Unserious Lot (Genesis 19)

 Unserious Lot

When Sodom was destroyed Lot and his family were saved. Lot had invited the two angels who were sent to his home and this saved his life. 

But Lot had made many mistakes. Abraham had given him the choice for which land to live in when they split. Lot chose the richest land without any regard for Abraham or the society he would get himself into.

But what kind of life did he live in Sodom? We know he was still a believer and God had mercy on him. But he had some serious flaws.

This is visible in Genesis 19 where he wanted to save his sons in law who were born in Sodom.

[Gen 19:12-14 NKJV] 12 Then the men said to Lot, "Have you anyone else here? Son-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city--take [them] out of this place! 13 "For we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the LORD, and the LORD has sent us to destroy it." 14 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters, and said, "Get up, get out of this place; for the LORD will destroy this city!" But to his sons-in-law he seemed to be joking.

When Lot went to his sons-in-law to warn them about God’s judgment they interpreted it as him ‘joking’. 

Now jesters and unbelievers have always existed. But when people are known to be pious and to take their faith seriously they will not be seen as joking when talking about this kind of judgment.

They may be seen as madmen and they may be laughed at, but they won’t be seen as joking.

The fact they interpreted it this way shows that Lot, though he was considered righteous, was quite weak.

If Lot had been consistently serious about his faith, if he had shown it and talked about it, their sons-in-law would not have thought he was joking.

But now they did and it cost them their lives.

The way we express our faith can have a direct influence on the salvation and belief of others. If we don’t take our own faith very seriously and if we are weak and are ashamed for God’s cause while making compromises and perhaps even take part in people despising the faith with jest, then how can we expect them to take our faith seriously?

Lot’s psychology seems to be one of weakness and unseriousness. He did not take his faith serious enough for people to know he was not joking.

This is easy for people to do when they are surrounded with a culture where God and His faith is despised. Those who are of a weak spirit will slowly draw back out of fear. They simply can’t take it too seriously and the surrounding people do good work in cooling their zeal.

This is simply human.

But if we are in such a situation we are to fight against it. Of course there has to be tact and great care, but there should be no fear, compromise or any question about our seriousness. 

We may be bold, uncompromising against sin and serious about our faith despite the surrounding Sodomites.