Genesis 19:8 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Genesis 19:8

Comments

This verse is bound to perplex people. Here is just Lot and yet he attempts this terrible way out of his predicament. Various explanations are offered as to how he stooped so low. How with any grain of decency could he do it? Some say, though he did not yet know they were angels, his guests appeared to be noble (hence Abraham’s reaction to them), and so he was even more concerned to protect them. But there is no evidence for this. What damage would be done to those two daughters by such an experience? What damage was done simply by their knowing that their father was willing to allow this to happen? ‘He should rather‘, as Calvin says, ‘have endured a thousand deaths, than have resorted to such a measure.‘ How could he possibly do it? Because he was desensitised by living in that place. ‘What an awful thing it would be to me as a man and a magistrate, if guests, guests who I was entertaining, were abused by you!’ And he actually thinks it is less of an evil, to offer his daughters. How bent our mind, our judgment and tastes become when we are immersed in the sinful culture of this vain world. Lot was a child of God, but you see how his lifestyle has robbed him of so much that is good. What a position he was in! He was willing to sell out his daughters to secure his position. On the assumption that he was not lying about their virginity, we must assume that those who are later called sons in law were either married to other daughters, or that they had not yet started to live with the two daughters mentioned in the passage. Lot had taken up a position in Sodom, but everything he had achieved was a delusion. The city went on as it had always gone on.We do not see any evidence of desperate emergency prayer. He is trying to solve his own problems. The irony is that help was so near at hand. He had lived in luxury; he had aimed at status; he was living in sinful surroundings. We have to warn people surprisingly often about the absolute necessity of coming out of the world. Lot had forfeited all.

Application

We say, ‘I am somewhat fearful of God, but I will live for fun, for career, for enrichment.’ Yes, but you try it. Life will be a delusion. Lot thought he was free, but he wasn’t and neither are we. We are in bondage to the circumstances of life which we do not control, and to our fallen hearts. We know we have got selfish appetites. My heart ensures that I lose my temper. My circumstances determine whether I lose my job, or my friends leave me. The ageing processes is claiming me more and more. Pride holds sway over all my decisions. I will not be free at all, however much I think I have influence.

Some Christians will stay in religious denominations when those there are cynical about the Bible and Christian ways. They reason that you can stay in corrupt society without being affected by it. Or think of Christians who try to keep all their worldly friends; it affects the way they act and think. That is why we should never do it personally, and we should never get involved as churches with other churches which do not accept the fundamentals of the faith. This is the teaching of the Bible, page after page. Why won’t people take it seriously?

Lot countered one evil with another. That is never the way to deal with it. Maybe there is a parallel when someone is bad tempered to us and we are bad tempered back to them; or when we think it is acceptable to cheat another person, because they too are cheats. You never respond to evil like this. Never answer lies with further lies.

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Genesis 19:8 Commentary and Bible Study