“Now before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter, surrounded the house. 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 know them carnally.”
Genesis 19:4-5
The Hebrew verb for “Know” in verse 5 is normally used to describe sexual relations between a male and female, however in this case we see how the culture and indulgence of sin has skewed the thinking of these men and perverted the community into a gnarly disregard for God’s beautiful design for sex. The men of Sodom were hostile and aggressive homosexuals, it seems that their lust for carnal pleasure had grown to such a degree that they were bent on forcefully taking the guests of Lots home and gang raping them out in the open square of the town. Here is where the term “sodomite” originates.
Although this passage and story is probably one of the most disturbing accounts of mankind’s depravity, the truths we can glean from it are significant. In this passage we see what type of dire straits we as children of God can end up in when we keep a foot in the world and a foot in the word. We witnessed Lot time and time again be brought to the issue of the will.
What is the “issue of the will”?
It is when we are faced with the question deep in our hearts on whether or not we “will” choose to fully commit our self to the Lord and live separate from the sinful tendencies of this world, or choose to fully immerse our self into the ways of the world and gradually shift away from God our thinking and conduct.
Lot up to this point has neglected to make a commitment and has sat on the faith fence, in doing so we see his circumstances get uglier and the risk gets greater. James would tell us,
“…Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
James 4:4
The truth is we can’t ride the fence; eventually we are always brought to an issue of the will and faced with the decision of full surrender and commitment to God or this world.
In the book of Numbers Moses warns the children of Israel that if they don’t keep their commitment to the Lord they will in turn sin, and that sin will come find them out (Numbers 32:23). When Lot divided his allegiance and compromised his relationship with God what happened was he also became an ally to the wrong team. Later we see that “the allegiance of this world” he had tried so hard to develop would be the same allegiance that would demand his family, home, and almost his life. On the flip side the allegiance he had walked steadily away from (The Lord) was the one that would come to rescue him and his family from the destruction that sin always brings. How good God is to pursue us with His grace and mercifully keep us from the destruction of sin!
Consider your own commitment to the Lord and take a look around you. Is sin knocking on your door and demanding everything good from you? If you, like Lot, made a commitment of faith and have found yourself in the wrong neck of the woods not living the way you know you should, know that the Lord hasn’t given up on you, in fact He’s offering right now the way out.
Perhaps it’s not you, but someone you love, take heart, “If you have confessed with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believed in your heart that God raised Him from the dead” then you can know for certain that they will be saved (Romans 10:9,10).
If the situation is hopeless and it seems like everything is too far gone… remember the Lord is the God of the impossible, and those things which are impossible for man, are in fact possible for God.
