NOTE: This lesson contains mature material.
When God created the world and all that is in it he designed it good, to function in certain ways. We have seen through this study in Genesis that from the beginning of human history people have rebelled against God and his good design and have wanted to do things their own way.
Continual sin brings great evil and causes harm to God’s creation. Although God is long-suffering he only puts up with man’s rebellion for so long.
In this lesson we will see what God did to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Sodom and Gomorrah were a lot like our country is today. Instead of following God’s good design of sex within marriage between a man and a woman, the people perverted sex and did whatever they wanted. Not following God’s good design destroys marriages and families, which are the building block of a good and stable society.
Things were so bad in Sodom and Gomorrah that God determined to destroy the cities. Abraham had pleaded with God to save the cities if 10 righteous men were found. There obviously weren’t ten righteous men but God did send two angels to rescue Abraham’s nephew Lot before the cities were destroyed.
1 The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. 2 “My lords,” he said, “please turn aside to your servant’s house. You can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning.”
“No,” they answered, “we will spend the night in the square.”
3 But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate. 4 Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. 5 They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.”
6 Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him 7 and said, “No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing. 8 Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”
9 “Get out of our way,” they replied. And they said, “This fellow came here as an alien, and now he wants to play the judge! We’ll treat you worse than them.” They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door.
10 But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door. 11 Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door.
According to ancient hospitality, when Lot invited the two angels into his house he was obligated to protect them in every situation. Lot couldn’t protect the angels. The angels had to protect him.
12 The two men said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here—sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here, 13 because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the LORD against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it.”
14 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters. He said, “Hurry and get out of this place, because the LORD is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.
15 With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.”
16 When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the LORD was merciful to them. 17 As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!”
18 But Lot said to them, “No, my lords, please! 19 Your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die. 20 Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it—it is very small, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared.”
21 He said to him, “Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of. 22 But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it.” (That is why the town was called Zoar.)
Lot’s sons-in-laws thought he was joking about God destroying the city. They didn’t have any respect for him. Lot wasn’t seen by them as being a moral leader so they didn’t follow what he said.
Lot hesitated when the angels told him to hurry. He was afraid for what he was about to lose. His whole life was going to change. We often want to stay where we are, no matter how bad it is, rather than move on into what is unknown.
In telling them to look back at the city, God may have been testing their obedience to him. They were leaving a city that had rebelled against God and where the people were doing awful things. God may have been testing their hearts to reveal what was there, if they would look to and trust him or look back at the sinful city they had left.
23 By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. 24 Then the LORD rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the LORD out of the heavens. 25 Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land. 26 But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
27 Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the LORD. 28 He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace.
29 So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.
Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt when she looked back at the city. This, like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, is an example to us of the destruction that happens in our lives when we disobey God.
God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of the great evil that the people were engaged in. He rescued Lot and his family because Abraham asked him to spare the righteous. Lot and his family were the only ones who were found righteous. His son-in-laws would have also been spared if they had believed Lot.
2 Peter 4:9-10 says, The Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment. 10This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority.
We, like Lot, live in a time when people have rejected God’s authority and are doing what they want instead of following the natural order of God’s good design. Because we have a relationship with God like Abraham did we can intercede (pray) for those who don’t believe in and trust God. We need to have compassion for the lost and care about the condition of our society. We need to pray that people would recognize their unrighteousness and want to be made right and put their faith in the one, true God who can make them right. God is long-suffering but he won’t withhold his judgment forever. Evil grieves God and in the end it will be judged.
- Overview Questions: Why did God determine to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah? How were Lot and his family rescued? What happened to Lot’s wife? Why? How did God destroy Sodom and Gomorrah?
- Thought Questions: Why does God hate evil? What is the impact of evil on a society? Why isn’t it easy to do what is right in an evil society? When a society as a whole is following evil what can make it right again? What usually happens to a society that is given over to evil?
- Prayer: Thank God that his way is right and good. Pray for our country that God’s hand would be on it and the eyes of people would be open to see him and the destruction that is occurring because of a rejection of God and his truth. Pray that you would be faithful to speak God’s truth and live it out so others can see the benefit of God’s ways.
- Memory Verse: 2 Peter 4:9-10 God rescues those who do what is right.
The Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment. 10This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority.
Questions: What does God know how to do? What does that mean? What will he do to the unrighteous?