Abraham - Stumbling in the Darkness

Where are you today? Are you living in your tent or have you moved into a permanent dwelling in this world? Do you have your eyes on that heavenly city? Are you a blessing to your family? Abraham was a blessing to his home.

And now let’s bow to pray. Gracious Father, we always need the work of the Holy Spirit, the ministry of the Holy Spirit, or else the Word of God does not come alive to us as it should. And so help us today. Fill with Your Spirit. Beyond the sacred page we seek Thee, Lord. Our spirits pant for Thee, Thou living Word. Nurture us and challenge us and convict us and cleanse us as we open Your Word, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Genesis 19 tells us about a family that fell apart. People are greatly concerned about the family today. The home seems to be the target for all kinds of attacks. It seems like families are no longer families, homes are no longer homes. Home is that place, said Robert Frost, home is that place that when you come they have to take you in. But alas, too often we let into our homes things that should not be there, sometimes people that should not be there. 

In Genesis 18, Abraham lets the Lord Jesus Christ and two angels into his home, and it’s a time of blessing, a time of fellowship, and God gives him promises concerning the future. In Genesis 19, the two angels go to Sodom and Lot lets them in his home, but alas, this is not a home that is walking with the Lord. You see, Abraham was the friend of God, Lot was a friend of the world. James 4:4 tells us, "Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." God would have enjoyed having fellowship with Lot had Lot been where Abraham was, but Lot had exchanged his tent for a house, the heavenly city for an earthly city. He had exchanged values for prices. He had exchanged the permanent for the temporary, the eternal for the passing. He had exchanged the glory of God for the praise of men, and as a consequence, he lost his own family. 

Now, a few years before when Lot was walking with Abraham, you would have never thought this was going to happen. Nobody would have said, "You know, Lot's going to end up really in the darkness." That's where he ended up, in a cave in the darkness. Abraham’s walking in the light, going from light to light, the path of the just is as the shining light that shines more and more unto that perfect day. But Lot's going from darkness to darkness, finally ends up in the darkness of a cave, getting drunk, committing incest. Yes, there are going to be two kinds of believers when the end comes: those who are faithful to the Lord, those like Abraham who are separated from sin, those who are walking with God, and alas, there are going to be those like Lot who are walking in the darkness, who are what we call carnal Christians, worldly Christians. And Lot lost everything, saved as by fire. He lost his home, he lost his possessions, he lost his wife, he lost his married daughters, he lost his sons-in-law, he lost his own integrity and honesty, he lost his altar, he lost his witness, he lost—and because he lost, he lost blessing and reward.

Now, that doesn't mean that the Father no longer loves this believer; it means that the believer no longer loves the Father. "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it, but he who does the will of God abides forever." Lot moves off the scene in this chapter; we don't see him again. Abraham keeps on going. In fact, Abraham is mentioned time and time again in the Word of God.

Notice now, "all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life." You see these three elements illustrated in Lot's family: the pride of life, Lot, as he argues with the Lord; the lust of the eyes, Lot's wife, as she turns back to behold the city and she then is turned into a pillar of salt; the lust of the flesh, Lot's daughters, as they lead their father into drunkenness and then into incest. It's an ugly picture. Here's a man who started off in a tent walking with Uncle Abraham who was the friend of God; he ends up in a cave, drunk, committing incest. And I would remind you that according to 2 Peter 2, Lot was a believer. These things do happen to believers, you know, and what a tragedy when they take place. 

Genesis 19:15-22, we'll look at Lot, and we see the pride of life. "When the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, 'Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city.'" Now, you'd think that Lot would have just run out, but he didn't. "And while he lingered"—there's the first problem. Here we have pride. He lingers. In Genesis 18, we see Abraham running, immediately obeying the will of God, immediately serving God. God tells Abraham to do something, he does it. But here's Lot, he lingers. Why? Well, he's thinking up a new plan. He's got another agenda. He's going to outguess God. "And while he lingered, the men the angels took hold of his hand, his wife's hand, the hands of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. And they said to him, 'Escape for your life! Do not look behind you, nor stay anywhere in the plain! Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed.'" That's an interesting statement. The Hebrew says "lest you be swept away." The will of God keeps us abiding forever; the judgment of God sweeps things away. 

"Then Lot said to them, 'Please, no, my lords!'" Now first he's lingering, now he's arguing. That's pride. You don't argue with the Word of God. "Indeed now, your servant has found favor in your sight." Let's pause to notice something here: a servant cannot say no. If you are a servant and you are told to do something, you say yes. A servant cannot plan his own life and he cannot say no. But Lot is saying, "No, my lords!" Now, you can say no and you can say Lord, but you can't say no, Lord. "Indeed now, your servant has found favor in your sight"—that's grace—"and you have increased your mercy which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountains, lest some evil overtake me and I die." Notice now, he lingers and now he argues with the Word of God. He says, "I can't do it, I won't do it." His heart was really in the city. 

Verse 20: "See now, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one." Now what difference did it make? If you're told to go to the mountains, go to the mountains. "Well, it's just a little sin I'm going to commit, not a big sin." Makes no difference; you're out of the will of God. "Please let me escape there! Is it not a little one? and my soul shall live." What a tragedy that Lot's heart was so wrapped up in the earthly city that he had to be there even though danger was near. Abraham's eyes were on the heavenly city; he looked for a city whose builder and maker was God. But Lot had his eyes from the very beginning on the earthly city. You find that back in Genesis 13:10, don't you? When Abraham told Lot to choose which way he wanted to go, Genesis 13:10, "And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt." Well, his eyes were always on the earthly. Our citizenship is in heaven, and our affection ought to be in heaven, our values ought to come from heaven. We ought to measure things on earth by things in heaven. The tragedy was Lot had his eyes on the earth. 

So he's lingering and then he's arguing with the Word of God, then he starts to bargain: "Let me go to this little city, it's not a very big one." Beware when you start bargaining with the will of God. God always gives His best to those who leave the choice with Him. And finally in unbelief, he runs off to the mountain. Notice what happens here. They said, "All right, go ahead, go to that city." Verse 22: "Escape there! For I cannot do anything until you arrive there." In verse 21 he says, "I will not overthrow this city." Now that's a promise. The angel said, "All right, you run to that city and you'll be safe." And where does he finally end up? In darkness, in a cave, in unbelief. He got to the city and then when the other cities were overthrown, Lot became frightened. He said, "Our city is going to be the next," and so finally he runs to the mountain. Why didn't he run there to begin with? And he ends up in the darkness of a cave. 

Have you ever noticed how people in the Bible when they turn away from God's Word end up in the darkness? That's because God's Word is light. Samson ends up in the darkness down in a grinding room, grinding, grinding away at the wheel. He's been blinded, they've taken his eyes out, he's bound, and there he is in that room just grinding away in the darkness. Saul, King Saul, rebelled against God's Word; he ended up in the darkness of a cave. Judas went out and it was night, John 13:30. Well, Lot shows us the pride of life. The world says do it your way, have it your way, take care of your own life, take care of number one. And Lot followed that philosophy. The world had gotten in and he was controlled by the pride of life. 

And Lot lost everything. He lost his wife, he lost his married daughters, he lost his sons-in-law, he lost his own integrity and honesty, he lost his altar, he lost his witness, he lost—and because he lost, he lost blessing and reward. I tell you, when the end came for Lot, he must have looked back and said, "I really missed my opportunity. I could have walked with God. I could have known God the way Uncle Abraham knows God. I could have brought blessing into this world instead I'm leaving behind the two enemies of the Hebrew people, the Ammonites and the Moabites." Well, what kind of a believer am I going to be? What kind of a believer are you going to be if Jesus Christ should come today? He's going to come; we don't know when, He's going to come, and the warning is given to us, you'd better be ready. Let's be ready by being at the altar, being at the tent, walking with the Lord, looking for His coming. 

Now let's look at Lot's wife. She is controlled by the lust of the eyes. In Luke 17:32, Jesus said, "Remember Lot's wife." There are not many women in the Bible we're told to remember. We're told to remember Miriam; God gave Miriam leprosy for rebelling against authority. We're told to remember Mary of Bethany who brought her ointment and anointed the Lord Jesus; Jesus said wherever the Word of God is preached, what she's done will be kept in remembrance of her. But we're commanded to remember Lot's wife. 

Verse 23: "The sun had risen upon the earth when Lot entered Zoar. Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the Lord out of the heavens. So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt." The lust of the eyes. Jesus said, "Remember Lot's wife," and when He made that statement, He was reminding us of the authority of the Bible. Our Lord believed this story; He believed this account in the Word of God. There are those who tell us that this account is not true, it's just a fable, a myth. Our Lord thought it was true. He said, "Remember Lot's wife." He believed in the authority of the Bible. He believed in the certainty of judgment. He says as it was in the days of Lot, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man. 

Before our Lord Jesus comes, the sun is going to rise and there is going to be peace and safety and people are going to say, "Isn't life wonderful? We're living in our sins," and then comes sudden destruction upon them as travail upon a woman with child. You know, when the people in Sodom and Gomorrah and the other cities least expected it, God's judgment came. But most of all, she's a reminder of the tragedy of unbelief and disobedience. She had to turn around and have one last look at Sodom. The lust of the eyes. God had said, "Don't look back." Jesus said anybody putting his hand to the plow and looking back is not fit for the kingdom of God. Don't look back! Look ahead, keep going, trust Me, believe Me. But there was no faith in her heart, and therefore she had unbelief, disobedience. Her emotions had been stirred; she had decided to go, she's running, but then she delayed and then she looked back and then she was judged. 

You know, there are many people who have made a beginning toward salvation. I'm not suggesting salvation is by running or by good works. I'm saying their emotions have been stirred, they have a desire to escape, their mind has been instructed, they know how to escape, but they've never by an act of their own will trusted the Lord Jesus Christ. The angels directed them and warned them and commanded them and finally compelled them to come out, but they couldn't stop her from turning around. The eyes see what the heart loves. Lot illustrates the pride of life, Lot's wife illustrates the lust of the eyes. What are you looking at? Now, had Lot and his family been looking at that heavenly city along with Abraham, they would have never been in Sodom. Had they had their eyes focused upon the eternal glory of God, they wouldn't have been there. But they'd gotten their eyes on the things of this world. 

I've seen that happen. In my pastoral ministry, I have seen families that had great opportunities. They were fellowshipping in good churches, but then they got worldly; the world came in, and before long the family had been destroyed. We don't read that Lot had an altar. He'd lost his testimony with his own family. They didn't believe him when he warned that judgment was coming. What a tragedy. Well, the lust of the eyes, Lot's wife; the pride of life, Lot; the lust of the flesh, Lot's daughters.

Then verses 30 through 38 tell the sordid story of drunken incest. Oh, the tragedy of compromise. I wonder if people realize what happens when you start fellowshipping with the works of darkness. I was reading in Ephesians 5 and could not help but notice how it parallels Lot's experience. Ephesians 5, listen to verse 8: "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light." But he didn't. "Proving what is acceptable to the Lord." No, he didn't want what was acceptable to the Lord; he argued with the Lord. And they end up in darkness. "Have no fellowship," says Ephesians 5:11, "have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness... It is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret." Well, that's what Lot ends up doing. 

The foolishness of getting out of the will of God finally ends up with drunkenness, doesn't it? Verse 18 of Ephesians 5: "Be not drunk with wine." So drunkenness and darkness and foolishness and lust—I’m not even going to read these verses; they’re in Scripture, we need to know what they say. It shows what happens to a family when a father, a mother do not trust and obey. You say, "Well, it can't happen to our family." Yes, it can. Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. Lot and his two single daughters end up in a cave. They had escaped the destruction of Sodom, but they had not escaped the pollution of Sodom. And they did exactly what the Sodomites would have done. They schemed and they yielded to the things of the flesh. They thought that everybody had been destroyed. They said, "Well, we’ve got to keep things going, we’ve got to have children, and the only man available is our father." And so here you have this godless scene of two daughters making their father drunk and committing incest and then giving birth to the Moabites and the Ammonites, the enemies of Israel. 

You know, where sin abounds, grace much more abounds. It says in the Bible that an Ammonite and a Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord unto the tenth generation. Well, one Moabitess got in; her name was Ruth. The story of Ruth is one of the most beautiful stories in the Bible. It's the account of an outsider who got in, and you find Ruth a Moabitess listed in the genealogy of the Lord Jesus. That's the grace of God. There's the grace of God in saving an outsider. Well, all of this began with a look. If you had told Lot several years earlier, "Lot, you're going to end up in a cave surrounded by destruction and you're going to be seduced into wicked sin," he would have said, "Oh no, that won't happen to me. You don't know me; I'm the nephew of Abraham. I've traveled with Abraham." Makes no difference, Lot. 

I might be speaking to someone right now who's had a great beginning. You were raised by a father and a mother who loved God, who prayed for you, who trained you in the Word of God, grandmother and grandfather who wept over you and prayed for you even before you were born. And now where are you? Have you gotten away from the Lord? It all started with a look. Genesis 13:10: he lifted up his eyes and he looked at Sodom and he said that is where I want to live. He pitched his tent toward Sodom, then he moved into Sodom, then he became an important man in Sodom, and then he was kidnapped out of Sodom by the four kings, he was rescued by Abraham, and he went right back to Sodom. And as a consequence, he ends up committing incest, getting drunk, and fathering the enemies of the people of Israel. Let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.

Where are you today? Do you—are you living in your tent or have you moved into a permanent dwelling in this world? Do you have your eyes on that heavenly city? Are you thinking about the glory of God? Are you a blessing to your family? Abraham was a blessing to his home, Lot brought judgment to his home. Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.