40 Minutes In The Old Testament - 40 Minutes In The Old Testament: Episode 26

Episode Date: September 23, 2015

Chad, Daniel and Brandon continue their discussion about Lot and Sodom and Gomorrah. There may be a lot more Gospel in this story than you think.

Thank you. somebody to help us manage it, to get it out on time, and to keep the quality high. If these resources have been helpful to you, please consider going to Christ Hold Fast and clicking on the support page. There you can make a one-time donation or a reoccurring donation of any size. This will help us meet our goals of being able to bring someone on staff. Everyone at Christ Hold Fast would greatly appreciate your support. Enjoy the show. thanks for coming back to another episode of 40 minutes in the old testament i am daniel emery price and i am with brandon hansen good morning and mr chad bird hey everybody thanks for uh

Thanks for joining us again. Chad, we left off in sort of a hot spot last week. We mentioned some things, didn't finish some thoughts. So are we going to be wrapping that up today? Well, we're going to try our best to wrap it up. There's actually quite a bit in this chapter. We're in Genesis 19. So I guess we'll just kind of play it by ear

and see see how far we get uh it is a it is a there's quite a bit packed in here in in chapter 19 it's the whole story of the destruction of sodom and gomorrah a lot of details in the story that are that are important to to to to comment on so we'll we'll see how far we get but i guarantee you uh that it's a it's an interesting story and chances are that uh you're gonna you're gonna pick up on a few things that maybe if you've heard the story before you you missed the first the first time so glad you're here to listen yeah right well let's do it man all right so just kind of uh review review where we're where we've been and kind of what leads up to to the story um the lord and and two angels visit uh visit abraham and sarah they announced the impending birth of

Isaac. And then the story transitions at that point to where Abraham and these three men, they're called, it's really the Lord and two angels, but the four of them, they leave the campsite and they walk away. And that's when Abraham announces, or the Lord announces to Abraham that he is going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because the outcry of these cities is so great and last time we spent quite a bit of quite a bit of time talking about abraham's response to that uh abraham is doesn't simply say okay god but you know whatever you want to do if you want to wipe these cities off the map that's fine with me instead he he plays the role of intercessor so you know he says you're you're you're a just god you're a righteous god you do

what you do what's right well suppose there's 50 righteous people in the city would you spare it for the sake of the 50 and then we the prayer continues god says yes for 50 i will spare it and then abraham goes from 50 to 45 to 40 to 30 to 20 and finally to 10 if there's 10 righteous people you spare it so that that is what uh leads up to the section that we're going to be getting into today so the the prayer or the conversation ends with abraham saying what if there's 10 and god says i will not destroy it on account of the the 10 and then the last verse of chapter 18 says and as soon as he had finished speaking to abraham the lord departed and abraham returned to his place. So at least for the time being, Abraham is out of the picture and it says

the Lord has gone away, presumably to heaven. And we're going to pick up the story in chapter 19 with the two men who are now going to be called two angels making the journey to Sodom and everything that transpires there. Now, I do want to remind everybody who may have forgotten that how Lot ended up in Sodom to begin with, because this story does have a previous history to it. All the way back in, I believe it was chapter 13, yeah, lot and his herdsmen had some quarrels with abraham and his herdsmen and so a lot of his herdsmen ended up splitting off from abraham and his and his men and abraham's gives lot the choice of where he wants to go uh anywhere there in the in the promised land so lot looks and he sees the

valley of the jordan that it was well watered everywhere and it mentions i'm looking in in Genesis 13, 10, it mentions that this was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. And it says it was like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as far as Zoar. So how did Lot end up in Sodom? Well, he chose to live there. When Abraham gave him the option of where he wanted to pitch his tent, where he wanted to settle down, he saw this valley of the Jordan, that it was like the Garden of Eden. It was beautiful.

It seemed like a great place to live, and so that's where Lot ends up settling down. And as we see as the story unfolds here, it wasn't such a great idea. So, picking up then with chapter 19, I just want to take this section by section, and we'll talk about a few details as we go through it. It says, now, the two angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. And when Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. And he goes on to invite them to stay at his house. He invites them to spend the night.

He says they can wash their feet, then they can rise early and they can go on their way. And when they when they say, no, no, no, no, we're we're fine. Thank you. But we're going to spend the night in the square, kind of in the open area where I guess travelers would have would have stayed. He urges them strongly and they they finally say, OK. And they turn aside, enter his house and he prepares a feast for them and and bakes unleavened bread and they eat. now what what's what's interesting about this story is that it's almost like a uh a sequel to the story that we've already heard about abraham and and these these angels remember what happened when uh when they showed up at abraham's place he makes a feast for him right

he sees these three men approaching and so he uh he greets them he he makes this great uh great feast for them they sit down and they they eat and they drink so at first uh lot is very very much like abraham here uh he he sees these he's sitting at the gate of the city in the gate in the ancient world the gate of the city was where uh business transactions would would take place there would be a legal proceedings at the gate of the city so it was a it was an important place And so Abraham, I mean, Lot is at the gate of the city, and he's the only one who greets these travelers, the only one who invites him to spend the night in his home. And so at the beginning of the story, anyway, he's really an example of hospitality, of welcoming strangers and inviting them to his home. And so Abraham, like Lot, are both welcoming of these strangers, feeding them, taking care of them.

And that's about the last positive news in this chapter, because immediately after this welcoming of the strangers and feeding and letting them spend the night in his house, everything goes crazy we're here in verse 4 of chapter 19 so it says that 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 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 now i'm reading from the uh new american standard as far as that translation of have relations with them in the hebrew the verb used there is bring them out to us that we may yada them yada simply means to know it's a same

verb that's used in Genesis chapter 4 were Adam, Yadad, his wife Eve, and she conceived. So to know is to know, in this case, intimately. It's interesting because that is not the verb that's used in other contexts where a definite rape is about to occur or has occurred. Different Hebrew verbs are used there. But at least the narrative itself suggests that this is going to be certainly a rape-like scene should they get their way. But notice a couple of things here. First of all, this is a mob. It's not one or two isolated individuals. In fact, the description here implicates the whole city. It says that the men of the city, the men of Sodom surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter.

Which I think is indicative of what we've already been told about the city of Sodom. All the way back in Genesis 13, it says that they were wicked sinners against the Lord. We've already heard in the previous chapter that the outcry of Sodom had reached the ears of the Lord until he was going to go down and see whether it was true. Now, I think the question that we should ask ourselves at this point, and maybe you guys have some insights here, is the sin of Sodom, is the outcry of the city based primarily or solely upon what they're wanting to do to these men? Or is it something which is even broader than that?

Certainly the focus in this particular part is their desire to rape these two visitors to the city. This homosexual rape of Lot's guest. But is that the only outcry that has reached the ears of the Lord? Or is the sin of Sodom something that is broader than what this story, this particular part of the story conveys? I think the most serious sin, whenever you see God judging sin, I think the most serious sin that's going on, and the manifestations of this sin can be any number of things. this sort of thing always starts with an idolatry problem. You're obviously not worshiping God.

You're not fearing, loving, and trusting God above all things, clearly. And that is where the root of most basically all our sin comes from is we find something else to worship. We worship ourselves or worship whatever. And when we do that Then we lend ourselves We give ourselves sort of over To that God

You can end up doing The unthinkable And so Sodom First and foremost obviously Has a worship problem They're not They're clearly not

Worshipping God They clearly don't acknowledge him As God and uh you know and then we there are texts that talk about the sin of sodom and and many of the things are listed there they had prosperity and ease of living and they had no no regard for the poor all all these things and then and then on top of that they had they had sexual immorality which i'm assuming even they're saying sexual immorality that's not i don't believe even like an isolated thing talking about this instance but you don't wake up one morning uh and say

i was uh completely on the straight and narrow sexually but now me and the whole city are gonna go gang rape some people uh that's that seems like probably a slow fade uh you know probably don't just like that you don't just step off that cliff one morning so uh you know i'm guessing there was there was a whole lot more sexual immorality than just that going on there yeah it uh it's it's interesting that you mentioned that when that you got to really to the to the root of the problem because uh in the other scripture passages that you alluded to where sodom and gomorrah are referenced it it is a worship problem um fat at least fundamentally it's a worship problem just to give you uh to give you one example in the very first chapter

of isaiah uh the prophet calls the the people of his day that the rulers of sodom and the people of gomorrah now you can imagine what a slap in the face this was to the israelites and to and to the leaders of israel to be called the the rulers of sodom and the people of people of gomorrah you couldn't get any any more uh insulting than that but that's what isaiah calls him But what's what's insightful is the reason that he calls him that he goes on to describe amongst their other various sins, this idea that by multiplying their sacrifices, by being all lavish in what they do in their in their worship, by focusing upon what they're doing, they are somehow pleasing to God. whereas at the same time there he says that their their hands are are covered with are covered with blood they're not treating the the poor and the orphans as they should they're not taking care of the widows and so you have this combination of a lack of love for those in need of love

and then a an overwhelming supply of self-love in which they try to justify themselves before god in the worst possible way by by uh an idolatrous multiplication of self-serving sacrifices so isaiah points to the same problem and it's the same problem that uh that everybody has that uh that is the root of all our problems and that is this unbelief this lack of faith that that we don't fear love and trust in god above all things that we don't keep the first commandment, that sin is the spring from which flows all other sins. Oftentimes we make the mistake of talking too much about sins and not enough about sin. That is the core problem, the nature, the unbelieving, idolatrous, rebellious nature which is within us that is the source of

all the particular sins, sins of our lives. Idolatry, I think we so often think of idolatry as an image problem or, you know, like a graven image problem. Something like my TV can become an idol or a computer or a game or a particular outlet or hobby in life. Something that I'm doing when ultimately it's a faith problem. And so I completely agree there when you say it's a problem that we all have. We all have a problem. All of our sin stems from unbelief. It stems from a lack of faith. And God is describing that through the prophet Ezekiel in chapter 16. He's describing the faithlessness of Israel. It gets around to comparing them to Sodom later on in verse 49 of chapter 16 Ezekiel Ezekiel chapter 16 verse 49 there we go

and he's talking about um how their uh how their guilt the guilt of Israel is greater than than Sodom and even Samaria hasn't committed half of their sins um I don't know if you were going to get to to ezekiel and describing some of the specific sins too that yeah in fact uh let me let me read that uh since you brought it up this is ezekiel 16 49 uh through uh through 50 now this was the sin of your sister sodom she and her daughters were arrogant overfed and unconcerned they did not help the poor and needy they were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore, I did away with them, as you have seen. So he pinpoints the particular fruits that come from the core problem that Israel had, and it's the same core problem that

Sodom and Gomorrah had. When you rebel against God, you choose paths that are utterly contrary to him. So it's that inward rebellion, it's that inward idolatry or unbelief, or call it what you want. It's the refusal to believe that God is who he is. And this refusal is what leads us to become the exact opposite of what God wants us to be. So the idolatry, this twisting of the image of God ends up also twisting the image of who we are, because the more that we rebel against who God truly is, the more that is going to impact our lives in a way in which our own image is twisted, in which we rebel against the image that God has created us to be. And this takes, you know, various forms. Ezekiel mentions several of them here. You see an example

here in genesis 19 isaiah talks about it as well jeremiah talks about sodom identify sodom with with adultery and false dealings and the encouragement of evil doing so it but it all gets back it all gets back to that core problem the really it's really not 10 commandments or 613 commandments there's only one commandment that you shall have no other gods before me that is the only commandment all the other commandments come forth from that and if we kept that commandment then all the other commandments would be kept as well

but since we don't keep that commandment then we don't keep any of the other commandments either so it all gets back to idolatry you even have Jesus say two different times in Matthew alone that it'll be better for Sodom and Gomorrah than, you know, in one instance he talks about it'll be better for Sodom and Gomorrah

than the city that rejects him, or it'll be better for Sodom and Gomorrah than the city that even rejects one of the disciples going to them and preaching. And the reason for this is because, again, that's idolatry. This is not accepting God as God. And so as Jesus is doing what he does,

and they have a different idea of the Messiah they want, they don't really like this Messiah. This Messiah is a little too nice to sinners, a little too not into overthrowing Rome, a little too humble beginnings. means uh it's not really the messiah we want it's not really it's not really the god we want so uh we're gonna reject that uh and he says better to better to live in sodom and gomorrah than to live in that city uh and that's because that's that's an idolatry problem so sodom and

gomorrah rejects god then again they don't have god and flesh come to that city either uh but uh But Israel does, and he comes, and they're like, yeah, let's kill him instead. That's an idolatry problem. When you crucify the Messiah, you have a worship issue. Yeah, and it's a good reminder, too, that all preaching of the law is directed first and foremost to idolatry. The preaching of the law is always, in one way or another, an example of first commandment preaching. Because ultimately, people have the wrong, they believe in a God, but they believe in the wrong God. And so all preaching of the law is calling us to a repentance of idolatry, and then to faith in the true God manifested in Christ.

and the the new testament passage you bring up are are excellent examples of this uh matthew 11 for instance says jesus is talking about capernaum and he says if the miracles done in that city had been done in sodom it would have remained to this day so as you say uh sodom rejected god but here is god in the flesh and doing miracles in their city and yet they still they still reject him and what does he say he's is he literally saying there that if christ had been doing miracles in sodom and gomorrah they would have believed that at least seems to be seems to me what he's saying in matthew 11 23 yeah if the miracles done in in in capernaum had been done in sodom it would have

remained to this day i think what we tend to do is we think that well if i've got an idolatry problem i gotta fix that problem and then i'll be right with god i gotta stop being an idolater i've got to start loving god more fearing god more trusting god more and they'll take care of the problem um but just to kind of jump back to ezekiel chapter 16 in verse 59 seems that god's solution isn't you're gonna fix it but i'm gonna fix it because he says um i will deal with you as you have done you who have despised the oath and breaking the covenant yet i will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth uh and just before that let's see he says where is it he said he taught he tells them he tells israel to bear their shame and almost in a way of like

admit admit you're wrong you know carry this own this this is this is your shame and so in a way um you know we don't want to think of grace as something that gives us no reason to have shame now like i i don't have any shame for anything i've ever done uh or that we're no longer uh guilty in in the sense that we haven't actually done anything that's wrong but it is a in light of your great shame god comes in and he says i have this everlasting covenant with israel I'm going to make a way, I'm going to save you, I'm going to redeem you out of this. So through the shame, through the guilt, you are going to be forgiven. In light of that, compared and contrasted with that, look how great my love and forgiveness for you is. This is how I'm going to

save you is uh in spite of your shame and christ actually becomes one who is who is uh heaped upon him is heaped great shame and great guilt the guilt of the entire world he takes all of our sin upon himself and he becomes that that shame for us he becomes that guilt that sin in our place taking our punishment yeah on the on the cross we can uh we can rightly say that Christ became Sodom. He became Gomorrah. If he becomes the sins of the world, then he also became the sin of Sodom. He became the sin of Gomorrah, and the shame associated with that, the guilt and the punishment, the wrath, everything associated with Sodom and Gomorrah is what Christ took upon himself on the cross. In order that, there might be this great exchange,

because the cross doesn't simply take away, but it gives. It takes away our shame. It takes away our guilt and God's wrath and the punishment that we deserve. And in its place, then Christ gives us his righteousness, his forgiveness, his life, adoption by the Father, redemption, all of the good gifts that are his, he gives to us, even as he takes away all of the bad things from us and makes it makes it his own there's there's a there's a cool flip that happens where god surveys the the land and by land i mean human history is there 50 righteous nope 40 30 20 10 Nope. How about five?

We got five righteous people here? Nope. How about one? Ah, yeah, I've got one. I'll pour Sodom and Gomorrah out on him. There's this strange thing where Abraham, saying maybe if we find a righteous man, you'll spare the city.

In the gospel, God finds a righteous man, and executes him on behalf of the bulk of the unrighteous uh the rest of the unrighteous it's this weird it's this weird thing where god still finds seeks a righteous man and he finds one in christ and he's and he does in a very strange way spare the world through that man but that But that man has to take the punishment. And so Abraham is right in his thinking of, if I can find a righteous man, the city will be spared the wrath of God. He's right in that thinking, but he's wrong in how something like that would come about.

It's almost like Christ takes up where Abraham leaves off. He picks up the conversation. Yeah. i wanted i was going to say something like that it was like um he goes so far he goes as far as he possibly can yeah and then if christ were to come in and take over he can go right down to one man because he can say is there one righteous man just like daniel's saying there yeah absolutely there's one righteous man and jesus you're it you're all the you're the only hope that we have and can one can for the sake of one righteous man can the the world be saved can the world be

spared yes it's going to require that you take the world's place though yeah it's as if christ walks into sodom and gomorrah and and uh forces everybody to leave the city and once they're all out it's then that the fire and brimstone are rained down falling upon him so that he takes the penalty and everyone else is is spared and at the same time accounted righteous for the sake of the innocent one who suffered in their place. I guess we should get back to the story. I know. I think we spoiled it.

I think we spoiled it before we read it. I assume everybody knows this. That's right. Well, we like to work as much gospel into this as possible. So let's keep going. All right. So we left the story here with the men of the city surrounding the house, And they say, bring these guys out to us that we may that we may have relations with them.

Seems a pretty mild translation of what they're actually saying. And here's Lott's response. This is kind of the next section here. So what does Lott do? Well, of course, he has several possibilities, right? He could he could go out there and he could he could say, you know, what are you doing? this is wrong. This is wicked. Go home. Leave us alone. If you do this, you know what's wrong, and just leave. Leave us be. He could have done that. He could have, I suppose, even offered himself in place of the two men, but he doesn't do either one of those things. He first

of all goes outside shuts the door behind him and he says please my brothers do not act wickedly now he's got a good start you can't argue with that he do not act wickedly so he's telling them to stop what they're doing don't proceed with this wicked desire of yours but then after that everything goes to pot because he says, now, look, I have two daughters who have not had relations with man. Please let me bring them out to you and you do to them whatever you like. Only do nothing to these men in as much as they have come under the shelter of my roof. so what do you think a lot righteous guy there is right this righteous soul was tormented sounds like yeah this is uh this is to me anyway probably the most disturbing verse in this in this

old chapter uh maybe that's just because i happen to be the father of a daughter uh but uh yeah is Well, let me say this first of all. I understand that in this culture, it is true that when a visitor comes under your roof, that you are obligated to protect that person. It's a different culture than we Americans are accustomed to. So there is this sense of hospitality demanding protection of those who are staying under your roof. But that protection does not extend to the point of offering your two virgin daughters as prey to the mob who are wanting to gang rape someone that night. No, I think biblical hospitality does not extend to the turning over of your virgin daughters. I don't think you're going to get off by saying, I just got the gift of hospitality. What can I say?

I don't think that's going to fly. Isn't it amazing that in an effort to do the right thing, to do right by God, Lot does something or attempts to do something that is atrocious? I mean, just absolutely appalling. Even when we try to do it right, we mess it up. Like, well, this is a terrible thing these people are going to do. Here's what I'll do. I've got a way to fix this.

and when it's like that that's that's that's even that's maybe worse lot like uh i wonder how many times i've done that oh i've i have tried to uh to say this is a terrible thing this person's doing let me try to fix that and and i and i come up with something uh infinitely worse to be to be fair and i'm not defending lot but to be fair when we look at this situation i don't see any way out of out of it and i like to point places in scripture like this out because life is like this where god's law is black and white there's do's and do nots and it's pretty cut and dry plain and clear and then we try to apply it to our life and we attempt to convince ourselves that we can live under it that we can fulfill it but we're always thrown into situations where there's just

no good answer. There is no way to avoid sinning. And I think in a very real sense, we see this here where he's just a man. What is he going to do against a city? I'm not saying that makes his motives right, but I'm saying when we look at this, we can see this in our own lives, just like you were pointing out. You know, I see a problem. I see somebody doing something wrong. Here, let me fix it and my solution is is just as wrong yeah i think what we always see in the life of in this situation of of a lot is uh exactly what we face not exactly but very similar to what we face on a on a daily basis uh and in fact this whole story is intended to exemplify what life is like in this world where we feel caught we feel trapped we don't know what to do and we end up

We end up saying stupid things. We end up doing stupid things. We end up confronting one sin and saying, okay, I won't do that. Instead, I'll do this other sin. And we think we're choosing the less of two evils. But what we end up doing is just as evil as the other option goes. If I were in this situation, I would hope that I wouldn't do what Lot did. but to be honest me if i if i can use my imagination to place myself there i don't

know what i would do what would i do i i can't even think of a solution here how am i going to get lot out of this trouble that he's got himself in by inviting two angels into his house that he feels obligated to extend hospitality to which includes protection and you know it's an impossible situation yeah this is this is you know the interesting thing is that the beginning of this the reason lots lots there i mean this all starts by like pitching your tent just a little too close to sodom i mean this is this is how it starts right i mean uh that you say you say i could live here you know i i could probably dwell here it's not so bad you know uh in fact it looked pretty good the grass was greener it's all right yeah yeah yeah and like and then once you're in

it man there's there's there is like that's like there's one way out and that's like god must deliver you there's there's no way out of this you you have pitched your tent in sodom you are up to your eyeballs in sin now. There's no coming up with a solution to this. I mean, you're straight shafted, and you are going to...

God is going to have to intervene, or you will die there in your sin. And that's the great message of this story. Not just the end of it, but right here as well, is that there's nothing that Lot can do.

He's trapped. He makes a stupid decision, and the only thing that ends up saving him are the two angels. He can't get rid of the mob. He can't pacify the mob. He can't give them a substitute, his virgin daughters. Nothing is going to satisfy them. Nothing is going to stop them. So there's really nothing that Lot can do to rescue himself and his family.

And so it's God who intervenes in and through his two angels to strike the men of the house with some sort of blinding light or blindness so that they're wandering around like buffoons the rest of the night. That's the message that only God is going to be able to provide rescue. Yeah, I think it's safe to say that we've all built our house right in the main street in Sodom. That's where we're all living. We're all living right at the corner of First and Main, Sodom and Gomorrah, and we need to be delivered. And every strategy that we come up with to get ourselves out of there involves sin. Yeah, and the only way we're going to be rescued, and I guess we should wrap up with this. I think our 40 minutes is up.

The only way we're going to be rescued is by somebody taking our hand and actually leading us out of the city. Because as we're going to see as the story unfolds, Lot doesn't even want to leave, even when he's told what's about to happen. Finally, the angels have to take him by the hand, take his wife by the hand, take his daughters by the hand, and lead them out of the city in order to rescue them. had it been left up to Lot they'd have still been there when the fire and brimstone started raining down so it's only the mercy and compassion of God by which Lot and his family

were finally rescued from certain destruction that's it well I guess we're gonna wrap this story up next week you bet we will go right back into it I thought we'd get it this week

we did not that's okay uh we will uh i'm i'm positive we're gonna see fire and brimstone next week i'm very i'm really i'm really certain so uh i know that fire and brimstone is why people tune into this particular program so thank you guys for joining us so we will catch you next week Thank you.