God’s promises require that we resist the temptation toward procrastination and infatuation with our present situation...

This week, we have been looking at a story that is recorded for us in the very first letter in the Bible, called the book of Genesis. Wednesday, we saw two angels travel to the city of Sodom, where the population of Sodom responded by wanting to participate in a homosexual gang rape of Lot’s guests. We saw Lot, who was Abraham’s nephew and who was unknowingly hosting the angels, unjustifiably offer his daughters to the men of the city. The residents of Sodom, however, did not appreciate Lot’s suggestion and threatened to rape him as well.

Today, as we jump back into the story, we see the angels, who have gathered all the evidence that they need, reveal themselves and God’s response to the rebellion of Sodom in verse 10:

 But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. They struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves trying to find the doorway. Then the two men said to Lot, "Whom else have you here? A son-in-law, and your sons, and your daughters, and whomever you have in the city, bring them out of the place; for we are about to destroy this place, because their outcry has become so great before the LORD that the LORD has sent us to destroy it."

Now when it says that the angels struck the men with blindness, this phrase literally means that the men of Sodom were struck with a dazzling light that blinded them. And as a result of being blinded by the light, the population of Sodom became tired of and gave up on their previous plans.

The angels then revealed themselves and the reality that they would be the instruments that God would use to destroy Sodom as a result of the selfishness and rebellion that was a heavy weight that cast itself against the holiness and justice of God. We see Lot’s response to the news in verse 14:

Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, and said, "Up, get out of this place, for the LORD will destroy the city." But he appeared to his sons-in-law to be jesting. When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, "Up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city." But he hesitated. So the men seized his hand and the hand of his wife and the hands of his two daughters, for the compassion of the LORD was upon him; and they brought him out, and put him outside the city.

First, Lot attempts to convince his daughter’s fiancés to join them and leave Sodom. However, Moses tells us that they thought Lot was jesting. The sons in law thought Lot was a joker because Lot did not have their respect or moral authority over them and his message seemed ridiculous to them.

You see, Lot willingly lived in Sodom. And Lot loved the blessings and benefits of the city.  I mean, Lot let his daughters embrace the culture of Sodom and date them, so why would he be speaking such crazy talk to them. Moses then explains that as morning dawned, the angels had to urge Lot and his family to leave the city, but Lot hesitated. But, in light of all that had happened, why would Lot hesitate?

Lot hesitated because Lot loved the life that he had made for himself in Sodom. Lot procrastinated and was indecisive when it came to the prospect of leaving the material blessings and life that he had made in Sodom behind. Lot was more concerned about leaving the lifestyle of Sodom than the impact that the lifestyle of Sodom was leaving on himself and his family.

However, instead of leaving Lot and his family in Sodom, the angels grabbed and led them outside the city. In spite of Lot’s hesitation, the Lord was willing to show compassion to him. However, Lot and his family were not out of danger. And Lot and his family were not out of excuses, as we see in verse 17:

 When they had brought them outside, one said, "Escape for your life! Do not look behind you, and do not stay anywhere in the valley; escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away." But Lot said to them, "Oh no, my lords! "Now behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your lovingkindness, which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountains, for the disaster will overtake me and I will die; now behold, this town is near enough to flee to, and it is small. Please, let me escape there (is it not small?) that my life may be saved." He said to him, "Behold, I grant you this request also, not to overthrow the town of which you have spoken. "Hurry, escape there, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there." Therefore the name of the town was called Zoar. The sun had risen over the earth when Lot came to Zoar.

Instead of following the angel’s directions to head for the mountains, Lot pleads to head for another city, named Zoar. Lot explains that his plea is based on the belief that the disaster would overtake him and that he would not be able to make it there in time.  However, While Lot pleads an inability to escape to the mountains, the reality is that Lot wanted the angels to spare Zoar so that he could settle there. You see Zoar was not far from Sodom and Gomorrah. And in Zoar, Lot could still experience the blessings and benefits of city life.

Lot was selfish, fearful, and faithless. Lot lacked the faith that God could save him from the impending disaster, despite the fact that the He had sent two angels who had protected and delivered him and his family from disaster earlier that evening. Lot was so infatuated with what he presently had and was about to lose that he was unable to trust in God’s promise to lead him in the future. However, Lot was not the only family member with this problem, as Moses reveals for us in verse 24:

Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven, and He overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. But his wife, from behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

As the Lord exercised His right and just response to the selfishness and rebellion of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot’s wife disobeyed God’s command and looked back towards the city that she had called home. And by looking back and disobeying God’s command, she rejected the salvation and rescue that God offered her. Moses tells us that as a result of her disobedience and lack of trust in God, she was turned into a pillar of salt.

You see, her looking back revealed her identification and infatuation with the city of Sodom. Lot’s wife looked back because she embraced the life and lifestyle of Sodom more than she embraced God’s promise of rescue. Moses then concludes this story by shifting back to Abraham in verse 27:

 Now Abraham arose early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before the LORD; and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the valley, and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land ascended like the smoke of a furnace. Thus it came about, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.

As Abraham awoke and arose to travel to the place where he had met with the Lord, he witnessed the Lord’s right and just response to the selfishness and rebellion of Sodom and Gomorrah that was a heavy weight that cast itself against the holiness and justice of God.  Yet, as is so often the case in the Bible, we see God extend grace in the midst of dispensing justice. Moses explains that as God was destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, God rescued Lot because He remembered Abraham.

Now when Moses says that God remembered Abraham, he is not saying that God had forgotten about Abraham. God was not preoccupied and then said “Oh Yeah, I almost forgot about Abraham”. The word remembered here, in the language that this letter was originally written in, conveys that sense of remembering in a way that extends grace and mercy to someone so as to rescue them from death. The word remember here is one of action, not intellect. God acted by extending grace to Lot and his family as he acted on the promises that He had made to Abraham.

And it is here, in this story, that we see God reveal to us the timeless truth that God’s promises require that we resist the temptation toward procrastination and infatuation with our present situation. Just as it was for Lot and his family; just as it has been for humanity throughout history; experiencing God and the promises of God require that we resist the temptation toward procrastination and infatuation with our present situation.

But, if we are brutally honest, how often can we find ourselves acting just like Lot? How often can we find ourselves in a place in our lives when we are tempted to procrastinate in order to stay in a present situation that we should not be in?  Maybe it is a present relationship that we should not be in. Or maybe it is a present activity that we should not be engaging in. Or maybe it is a present goal that we should not be striving for because it is driven by selfishness and faithlessness.

How often can we find ourselves in a place in life where we are so infatuated with our present situation that we ignore or rebel against God and the promises of God? Or maybe it is the reality that we are infatuated with a life and lifestyle apart from God more than we are with the possibility of being rescued from that life and lifestyle.

So here is the question for us to consider: How are you responding to God and God’s promises? Are you wrestling with the temptation toward procrastination when it comes to following God and God’s promises? Are you embracing your infatuation with your present life and lifestyle more than embracing God and God’s promises?