Enlightened Hope

The Lord has had me thinking and praying about Genesis 19 for a number of weeks now. Do you ever spend an extended period of time on just one passage? – I’d highly recommend it! Anyways, here’s some of the passage. I’ve rated this M for Mature audiences…

Genesis 19
19:1 The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. 2 “My lords,” he said, “please turn aside to your servant’s house. You can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning.”
“No,” they answered, “we will spend the night in the square.”
3 But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate. 4 Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom — both young and old — surrounded the house. 5 They called to Lot , “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.”
6 Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him 7 and said, “No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing. 8 Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”
9 “Get out of our way,” they replied. And they said, “This fellow came here as an alien, and now he wants to play the judge! We’ll treat you worse than them.” They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door.

Quick Thoughts:

v5) WHY do these men want to have sex with the angels?

v8 ) So, having sex with his daughters isn’t a wicked thing??? What’s going on here!

v9) I thought this verse was interesting, particularly the words ‘he wants to play the judge’ . Isn’t this the typical response from someone that is confronted with their sin!

10 But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door. 11 Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door.
12 The two men said to Lot , “Do you have anyone else here — sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here, 13 because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the LORD against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it.”

Further Thoughts:

So WHY do these men want to have sex with the angels? It’s fairly obvious, but let’s explore it a little. I believe these men wanted to have sex with the angels because SIN IS CORRUPTING. Sin is not satisfied with corrupting individuals, there is an insatiable need for sin to corrupt others. These men wanted to corrupt and defile the angels. Remember Adam and Eve or Eve and Adam: Genesis 3:6b she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. NIV Sin insatiably defiles! If someone is living in sin they corrupt and defile themselves and their sinful position will want to corrupt and defile others. WATCH OUT! If there is someone living in sin around you they are going to want to drag you into their sin as well!

Here’s a side issue, why did God destroy Sodom and Gomorrah? Why didn’t he have a bit more mercy? Well, read Genesis 18. Clearly God was open to be merciful. But here’s the problem, let’s go to Romans 1:24-28:
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. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator — who is forever praised. Amen.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, He gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. NIV

The key verse here is verse 28 ‘He gave them over to a depraved mind’. This is very serious. A person can get themselves so deliberately entwined with sin that God gives them over to a depraved mind – ie: their hearing God and their hearing their conscience is Spiritually dead!

This post is getting a little long, stick around for part 2.

Blessings

Steve