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A LOT ABOUT LOT!
There are not many people I take a dislike to but Lot is one of those people. His tale begins near the beginning in Genesis 11:27 - 32. We read:
This is the account of Terah.
Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot. 28 While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, in the land of his birth. 29 Abram and Nahor both married. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife was Milcah; she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah. 30 Now Sarai was barren; she had no children.
Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there.
Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Haran.
Terah's youngest son, Haran, had three children - two daughters and a son. The daughters were Milcah and Iscah. The son's name was Lot. The older sister Milcah married Uncle Nahor while Abram married some girl down the street by the name of Sarai - who bore him no children.
At some point in time Terah decided to move to Canaan but never made it any further than Haran - perhaps for sentimental reasons since his youngest son was named Haran. Or perhaps his health was such that he simply decided to go no further.
Whatever the case, you'll note that Abram's nephew, Lot, tagged along. After Terah, who worshiped other gods, died Abram was told to leave the land of the Chaldeans and go to a land that God would show him. At this point, Lot could have chosen to go back to one of his sisters but chose to go with Abram. It was probably the best decision he ever made in his life.
Some decisions are like the one Lot made on that day when he decided to stick with Uncle Abram. The need for a decision pops up in front of us and suddenly we must put something down on paper that we have given little or no thought to in the past. And yet it is this decision that significantly sets the course for our entire life. In Lot's case, the decision to tag along with his uncle, a decision he had given little or no thought to, turned out to be a good one.
He tagged along every step of the way right down to Egypt and back with good old Uncle Abram. In the course of events he and his uncle became wealthy. We pick up his story in Genesis 13:5 - 13. We read:
Now Lot, who was moving about with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents. 6 But the land could not support them while they stayed together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to stay together. 7 And quarreling arose between Abram's herdsmen and the herdsmen of Lot. The Canaanites and Perizzites were also living in the land at that time.
So Abram said to Lot, "Let's not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herdsmen and mine, for we are brothers. 9 Is not the whole land before you? Let's part company. If you go to the left, I'll go to the right; if you go to the right, I'll go to the left."
Lot looked up and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan was well watered, like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, toward Zoar. (This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) 11 So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. The two men parted company: 12 Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom. 13 Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the LORD.
Perhaps there is no individual in the Bible who is as representative of so many today as Lot. For even today there are a lot of Lots who appraise what life offers them with their eyes and only their eyes. He looked over the whole plain of Jordan and saw that it was well-watered. He then chose what he thought was the best as his lot in life. He pitched his tent toward Sodom and stuck his uncle with the rest.
Unlike his first decision, this decision was calculated on the evidence. It turned out to be a very bad decision. Before too long he found himself in the middle of a civil war in, of all places, the Middle East. He and his family were taken captive along with their possessions.
But good old Uncle Abram put a small army together and rescued him. Lot, having grown up by this time, wisely chose to move to higher ground. Wrong! He went right back to Sodom and bought a condominium in the heart of the city. We pick up his story in Genesis 19:1 - 9. We read,
The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. 2 "My lords," he said, "please turn aside to your servant's house. You can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning."
" No," they answered, "we will spend the night in the square."
Gen. 19:3 But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate. 4 Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom-both young and old-surrounded the house. 5 They called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them."
Gen. 19:6 Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him 7 and said, "No, my friends. Don't do this wicked thing. 8 Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don't do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof."
Gen. 19:9 "Get out of our way," they replied. And they said, "This fellow came here as an alien, and now he wants to play the judge! We'll treat you worse than them." They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door.
Lot, who we have no reason to feel sorry for, was up to his ears in trouble. A tremendous amount of pressure was being placed on him by the leaders of the community in which he lived. All he had to do to relieve the pressure was to go along with those in control.
Which was exactly what Lot decided to do for the sake of his own hide. He offered the men his two high-school-aged daughters who had never slept with a man! This was hospitality at its lowest ebb in all of history! How Lot, even in his day, could've sunk so low as to offer his daughters to men who would've undoubtedly ravaged them is beyond my imagination.
This, of course, is the sort of the thing that happens when you pitch your tent toward Sodom simply because, at first glance, it looked so good. This is not only Lot's story, it is also the story of everyone who has ever been swayed by the smooth tongue of false teachers who paint a picture that looks as promising as the well-watered plains of Jordan.
They are in trouble as is evidenced by the characteristics of false teachers as seen in II Peter 2 and the little book of Jude. If you read these two sections of the Bible, in various translations, you will come up with at least a dozen characteristics that ought to keep you awake at night. As I have studied this material here is what I see as the characteristics of false teachers.
False teachers are:
- sly. (II Peter 2:1, Jude 4)
- greedy. (II Peter 2:3)
- bold. (II Peter 2:10, Jude 4)
- arrogant. (II Peter 2:10, Jude 8)
- slanderous. (II Peter 2:11, Jude 8)
- abusive. (Jude 10)
- instinctive. (Jude 10,19)
- shameless. (II Peter 2:13, Jude 12)
- seductive. (II Peter 2:14)
- well-trained. (II Peter 2:14)
- useless. (II Peter 2:17, Jude 12)
- faultfinders. (Jude 16)
- scoffers. (Jude 18)
- enslaved. (II Peter 2:19)
If I could choose one word that sums up the characteristics of false teachers I would choose the word "dangerous". They are well-trained, bold, and sneaky. Yet they have nothing good to offer to others. For you cannot export what you do not possess.
They are dangerous for they enslave others while offering them the well-watered valley of the Jordan. Lot cast his lot among them and was even willing to give up his two high-schooled-aged daughters for the sake of peace. He was trapped by his own greed and saw no way out and quite frankly I don't feel sorry for him. I don't even like him.
But, and this is the word you see at the beginning of Genesis 19:10, God saw something in him that we don't see in Genesis and would never know except for what we read in II Peter 2:4 - 10a. We read:
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; 6 if he 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; 7 and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men 8 (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)- 9 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. 10 This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority.
It doesn't surprise me to find Noah used as an example of righteousness. But in my wildest imagination, as of Genesis 19:9, I would never have counted Lot as a righteous man. However, my opinion in this matter is of no account. God saw Lot's heart and credited righteousness to him. He saw how Lot grieved over those he counted as his friends but were enslaved by sin. He saw a righteous man who was continuously tormented by what he saw day-in and day-out.
But he also saw someone who was trapped, trapped by the decisions he had made in his life. Furthermore, he was trapped by those who were far more clever than he was on his best day. By instinct they knew they had him cornered like a rat on that dark night of long ago. So when Lot offered his two daughters they saw it as a poor attempt at appeasing their immoral appetites. And like the shameless scoundrels they were they insisted on having the two men who had wandered onto their turf.
But, and this is where we pick up the story in Genesis 19:10 - 17. We read:
But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door. 11 Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door.
The two men said to Lot, "Do you have anyone else here-sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here, 13 because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the LORD against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it."
So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters. He said, "Hurry and get out of this place, because the LORD is about to destroy the city!" But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.
With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, "Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished."
When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the LORD was merciful to them. 17 As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, "Flee for your lives! Don't look back, and don't stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!"
Lot was hopelessly trapped. But our God knows how to rescue his children - even those who have gotten themselves into a seemingly hopeless mess.
You know, there is a lot I don't like about Lot. But what I don't like the most is that I see a lot of Lot in me. My tendency is to drift into situations and I don't like that about myself. Also, I find the world to be a pretty attractive place and I'm drawn to it. But thankfully, the God I serve cares about me and is powerful enough to save me from myself!

PETER: THE MAN AND HIS LETTERS 6/22/08 1

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