Written by Paul Lane
The Word
17 And as they brought them out, one said, “Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.” 18 And Lot said to them, “Oh, no, my lords. 19 Behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness in saving my life. But I cannot escape to the hills, lest the disaster overtake me and I die. 20 Behold, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Let me escape there—is it not a little one?—and my life will be saved!”
Genesis 19:17-20 (ESV)
22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
Romans 1:22-24 (ESV)
22 So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
2 Timothy 2:22 (ESV)
Reflection
Today we enter the story with Lot fleeing the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Although, I don’t think he is doing a very good job of running. These cities are about to be destroyed and he doesn’t seem to want to get far away. Is he really that tired? Is he that weighed down by all the stuff he is bringing? Or is there something about the mountains that he fears? As Pastor Ji said on Sunday, perhaps he didn’t want to face Abraham and be seen as a failure. This may be, given that the root cause of all these problems seems to be pride. That is, rejecting God’s plan and making your own.
Think of the men of the city. They have gone so far down the path of sin that the natural desires for women do not even register for them. Even when they were struck blind, they did not retreat. They continued to seek a reprehensible pleasure. As C. S. Lewis wrote, God will seek your remaking, or determine that your remaking is not possible. The men in the city lived lives of sin, but it was the hardening of their hearts to God’s way that made their redemption impossible.
Think of Lot, who is called righteous, but has spent so much time in this corrupt culture that he offers his daughters to the unthinkable. And while fleeing looked not to God’s provisions but looked to making his own plan. Perhaps he was thinking that the city wasn’t all that bad. This thought is advanced when Lot’s wife looks back and is turned into a pillar of salt. The sinful life left behind is not worth even a glance backward and is a great hindrance to the running that you should be doing.
Application
In all the Bible, this is one of the hardest chapters to think on. It is not very complicated. Men fell into sin and refused help getting out of it, so God turned them over to the natural end of sin. Based on the negotiation between God and Abraham, there were no moderating voices to temper the effects of sin on society, so all in the society were affected “young and old.” The hardness of this chapter is because God’s final judgement is on full display. It is the type of judgement that we all deserve, but for the grace of God. So, we are left to ask, “why them and not us.” If you do not ask this question, I fear that you have not taken in the story.
Also, as Christians we are taught that we should be reaching out to minister to sinners. Hate the sin, but love the sinner, which is correct, right, and good. But we must also watch that we do not look to the society around us to take our moral cues. People groups store wisdom in culture, but not all people groups incorporate wisdom as well as others. So, God’s Word must be used to determine to judge the culture for wisdom. Clearly, Sodom and Gomorrah had cultures that had become completely corrupt, and Lot taking a cue from the culture makes a corrupt offer to the men of the city. Let us not make the same mistake with our culture.
When the Bible talks about sin, the one clear message is to run. You are not going to be smarter, wiser, stronger, or in some other way more exceptional that others have been. You are either going to flee and avoid the consequences of sin or you are going to stay and be drawn into sin and lose what is precious in the process. The only answer here is to run away from sin, repent of the desire for it, and renew you mind to the purposes and call of Christ. I know of no other answer.
Prayer
Dear Lord, be with me as I seek You. Teach me to place a guard on my heart and mind. And teach me to seek pleasure in Your leading, for I know that You provide for me all things good. In Jesus name, amen.
City Life Starter 
Leave a Reply