
lesson? Hardly. The next time Lot is mentioned in chapter 19, he is
actually living in the city of Sodom. So, what exactly happened to
all the property he was given?
After Abram’s conversation with the Lord about
destroying the nearby cities, the Lord remained behind with Abram as
the two angels (men) headed toward Sodom. As Lot sat in the gate
(19:1), he saw the two angels (men) approaching who were sent by the
Lord, and he invited them into his home. His intent at that point
was just to offer them hospitality, thinking they would be on their
way the next morning. However, the entire situation turned ugly
within a very short while. The degenerates of the city had also
noticed the two angels (men) enter the city, and they surrounded
Lot’s home and begged Lot to hand them over for a sexual tryst. In
an attempt to take the attention off the angels, Lot offered his two
virgin daughters to the Sodomites outside his house. It’s at this
point that I’m always left speechless at Lot’s willingness to use
his daughters as pawns in this situation.
In the morning, the angels escorted Lot and his
family outside the city and told them not to stay in the plain, but
to escape to the mountain. Lot argued with them. He didn’t want to
go to the mountain in case some evil would overtake him there. Can
you believe that? Here’s a man who was living in the most evil city
imaginable, which was about to be destroyed because of its evilness,
yet he was afraid to go up to the mountain! As an alternative, he
begged the angels to let him escape to Zoar, a small nearby city
that was spared because of Lot’s desire to escape there. Once Lot
and his family entered Zoar, the Lord rained fire and brimstone upon
Sodom and Gomorrah. The irony of Lot’s argument was that once Lot’s
wife looked back and became a pillar of salt, he didn’t feel safe in
Zoar and left for the mountain. Go figure.
We’ve heard the expression, “Like father, like son.”
In Lot’s case, we could say, “Like father, like daughter.” In the
final verses of chapter 19 we see that Lot’s example of making poor
decisions has been passed down to his daughters. They made the
ridiculous assumption that their father was the only man left on the
face of the earth who could give them children. So, they formed an
alliance to get Lot drunk, and they took turns sleeping with their
father. The seed of their incestuous actions resulted in the birth
of the Moabites and the Ammonites.
It’s easy to focus on the poor decisions Lot made,
particularly since they are the primary aspect of his life about
which we know. In reality, Job wasn’t much different from me. I,
too, have repeatedly made stupid choices throughout my life that
must have surely frustrated the Lord. How the Lord tolerated my
idiocy, I’ll never comprehend or understand the breadth of His
grace. Fortunately for Lot, he, too, was the recipient of God’s
grace. In 2 Peter 2:6-9, Lot is acknowledged to have been a
righteous man, though he chose to live among the wicked. It says
that dwelling among them, and seeing and hearing them, vexed his
righteous soul.
Though a righteous man, we’re not given any hint
that Lot’s life was fruitful. He had an opportunity to serve God
alongside Abraham, and to continue being blessed just by staying
near Abraham, but instead, he deliberately “pitched his tent” toward
an ungodly society that would vex his soul. That would make some
sense to us if his motives had been about influencing the heathen to
believe in Jehovah, but we’re not given any indication of that.
Instead, he put himself and his family in a constant daily struggle
to remain righteous, and this frustrating lifestyle neither
benefited himself nor anyone else. How sad.
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