Genesis 19
We could spend some considerable time in Genesis 19, but I would like to keep to our discipline of trying to deal with a Chapter each week. I would like us therefore to focus our minds this morning on the story contained between verses 12 and 29.
Now here in this story of the Lot's escape from Sodom and the actual destruction of the cities we have a most useful example of the Christian life. For the great truths we uncover here can be applied very readily to our whole Christian experience. I claim no originality in my thinking on this subject for it was the Lord himself who drew our attention to it.
Lot is commanded to escape from this den of iniquity which is Sodom. There is a real sense of urgency about he whole passage we find words like, Hurry, Quick, Run, Get out, Don't look back, Run for your lives.
They are to escape not only the evil that surrounds them but also the coming judgement of God. Of course the most famous incident in all of this is the fact that Lot's wife disobeyed and looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt. On a superficial reading of the passage of course we give our sympathy to Lot's wife because we think well I would have looked back as well. Yes of course that is the case and to think of the story this way is to ascribe to God an injustice which from our studies in Chapter 18 and elsewhere we know cannot and is not the case.
So what is the problem? What does looking back here really mean?
Let me quote to you from Matthew Henry, "The sin of Lot's wife is that she looked back. She disobeyed an express command. Probably she hankered after her house and goods in Sodom and was loath to leave them. Christ intimates this to be her sin; she too much regarded her stuff. her looking back evinced and inclination to go back and therefore our Saviour uses it as a warning against apostasy from our Christian profession."
Jesus talks about his as I hope you recall in the 17th Chapter of Luke under the heading in the Good News Bible; The Coming of the Kingdom". Let me quote verses 31 & 32.
Jesus said,"On that day the man who is on the roof of his house must not go down into the house to get his belongings; in the same way the man who is out in the field must not go back to the house. Remember Lot's wife! Whoever tries to save his own life will lose it; whoever loses it will save it. On that night, I tell you, there will be two people sleeping in the same bed; one will be taken away and one will be left behind."
Do you remember Paul said much the same thing in his letter to the Philippians: "The one thing I do, however is to forget what is behind me and do my best to reach what is ahead. SO I run straight towards the goal in order to win the prize, which is God's call through Jesus Christ to the life above."
Paul pictured himself as a Christian running hard for the finish - to win the prize of life. As they heard his letter the Philippians Christians saw in their minds the Roman games; they saw the athletes racing down the track; the charioteers urging their horse on.
Now you see I think we have reached already the heart of the message of this passage for us today. From it must be drawn the salutary lessons about how to live the Christian life. We cannot forever be looking back. Don't go back in your life to your former ways. Keep yourself away from sin and sinful places. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. Go forward. Let the past go. God has dealt with it. Keep going forward. The past is behind you. Keep going. Don't give up. Run the race. That is the urgency of the message from God.
Now let's look at Lot. AS we have seen already Lot chose the fertile plain after the quarrel with Abraham. Lot has chosen to follow to a very large extent the ways of the world. He has been rescued after being kidnapped. And no he has been rescued from the destruction of Sodom. And now after this he falls into drunkenness and incest. From this point on in scripture we hear nothing more of him. I think we might safely assume that he continues to slide from the faith into oblivion.
In this whole story we have the range of human responses to the Gospel today. In the people of Sodom we have as a type, those people who have no time for the Gospel or its message. God doesn't feature in their lives. They follow their own moral codes and their own ideals and wander further and further from the truth.
In the story of Lot we have another type. And we know this one quite well. Here is the person who grows up knowing about God. They hear the truth from other believers. They are half in and half out but the temptations of the world always seem more attractive. Greed, selfishness, indifference all crouch at their door ready to lead them away from the faith. People pray for them. God blesses them and helps them, but still in the end the lure of the other way is too great and they are lost to the Church and have lost their chance for Salvation. As Jesus said, "two women will be grinding corn together; one will be taken away, the other left behind."
And behind this chapter although not specifically mentioned lies Abraham. He is for us the type of the true believer. Here is the man who despite his many falls from grace always picks himself and dusts himself down and moves forward. Here is a man who is running the race. Here is the man who is learning more and more to trust God. Here is the man who listens to the word. Here is the man who prays and even argues with God. Here is the man who does his best for his cousin Lot albeit to no avail. Here is the Father of our faith.
Do you see also in this the power of prayer. At verse 29 we read, "But when God destroyed the cities of the valley where Lot was living, he kept Abraham in mind and allowed Lot to escape to safety."
What a lot of chances God gives Lot to get it right with him. And that is true for us today. we get chance after chance after chance. God is if you like always willing us to succeed. Willing us to come to him. But we are only successful when like Abraham and Paul and all the others we learn to run the true race of life. As Paul says to us all, "I do not claim that I have already succeeded or have already become perfect. I keep striving to win the prize for which Jesus Christ has already won me to himself."
We have to do, our best to keep the past, to keep the temptations of world behind us and reach forward. There are no better words of encouragement than Paul's, "So I run straight towards the goal in order to win the prize which is God's call through Christ Jesus to the life above."