A Good Ending
When the Lord has performed a mighty work in one’s life, how tempting it is to feel self satisfied and to assume the battle is over. But the warfare between the powers who would tempt us into their realm and the Lord who would send his angels, if need be, to pull us out of their infernal habitations, never ceases. There is never a day when we may consider ourselves safe from Satan’s schemes. We must be on guard, standing against wrong thoughts and feelings, or evil will win. Lot was about to discover this.
Soon after arriving in Zoar, he recognized he had made a mistake. Without any holdings or belongings, he and his daughters were at the mercy of these city dwellers whose lifestyles were exactly like the Sodomite’s. This can be inferred from the angel’s response to Lot when he asked permission to flee there. The angel said, “Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of.” (Gen 19:21 NIV)
Zoar was spared on account of Lot, but did its people appreciate these lone survivors who brought God’s grace within their walls? Reprobates unable to turn from sin, perhaps they welcomed them into their gloomy dungeon, but not because they were hospitable.
Lot, wisely, “was afraid to stay in Zoar.” (ibid., vs 30) He and his daughters headed for the mountains and became cave dwellers there.
Some theologians teach that God chooses man and gives life to his heart before man is able to choose to commit his life to God. Many others teach that man must choose God in order to receive a new heart. Viewed as a parable, the story of Lot lends credence to the first perspective. Lot chose to depart Zoar ( figuratively, evil) and go to the mountain (God) after being rescued from Judgment, not before.
However you may perceive this issue, it is clear that a personal decision to live for God is an essential ingredient to salvation. Christians may differ over when salvation is achieved and who chooses whom first, but we cannot dispute that believers must will to depart the environs of sin and evil. Up until that point of decision, our salvation is sleeping, waiting to be grasped and given expression, if only in isolation in a cave on a mountain. We must choose to depart from evil and do good daily, with God’s help.
Lot headed for the mountain in obedience to the angel’s original command— Better late than never! Life in the mountains, however, was monotonous. It is said, “Three’s a crowd,” but life among these three probably was lonely and wearying. Lot was a man who enjoyed city life. This new lifestyle was in conflict with his natural desire to be in community with others.
Perhaps the three began to lose hope of any happier, better day to come and to give in to their morose feelings and outlook. The time of trauma and relief had long passed, and they could no longer remember what it had felt like to appreciate God’s mercy and to be grateful to be alive, straining for righteousness, working out their salvation with fear and trembling. Phil. 2:12
Of course, Satan was waiting for this prime opportunity to suggest a way of solving the tedium problem. He selected the oldest daughter as the target of his deception. Naturally she was severely disappointed at how her life had turned out. No husband, no children, no hope, no joy. Then, it occurred to her that she would die having left no gift of progeny to carry on her family line which was her God-ordained reason for being. Of course, the role of the daughter was to raise seed for her husband, not her father, but perhaps these distinctions became more and more blurred in her mind as the days dissolved one into the other.
Read Genesis 19:30-38.
30. And Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zoar: and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters.
31. And the firstborn said unto the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto 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 seed of our father.
33. And they made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose.
34. And it came to pass on the morrow, that the firstborn said unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesternight with my father: let us make him drink wine this night also; and go thou in, and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father.
35. And they made their father drink wine that night also: and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose.
36. Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father.
37. And the first born bare a son, and called his name Moab: the same is the father of the Moabites unto this day.
38. And the younger, she also bare a son, and called his name Benammi: the same is the father of the children of Ammon unto this day.
There is a great temptation now to accuse Lot. The one man to escape God’s judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah sinned in a way that disgusts us. Could he really have been so drunk that he could not fend off his daughters? Surely he could have controlled his drinking. He seems to make one bad decision after another!
But wait: Perhaps the goal of progeny for barren daughters and to continue his line seemed a righteous end. Had the Lord not commanded men to be fruitful and multiply? Yes, Satan knows God’s Word and how to confuse our thoughts. Beware when wrong concepts begin to seem right.
It is not mentioned that the daughters desired anything but children and to their credit, they understood they could not bond with the Canaanites; but no matter what leniency we may grant, this sin was a sorrowful affront to the Lord and a shameful deed with repercussions for the family and their descendants.
How tempting it is to condemn Lot! First he selfishly chose the plain of the Jordan. Then he moved to Sodom, even though he knew it was an evil place. He had a chance to get out when Abraham rescued him from Kedorlaomer, but he returned.
He very nearly missed escaping the Judgment. If the angels hadn’t led him to safety, he wouldn’t have survived. He insisted on going to Zoar but soon realized the angels were right after all. Then he lay with both of his daughters. Couldn’t he have stopped after the first night? !
Could this voice of condemnation be the Accuser’s? Let us speak well of our brother Lot. He did not go along with the Sodomites, but lived among them as a righteous man. He took care of his family, finding prospective husbands for his daughters to arrange for the future. He protected the angels as best he could, and he obeyed their command not to look back. He was obedient to that command even when his wife was gone. And he was belatedly obedient to flee to the mountains. After all, he was Abraham’s nephew. He was a man who desired to know God and to be with his specially chosen son. He had faithfully attended Abraham on the journey to Canaan, to Egypt, and back again.
No, he should not have drunk so much wine and fallen into sin with his daughters. On those nights, he silenced his conscience. Lot did many things wrong, but also many right. His life was one of steps forward and then, steps backward. But he was not a reprobate. He was one in whom God was at work.
God knew he was the weaker brother, the one whose father had died an untimely death, and that is why the Lord inspired Abraham to help him and to pray for him. The strong are to “encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone.” (I Thess 5:14 NIV)
The final word in remembrance of Lot is not found in Genesis but in II Peter, as we studied earlier. It is in a passage containing a warning to early Christians that false teachers would creep in and introduce heresies, distorting the Truth, thereby bringing destruction upon themselves. After this warning, Peter says,
For if God...condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 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)– If this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment. (2 Peter 2:4...9 NIV)
This is an important passage to any study of Lot, because it establishes him in the Word of God as a beloved servant. And, the verses leading up to it (II Peter 2:1-3) remind us that God’s Word is not to be distorted.
Satan will achieve some inroads and purposes in our lives; nevertheless God’s deliverances will stand. Lot is to be remembered as an example of God’s power to deliver the righteous in the day of evil and as a righteous man, not for his wrong relations with his daughters. All of us make mistakes and all sin.
The events had taken place. The cities and the beautiful plain had been destroyed. Lot’s wife was dead, but he and his daughters were safe. But Abraham did not know that. Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the Lord. He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace.” (Gen 19: 27, 28)
Since Abraham was called to be the Father of the Faithful, perhaps God required that he trust him without discovering whether his intercession had been answered, at least for a time. But to us who have been given God’s Word for strength, comfort and guidance, it is revealed, “when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.” (ibid., vs 29)
The Lord had set his affection on Abraham and established him in a covenant relationship with himself. He made wonderful and gracious, unconditional promises to him, continuing to forgive and bless him despite his sins and failings. He rewarded him for showing this same forbearing love for Lot.
The reward was Lot’s deliverance from destruction. It may seem to be a gift which is tarnished by the final account of Lot and his daughters, but centuries later, it is recovered from the dust bin, polished and held up for all to see in the II Peter Scripture: “Lot, a righteous man…” rescued!