Getting Turned Around - Genesis 19

Imagine, if you will, that you are hiking alone in the woods. You notice a large rock by the trail on your left. You hike a while longer, and then you see, there on your left beside the trail, a rock that seems to look just like the rock you saw earlier. 

You’re concerned, but you hike on, feeling somewhat sure that you’re going the right way. But then after you hike a good while longer, once again on your left, you see that same rock, and then you realize that you’re going in circles. You’re lost. Somehow, you got turned around.

The Scriptures tell us that we naturally get turned around by sin, which turns us in the direction of misery and God’s judgment. But also we learn that God is merciful; that He has shown His grace by sending Jesus Christ, who turned from heaven toward earth to endure God’s judgment in the place of those He came to save.
Jesus turned to the cross and He never turned away from it so that we could turn from the sin which so easily gets us turned around in life. We can turn from death to life, from misery to joy, from hopelessness to hope.

But how can we know if we’ve gotten turned around by sin in our lives?

What are the indicators, the warning signs, the signals? What are the symptoms which tell us, “You’re lost, you’re confused, you’re mixed up, you’re in danger?” Genesis 19 speaks to this question. As usual, there’s an outline on pages 6-7 in the WG.

We have gotten turned around by sin when we find ourselves compromising with sin, romanticizing our sin, or rationalizing our sin.

Now, broadly speaking, Genesis 18 displays God’s mercy toward Abraham and Sarah in contrast with His judgment toward the people of Sodom. God, along with two angels, graciously appears to Abraham and even has a meal with him. Abraham’s wife Sarah scoffs at the possibility of supernaturally having a child in their old age, but still God is committed to graciously fulfilling His plans through this couple and their household. 

In love, God reveals to Abraham that He is going to finally bring judgment against the wickedness of Sodom, and by God’s grace, Abraham has the platform to appeal to God’s justice in order to save any righteous people that might remain in Sodom. Abraham was most likely appealing on behalf of his nephew Lot, who had left the family some years ago to foolishly make his home near the wicked Sodomites, and eventually Lot settled in that land, marrying a wife, having children, and making a life.

But as Genesis 18 comes to a close, it is clear that the land of Sodom will not be spared, and that God will be entirely just in destroying that place. Nothing will occur that is not deserved. Sodom was notorious for many perversions, and along with the land of Gomorrah, those places have become a byword for moral depravity. In other words, they are synonymous with immorality and corruption of every kind. And the totality of their wicked state was clear in Genesis 18 as Abraham said to God, “Will you destroy the city if there are 50 righteous, or even 40, or 30, or even 20, or just 10?”

God’s ruling in the matter of Sodom, and in all matters, is right and good. The city would be no more.
 
So, Genesis 19 picks up with these two angels going into Sodom to warn Lot and his family. Such is God’s mercy toward Lot. Verse 1 says, “Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom.” After living there many years, Lot was now a respected elder in Sodom. But when he meets these two men, he urges them to stay in his home and not in the town square. Why? 

Well, it seems that Lot knew the wickedness awaiting these men in the city. The apostle Peter tells us in 2 Peter 2 that Lot had not bought into the immorality of Sodom. Peter says Lot was, “greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard).” 

Lot still knew right from wrong. But he remained there. How could he do so all those years? He compromised with sin. 

The angels agree to go to his home and they have a meal with him. But then there is this terrible scene. It is a scene which reveals not only the wickedness of the men of Sodom, but also, the divided, compromising heart of Lot and his clouded thinking.

The men of the city surround the house, and they want to commit perverse acts with the visitors. Lot even says to the men, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly.” But then, astonishingly, he offers the men his unmarried daughters instead. He tries to bargain. We can only speculate Lot’s strategy or thinking here. But clearly, it is a grossly despicable look.

What if the men had agreed to Lot’s offer? Of course, they don’t, and verse 9, “they said, “This fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them.” It’s as if they are saying, “Oh, so you’ve lived among us all these years, a foreigner profiting in and off of our land, and now you want to take the moral high ground, you hypocrite?”

So, they attack Lot but the angels save him and they blind those men around the house. Then they tell Lot it’s time to go. Verse [12] Then the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone you have in the city, bring them out of the place. [13] For we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the LORD, and the LORD has sent us to destroy it.” His daughters agree to leave, but their future husbands don’t take Lot seriously.

And notice again Lot’s response when the angels reiterate their warning. Verse [16], But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.” The one and only God of grace has to save this foolish man against his own ignorant will!

In Psalm 86 in the OT, David cries out to God, saying, “Unite my heart to fear Your name.”

Take these two halves, one turned toward You, oh God, one turned toward the sinful world, and seal my whole heart to love and obey You, my Lord and my God! 

Lot is a man pulled in two directions. He doesn’t want to turn definitively either way. He has lived a life of sinful compromise for many years. In verse 17, the angels tell Lot and his family to escape and not look back or they will be destroyed. But still, Lot is divided. Verse 18, he tells the angels that he cannot go to the hills they recommend for safety. He is afraid he will be destroyed there. You would think that he would trust the messengers of Yahweh sent to save him. But this is typical Lot, walking by sight not by faith, trying to straddle the line between God and the world. And still, God is gracious toward him, and he is allowed to go to a little city.

Maybe you’ve heard the old story of the husband who desperately wanted to buy a boat, but his wife continually would not agree to it. Then one day, in haste, the man decided to buy one anyway. When his wife found out, she was furious, and so the husband said, “Ok, let’s compromise. How about you name the boat?” The wife thought for a moment, but then agreed. And when the man came down to the dock the next day to take his boat out for the first time, he saw the boat’s new name painted on the side: FOR SALE. Definitely not the compromise that the husband man had in mind!

There are times when compromise is necessary and appropriate in life. But we should never compromise with sin. If you find yourself compromising with sin, you’ve gotten turned around. 
You are losing or you have lost your way.

That’s not to say you won’t be tempted in life, or that you won’t fail to keep God’s commands. We all have hang-ups and habits that hold on tightly and are hard to break. We should trust in the righteousness of Jesus, not our own righteousness to make us right with God. But there can be no deal-making with sin if we are to live in the freedom and the power of knowing and following Jesus Christ. We cannot bargain with sin.
 
Where have you been compromising with sin, trying to find some middle ground between obeying God and obeying your sinful nature? It’s like having two masters. You can’t please them both. Lot found himself in such a place.

Now in this next section of the chapter, Lot escapes safely and God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah. The judgment is total. Lot and his family were instructed not to look back, and yet notice verse 26, “But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.” 

Why did she turn around? Well, she was from Sodom. She was likely sentimental. It seems that her heart was still there. 

When I was growing up, my family moved around to various cities and states because of my father’s career. So I’ve lived in many different places. But my parents always kept their home here. And so we called Florence “home.” We had many family and friends here, and fond memories. As whenever we would move away, our hearts would remain here; we would long to be here. It’s normal to love and miss the place where you’re from.

Along those lines, you might ask, “Why couldn’t God give Lot’s wife a pass here?” But she had been explicitly warned and commanded, and by defying God’s instruction in this way, her heart was revealed.

She had a romanticized view of Sodom. She did not see it for what it truly was. She had been desensitized to the evil of the place. Remember, God does not judge unjustly.

Elsewhere in Scripture, salt symbolizes an unfruitful place where life cannot be sustained. She forfeited her life on that day. Jonah 2 in the OT says, “Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love.” That verse could also be read, “Those who preserve empty worthlessness let go of God’s covenant love.” 

Notice verse 29, “So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived.” Lot was saved because of God’s covenant love and His promise to Abraham. Lot’s wife forfeited that covenant love. She forfeited God’s grace as she clung to Sodom in her heart, as she held onto an idealized view of sin.

This can easily happen to any of us. We don’t always see things as they truly are; we can see things as we want to see them. What sin is present in your life that you have perhaps been romanticizing, minimizing the seriousness of it?

We naturally come to love our “pet sins.” The gospels of Matthew and Mark describe a rich young ruler who proclaimed to Jesus that he had kept the whole law of God. But Jesus discerns the man’s heart and puts his finger on the man’s idol: his wealth. 

What idols have you become comfortable with in your life? Have you gotten turned around?

Now this final section concludes the history of Lot in Genesis. We won’t hear about him again in this book. It’s a disgusting end, and a puzzling one. As I said earlier, Peter calls Lot “a righteous man.” Abraham saw Lot as righteous, and God repeatedly showed him mercy. But again he walks by sight. 

He winds up in the hills, where the angels originally told him to go, living in a cave. Certainly, when people get tangled up in a world of sin, getting untangled is difficult. Not impossible, but not easy. “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak,” Jesus said.

The third symptom we see here, which tells us that we have gotten turned around by sin, is that we find ourselves rationalizing or justifying our sin with excuses or attempts at logic.

Lot had two daughters with him, whose fiancees were left behind in Sodom, and they devised this terrible plan. They agree to get Lot drunk so they can procreate with him. This is something Lot would never agree to do. Perhaps this was for extending Lot’s line of descendants, or for these women to have children who would grow up to care for them in their old age. But they commit these heinous acts, and the results are two sons from whom two people groups descend: the Moabites and Ammonites descend. 

These two groups were wicked people and bitter enemies of the Israelites. So as Moses writes these things, he’s telling the Israelites the origin of their enemies. So much wickedness born out of walking by sight and not by faith, by rationalizing sin and not trusting God.

The musicians here today may be familiar with the concept of dissonance: when two music notes clash; when they are not harmonious with each other. Modern psychologists describe the experience of having clashing thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes as “cognitive dissonance.” For example, you know you should eat healthy, but the “Hot Now” sign is on at Krispy Kreme! 

When we find ourselves conflicted, often we take the path of least resistance or we do what feels comfortable in the moment, or we do what we’ve done many times before. This is the struggle between faith and sight.

I saw a great little cartoon image online, with two booths, side by side, like at a job fair. Each booth had a person sitting behind a table, and each one had a sign overhead. One booth had people lined up to speak to the person in the booth. But the other booth had no one lined up. Here’s the difference: People are lined up at the booth with a sign that reads “Comfortable Lies,” while no one stands in line at the booth labeled “Unpleasant Truths.” 

We naturally prefer comfortable lies over unpleasant truths. This is why we justify our sin. Of course, this is true on a large scale, as moral issues are debated in our society. Everyone has their reasons for why they think they’re right, and we see attempts to justify or rationalize immorality. That is true, and it is a problem we must deal with by faith; but also, each of us must deal with our own attempts to justify any sin in our lives.

And to deal successfully with our sin, we must look to Jesus. To have any hope of being transformed in our hearts and minds, we must fix our eyes on Him. Jesus is the only person who has ever lived on this earth who did not compromise with sin, who did not romanticize sin, or rationalize sin.

Hebrews 4 in the NT says that Jesus was tempted in every way just as we are, but rather than compromise with sin, He obeyed God’s will unswervingly. Rather than romanticize sin, Jesus saw sin for what it is: And rather than rationalizing or arguing for sin, Jesus gave the definitive argument for trusting God by faith. He did not come to justify sin, but to justify those He came to save. 

And all He demands of you is that you see your need for Him, and that you get turned around toward God in humble repentance and saving faith. 

Will you turn from the sin that so easily entangles, and turn to Jesus, perhaps for the first time today, perhaps once again, as believers should every day?

We all display the symptoms of sin. But Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick…I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” 

Let’s bow in prayer.