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Genesis 19:14  (New American Standard Bible)
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<< Genesis 19:13   Genesis 19:15 >>


Genesis 19:14

Do we live in a spiritual Sodom and Gomorrah? Is the end coming? Is Christ returning? Is the Kingdom of God fairly close? Are we lingering in the worldliness that surrounds us? It will take faith to walk away. Lot believed to such depth that he urged his sons-in-law, and yet he lingered. Lot knew the angels were there, standing by and waiting for him and his family. Even they tried to hasten him out, and yet Lot lingered.

He was slow when he should have been quick. He was backward when he should have been forward. He was trifling when he should have been hasty. He was cold when he should have been hot. He was loitering when he should have been hurrying. We might say today, "Was this man out of it, or what?" In a major sense, he was, yet he was a converted man.

The world around us is smoldering embers that will soon burst into the flames of the greatest tribulation that has ever hit the entirety of the earth. Unfortunately, many linger while the world is getting ready to burn. Lot is an example of a true Christian, who appears to know far more than he lives up to; he can see and understand far more than he practices.

Such people are thrilled to hear good, sound preaching. They believe in the doctrines of God, and yet they are constantly doing things that disappoint others around them. They believe in the Kingdom of God, and even seem to yearn for it. They hate Satan, believe in the Lake of Fire, yet it seems as if they do things to tempt Satan into testing them, putting the screws to them. They believe that time is short, but they act as though they wish it were long. They know that holiness is a beautiful thing—they like to read about it in books and love to see it in others—but they have the notion that it is impossible for them to be that holy and spiritual.

Lot represents those who dread personal sacrifice and shrink from self-denial. They have a horror of being considered narrow-minded, and so they tend to go to the opposite extreme, becoming so tolerant that they try to please everybody. They forget that they should first please God. These people are trying to keep up with the world. They are ingenious at discovering reasons for not separating from it, giving themselves all kinds of justifications for attending questionable amusements; wild, violent, sexual movies; or holding on to questionable relationships. They persuade themselves that it does good to mix a little with the world.

They cannot find it in themselves to do battle with their besetting sin, whether it be laziness, a bad temper, pride, excessive self-concern, vanity, or impatience. They allow it to remain in their mind, justifying it by thinking, "Well, that's just the way I am. My daddy before me was the same way, and that's the way mama was, and I guess that's the way I'll always be." They are lingering while the world is beginning to burn. These people are not really happy, for they know too much and are conscience-stricken. They are not really committed and they know it.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Faith (Part Three)



Genesis 19:14

In Lot's family was a measure of contempt. Lot seemed to his sons-in-law to be joking. It is as if they said, “Who cares for anything you say?” Was Lot's wife different? She looked back. Lot's daughters? They escaped, and then proceeded to involve Lot in one of the vilest sins in the entire Bible, incest. Contempt is not unusual for a lingerer, for they are despised by their families, who cannot deal with the person's inconsistency. They are hot, then cold. They blow this way, then that. They command, “Do this,” but they do something different. Their lives do not live up to the words that they say. Lot was a man whose works burned, but he himself was saved (I Corinthians 3:15).

This is not a way that God wants His children to live. Even though He mercifully intervenes and saves, He wants His children to enjoy the best of the abundant life and to be prepared for His Kingdom.

Most are familiar with Herbert Lockyer's series of "All" books: All the Prayers of the Bible, All the Parables of the Bible, All the Promises of the Bible, All the Women of the Bible, etc. In All the Men of the Bible, he says that Lot is the representative man:

Perhaps there is no figure in the Bible who represents so many men of today as Lot of Sodom. Where you will find one Abraham, one Daniel, or one Joshua, you will find a thousand Lots.

Lot had much wealth, but he did not have the abundant life of God because of his choice to coexist with the world, whose constant, degenerate pressure virtually destroyed his true spirituality. Lot was not a sinner in the normal sense, but a spiritually small and lean man.

There is an interesting contrast between Abraham and Lot. Abraham was probably exceedingly wealthier than Lot, but Abraham lived in a tent, while Lot lived in a house. This clearly shows that Abraham lived his life in such a way that everybody understood that Abraham was just a pilgrim. He did not put roots down in this world, while Lot, his nephew, did.

Lot was converted but carnal. He was a man of weak faith. His hopes and dreams were in the world, and his interest was in the things of this world. Lot had the same vision as Abraham, but by choice, he was firmly anchored in the world. All of Lot's goodness was virtually wasted because his spiritual life was going nowhere.

One might say that, because Lot was "saved," there is more than one way to skin a cat. There might be many poor ways of skinning a cat, as well as some good ways, too. But there is only one best way to skin a cat. Why not choose the best way of doing it? That is the lesson of Lot's life. Why let our works that we have built burn up? Instead, why not do things the way God says?

God was not in all of Lot's thoughts (Psalm 10:4) because he was living by sight. Lot might very well be what we might call the quintessential second-generation Christian. He believed, but all of his passion was spent pursuing the amusements of this world. Lot, whose faith was weak at best, was not committed like Abraham was. The whole aim of Abraham's life was to give glory to God, while Lot, though righteous, lived by sight (II Corinthians 5:7). His aim was essentially to grasp at life, to do it now and enjoy it, rather than work to develop his relationship with God.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Faith (Part Four)


 
<< Genesis 19:13   Genesis 19:15 >>



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