Genesis 18:20 – Then the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know.”
In Genesis 18, the Lord, likely another Christophany (where Jesus shows up before His birth to Mary), and two “men” (likely angels) are traveling and once they are leaving Abraham, they reveal to him the impending destruction of the nearby city of Sodom. This is likely because throughout both the Old and New Testament, God requires at least two witnesses in the condemning of a sinner. The Lord remained to discuss the impending judgment as the two “men” went into the city to investigate it on His behalf.
Knowing the justice of God, Abraham feared that perhaps any godly people in the city would be wrongly harmed amidst the destruction of the godless. He knew that his close relative, Lot, and his family, who he cared very much about, also lived there. The Lord assured Abraham that the city did not have more than a few righteous people and that they would be spared as Noah and his family were in the days of the flood. Genesis 18 closes by setting the stage for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19.
In Genesis 19, the two angels whom the Lord had sent to investigate the sexual sin of Sodom and Gomorrah were welcomed for hospitality by Lot as they had been cared for by Abraham. As they rested in Lot’s home, the perverted men of the city, and their sons, surrounded the home demanding that Lot’s guests be sent out for homosexual sex and possibly even to be gang raped by the crowd of men.
Lot responded by offering the disgusting solution that he would send out his two virgin daughters to instead be sexually assaulted by the depraved mob. In this, we see the evil not only in the unbelieving men, but also in the believing Lot who both chose to live in that city and was willing to hand his own daughters over to be assaulted.
Thankfully, God intervened and blinded the perverted men. The two “men” then told Lot to get his family out of town before God rightly reduced the hellish town to ashes. Unlike Abraham who repeatedly obeyed God immediately, Lot was still in the city the next morning with his family and had to be literally walked out of town by the two “men”. Once safely out of the city, one of the angels commanded the family to run for their lives without looking back or stopping. Lot then begged the angel to permit him to instead flee to a small nearby town called Zoar (which means small) and the angel kindly agreed to permit Lot and his family to do so.
Even though Lot was a lot of drama and led his family into a lot of bad situations, God gave him a lot of second, third, fourth, and 79th chances. They were even warned to leave Sodom and were instead forcibly carried out by the angels, as they remained there prior to the destruction. We can take great comfort in this, knowing that God will give those who love and have a relationship with Him indefinite chances as well, similar to the way a lovingly devoted parent gives their child indefinite chances.
What has God told you or warned you to stay away from that you’ve neglected to act quickly enough about? Thank Him for giving us many, many chances to get it right.
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