Gen. 19-20: “The Destruction Of Sodom And Gomorrah / Abraham Again Has Sarah Say That She Is His Sister”

By

Jim Bomkamp

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1.                  INTRO:

 

1.1.         In our last study we looked at chapters 16-18 of Genesis.

 

1.1.1.  We saw that Sarah became a schemer just as Abraham previously had schemed and determined to give God some help and allow her maid Hagar to conceive the child of promise and fulfill God’s promises.  We looked at the consequences of that choice by Sarah after Hagar conceived Ishmael.

 

1.1.2.  Abraham was told to be blameless in all that he does and then that he must circumcise all of those born in his household and even living in his house, which he does that very day. 

 

1.1.3.  Then the Lord came to Abraham and Sarah and told Abraham that Sarah would conceive a child in one year, and when Sarah overheard this she had unbelief in her heart and laughed to herself at the news, but was rebuked by the Lord for this.

 

1.1.4.  Finally, we saw how that the Lord appeared to Abraham and told him of His plans to destroy the city of Sodom.  Abraham then interceded for the city.

 

1.2.         In our study today, we are going to look at chapters 19-20 of Genesis.

 

1.2.1.  The angels will come to Lot and tell him that he and his family must get out of town as soon as possible because the Lord is going to destroy the city.

 

1.2.2.  The men of the city will surround the house Lot’s demand to have sex with the angels, after which the Lord blinds the men and then forces Lot, Lot’s wife, and their two virgin daughters out of the city, warning them not to look back.

 

1.2.3.  Lot’s two daughters now scheme and get their father drunk on subsequent nights and have sex with him so that each can conceive a child in incest.

 

1.2.4.  In chapter 20, we will see that Abraham again tells Sarah to say she is his sister and she is again taken into a king’s harem as his wife.  However, as happened the first time, the Lord delivers Sarah and Abraham in this situation.

 

1.2.5.  In our last study, we saw how that Abraham had interceded for the city of Sodom asking the Lord if He would destroy the righteous along with the unrighteous.  Then, Abraham asked the Lord if He would destroy the city if there were 50 righteous who lived in the city, and the Lord said He would not.  Then, Abraham asked about 45, 40, 30, 20, and finally 10, and in each case the Lord said He would not destroy the city if that number were found.  Abraham knew that there were 10 who were living in Lot’s house when he made this last request for his concern was that of his newphew. 

 

1.2.6.  In this study, we see that the Lord Himself has determined that He will not punish or destroy the righteous along with the wicked.  It will be the Lord Himself, through His angels, who drives Lot out of the city because the city cannot be destroyed until all of the righteous are driven out of the city.  As was mentioned previously, when the Lord determines to pour out His wrath and punish the wicked He never punishes the righteous along with the wicked.

 

1.2.7.  The interesting thing here is that it is Lot who is considered as being the “righteous.”  Lot is a guy in the scriptures who is really a type of a carnal or backslidden believer.  Everything that scriptures tells us about him shows compromise and sinful choices, for instance: 

 

1.2.7.1.He chose the best land located right by the horribly sinful people of Sodom when Abraham let him choose, and, he set up his tent by Sodom.  Soon he found himself living in and among the people of Sodom.  Next, he is seen serving the people in official capacity by the gates of the city. 

 

1.2.7.2.When the men of the city want to rape the angels who come to visit him he offers them his virgin daughters instead (not a caring father). 

 

1.2.7.3.When he is told by the angels in our study to flee to the mountains before the destruction of the city he asks the angels if they will spare this one smaller city, Zoar, because fleeing there will be easier on himself. 

 

1.2.7.4.He gets drunk on successive nights after fleeing and his daughters use this opportunity to have sex with him (the resultant babies become the Amonites and the Moabites).  Before the angels destroy the city of Sodom they literally drag Lot by the hand out of the city so that they can destroy it, Lot so wanted his worldly life and possessions he won’t leave on his own. 

 

1.2.8.  Yet, in spite of all that we know about him, in the N.T. we read about him in 2 Peter 2:6-8 as being a righteous man:  “6 and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter; 7 and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men 8 (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds).” 

 

1.2.9.  I know that all of us would hope that if we do get backslidden and choose to walk away from the Lord that He would be as gracious to us as He was to Lot and rescue us even against our will so that we aren’t destroyed along with this sinful world.  Surely, God’s dealing with Lot is an example to us of how we are all blessed of God only because God is a gracious and merciful God, not because we have deserved anything that God has done in our life.

 

2.                 VS 19:1-3  - “1 Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. 2 And he said, “Now behold, my lords, please turn aside into your servant’s house, and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise early and go on your way.” They said however, “No, but we shall spend the night in the square.” 3 Yet he urged them strongly, so they turned aside to him and entered his house; and he prepared a feast for them, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.” -  The two angels who previously had been with Abraham come to Lot as he is ‘sitting in the gate of Sodom’ and when Lot sees them he bows down before them and then invites them to spend the night at his house in the city

 

2.1.         Interestingly, when these same angels had appeared to Abraham they were described as three men, however now they are two.  This is another reason why I stated in the previous chapter that I thought that one of the men who appeared to Abraham was the Lord Himself (a pre-incarnate theophany of Jesus Christ) and that the other two were just angels.

 

2.2.         There is debate as to whether or not Lot knew immediately that these were angels.  He bows before these angels and then invites and urges them to stay the night in his house, however it could be that he was doing this because in his new capacity as a city official sitting at the gate of the city, that this was the normal protocol for hospitality.

 

2.3.         If not now, Lot will soon discover the true identity of these angels.

 

2.4.         The name ‘Sodom’ means “burning.”

 

3.                 VS 19:4-7  - “4 Before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter; 5 and they called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have relations with them.” 6 But Lot went out to them at the doorway, and shut the door behind him, 7 and said, “Please, my brothers, do not act wickedly.” -  All of the men of the city, young and old, come to Lot’s house and demand to have sex with these two angels

 

3.1.         These verses reveal how wicked the people of the city of Sodom had become.  Every man from the oldest to the youngest (which would include an adolescent), come to the door of Lot’s house and demand sex with these two angels.  Homosexuality is condemned as a sin in the Bible, but the act of rape is violent and is a condemned crime in every civilized city or nation.  When Moses writes the Law later we will see that the Lord establishes the crime of rape as a capital crime punishable by stoning.

 

3.2.         Once again the chickens have come home to roost for Lot.  He has again made his bed and now has to sleep in it.  Lot’s sin has found him out and he is suffering the consequences of his back-sliding. 

 

3.3.         Lot should have learned his lesson about living in Sodom earlier when Chedorlaomer had conquered the city and taken him and his family and possessions captive before Abraham raised up his fighting men and went and rescued Lot and brought all of his possessions and family back.  But, sadly Lot was a bit thick-skulled and hadn’t learned anything at all.

 

3.4.         Lot first appeals to the men of the city to not act wickedly however they refuse and insist to have their way with these two angels.

 

4.                 VS 19:8  - “8 “Now behold, I have two daughters who have not had relations with man; please let me bring them out to you, and do to them whatever you like; only do nothing to these men, inasmuch as they have come under the shelter of my roof.”” -  Lot offers to the men of the city to let them have sex with his two virgin daughters

 

4.1.         Lot and his family are in a desperate situation, at least as Lot supposes.  However, Lot does not realize that the Lord will fight for His people and thus they need not fear for no one shall be able to even touch a hair on the head of one of His people unless the Lord specifically allows it. 

 

4.1.1.  Psalm 91 is a Psalm which every one of God’s people may claim for themselves, even though Jesus’ applied it specifically to Himself when the Devil tempted Him to jump off of the pinnacle of the temple promising that the angels would catch Him:  Psalm 91:11-16 says, “11 For He will give His angels charge concerning you, To guard you in all your ways. 12 They will bear you up in their hands, That you do not strike your foot against a stone. 13 You will tread upon the lion and cobra, The young lion and the serpent you will trample down. 14 “Because he has loved Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him securely on high, because he has known My name. 15 “He will call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. 16 “With a long life I will satisfy him And let him see My salvation.””

 

4.2.         Lot’s backslidden condition is seen in how he is ready and willing to give over his two virgin daughters for all of the men of the city to rape here rather than jeopardize his guests.  This is more than just following the customs of the day, this reveals a callousness and hardness of heart towards the Lord.  Lot was anything but a loving father on this day.

 

4.3.         Later on in this chapter we will see how Lot’s being willing to sacrifice his virgin daughters bares huge consequences for him when after he and his daughters escape the city the daughters each on successive nights get Lot drunk and have sex with him conceiving a child in incest.

 

5.                 VS 19:9-11  - “9 But they said, “Stand aside.” Furthermore, they said, “This one came in as an alien, and already he is acting like a judge; now we will treat you worse than them.” So they pressed hard against Lot and came near to break the door. 10 But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. 11 They struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves trying to find the doorway.” -  The men of the city aren’t deterred by Lot’s appealing to them and even his offer of his virgin daughters, and they press upon Lot, then, the angels open the door and bring Lot into the house as they strike the men outside with blindness

 

5.1.         The men of the city chide Lot for telling them what to do.  They say that he is ‘acting like a judge’ perhaps indicating that he is taking even more authority to himself than his post sitting at the gates of the city now afforded him.  The men ask Lot who he thinks he is?

 

5.2.         Evidently Lot’s door only opened outwards and thus the men of the city were pressing against Lot and almost breaking the door.

 

5.3.         The angels push open the door and grab Lot and bring him into the house.  Then, the men outside the door are supernaturally rendered blind and they cannot find the door to Lot’s house.

 

6.                 VS 19:12-14  - “12 Then the two men said to Lot, “Whom else have you here? A son-in-law, and your sons, and your daughters, and whomever you have in the city, bring them out of the place; 13 for we are about to destroy this place, because their outcry has become so great before the Lord that the Lord has sent us to destroy it.” 14 Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, and said, “Up, get out of this place, for the Lord will destroy the city.” But he appeared to his sons-in-law to be jesting.” -  The angels ask Lot who else is there with him in the house, and he tells them about his sons-in-law who were to marry his daughters and then goes and tries to get everyone in his household to understand that they now needed to leave because the Lord was going to destroy the city, but Lot’s sons-in-law thought he was jesting so they refused to leave

 

6.1.         The angels don’t ask Lot who he has in his house because they don’t know.  They want him to think about who is there so that he can try to encourage everyone to flee the city with him.

 

6.2.         Lot is now suffering greater consequences for his backslidings.  He has no moral authority in his own home and thus his sons-in-law even think that he is just joking around when he tells them that the Lord really is about to destroy the city and that if they don’t flee soon they will be destroyed.

 

6.3.         Lot’s sons-in-law and evidently the daughters married to them refuse to leave the city and the result is that they are destroyed with the rest of the city.

 

7.                 VS 19:15-26  - “15 When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.” 16 But he hesitated. So the men seized his hand and the hand of his wife and the hands of his two daughters, for the compassion of the Lord was upon him; and they brought him out, and put him outside the city. 17 When they had brought them outside, one said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you, and do not stay anywhere in the valley; escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away.” 18 But Lot said to them, “Oh no, my lords! 19 “Now behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your lovingkindness, which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountains, for the disaster will overtake me and I will die; 20 now behold, this town is near enough to flee to, and it is small. Please, let me escape there (is it not small?) that my life may be saved.” 21 He said to him, “Behold, I grant you this request also, not to overthrow the town of which you have spoken. 22 “Hurry, escape there, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” Therefore the name of the town was called Zoar. 23 The sun had risen over the earth when Lot came to Zoar. 24 Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven, 25 and He overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. 26 But his wife, from behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.” -  As the morning was dawning Lot and his family was hesitant to leave, but the angels took a hold of their hands and literally drug them outside of the city, warning them not to look behind (Lot’s wife turned into a pillar of salt because she didn’t obey their warning), and Lot talked the angels into allowing them to flee to the small city of Zoar to escape the destruction, rather than having to flee to the mountains  

 

7.1.         This is the first mention of ‘fire’ in the scripture and note that it refers to the fire of God’s judgment.

 

7.2.         Lot was so attached to this world and the things of this world that he was not able to depart the city and leave his worldly life in Sodom behind.  If it were not for the grace and mercy of God forcing Lot and his wife and daughters out of the city he would have perished there with everyone else.  But, the angels of the Lord forced him out.

 

7.3.         The territory upon which Sodom and Gomorrah were located (where the southern end of the Dead Sea is today) is very unusual from a mineral perspective as well as many other respects.  It is also right along a fault line that heads down south all of the way to Egypt.  The country has many evidences of volcanic eruptions, and it may have been a volcanic eruption that destroyed the cities.  The fire and brimstone which destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah could have been a deadly pyroclastic cloud blown up into the air by a volcanic eruption along with earthquakes, and a deadly sulphur mixed with other acids and gases.  However, the destruction could have also simply been of a supernatural origin.

 

7.4.         Interestingly, in this area around the Dead Sea there are several large pillars of salt and at various times in history there have been legends that some of these have actually were Lot’s wife. 

 

7.5.         It could have been that as Lot’s wife lingered and kept looking back towards the city that she was consumed by a downpour of ash mixed with salt and other elements which caused her to be as it says here, turned into a pillar of salt.

 

7.6.         The name of this city ‘Zoar’ means “small or insignificant.”

 

7.7.         Lot in his backslidden condition is content to allow a wicked city destined for destruction by the Lord escape its deserved judgment only because he is lazy and doesn’t want to have to take a hike up into the mountains to escape the destruction of the city.

 

7.8.         When the Lord gave the law to the children of Israel He was very clear that there were blessings for keeping God’s covenant by obeying the Law and curses when they did not obey:

 

7.8.1.  Leviticus 26:14-46:

 

14 ‘But if you do not obey Me and do not carry out all these commandments, 15 if, instead, you reject My statutes, and if your soul abhors My ordinances so as not to carry out all My commandments, and so break My covenant, 16 I, in turn, will do this to you: I will appoint over you a sudden terror, consumption and fever that will waste away the eyes and cause the soul to pine away; also, you will sow your seed uselessly, for your enemies will eat it up. 17 ‘I will set My face against you so that you will be struck down before your enemies; and those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when no one is pursuing you. 18 ‘If also after these things you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. 19 ‘I will also break down your pride of power; I will also make your sky like iron and your earth like bronze. 20 ‘Your strength will be spent uselessly, for your land will not yield its produce and the trees of the land will not yield their fruit. 21 ‘If then, you act with hostility against Me and are unwilling to obey Me, I will increase the plague on you seven times according to your sins. 22 ‘I will let loose among you the beasts of the field, which will bereave you of your children and destroy your cattle and reduce your number so that your roads lie deserted. 23 ‘And if by these things you are not turned to Me, but act with hostility against Me, 24 then I will act with hostility against you; and I, even I, will strike you seven times for your sins. 25 ‘I will also bring upon you a sword which will execute vengeance for the covenant; and when you gather together into your cities, I will send pestilence among you, so that you shall be delivered into enemy hands. 26 ‘When I break your staff of bread, ten women will bake your bread in one oven, and they will bring back your bread in rationed amounts, so that you will eat and not be satisfied. 27 ‘Yet if in spite of this you do not obey Me, but act with hostility against Me, 28 then I will act with wrathful hostility against you, and I, even I, will punish you seven times for your sins. 29 ‘Further, you will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters you will eat. 30 ‘I then will destroy your high places, and cut down your incense altars, and heap your remains on the remains of your idols, for My soul shall abhor you. 31 ‘I will lay waste your cities as well and will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your soothing aromas. 32 ‘I will make the land desolate so that your enemies who settle in it will be appalled over it. 33 ‘You, however, I will scatter among the nations and will draw out a sword after you, as your land becomes desolate and your cities become waste. 34 ‘Then the land will enjoy its sabbaths all the days of the desolation, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths. 35 ‘All the days of its desolation it will observe the rest which it did not observe on your sabbaths, while you were living on it. 36 ‘As for those of you who may be left, I will also bring weakness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. And the sound of a driven leaf will chase them, and even when no one is pursuing they will flee as though from the sword, and they will fall. 37 ‘They will therefore stumble over each other as if running from the sword, although no one is pursuing; and you will have no strength to stand up before your enemies. 38 ‘But you will perish among the nations, and your enemies’ land will consume you. 39 ‘So those of you who may be left will rot away because of their iniquity in the lands of your enemies; and also because of the iniquities of their forefathers they will rot away with them. 40 ‘If they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their forefathers, in their unfaithfulness which they committed against Me, and also in their acting with hostility against Me— 41 I also was acting with hostility against them, to bring them into the land of their enemies—or if their uncircumcised heart becomes humbled so that they then make amends for their iniquity, 42 then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and I will remember also My covenant with Isaac, and My covenant with Abraham as well, and I will remember the land. 43 ‘For the land will be abandoned by them, and will make up for its sabbaths while it is made desolate without them. They, meanwhile, will be making amends for their iniquity, because they rejected My ordinances and their soul abhorred My statutes. 44 ‘Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I so abhor them as to destroy them, breaking My covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God. 45 ‘But I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am the Lord.’ ” 46 These are the statutes and ordinances and laws which the Lord established between Himself and the sons of Israel through Moses at Mount Sinai.

 

7.8.2.  Deuteronomy 28:15-68: 

 

15 “But it shall come about, if you do not obey the Lord your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: 16 “Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country. 17 “Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. 18 “Cursed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock. 19 “Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out. 20 “The Lord will send upon you curses, confusion, and rebuke, in all you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken Me. 21 “The Lord will make the pestilence cling to you until He has consumed you from the land where you are entering to possess it. 22 “The Lord will smite you with consumption and with fever and with inflammation and with fiery heat and with the sword and with blight and with mildew, and they will pursue you until you perish. 23 “The heaven which is over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you, iron. 24 “The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust; from heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed. 25 “The Lord shall cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you will go out one way against them, but you will flee seven ways before them, and you will be an example of terror to all the kingdoms of the earth. 26 “Your carcasses will be food to all birds of the sky and to the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away. 27 “The Lord will smite you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors and with the scab and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed. 28 “The Lord will smite you with madness and with blindness and with bewilderment of heart; 29 and you will grope at noon, as the blind man gropes in darkness, and you will not prosper in your ways; but you shall only be oppressed and robbed continually, with none to save you. 30 “You shall betroth a wife, but another man will violate her; you shall build a house, but you will not live in it; you shall plant a vineyard, but you will not use its fruit. 31 “Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat of it; your donkey shall be torn away from you, and will not be restored to you; your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you will have none to save you. 32 “Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, while your eyes look on and yearn for them continually; but there will be nothing you can do. 33 “A people whom you do not know shall eat up the produce of your ground and all your labors, and you will never be anything but oppressed and crushed continually. 34 “You shall be driven mad by the sight of what you see. 35 “The Lord will strike you on the knees and legs with sore boils, from which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head. 36 “The Lord will bring you and your king, whom you set over you, to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone. 37 “You shall become a horror, a proverb, and a taunt among all the people where the Lord drives you. 38 “You shall bring out much seed to the field but you will gather in little, for the locust will consume it. 39 “You shall plant and cultivate vineyards, but you will neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm will devour them. 40 “You shall have olive trees throughout your territory but you will not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives will drop off. 41 “You shall have sons and daughters but they will not be yours, for they will go into captivity. 42 “The cricket shall possess all your trees and the produce of your ground. 43 “The alien who is among you shall rise above you higher and higher, but you will go down lower and lower. 44 “He shall lend to you, but you will not lend to him; he shall be the head, and you will be the tail. 45 “So all these curses shall come on you and pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you would not obey the Lord your God by keeping His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. 46 “They shall become a sign and a wonder on you and your descendants forever. 47 “Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and a glad heart, for the abundance of all things; 48 therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in the lack of all things; and He will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you. 49 “The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as the eagle swoops down, a nation whose language you shall not understand, 50 a nation of fierce countenance who will have no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young. 51 “Moreover, it shall eat the offspring of your herd and the produce of your ground until you are destroyed, who also leaves you no grain, new wine, or oil, nor the increase of your herd or the young of your flock until they have caused you to perish. 52 “It shall besiege you in all your towns until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout your land, and it shall besiege you in all your towns throughout your land which the Lord your God has given you. 53 “Then you shall eat the offspring of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters whom the Lord your God has given you, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will oppress you. 54 “The man who is refined and very delicate among you shall be hostile toward his brother and toward the wife he cherishes and toward the rest of his children who remain, 55 so that he will not give even one of them any of the flesh of his children which he will eat, since he has nothing else left, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will oppress you in all your towns. 56 “The refined and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and refinement, shall be hostile toward the husband she cherishes and toward her son and daughter, 57 and toward her afterbirth which issues from between her legs and toward her children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly for lack of anything else, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will oppress you in your towns. 58 “If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law which are written in this book, to fear this honored and awesome name, the Lord your God, 59 then the Lord will bring extraordinary plagues on you and your descendants, even severe and lasting plagues, and miserable and chronic sicknesses. 60 “He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt of which you were afraid, and they will cling to you. 61 “Also every sickness and every plague which, not written in the book of this law, the Lord will bring on you until you are destroyed. 62 “Then you shall be left few in number, whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, because you did not obey the Lord your God. 63 “It shall come about that as the Lord delighted over you to prosper you, and multiply you, so the Lord will delight over you to make you perish and destroy you; and you will be torn from the land where you are entering to possess it. 64 “Moreover, the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth; and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone, which you or your fathers have not known. 65 “Among those nations you shall find no rest, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot; but there the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul. 66 “So your life shall hang in doubt before you; and you will be in dread night and day, and shall have no assurance of your life. 67 “In the morning you shall say, ‘Would that it were evening!’ And at evening you shall say, ‘Would that it were morning!’ because of the dread of your heart which you dread, and for the sight of your eyes which you will see. 68 “The Lord will bring you back to Egypt in ships, by the way about which I spoke to you, ‘You will never see it again!’ And there you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.”

 

7.9.         In Numbers 32:23, Moses told the tribes of Gad, Reuben, and Manassah that if they didn’t go and help their brothers conquer the land that they were to be sure and know for your sin will find you out.  The Lord will discipline His children when and if they backslide, that is His promise.  God’s discipline is not fun, that is for sure. 

 

7.10.    In fact, the history of the nation of Israel is the history of a nation who has reaped the fruit and consequences of their backslidings as:

 

7.10.1.Jerusalem has been conquered and destroyed twice.

 

7.10.2.The northern kingdom was deported to Assyria never to be heard from again.

 

7.10.3.The southern kingdom was deported to Babylon for 70 years. 

 

7.10.4.After thousands of Jews were slaughtered when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in 70AD and the Jews were dispersed to all of the countries, they have been persecuted in every country in which they have resided.

 

7.10.5.The present difficulties that Israel is having with the Arabs is the result of God’s disciplining them for rebelling against Him. 

 

7.11.    These difficulties have all occurred for Israel just as the Lord promised in the curses iterated for disobeying the terms of their covenant in the Law (and of course for refusing to embrace Jesus Christ their Messiah).

 

7.12.    In the New Testament we read, “If anyone does wrong he shall suffer the consequences of his sin, and that without partiality,” (Col. 3:25).

 

7.13.    We are promised in the New Testament that the Lord will discipline us and that we are not to despise the discipline of the Lord for whom the Lord disciplines He loves:  Hebrews 12:5-6, “5 and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, Nor faint when you are reproved by Him.  6 For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives.””

 

7.14.    It’s a lot easier to go along with God’s program that suffer His discipline:  1 Corinthians 11:31-32, “31 But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. 32 But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world.”

 

8.                 VS 19:27-29  - “27 Now Abraham arose early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before the Lord; 28 and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the valley, and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land ascended like the smoke of a furnace. 29 Thus it came about, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.” -  Abraham views the destruction of the city

 

8.1.         Here we receive just a little epilogue to this story.  We see here how that Abraham in the morning observed that the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah had a huge plume of smoke coming up from them because the Lord had destroyed them.

 

8.2.         We’re not told if Abraham ever heard what had happened to Lot, but I would suppose that somehow he later found out about at least what happened initially to Lot and his family as recorded in the rest of this chapter.

 

8.3.         After the events of this chapter Lot is never heard from again in the scriptures.  It is too bad if Lot did not head back and take up residence alongside his uncle Abraham because Abraham was the man whom God had given such a unique and special calling.

 

9.                  VS 19:37-38  - “30 Lot went up from Zoar, and stayed in the mountains, and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to stay in Zoar; and he stayed in a cave, he and his two daughters. 31 Then the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of the earth. 32 “Come, let us make our father drink wine, and let us lie with him that we may preserve our family through our father.” 33 So they made their father drink wine that night, and the firstborn went in and lay with her father; and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. 34 On the following day, the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father; let us make him drink wine tonight also; then you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve our family through our father.” 35 So they made their father drink wine that night also, and the younger arose and lay with him; and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. 36 Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father. 37 The firstborn bore a son, and called his name Moab; he is the father of the Moabites to this day. 38 As for the younger, she also bore a son, and called his name Ben-ammi; he is the father of the sons of Ammon to this day.” -  Lot’s daughters get him drunk and then have sex with him and each conceives a child

 

9.1.         Lot and his daughters immediately go up into the mountains after all and they begin to live in a cave.  The cave life however is not nearly as fulfilling as their life had been in their own home in Sodom, and Lot’s daughters begin now to worry that they will never be able to find a suitable husband for themselves.  They could have found a husband in Sodom but not now, not as cave dwellers.  They also begin to feel like the Lot family name will now not be carried on and that they shall die husband-less and childless.

 

9.2.         Lot now reaps the consequences of how he treated his daughters, offering them up to the men of the city to rape, for they begin to scheme themselves.  Worrying that they will never be able to find acceptable men to marry they decide that they need to have offspring and they conceive how they can bring this about through incest and their own father.

 

9.3.         It is interesting what Lot and his daughters take with them when they have to flee for their lives from their home:  evidently in their free hand (the one not being held by an angel) they take with them a bottle of wine.

 

9.4.         Lot had probably become quite the drinker as he lived among the terribly sinful people of the city of Sodom.  Lot’s life of debauchery is now going to be the source of much shame and humiliation for him (that and Lot’s pride were probably the reason he wasn’t willing to come and live alongside uncle Abraham now).

 

9.5.         The result of this act by the daughters of Lot is the two nations that Israel often had trouble with during her history:  the Moabites and the Ammonites.  These peoples lived in the mountains east of the Dead Sea.

 

9.6.         It is interesting that Ruth the Moabites is in the lineage of Jesus Christ for she married Boaz, King David’s great grandfather.  Likewise, Naamah was an Ammonite and she was one of King Solomon’s wives, the one who gave birth to Rehoboam who was also in the royal lineage of Jesus Christ.

 

9.7.         There is also scriptural support that the Moabites and Ammonites will be revived in the last days (see Jer. 48:47; 49:6).

 

10.            VS 20:1-5  - “1 Now Abraham journeyed from there toward the land of the Negev, and settled between Kadesh and Shur; then he sojourned in Gerar. 2 Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” So Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. 3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night, and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is married.” 4 Now Abimelech had not come near her; and he said, “Lord, will You slay a nation, even though blameless? 5 “Did he not himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.”” -  Abraham journeys towards the land of the Negev and tells others that Sarah is his sister, and king Abimilech takes Sarah to be a wife, but God protects Sarah from consummating her marriage to Abimelech by appearing to Abimelech in a dream and telling him that he is a dead man because of the woman he has taken, for she is married

 

10.1.    What woman at the age of 90 would be considered so beautiful that a king would want to take her as a wife?  When we saw in chapter 12 of the book of Genesis that at the age of 65 it was incredible that Pharaoh of Egypt had wanted to take Sarah as his wife, the first time we read about Abraham and Sarah scheming and have Sarah tell everyone that she was Abraham’s sister.  We discussed how that this must have come about because of the influence of Satan who was trying to keep Abraham and Sarah from being able to conceive a child and thus destroy the godly seed (Jesus Christ) from ever being born, the one who would crush the head of Satan.  But now, at 90 this is even more intriguing, yet the same reasoning must be true.   

 

10.2.    According to the timeline given by the Lord of Sarah giving birth a year after the Lord’s last appearance to Abraham, Sarah was probably pregnant at this time.  Satan must have been wanting to divert the situation here and keep Isaac from being able to be raised up in a god-fearing home where he could fulfill his role as a patriarch to the children of Israel.

 

10.3.    We would have thought that Abraham and Sarah would have learned their lesson 25 years ago when they first pulled this and Sarah was taken as a wife by Pharaoh.  At that time they had been rebuked by Pharaoh for lying and shamed and humiliated as they were kicked out of the country of Egypt.  However, old habits die hard.  It probably was the case that Abraham and Sarah sometimes just fell into the old patterns and didn’t walk in faith and dependence on the Lord and instead schemed and took matters into their own hands.

 

10.4.    Abraham was kind of a knot-head just as Lot was and still had not learned his lesson yet.  Abraham also had not yet learned to trust in the Lord to protect him and that he needed to always stand on the side of the truth whatever the consequences may be.

 

11.            VS 20:6-10  - “6 Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that in the integrity of your heart you have done this, and I also kept you from sinning against Me; therefore I did not let you touch her. 7 “Now therefore, restore the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.” 8 So Abimelech arose early in the morning and called all his servants and told all these things in their hearing; and the men were greatly frightened. 9 Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that ought not to be done.” 10 And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What have you encountered, that you have done this thing?”” -  In his dream, God tells Abimelech that He knows that what Abimelech has done was done innocently, then the Lord tells Abimelech that Abraham is a prophet and that he should ask Abraham to pray for him so that he will not die

 

11.1.    This is the first mention in the book of Genesis of the word ‘prophet,’ and notice that it does not refer to the predicting of the future but rather of being a man called by and used by God, a man whom the Lord spoke to and who knew God.

 

11.2.    Abimelech rebukes Abraham for being so reckless that he could have caused him to be killed, and did this in the exact same way that Pharaoh had rebuked Abraham 25 years earlier when Abraham and Sarah had pulled the same trick.

 

12.            VS 20:11-13  - “11 Abraham said, “Because I thought, surely there is no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife. 12 “Besides, she actually is my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife; 13 and it came about, when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, that I said to her, ‘This is the kindness which you will show to me: everywhere we go, say of me, “He is my brother.” ’ ”” -  Abraham defends or justifies his actions to Abimelech

 

12.1.    Abraham tells Abimelech that he was afraid because no one in this area feared God and thus they just tended to do whatever their heart desired. 

 

12.2.    Abraham seems to explain that this had been a backup plan to trusting in the Lord that he and Sarah had had in place since the beginning.  Shame on him for not trusting the Lord to protect him from his enemies.

 

13.            VS 20:14-18  - “14 Abimelech then took sheep and oxen and male and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and restored his wife Sarah to him. 15 Abimelech said, “Behold, my land is before you; settle wherever you please.” 16 To Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver; behold, it is your vindication before all who are with you, and before all men you are cleared.” 17 Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maids, so that they bore children. 18 For the Lord had closed fast all the wombs of the household of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.” -  Abimelech blesses Abraham with sheep and oxen and male and female servants and restores Sarah to Abraham, and Abraham prays for healing for Abimelech and his wife and maids to be healed so that they can again bear children

 

13.1.    Abraham tells Abimelech that because no one feared the Lord and thus were so cruel and hard-hearted that he feared for his life, and thus he had again attempted this ruse.

 

13.2.    It is interesting that the Lord is not recorded as rebuking Abraham either here or when Abraham had done this same thing with Pharaoh.  Evidently, the Lord in each case an unbeliever to rebuke Abraham because the Lord knew that this rebuke would truly sting and produce a good result.  Surely after this Abraham must again have felt like a total loser and that it was only because of God’s grace that he had any of the many blessings that God had provided for him.

 

13.2.1.When a non-believer rebukes you as one of God’s people because of the your sin, this is very deflating and humbling, especially since you know that you are to be a light and a witness to the people of this world so that they might come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

 

13.3.    Evidently here God had done something to both Pharaoh as well his wife and maids that kept them either from procreating at all or from having children.  Then, after Abraham prays for them they are healed and can again bear children.

 

14.            CONCLUSIONS:

 

14.1.    Learn from the backsliding of Lot that the consequences are never worth it.

 

14.2.    Allow the Lord to give you victory even over the old habits that you have had for years.

 

14.3.    Learn to trust the Lord to protect you from your enemies and the things that could harm you. 

 

14.4.    Stand always on the side of truth whatever the consequences may be.

           

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