Genesis 19:1-11
Not Even One

This is part 2 of the season finale cliffhanger. The plot, as they say, thickens. We left Abraham standing on a hill following his conversation with the Lord. He had risked the wrath of God to negotiate on behalf of Sodom, extracting the promise that if the Lord found 10 righteous in Sodom he would not destroy the city for their sake.

We left the matter there, full of tension. Would the Lord indeed find 10 righteous whose righteousness could then be imputed to the city? And although Abraham stopped at 10, it seems he has God’s complete assurance that he will not unjustly destroy the righteous along with the wicked. Surely if there aren’t quite 10, God still won’t destroy Sodom. But will he find even 1?

  1. The Hospitality of Lot
    1. Lot behaves like righteous Abraham (1-3)
      1. The two angels come to Sodom (1)
        1. We ended ch. 18 with the Lord going his way from Abraham and Abe returning home
        2. Now we turn to the story of the two angels who went on ahead.
        3. The Lord is not with them, and this is an ominous sign all on its own
        4. This is a godforsaken place
        5. Even more ominous: What will happen when the Lord does arrive and his reconnaissance team makes its report?
      2. They see Lot sitting in the gate
        1. Why is he doing this?
          1. To "sit in the gate" in Scripture doesn’t mean to pass the time of day
          2. It was the elders of the city who sat in the gate, and there disputes were brought to them that they might pass judgment
        2. So presumably, Lot does not sit there alone; but this part of the story focuses on him so only he is mentioned
        3. Thus a great irony is introduced:
          1. Why is Lot sitting there? To judge the matters that come before them.
          2. Why are the other elders sitting there? To judge.
          3. Why have the angels come? Not to be judged by those who sit in the gate but to judge them, and the whole city with them.
        4. If Abraham’s 10 righteous are to be found, surely they shall be found here, right? After all, the men who sit in the gate are the wise men of the city. If they aren’t found here, they probably won’t be found elsewhere.
        5. There are no righteous citizens of Sodom there. Only Lot behaves righteously.
      3. Lot alone shows Abraham-like hospitality
        1. When Abraham was sitting in his tent in the heat of the day, he saw the 3 men. Not knowing they were the Lord and two angels, he nonetheless ran up to greet them and bowed down before them and insisted on feeding them and washing their feet.
        2. So it is with Lot.
          1. He rises to greet them
          2. He bows himself down with his face to the ground (just as Abraham fell on his face before them)
          3. He offers them lodging (which Abe, meeting them in the middle of the day, of course did not. But this is the hospitatlity appropriate to the hour.)
          4. And he offers them foot-washing, even as Abe had washed their feet.
        3. When Abe did such things, we saw that it marked him as a righteous man.
        4. So it does with Lot.
      4. Lot sounds an ominous note at the end of his statement though
        1. "that you may rise early and go on your way"
        2. Not "stay as long as you like; come and get to know the place."
        3. He knows the character of the world that surrounds him. He figures he can keep them safe for a night, but then they’d better get moving.
    2. The angels decline his offer (2b)
      1. They test him by saying they will spend the night in the open square
      2. But also they indicate a distinction between Lot and Abraham
        1. With Abraham, they ate willingly. They knew him as a friend of God, an inheritor of the promise.
        2. But who is this Lot character?
        3. How do they know they can trust this resident of Sodom?
      3. We have had cause to suspect Lot before
        1. He chose Sodom because he judged by his eyes
        2. He despised the promised land and took up residence outside it as one who did not know how to value the promise of God
        3. Yet hear we see that he is not utterly destitute of that faith in God’s promises which bears the fruit of good works.
      4. So he stands before us in this story
        1. Not as an assured believer, full of faith, as Abraham
        2. But neither as a total reprobate, depraved and able only to sin.
        3. His faith is weak; he is entangled in the world; but his faith is real.
    3. Lot prevails and provides (3)
      1. Lot proves that this righteous side is uppermost by prevailing upon these men, these angels, to be his guests
      2. He makes them a feast, just as Abe did
      3. But, significantly, he bakes unleavened bread
        1. It is the bread of haste — it takes only a moment to bake
        2. The children of Israel would certainly recognize in this a foreshadowing of the Passover. (explain)
        3. And we as well eat unleavened bread in the Lord’s Supper, for we dwell like Lot amongst a wicked and perverse generation and are ready at a moment’s notice to be brought out of it so that the judgment of God may descend.
      4. Whether he knows it or not, Lot is being prepared to leave
  2. The Inhospitality of Sodom (4-9)
    1. The whole city seeks to do wickedly (4,5)
      1. the men of the city
        1. both old and young
        2. all the people
        3. from every quarter
      2. There is none righteous, no, not one!
      3. They have together turned aside and become corrupt.
      4. The whole city turns out for this event
      5. I scarcely dare mention the wickedness they desire to commit. You parents will explain it to your children at the appropriate time.
      6. These men are inflamed by desire for the two young-looking beautiful angels who have accepted Lot’s hospitatliy.
      7. Bring them out! Let us have our way with them! Let us do evil things to them!
      8. Lot has righteously offered them hospitality
      9. These men seek in wickedness to violate that hospitality in the most grotesque, perverse, wicked, vile, filthy way imaginable. All of them want their turn.
    2. Lot makes a horrifying offer (6-8)
      1. Lot, being righteous, desires to protect his guests; for the relationship between host and guest is sacred in his culture.
      2. He risks his life on behalf of these men, these angels, who have come to him
        1. He steps outside
        2. He shuts the door.
        3. He pleads with them not to act wickedly
      3. He risks the honor and even the lives of his daughters if only he can preserve his guests as he is bound to do.
      4. It is horrifying beyond imagining!
        1. he is right to want to protect his guests
        2. he is wrong to offer his daughters (and in a future story, he will be judged for this. He offered to violate his daughters; they will end up violating him.)
        3. Yet don’t judge him as though this was a totally strange thing.
        4. Remember the necessity of hospitality. In ANE culture, you would rather die than have your guests dishonored
        5. He can’t offer his old ugly self. The daughters are all he has.
        6. He’s desperate to find some way of preserving his guests from dishonor and worse.
        7. So understand this sin of Lot’s not as a measure of his depravity but as a measure of his desperation.
        8. In choosing to live in Sodom, he has put himself in a situation where all his choices are evil and he cannot think what to choose.
    3. The men persist in wickedness (9)
      1. They have been handed over by God to unnatural desires
        1. they want no daughters of Lot.
        2. They want those fine-boned men they heard about when the other elders in the gate ran to spread the news that some fresh game was in town.
      2. They reveal Lot’s true status among them
        1. He is not a native, not a citizen, but an imigrant, one who "came in to stay here" (9)
        2. They have allowed him to judge with them in the gate
        3. But when push comes to shove he is different from them, they say.
      3. They have sealed their own doom!
        1. Here he is, the only righteous man in town
        2. And they say in the hearing of these angels on the fact-finding mission — He’s not one of us! He can’t represent us!
        3. What can God do but judge them? They don’t have any citizen of Sodom who can stand before God as righteous on their behalf and turn aside God’s wrath.
        4. By their own confession, Lot can’t stand before God for them; he’s not of their flesh and blood.
      4. So they threaten to deal worse with Lot than they will with the angels and they draw near to break down the door.
  3. The Rescue of Lot and First Judgment of Sodom (10,11)
    1. The angels pull Lot in (10)
      1. Lot meant to save them, but they have to save him
      2. They shut the door (like God shutting the door of the ark)
      3. Lot is safe inside while the judgment of God comes on those outside
    2. The men’s sight is confused (11)
      1. They’re not so much "blinded" (bad translation) as dazzled by a blinding light
      2. It is like when God came down to Babel and confused their tongues
      3. So here their eyes are confused.
      4. For in a crowd of blind men, surely one of them could have found the door.
      5. But they wander about without knowledge or perception
      6. They have become a representation of their own depravity
        1. They have eyes but do not see
        2. They are blind fools wandering about in darkness
      7. By this act, Lot’s eyes are opened as we shall see next time.
      8. When the men tell him to leave the city, he will believe their warning for they have revealed themselves to him in this act of judgment
    3. The men persist in wickedness (11b)
      1. For this is a preliminary judgment against Sodom, a warning of the final judgment that is to come.
      2. Yet, being wicked, they persist
      3. Even though blinded, they struggle to find the door in order to commit their contemplated acts of desperate wickedness.
      4. It is in no way commendable that they fail to do all their evil desire. It is God alone who restrains them from doing what they lust after.
      5. This is the picture of the world (Rom 3)
      6. Who will rescue Lot?
        1. Thus, the first tension is resolved (there is none righteous, no, not one)
        2. But a second is introduced — Who will rescue Lot out of this morass of sin
      7. This cannot be his permanent condition can it? Surrounded by the wicked world which does not destroy him only because God is sovereign?
      8. Where is Lot’s rescuer?
  4. Where Is Christ in all This?
    1. He is absent
      1. Woe is me if I do not preach Christ to you!
      2. Woe to you if you do not hear him preached! Without him all is lost!
      3. But where is he?
      4. We identified him earlier. He was one of the men who appeared to Abraham. He stayed behind and revealed himself as the Lord. But he did not enter Sodom, only the two other men, the angels entered. Where is our Lord? Where is Jesus?
      5. We search for him and do not find him
      6. We are like the bride in Song of Solomon searching for her Beloved: "Upon my bed at night I sought him whom my soul loves; I sought him, but found him not; I called him, but he gave no answer. 2 "I will rise now and go about the city, in the streets and in the squares; I will seek him whom my soul loves." I sought him, but found him not. 3 The sentinels found me, as they went about in the city. "Have you seen him whom my soul loves?" … I sought him, but did not find him; I called him, but he gave no answer. 7 Making their rounds in the city the sentinels found me; they beat me, they wounded me, they took away my mantle, those sentinels of the walls. 8 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, tell him this: I am faint with love.
    2. The world is filled with iniquity
      1. This is it, the picture of a world without Christ. A world gone mad, neck deep in iniquity and about to be overwhelmed.
      2. What will happen when that Lord whom we seek shall come? The one who spoke with Abraham is on his way to Sodom to see whether there are any righteous there. And he will find none.
      3. The Lord, whom you seek, Will suddenly come to His temple, Even the Messenger of the covenant, In whom you delight. Behold, He is coming," Says the Lord of hosts. 2"But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire.
      4. Do you suppose that you are better than the men of Sodom?
      5. Do you find yourself more deserving of leniency because you do not commit such heinous sins?
      6. Apart from Christ, this is how you and I seemed to God — corrupt, wicked, filthy, depraved, restrained from fuller acts of wickedness only because God blinded us to the opportunities.
      7. We were Sodom.
    3. Thanks be to God, that although we were like Sodom; we have found a righteous representative, even Christ our Lord
      1. Praise God that Christ is not absent now!
      2. The men of Sodom had no one like them who could be righteous for them, turning aside God’s wrath
      3. But we have Jesus who became in every way just as we are, yet without sin.
      4. He came to live in the midst of our Sodom that when the day of God’s wrath came, he could bear it in his body on the tree.
      5. He voluntarily took our identity upon himself so that he could stand before God as one of us.
      6. God did not find 10 righteous men among us, only one. But what a One!
      7. He has given you that righteousness. God looks at you and sees not a citizen of Sodom, not a resident of this filthy decaying about-to-be-judged world, but a citizen of heaven, seated in heavenly places with Christ.
      8. God has turned you from the repugnant sins of Sodom to walk in the righteousness of Christ
        1. Not merely the righteousness of our dear brother Lot, who loved this world and so was entangled by it to his own grave misfortune
        2. But the righteousness of our father Abraham, who had not permanent city because he waited for the city God would bring. Abe, who put all his hope in the promised Seed. That seed was given to him in a picture in his son Isaac. That Seed is given to you for real and forever in the man, your eternal mediator Christ Jesus.
      9. Do not walk with the Sodomites in their sin. And do not fear them. Their condemnation is almost upon them. But they cannot hurt you. Only God can destroy body and soul in hell. And he has turned that judgment aside because of your righteous intercessor.

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