A lot about Lot

The Bible has a lot to say about Lot, Abram's nephew. Many important lessons can be learned from his life. For those of you who have been following my Genesis study on my other blog, you know that Lot's father was a man named Haran. Haran died in the same city he was born in--Ur of the Chaldeans. Eventually, Lot's grandfather Terah took the entire family, left Ur, and set out on a journey to go to Canaan. But they stopped on the way and settled in the city called Harran instead.

When Terah died, God told Lot's Uncle Abram to leave his place, people, and family to finish the journey, but Abram took Lot with him. Abram became very wealthy in livestock, silver, and gold, but Lot also had flocks, herds, and tents. Their lives eventually grew to the point that the land could no longer support all of them together. Arguments had begun between Abram's and Lot's herders. So Abram decided to be a peacemaker to avoid strife between him and his nephew. Even though Abram, being the elder of the two, had the right to choose first, he gave Lot the right to choose which way he would go. Lot chose the whole Jordan Plain toward Zoar because it was well-watered like God's garden. So Lot lived in the cities of the Plain, pitching his tents near wicked Sodom.

Eventually, a war broke out in the area. During the war, local kings carried off Lot and all of his possessions away from Sodom, where he was living. A man escaped and told Lot's Uncle Abram what was going on. So Abram took 318 of his trained men and pursued them. Abram's men re-captured everything those kings and their people had taken, including Lot, those with him, and all of their possessions.

The next time we see Lot, he is sitting in Sodom's gateway, showing that he was a government official of some kind, possibly as a magistrate or judge. God sent two angels to destroy Sodom because of its great wickedness, but they looked like men. When Lot sees them, he greeted them and invited them to stay in his house. Despite their initial polite decline,  Lot continues to insist until they accept. While they are staying the night in Lot's home, Sodom's lust-filled evil men surround Lot's house, demanding that he send his guests out to them so that they could fulfill their sexual desires with them. Lot objects, instead offering up his two virgin daughters to the mob. The group then tries to force their way into Lot's home, but Lot is rescued by the two angels, who then supernaturally blind the men. The angels tell Lot of their plan to destroy the city. Lot tries to warn the two men his daughters were pledged to marry, but they thought he was joking and ignored him. So Lot hesitantly took his wife and two daughters, fleeing the city before God's wrath could be executed upon it. The angels told the family not to look back, but Lot's wife did, and God supernaturally turned her into a salt pillar. Lot and his daughters continued to escape, first going to Zoar and later to the mountains. While living in the mountains, the full realization hits Lot's two daughters that they are alone since the men to which they were promised perished in Sodom's judgment. Fearing childlessness, the two daughters hatch a plan to get their father drunk and have intercourse with him to get pregnant. They successfully execute this plan over the next two nights without Lot's knowledge. They each became pregnant. The older gave birth to a son named Moab (From Father), whose descendants were the Moabites. The younger gave birth to a son named Ben-Ammi (Son Of My Father's People), whose descendants were the Ammonites. Moab was located east of the Dead Sea in what is now west-central Jordan. It was bounded by Edom and the land of the Amorites. The Moabites and Israelites were frequently in conflict. The Ammonites settled to the east of the Jordan, invading the Rephaim lands east of Jordan, between the Jabbok and Arnon, dispossessing them and dwelling in their place. Their territory was originally comprising all from the Jordan to the wilderness. It also went from the River Jabbok south to the River Arnon.

Despite everything, the Apostle Peter, writing words breathed by God, says that Lot was a righteous man. That was because he was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless people he was living among. His righteous soul was tormented by the lawless deeds he saw and heard. And if that was true for Lot in his day, how much more is it true of those of us who follow Christ today. The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and hold the unrighteous for Judgment Day's punishment.

I started this off by saying that there is a lot to learn from Lot's life. So what do we learn?

1. If you're living amongst wicked people, don't become like them.
2. If you live among the ungodly, don't expect your life or external circumstances to be peaceful.
3. When God tells you to leave somewhere, get out! Don't wait or look back.
4. Don't get drunk. Bad things happen when you get drunk.
5. The genuinely righteous continue to hate evil. Even when it is all around them, they don't succumb to cultural pressures.

I must admit that, to me, Lot doesn't seem very righteous. My biggest reason for saying this is not where he lived. It's the fact that he was willing to sacrifice his two virgin daughters that were already pledged in marriage to a bunch of sex-crazed maniacs. But we must remember the primary lesson from Lot's Uncle Abram, who God later named Abraham. In what I feel is the most essential part of Genesis, God says Abraham believed the LORD, and it was credited to him as righteousness. It was Abraham's faith that made him righteous. The same was true for Lot and for all today who have faith in Christ alone for the forgiveness of their sins.