The Judgment and Mercy of God

The Context of Genesis 19: Abraham’s Intercession and God’s Justice

Before we begin to look at Genesis 19. We would do well to, just for a moment, think on the ending of Chapter 18. In the last few verses there, the two chapters are very much connected, and Chapter 19 very much dependent on the prior events.

Last week we saw that the Lord, along with these two angels, had come and visited Abraham and had revealed to him that an outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah had come before him, that their sin was indeed very grave.

The Lord and His companions had come to see whether the cities had indeed committed grave sin. If it was found to be so, the place was to be utterly destroyed, completely wiped off the face of the earth.

Now Abraham responded to that revelation, didn't he? When he implored the judge of all the earth, the one who dispenses divine judgment and the one who pours out divine mercy, not to destroy the righteous in that city with the wicked.

And so several times he pleads. He begins with 50. He says, the 50 righteous are found in the city. He asks of God, will You destroy the whole place and not spare them? The Lord replies that He will indeed not destroy the city for the sake of 50.

This continues until Abraham pleads for as few as 10. He says, suppose 10 are to be found there. And again, God answers him that for the sake of even 10, He will not destroy the place. The Lord then leaves Abraham.

Abraham returns home and we are left with some questions. What is going to happen to Sodom? Will there indeed be 10 righteous in that city? And then will the city be spared for their sake? What if there are less than 10 righteous?

Will they be destroyed? What will the judge of all the earth find and do? Chapter 19 answers those questions for us. As I've read through this, and even as I discussed it with our brothers a little bit on Wednesday, one could argue that this is one of the darkest chapters in the Scriptures.

Alongside the account of the flood in Genesis 6 -9, it is one of the great events displaying the justice and the wrath of God. And as our brother already said last week, not man, but God is judge. He wields and executes justice.

Our text today issues stark warnings to those who do not walk in the way of the Lord, who pursue evil, who do what is right in their own eyes with no shame before man or before God. The story of Sodom and Gomorrah makes it abundantly clear that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Beyond that, we see that even those who are called righteous are far from being sinless, very capable of committing tremendous evil. Yet in all the darkness of this chapter, there does shine a light a light of mercy.

It is terror to fall into the hands of God, but to be taken by the hand by Him is a sure blessing. Yes, He executes justice, but also pours out mercy when He takes the sinner by the hand and delivers him from judgment.

As we look at what happens to Sodom, if there are really ten righteous in that place, I just want to put three simple things before you. The first is the evil of Sodom. The second is Lot's hope. And then thirdly, divine judgment and mercy poured out.

The question Abraham asked in chapter 18, shall not the judge of all the earth do what is just? Will be answered here in this chapter. And so look with me first at the evil of Sodom. Verses 1 -3. The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom.

When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed himself with his face to the earth and said, My lords, please turn aside to your servant's house and spend the night and wash your feet. Then you may rise up early and go on your way.

They said, No, we will spend the night in the town square. But he pressed them strongly. So they turned aside to him and entered his house. And he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread. And they ate.

The two angels arrived at Sodom. They're the ones that along with God had appeared to Abraham in the prior chapter earlier that very same day. And after they had feasted with Abraham, you remember from last week, they departed from there in chapter 18, verse 22, making their way towards Sodom.

And to finally arrive in the evening and there meet Lot sitting in the gate. Now back in chapter 13, when he and his uncle had parted ways because of the size of their livestock and the strife between their herdsmen, Lot had chosen this very valley of the Jordan where Sodom was located as a place to settle.

It was well watered like the Garden of Eden, like the land of Egypt, ideal for keeping livestock. Lot had settled there among the cities in his tent as far as Sodom. Now we find him sitting in the very gate of Sodom.

He lives in the city. It might be that Sodom, that Lot even held a position of some form of prominence sitting in the gate. This was the place where the elders would discuss important judicial matters and pronounce them, where business and social functions took place, and where even prophets at times proclaimed their message.

He's gone from living among the cities, living in the city of Sodom. And as a resident then when he sees these two people come, he meets them, bows himself, and much like Abraham, greets them and offers them hospitality.

He asks them to stay at his house. Of course, this was in perfect accordance with Old Testament custom at the time that the stranger was to be treated with kindness in the ancient Niri, so much that even later in the Ten Commandments, the sojourner within the gates of an Israelite city was to rest on the Sabbath.

Deuteronomy says that the Lord executes justice for the fatherless, and the widow loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Hospitality was a big deal. And it was important for God's people to show towards strangers.

Israel wasn't even allowed to reap the edges of their fields or take grapes that had fallen to the ground. They were to be left for the poor. And the sojourner was all part of loving neighbor as yourself.

And so as the angels arrive here, they're greeted with this customary offer of hospitality. And at first glance, things do not seem to be that bad. However, something is a little bit off. The two men decline the offer of hospitality, preferring to stay in the town square.

Now, why they would do that, as told to us in chapter 18 and verse 21, they had come to see whether the people of Sodom had done according to the outcry against them. Secondly, they do this because of the intercession of Abraham to test if there was really 10 righteous people in the city.

The Lord weighs the heart of men, and he doesn't judge unjustly, but rightly. And so Abraham's question, if the Lord would destroy the righteous with the wicked, slowly begins to be answered here. And by his offer, as well as the response to the men's rejection, lot is shown as righteous compared to the wicked of the city.

Now, how so? Well, verse three, he presses them strongly. Some translations say he urged them strongly to stay with him. And only then the men agreed to stay with him. But why does that matter? What's to deal with this?

Why did he urge them to stay? Did he simply want to be the one to show hospitality? I don't think that's the only reason. You see, ever since Lot chose this valley, even in chapter 13 already, he's been in and around Sodom.

In other words, he knows of their evil. In chapter 13, verse 13, you'll see there that the men of Sodom are already being described as being wicked and great sinners against the Lord. And 2 Peter adds that righteous Lot was greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked, for as a righteous man living among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard.

Lot knows the sin of Sodom. He wants to show hospitality, yes. But beyond that, as a righteous man, as Peter calls him, he knows the evil that takes place within the city gates. He wants to protect the men from that wickedness.

So he urges them to stay, and they do. He prepares food, they eat. But it doesn't take long for things to take a turn, and the sin of the people of Sodom is immediately brought into the open. Look at verses four through 11.

But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man surrounded the house. And they called to Lot, where are the men who came to you tonight?

Bring them out to us, that we may know them. Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him, and said, I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. Behold, I have two daughters who have not known any man.

Let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please. Only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof. But they said, stand back. And they said, this fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge.

Now we will deal worse with you than with them. Then they pressed hard against the man, Lot, and drew near to break the door down. But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them, and shut the door.

And they struck with blindness the men who were at the entrance of the house, both small and great, so that they wore themselves out. Groping for the door, the outcry of the sin of Sodom against God is confirmed.

Before Lot and his visitors even have the chance to rest for the night, this mob forms outside his house. It's made up of all the men of the city, young and old, all the people of Sodom, to the last man.

And they call out to him, in verse five, with this request, they want to know where the men are that have come to the city, asking that they be brought out of the house to them so that the crowd may know them.

I'm afraid we do have to spend a moment here, even though it might not be pleasant, and work through what it means to wanting to know the two strangers. The Hebrew used there is the word for knowing, to have intellectual knowledge of something.

For example, when Adam and Eve ate of the fruit in the garden, God says that man had become like him, knowing good and evil. Or when the Lord said to Cain, Abel, where is your brother? And Cain answers, I do not know, am I my brother's keeper?

It's the same word Abraham used when he asked God regarding the land that he was to possess earlier, and said, oh Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it? Very simple. But we've also seen the same word used as a euphemism.

And when it's used this way, in the right context, it describes sexual relations. Genesis four, verse one. Now Adam knew his wife and she conceived and bore Cain. Same chapter, a few verses later in verse 17.

Cain knew his wife and she conceived and bore Enoch. Again, a few verses later, verse 25. And Adam knew his wife again and she bore a son and called his name Seth. That's the way it's being used here.

The context makes that clear. Verse six through eight, look at it. Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him, and said, I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. Behold, I have two daughters who have not known any man.

Let me bring them out to you and do to them as you please. Only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof. The desire of wanting to know these men is labeled as wicked. Lot even offers his own daughters to the mob instead, as if that was some kind of lesser evil.

And he specifies that they have not known any man, as if that would be an enticement to sway the crowd. The New Testament also comments on this episode. Second Peter 2 .7, again, Peter says, Lot was greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked.

Add to that Jude, verse seven, just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desires serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

The sin of Sodom here is sexual immorality and is specifically homosexuality. Now, there are people who have taken this passage and turned it into something else. They will argue that what is happening here in Genesis 19 is a matter of the people not showing hospitality to these two strangers.

And they go to Ezekiel 16, verse 49, and where God there rebukes Jerusalem for going after other gods and then compares Jerusalem to Sodom. And says of Sodom in Ezekiel 16, verse 49, behold, this was the guilt of your sister, Sodom.

She and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. Well, there's verse 50, which is usually not included in this argument, but says they were haughty and did an abomination before me, so I removed them when I saw them.

There are people that make the argument that Sodom was not destroyed because of sexual sin. And most definitely, they make clear that it had nothing to do with homosexuality. But they're neglecting simply of the poor and of the needy despite their abundance and prosperity.

You see, both of these are true. That the people of Sodom were prideful, that they did not aid the poor and needy, that their conduct was sensual, and that yes, here in Genesis 19, these things are manifested outwardly in the sin of homosexuality.

It's not the only sin that they're judged for. What's the prominent one here in our text that is Romans 1, 26, and verse 27? For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature.

And the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another. Men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

But why do we have to spend time on this? I want to give you two reasons. Because there has not been another sin until recently that has so vehemently been supported by society and even those who profess to be Christian.

We do not hear of people encouraging others to pursue stealing because we have this desire to make things our own that are not and cannot get rid of it. We do not see campaigns advocating for greed or judgment or dedicate one's life to drunkenness, to revile and lie, to go about and murder those who you hate because you struggle with anger and should just accept and embrace it.

And there are many who stand behind some form of pulpit and tell people to be proud of their sin. Secondly, it distorts God and his justice by turning him into something that he is not. See, when the judgment and wrath of God are done away with, when he no longer condemns sin, he is no longer just and righteous.

And therefore, man need not be saved. That means, Christian, that we have no gospel, that Christ did not have to come and die and resurrect. The gospel is emptied of being the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

It's a great evil not to tell people they're in sin, that it rightly earns the wrath of God. We must tell sinners the truth, not half the truth, but the complete truth, that yes, they are in sin, but there is hope.

Sin, Salvation, and the Cleansing Power of the Gospel

1 Corinthians 6, 9, and 10, I trust you know it well. But do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.

That's the first truth, but Paul doesn't stop there. He wrote verse 11 too, the second half of that truth, and it says, and such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God.

But the gospel, Jesus Christ, can deal with all sin. None of them are outside of his ability to do away with them. We cannot empty the gospel of Christ of its power. It was the gospel that changed Saul from a persecutor into an apostle.

It was the power of the gospel of Christ that made the tax collector, Zacchaeus, put to death his greed, give away half of his possessions and repay fourfold. It was the gospel that caused a prostitute to wipe the feet of Christ with her hair.

She loved much because she had been forgiven much. It's the power of the gospel that saved the pagan prostitute, Rhea. It's the power of the gospel that deals with all sin, including sexual immorality.

We do not have to send, brothers and sisters, people into hell by the droves because we think Christ is insufficient when he's not. Affirming sin is evil. It makes for a weak Christ, a useless Christ.

That's not who he is. But not only do the people of Sodom commit sin against God, their depravity runs deep and wide. Look again at verse nine. And notice the response to Lot's counteroffer. But they said, stand back.

And they said, this fellow came to sojourn and he has become the judge. Now we will deal worse with you than with them. Then they pressed hard against the man Lot and drew near to break the door down.

When the men don't get what they desire, they don't go, they don't leave, and they don't go, oh, okay, that's fine, we accept your offer. They don't return to their homes. They mock him as a stranger that has come to them and now acts as a judge by rebuking them for their sin.

How dare he? They're enraged and seek to do worse to them. They throw themselves further into sin, wanting to deal worse with Lot than they had intended to do with the two visitors. You see, sinners, any sinner does not like to be confronted with their wickedness.

There's no desire to turn from it. They love it, they give themselves fully to it. They seek it out. They let sin reign in their mortal bodies and obey its passion. They don't confess that they have sinned.

It's very contrary to the desire of the Christian who seeks to put it to death, mourns over his sin, confesses it, crucifies the flesh with its passions and desires, seeking to flee from them and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace.

Depravity in the human heart is a dark, deep, deep well. Notice that even in verse 10 and 11, when the angels take on Lot back into his house, they strike the people outside with blindness. What do you think a reasonable response would be when you expect them to maybe turn away at that point, to realize maybe this is not gonna work out?

They still don't stop. They continue to try to get into the house until they wear themselves out. Even when wickedness brings about its consequences, it gives the ungodly no reason to stop pursuing. That's what it looks like when God, Paul wrote the first chapter to the Roman, gives men and women up to the lust of their hearts and dishonorable passions.

The ungodly hate God and they love their sin. They're committed to it. I mean, think about that. Even in the time from when Lot meets them at the gate, they go to his house, they have food, word got around the entire city.

An entire mob was able to form by the time they're done eating together and now they're blind and they still don't leave. Sin is practiced without shame and in the open. All of them, every man, young and old.

All the people in the city. Moses writes this to make clear to us that there is no one righteous in the entire place. Not even 10. That's how deep and widespread the evil is in Sodom. By the way, if you have a society and don't make the mistake of looking down on Sodom here, if you have a society and ours is one like this that endorses sin publicly, rejoices in it, promotes in it, oh, you better believe it is a godless society.

We live in a godless nation. We have to face that fact, a nation that deserves the judgment of God. And in part, we have already received it by having been given up to lust of the heart and passions. And if shame before men for sin is no longer an issue, then the shame of sin before God has long gone from men's consciences.

You know this. Times you have been more concerned with what men would think if they found out about your sin than about God knowing your sin. Oh, this public shame of sin in a society is a sure sign of seared consciences and hardened hearts.

God's been pushed aside, he's not remembered, he's not honored, not acknowledged, or he's been fashioned into some false god that condones the evil that people delight in. This outcry of the sin of Sodom has certainly been confirmed.

Not even 10 righteous are found there. Wickedness spread to all men and runs so deep they devote themselves to it, come what may. So in verse 12, the angels begin to warn Lot of the destruction that is coming, and it gives us Lot's hope.

Lot’s Hope and the Urgency of Repentance

Look at 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, 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.

So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law who were to marry his daughters up, get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city, but he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting. Amidst all this darkness, there is a small light.

There's hope for Lot when he's being warned of the coming judgment. The angels tell him that they're sent by the Lord. The warning itself comes with much grace. It allows Lot to escape said judgment. He's given time to get out.

It's a hope only extended to him. He's the only one directly being warned, even though there are less than 10 righteous in this city. The one righteous person is known and given the hope of escaping. You see, the Lord knows who are his, and he keeps them even out of the many.

Lot heeds that warning and tries to tell his soon-to-be sons-in-law, but they're too blind to the evil of the city and its consequences. They're given the opportunity to turn from Sodom and live, but they don't take it.

This hope, salvation, is extended to them, and they think it's a joke. Turning from wickedness is a hard thing. The happening at Lot's house, now the warning of dread and terror to come, doesn't even move them to leave the place.

Repentance is a hard thing. One Puritan said there is no other fortification against the judgments of God but repentance. There's nothing in the world that can encounter them but repentance, and there are some of you here, in these very chairs, that need to repent.

Some of you need to repent for the very first time, and you know it, and I ask you, will you not hear the warning of the word of God that was given to Lot and written for you to heed? That the Lord will destroy the evil.

Repent and believe, Christ says. Turn from your sin, confess it. Turn to God, don't stay in Sodom. Get out of that place. Flee and flee to Christ. Don't be foolish like these two men. They had the hope of Lot extended to them, never even considered it.

There's a free offer for you of the hope of the gospel of Christ by repenting and believing on Him, trusting that He has taken the wrath of God upon Himself, that the justice of God is satisfied because He has died in the place of the sinner.

Oh, don't remain in Sodom. Lot heeds the warning, but he does so only slowly. Look at verse 15 through 22. As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.

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. And as they brought them out, one said, escape for your life.

Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away. And Lot said to them, oh, no, my lord. Behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness in saving my life, but I cannot escape to the hills, lest the disaster overtake me and I die.

Behold, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Let me escape there, is it not, a little one? And my life will be saved. He said to him, behold, I grant you this favor also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken.

Escape there quickly, for I can do nothing till you arrive there. Therefore, the name of the city was called Zoar. The night is come and gone. Morning is dawning, and Lot is still in Sodom. Even he didn't get out immediately.

He needs to be urged by the angels to get going. And even after they warn him a second time in verse 16, he still lingers. We're not explicitly told why. Perhaps he's hesitant to leave his possessions in the land and flocks behind.

Perhaps it was fear of having no home and safety in the hills. We don't know. Whatever it may be, it is not more important than escaping from the judgment of God. He doesn't fully see his urgent need to flee.

And it is only by the grace of God that he gets out. One commentator calls it gracious violence when Lot and his family are seized by the hand and taken out of the city by the angels. Described as the Lord being merciful to him, Calvin said, it is often necessary for us to be forcibly drawn away from scenes which we do not willingly leave.

His lingering would have been his ruin if it hadn't been the Lord by the means of the two men taking him out of that place. See, the Lord is gracious to spare the righteous. Even lingering Lot, even though parts of him are still somehow attached to Sodom in some way.

Where are you lingering? What are you still holding on to? Do you have an urgency to forsake your sin, to bring it before the Lord? We live in a similar world, in a similar place. This place has an effect on us.

We're not immune to it. See, God will not judge the righteous with the wicked as Abraham had asked of him. As he removes Lot, he shows that he even knows the one in the multitude of the city and spares him with his family.

God's people will not be destroyed together with the wicked, despite how slow they are at times to respond. Even when he's outside the city and he's being told to escape for his life, to not stop anywhere in the valley and to not look back, to escape to the hills, what does he doubt?

He doubts the surety and certainty of the warning still. He says, oh no, the disaster will surely overtake me when I go to the hills. And so he asks again to be allowed to stay in a small city nearby instead, surely the one that brings him out of the city will bring him safely through the valley and to the hills.

Is this not some hope for you as well? That just as the Lord knows the only righteous person in Sodom, Christian, if you are in Christ, he knows you and he knows you personally as one of his very own.

Even Lot, slow to believe and act, doubting the Lord, weak in faith, the Lord still sees him through. So even when you're slow to believe and even slower to act in accordance with what we're commanded, when you're slow and hesitant to trust and to rely on him, to even at times fully put all of your faith in Christ, he still knows his people, even with little and weak faith.

Divine Judgment on Sodom and the Warning of Eternal Consequences

He knows those who cry out to him, I believe, help my unbelief. Even for those, his grace is sufficient. But then we end, thirdly, with a divine judgment and mercy poured out. Verses 23 through 29. The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zohar.

Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah, sulfur 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 Lot's wife behind him looked back and she became a pillar of salt. And Abraham went early in the morning 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 looked and behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace. 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.

Isn't that a terrible scene? Horrendous, what's before us here. Very much like the flood. Lot makes it to Zohar and according to what the angel had said once he got there, the Lord rained down fire and sulfur from heaven on all the cities in the valley, on every person in the cities.

Even this fertile ground is now destroyed and lay in ashes. This is a complete judgment poured out. Nothing is left, no one is spare. That should be a dreadful thing for us to read. Lot's wife looking back, turning into a pillar of salt.

Smoke rising up in the entire valley, smoke of a furnace. Please listen, if I have failed you this entire time, if you have gotten nothing out of this, I apologize. Please forgive me, but please if you leave here, remember one thing, okay?

Please, if you take one thing home today, let it be this. Do not take sin lightly ever. The scene before us in the valley is a great warning to us. Let me remind you again of second Peter chapter two.

Speaking about false prophets, angels that have sinned, that will not be spared the ancient world, destroyed in the time of Noah. And then second Peter two six, he speaks of Sodom and Gomorrah. He says this, if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly.

What happens here in Genesis 19 will one day happen to all those not in Christ. There's not some form of fictional story. Evil has real, horrible, eternal consequences. And that's why we cannot minimize the sin and the happenings in Sodom.

Because it serves as a warning for what is to come. A horrible thing to come. Even Lot's wife in Luke 17 verse 32 serves as a warning. Christ says three words, remember Lot's wife. Using her as an example not to look back to Sodom, to be in love with the world.

And sin, too long for it to have one's heart tied up in this world. See, even for us Christians, sin is serious. It is the very reason Christ had to die. Please don't minimize it, confess it. Don't tolerate it.