In the Beginning: A Study in Genesis 15-26Sample

Is God Tolerant or Intolerant of Our Sexual Sin?

Genesis 18 begins with God’s visit to Abraham at which time He again promised the birth of Isaac, this time within the year. Sarah was eavesdropping on the conversation between Abraham and the Lord and, like her husband did in Genesis 17, she too laughed at the Lord. She likely did so because, at this point, her husband was nearing 100 years of age and she was barren her entire life.

As the Lord and the two “men” traveling with Him got up to leave Abraham, they then revealed to him the impending destruction of the nearby city of Sodom. The Lord remains to discuss the impending judgment as the two “men” went into the city to investigate it on His behalf.

Knowing the justice of God, Abraham feared that perhaps the godly people in the city would be wrongly harmed amidst the destruction of the godless. The Lord assured Abraham that the city did not have more than a few righteous people and that they would be spared as Noah and his family were in the days of the flood. Genesis 18 closes by setting the stage for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19.

In Genesis 19, the two angels whom the Lord had sent to investigate the sexual sin of Sodom and Gomorrah were welcomed for hospitality by Lot as they had been cared for by Abraham. As they rested in Lot’s home, the perverted men of the city surrounded the home demanding that Lot’s guests be sent out for homosexual sex and possibly even to be gang raped by the crowd of men. Lot responded by offering the disgusting solution that he would send out his two virgin daughters to instead be gang raped by the crowd. In this, we see the evil not only in the men but also in Lot who both chose to live in that city and to hand his own daughters over willingly to be assaulted.

Thankfully, God intervened and blinded the perverted men. The two “men” then told Lot to get his family out of town before God rightly reduced the hellish town to ashes. Unlike Abraham who repeatedly obeyed God immediately, Lot was still in the city the next morning with his family and had to be literally walked out of town by the two “men”. Once safely out of the city, one of the angels commanded the family to run for their lives without looking back or stopping. Lot then begged the angel to permit him to instead flee to a small nearby town called Zoar (which means small) and the angel kindly agreed to permit Lot and his family to do so.

Lot and his family barely made it out of town in time as God rained down burning sulfur (literally burning asphalt) on Sodom and Gomorrah, killing all the people, and destroying their land much like in the days of Noah. Lot’s wife looked back in sinful unbelief.

Today, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is under great revision by people who claim to be practicing homosexual Christians. These people seek to teach that God sanctions and blessed homosexual sex, which directly contradicts Scripture (Leviticus 18:22, 20:13; Romans 1:26-27; I Corinthians 6:9-11; I Timothy 1:9-10; Jude 17). They even go so far as to teach that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for reasons other than homosexual sin, often stating that God was angry because of the Sodomites’ inhospitality to the two “men” who were visiting the city.

Since the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is the most graphic account of God’s response to sexual sin in general and homosexual sin in particular, we need to consider the reasons why the sin judged in Sodom was homosexual sex.

•The sexual sin of Sodom and Gomorrah has long been held to be homosexuality as our English word sodomy indicates.

•Earlier, in Genesis 13:12-13, when Lot chose to live in Sodom, God warned Abram about its wickedness in the days preceding the visit of the two angels saying, “Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom. Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the LORD.”

•Genesis 18:20-21 records God’s account of the great sin saying, “Then the LORD said, ‘The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.’”

•Even Lot said their sin was wicked, which is saying a lot as his answer was the “less” sinful solution of offering his own daughters to be raped when in Genesis 19:7a-8a he says, “No, my friends. Don't do this wicked thing. 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.

•In Genesis 19:5 it says, “They [the men of Sodom] 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.’” Some have argued that the word rightly here translated “sex” does not mean sex, but when used elsewhere in Genesis it simply does (e.g. 4:1, 4:17, 4:25, 24:16). Even in this same chapter of Genesis 19, the same word is used to explain that Lot’s daughters had not had sex with any men (19:8) which makes it abundantly clear that the men simply wanted to have sex with the “men” in Lot’s house.

•The parallel account of Genesis 19 in the book of Judges 19 likewise speaks of homosexual gang rape, which is likewise condemned there also.

•And, if there should be any question as to whether or not the sin of Sodom was homosexual sex, Jude 7 is emphatic on this point saying, “In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.”

In summary, the account of Sodom and Gomorrah from Genesis 18:16-19:29 shows God’s righteous judgment of sexual sin in general and homosexual sin in particular. We also again see the faith of Abraham. Though Abraham knew that Sodom and Gomorrah would be destroyed, and rightly feared that his nephew Lot and Lot’s family could be destroyed, Abraham did not run into town to warn them and save their life. Instead, in faith, Abraham prayed to God for their lives to be spared and went to bed to sleep soundly in faith that God would answer his prayer. And, when he awoke the next morning to see the cities reduced to ashes, Abraham did not doubt that God spared Lot and did not venture into Sodom to investigate if he was indeed still alive but rather simply trusted God.

In the closing account of Genesis 19:30-38, we then witness one of the most troubling and bizarre stories in all of Scripture. There, the story of Lot closely resembles the story of Noah. After being spared widespread judgment that rained down from Heaven, both Noah and Lot get drunk and end up naked and passed out.

After seeing the devastation that God brought to Sodom and Gomorrah and not trusting that God would protect him as he already had once, Lot moved into the mountains to live alone in a cave with his daughters. Lot had no wife as she had died, and the girls had no husbands as they were living alone with their father. Fearing they would never get pregnant, the girls got their father drunk and had sex with him. The sons they bore by their own father were the heads of the Moabite and Ammonite races that later became bitter enemies of God’s people.

Lot is morally culpable for the incest because he is apparently a very poor head of his family. In Genesis 19:14, Lot’s sons-in-law laughingly mocked him when he told them that God was going to judge the sin in their town, and his two daughters conspire to usurp his headship. In Genesis 19:30-38, he has his daughters living in a cave, oblivious to their desire to marry and have children, without a plan to give them in marriage as was his duty; and they have apparently learned to share his sexual disrespect for them as they together agree that getting their father drunk, having sex with him, and bearing his children is a good idea. Additionally, the girls share the values of the world and not the Lord, which they learned growing up in the sinfully sick city of Sodom which Lot chose for them. The point is painfully clear: if believers raise their children in the world, their children will grow up immoral, confused, and perverted.

The theological point of this story is that Lot was no more of a righteous man than the other men who perished in Sodom. But, through Abraham, Lot was given grace and spared the wrath of God. And while we may protest God’s sparing of Lot, the point is very simply that, if God were not gracious, everyone on the earth would end up going the way of Sodom.

But, in time, God uses what was evil for good as only He can. Eventually, out of the lineage of the godless Moabite race will come a woman named Ruth, and subsequently Jesus Christ.

Questions:

1. What does Genesis 18 reveal to us about God, particularly His mercy and justice?
2. In Genesis 18:16-33, Abraham prayed for God to spare his nephew Lot and his family from the destruction in Sodom and Gomorrah. Genesis 19:29 says that God remembered Abraham’s prayer, which is why he rescued Lot. What things can you learn about prayer from this story?