Green Baggins

Genesis 19:1-22
Calvin and Hobbes once had a cartoon, wherein Calvin was telling Hobbes about choices. He says, “Have you ever noticed that the choices you make force on you new choices? Take this fork in the road. Ordinarily I would choose right. But let’s go left. That immediately makes us face another choice: should I run along the ledge or jump the ledge?” The next frame show Calvin and Hobbes flying in midair with Hobbes saying, “I note with some dismay that you have chosen to jump the ledge.” Calvin then says, “Right, and now we’re faced with yet another choice: jump or die in the landing?” They choose to jump. The final frame shows them both on the ground in pain with Calvin saying, “This is an important lesson that we should learn sometime,” and Hobbes says, “I wish we could discuss these things without the visual aids.” Have you made a wrong choice somewhere?

Have you come to the place where there seems to be no way out? This could be about a very small thing, just as it could be about a very large matter. Maybe you didn’t want your spouse to know about something, and so you lied. Then that lie would force you to make another lie, until you are very much afraid that you can’t keep on covering up forever. You have found out that sin begets more sin. We can certainly see that principle here at work in our text this morning.

For Lot, it all started with his decision to live on the lush plain before the city of Sodom. The next time we see him, he is is pitched up right against the wall of Sodom. That was when Abraham had to rescue him from the four marauding kings. Now, however, we see that he is a landowner in Sodom itself. He is a townsman, who has probably married a Sodomite woman. In short, he was a believer who had assimilated to the surrounding culture. Lot is trying to get the best of both worlds here. He is trying to have one foot in the kingdom of God and one foot in the kingdom of man. As we will see, that doesn’t work.

First, we see the angels coming from Mamre, where they had been so lovingly feasted by Abraham. Now, Mamre is forty miles from Sodom. So, the angels had been at Abraham’s house at noon, and now at evening they were forty miles away from Abraham. That gives us some indication of who these messengers are. They are not just your ordinary human. They are divine messengers. So we know that they are divine messengers, but Lot does not know this. We see the divine messengers act very quickly, while Lot will act very slowly. There is a contrast there. The angels and Abraham act quickly, while Lot will dawdle.

Lot was sitting in the city gate. Probably he was waiting for anyone who might need a plae to stay for the night, since he knew that the rest of the city would not offer any such hospitality. He sees two men come into the town square, and he immediately offers them hospitality. Then we get a real shocker. It was customary to offer hospitality to strangers, and it was also customary to accept such hospitality when given. So, when the angels say that they are going to spend the night in the town square, rather than in Lot’s house, that should be a real shocker to us. Of course, what the angels are doing here is finding out how wicked Sodom really is. They know that Lot is “righteous.” They want to know if anyone else is righteous. Sitting out in the open square is one way of finding out. But Lot knows what would happen (well, he thinks he knows) if they spent the night in the square. So Lot “twists their arm” to stay in his house. So the angels go along with Lot. Lot gives them a decent, though by no means as lavish a meal as Abraham had given them for the noon meal.

No sooner had they started preparing to lie down to sleep, when there was a pounding on the door. The entire city was out in force to commit the most indecent act of inhospitality ever known in the world. Not only did they refuse decent hospitality, but they wanted to do the very opposite of hospitality, gang rape. The text says, “young and old,” plainly including everyone in-between. The text also says, “all the people to the last man.” The text could not be more emphatic: all the men of the town had turned out for this. They wanted to “know” the two men who had come to Lot’s house. That is a euphemism for homosexual relations.

Lot at this point does something rather brave, at least at first. He goes out to them alone. He shut the door behind him, as if that door was a barrier. He hopes that his soft answer will turn away wrath. He calls them his brothers. But then, Lot does something despicable. He offers his own daughters to the men. In the game of chess, there is a situation in which there is no good move that can possibly be made. That situation has a German title: zugzwang. No matter where you move, your opponent will gain the advantage. Lot was in that position now. It didn’t matter what he did, the opponent would win. Lot’s reasoning went like this: his daughters were engaged to be married. We must remember that engagement was as binding as marriage. That is why adultery with an engaged girl was a capital offense. This was true in the entire ancient near east. Lot was thinking that he could ensnare the Sodomites by their own laws, if they decided to do this thing. But the Sodomites were not fooled by this ruse. They knew that they had the upper hand. So they command Lot to stand back. This command means one of two things: either Lot must go back in the house to bring out the two men, or else he must get away from the door so that they can break it down. They throw in an insult into the bargain: “this fellow,” plainly a derogatory comment is not one of them. He is not a full-fledge member of their society. Furthermore, they claim that they will deal with Lot as they will deal with the visitors, only worse. In other words, they will “know” Lot, just as they will know the strangers.

It is just at this point, where Lot has played all his cards, and has no trump cards left, that the angels intervene. The angels need no further proof that the city is as wicked as the outcry that ha come up to the Lord. They inflict a preliminary judgment on the Sodomites: blindness. To any Israelite listening to this story, they would immediately been reminded of the plague of darkness inflicted on the Egyptians. You see, God was in the habit of saving His people just at that point when they could not save themselves, when they could extricate themselves from the difficulties in which they found themselves. And, of course, just as the Sodomites would be judged by being drowned in fire and brimstone, so also the Egyptians would be drowned in water.

In verse 12, they urge Lot to leave, along with any family that he might have. The word indicates haste. They must leave in haste, just as the Israelites had to leave in haste. It is ironic, isn’t it, considering how long it took Lot to actually leave. In fact, Lot took so long, that the angels had to forcibly take Lot out of Sodom. Slow obedience is practically no obedience at all. And yet, the angels are merciful to Lot. Little does Lot realize that it is because of Abraham that Lot is being saved, as we see clearly in verse 29. Lot tells his sons-in-law (who by the way were part of the men who had surrounded the town) to flee. They think he is jesting. Lot had obviously never preached this message to them before, so why should they believe him now? Yet more evidence that Sodom has gotten into Lot. It is much easier to take Lot out of Sodom, than it is to take Sodom out of Lot, and it is difficult even to take Lot out of Sodom.

The angels forcibly take Lot out of Sodom. Lot had been dawdling. And then he says the most ridiculous thing imaginable. The angels had told him to flee for his life, and not to look behind him, but to run. Lot says, “Oh no. I cannot escape to the hills, lest the disaster overtake me and I die.” Well now, if he hadn’t been dawdling, he would have had enough time to get to the mountains. But now, after lingering, he thinks that all of a sudden, he has no time. So he asks for a little town, Zoar. You know, what Lot really needs to be saved from is himself, not Sodom. Sodom had so filled his heart that he wanted a little Sodom for himself even after Sodom had been judged. “He must have his little Sodom if life is to be supportable,” says one writer.

That is just like us, isn’t it? We want a little of the world to comfort us on the road to heaven, because the road to heaven is supposedly so cheerless. The road to heaven is bleak and dreary, supposedly. So, we want a little of our old life, our old sinful nature, to cheer us up on the way. We don’t think that we can make it to heaven without it. We want to have it all. What this passage shows us is that there is no way out, unless we completely renounce the world. You cannot sit on the fence. There is no neutral ground. There is no dual citizenship. You can be a member of God’s kingdom, or a member of the world, but not both.

There was a man who came to earth, and His name was Jesus. He did nothing in accordance with the world’s way of doing things. There never found any worldliness in Him. He was the man who put His hand to the plow, and never looked back. Jesus never hesitated to do the right thing. He never felt any drowsiness with regard to sin. He never lingered. He fulfilled the law perfectly. And yet, He took on Himself the same penalty as if he had done all those things that Lot and the Sodomites had done. Jesus may not have had drowsiness, and yet He suffered far more deeply the sleep of death. He took on Himself the fire and brimstone that should have been ours, because we are like the Sodomites, you see. This is an apt description of hell itself. Revelation describes it as a lake of fire. Even those bodies of liquid that are normally thought of as being refreshing are filled with fire. That is what hell is like. Does it scare you? It should. Even if you are a Christian, that should scare you. The warnings in Scripture against falling away are not there for our amusement. They are there because we need them.

So, do we dawdle when it comes to leaving behind the worldly way of thinking? We should not hesitate to come into a relationship with God. There is no other way to be saved from the coming wrath. And it is coming. Those who scoff at the judgment are just like the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, or just like the inhabitants of the world before the Flood. 2 Peter describes them: “knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.’ For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.” Do you see that another Sodom and Gomorrah judgment is coming? The question is, “Do you believe the Word of God?” 2 Peter says that it is by the Word of God that these things happen. That Word is Jesus. So, do you believe the Word of God? Do you believe Jesus? Do you take Him at His Word? If you are to have any hope in this life of escaping that fiery judgment, then you must believe in Christ. There is this prejudice against preaching “fire and brimstone” sermons. Some people find it offensive. That is Sodom speaking. Fire and brimstone is what the Lord of Hosts Himself has given to his messengers, the preachers. Do not scoff at God’s message. He doesn’t pull any punches with scoffers. I suppose that you could scoff if you wanted to do so. However, the story here tells us what happens to scoffers.

As another point of application, do we leave Sodom behind when we come to Christ? What is the end-point for those who keep a little bit of Sodom in their hearts? They wind up like Lot in the cave with his two daughters. Jesus says, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” Do not look back. That is, do not try to have dual citizenship. There is only one citizenship possible.

So, when you are tempted to lie to your spouse to cover up something that you don’t want your spouse to know, consider this: of which citizenship is that behavior an indicator? Does it indicate citizenship of this world, or the world to come? It cannot be both. It is not compatible with both. Jesus leaves us no ground for something in the middle. We are supposed to be wholly devoted to God.

At the same time, we should not despair at sin. God had mercy on Lot, despite Lot’s sin and dawdling. God can forgive all our sins, past, present and future. That is because of Jesus Christ, and His obedience. We have to realize that there is a struggle going on in our lives. It is true that the old Sodomite nature within us has received its death blow. It is dying. We should see the fruit of that, and if we don’t, then we should indeed be concerned. However, it is also true that the Sodomite nature within us kicks around in its death blows. It can still do damage. The helpful question is this: is the trend upward or downward? Do we see overall improvement in holiness, or do we see downward movement? My church history professor once said that the Christian life goes two steps forward, and one step backward. On a graph, the trend line would be up, even if there are peaks and valleys. That is what we are looking for. Is there no way out? Yes, there is. That way out is Jesus, who rescues us when we cannot rescue ourselves.