|
Lot |
Creation Date: 12-Jul-2020 |
| Abraham's Nephew |
Last updated: 20-May-2021 |
| A A A help |
| 1 | Who is Lot? | 2 | Lot's Carnal Goals |
| 3 | Something Amazing Overlooked? | 4 | Lot's Life Message for Us |
Lot was the nephew of Abram. Abram, who later becomes Abraham, has two other siblings: Nahor and Haran. Haran is the father of Lot. Abram and Lot travel together where the scripture sometimes speak about their relationship was like brothers.
| Genesis 11:27 | 27 This is the account of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot. |
Abraham at the battle of Nine Kings, rescued Lot from being a captive. The Battle is described as the "Four Kings against the Five Kings". This establishes the importance of Abram's love for his nephew Lot, which God also had for Lot.
The Four Kings defeated the Five Kings, but then Abram defeats the Four Kings where Abram refuses to take any of the spoils of the victory as read in Genesis 14:22-24. Abram meets Melchizedek, Genesis 14:19-20, when returning the spoils to the defeated Five Kings and gives Tithes to Melchizedek.
| Genesis 14:8-11 | 8 Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar) marched out and arrayed themselves for battle in the Valley of Siddimc 9 against Chedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of Goiim, Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar—four kings against five. 10 Now the Valley of Siddim was full of tar pits, and as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some men fell into the pits, but the survivors fled to the hill country. 11 The four kings seized all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food, and they went on their way. 12 They also carried off Abram’s nephew Lot and his possessions, since Lot was living in Sodom. |
| Genesis 14:15-16 | 15 During the night, Abram divided his forces and routed Chedorlaomer’s army, pursuing them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus. 16 He retrieved all the goods, as well as his relative Lot and his possessions, together with the women and the rest of the people. |
Lot's life showed that his goals were for power and wealth. In Genesis 13, Abram and Lot have to divide up their two groups of families, flocks and herds because of the size of their flocks and herds, where the land could not support the required provisions. Both Abram and Lot were financially self-sufficient but Abram was wealthier. There is the possibility that the subtly of the scriptural text implies:
| Genesis 13:1-2 | 1 So Abram went up out of Egypt into the Negev—he and his wife and all his possessions—and Lot was with him. 2 And Abram had become extremely wealthy in livestock and silver and gold. |
| Genesis 13:5-6 | 5 Now Lot, who was traveling with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents. 6 But the land was unable to support both of them while they stayed together, for they had so many possessions that they were unable to coexist. 7 And there was discord between the herdsmen of Abram and the herdsmen of Lot. At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were also living in the land. |
Abram gave Lot first choice of where to live in the land near Sodom and Gomorra, where Lot made the carnal choice of pursuing power and wealth in Sodom with the goal to become an Alderman of the city. Notice in Genesis 13:10 that Lot chose the richer appearing land and Abram let him take that choice.
Abram had the promises from God which gave Abram faith in his destiny no matter what happened. This gave Abram confidence that God was going to take care Abram and it was seen in Abram's life. Lot most surely knew and witnessed God's hand in Abram's life where Lot should have taken council with directions from Abram as the evidence of God's direction in Abram's life.
| Genesis 13:8-9 | 8 So Abram said to Lot, “Please let there be no contention between you and me, or between your herdsmen and my herdsmen. After all, we are brothers. 9 Is not the whole land before you? Now separate yourself from me. If you go to the left, I will go to the right; if you go to the right, I will go to the left.” |
| Genesis 13:10-11 | 10 And Lot looked out and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan, all the way to Zoar, was well watered like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt. (This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) 11 So Lot chose the whole plain of the Jordan for himself and set out toward the east. And Abram and Lot parted company. |
When Lot begins his life in Sodom, he obtains his goal an Alderman and Judge, where at that time, the Alderman would sit at the entrance gateway of the cities. Unbeknownst to Lot, there was a Theophany appearance of God with two Angels at the camp of Abram, where God let Abram know that Sodom and Gomorra would be destroyed, where Abram graciously pleaded for the lives of everyone there, which included Lot. After discussions with Abram, God sends the two Angels to Sodom before the destruction.
Notice in Genesis 19:1-2, as the two Angels of the Lord arrive in Sodom, that Lot is at his station at the gateway to the city. Also in Genesis 19:9, when the inhabitants are trying to get to the two Angels for the purpose of raping the Angels, that the inhabitants made derogatory comments against Log being a foreigner acting as a judge.
| Genesis 19:1-2 | 1 Now the two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them, bowed facedown, 2 and said, “My lords, please turn aside into the house of your servant; wash your feet and spend the night. Then you can rise early and go on your way.” |
| Genesis 19:9 | 9 “Get out of the way!” they replied. And they declared, “This one came here as a foreigner, and he is already acting like a judge! Now we will treat you worse than them.” And they pressed in on Lot and moved in to break down the door. |
During the event of the two Angels, appearing as men, arriving before the pending judgment against Sodom and Gomorra and the surrounding areas, Lot proves his unwise decisions and actions during his life. At this event, the two Angels end up at Lot's house where Lot offers up his two daughters instead of the two Angels to the citizens of Sodom who wanted to savagely rape the two men (Angels).
Biblical Scholars describe Lot's offering of his daughters as part of the extreme customs of the area and time-period to do anything to give protection to guests of a home, and also that Lot recognized the men as messengers of God that required every option for protection. Regardless of Lot's reasoning in the matter, there is also the prevailing concern of why did Lot allow his family to live in a place with open brutal carnal lusts being openly conducted and condoned, which is one part of the sins of Sodom and Gomorra.
The two Angels, in protection of Lot's family, supernaturally blind all the men outside of Lot's home and the Angels take Lot and his family out of Sodom. As they all were leaving and the destruction was still pending, Lot asks one of the Angels of the Lord to exclude one small town, named Zoar, from the destruction so that Lot could live there. Lot makes two additional mistakes that are revealed by this question, concerning Zoar, to the Angels:
These two points shows Lot's carnal views, where even after seeing the power of God, Lot was still looking incorrectly at choices. Also note that there was the horrible incident when Lot's wife disobeys the directive to not look back towards Sodom and Gomorra, and then was turned into a pillar of salt. When we received Salvation, we are to not look back at the life we had where there were temptations that we were previously powerless to overcome.
| Genesis 19:17 | As soon as the men had brought them out, one
of them said, “Run for your lives!
Do not look back, and do
not stop anywhere on the plain! Flee to the mountains, or you will be
swept away!” (The men are the two Angels of the Lord.) |
| Luke 17:29-32 | 29 but in the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all: 30 after the same manner shall it be in the day that the Son of man is revealed. 31 In that day, he that shall be on the housetop, and his goods in the house, let him not go down to take them away: and let him that is in the field likewise not return back. 32 Remember Lot’s wife. |
| Matthew 11:23-24 | 23 And thou, Capernaum, shalt thou be exalted unto heaven? thou shalt go down unto Hades: for if the mighty works had been done in Sodom which were done in thee, it would have remained until this day. 24 But I say unto you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee. |
After the destruction of Sodom and Gomorra, Lot lives in a cave for a short period where there is incest with his two daughters that creates the Moabites and Ammonites Tribes. The daughters over a two-day period got their father drunk to trick him into the pregnancy so that the daughters could have offspring as their original promised husbands had been killed in the Sodom and Gomorra destruction.
In our modern-day understanding of morality, the act of the daughters is not only wrong but criminal, but we should also consider that in that period of time in the world's history there was an importance of having offspring to not only help in daily essentials but to take care of everyone in the twilight years of life.
| Genesis 19:30-37 | 30 Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains—for he was afraid to stay in Zoar—where they lived in a cave. 31 One day the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man in the land to sleep with us, as is the custom over all the earth. 32 Come, let us get our father drunk with wine so we can sleep with him and preserve his line.” 33 So that night they got their father drunk with wine, and the firstborn went in and slept with her father; he was not aware when she lay down or when she got up. 34 The next day the older daughter said to the younger, “Look, I slept with my father last night. Let us get him drunk with wine again tonight so you can go in and sleep with him and we can preserve our father’s line.” 35 So again that night they got their father drunk with wine, and the younger daughter went in and slept with him; he was not aware when she lay down or when she got up. 36 Thus both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father. 37 The older daughter gave birth to a son and named him Moab. He is the father of the Moabites of today. 38 The younger daughter also gave birth to a son, and she named him Benammi. He is the father of the Ammonites of today. |
There is an amazing aspect of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorra that is often not recognized. Notice in Genesis 19:20-22 that Lot and his family's presence in Sodom prohibited the destruction of Sodom and Gomorra. This is amazing reassurance of God's love for all of us, who have faith in Him.
The action of the Angels removing Lot so that the judgment against Sodom and Gomorra could occur, showed that God:
| Genesis 19:20-22 | 20 behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and
it is a little one. Oh let me escape thither (is it not a little one?),
and my soul shall live. 21 And he said unto
him, See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also, that I will
not overthrow the city of which thou hast spoken. 22
Haste thee, escape thither;
for I cannot do anything till
thou be come thither. Therefore the name of the city was called
Zoar .which grew upon the ground.
(The key part is the Angel was not allowed to have Sodom destroyed until the Angel removed Lot and his family.) |
| Genesis 19:26 | But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. |
We all can and will experience suffering in our lives, that might be unto death, but the Christian that experiences in any suffering or death that is not the result of sin, will be compensated. Suffering from the results of sin can all be turned into a blessing with the correct response to God. All undeserved suffering by the Christian will have the opposite effect on the Christian, when the Christian acts correctly, which will add glory to God and to the Christian.
There is so much evidence in the scriptures, that point out that God is completely in charge of all things. God has plans for every single one of us, where we only need to ask Jesus Christ to be our Savior and start growing in our Christian life.
Lot still is a man who made mistakes but was loved by God, just like all of us. While writing this topic, this author at times has questioned the paths taken which might have led to different destinies in my life, where reviewing the topic on Lot has given me reassurance on always choosing God's ways and not my own, and always to be happy with my relationships and not possessions.
From the beginning of Lot's travels with Abraham, where Lot had wealth, possessions and a family, he chose the wrong path in the quest for more wealth and power, which ultimately led to his demise. We all should learn from the guidance of the scriptures so that we don't repeat the bad decisions of those in the scriptures that are put there as examples for us.
Hebrews Chapter 11 is often called the "Hall of Faith" because of the list of men and women in the scriptures that still made mistakes but accomplished great things in their lives through the guidance of God. It is a very valuable scriptural companion passage to consider when reading about the life of Lot.
What to read next?
What is Salvation? Is it possible to lose Salvation? We have eternal life. Evolution is not real. When a Christian suffers is there benefits from it. Rewards in heaven. Do we Tithe? What does the 3rd Commandment tell us? What is Grace and Mercy? Is there an Age of Accountability? Is there a place of unending punishment and exile form God?