Wednesday Bible Study - Foundations of Redemptive History Pt. 2 (Session 6)

Okay. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you as we continue on in the book of Genesis that we get to see your heart, we get to see your character. Father, we want to draw near to you, not just words on a text. God, we want to understand you. Father, even as we learned this past Sunday, we want to love you. Our desire, God, to grow our affections to be genuine. And so, Lord, I pray that your words would be from your lips. God, that we would hear the voice of our shepherd through these words. God, that we would be drawn to worship. That our singing would come from our hearts. That our love for you wouldn't grow just individually but corporately. As we go into your word, I pray that you would sharpen your church for your glory.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Come, behold the wondrous mystery in the dawning of the King. Come, behold the wondrous mystery in the dawning of the King. He the theme of heaven's praises, robed in frail humanity. In our longing, in our darkness, now the light of life has come. Looked to Christ who condescended, took all flesh to ransom us. Come, behold the wondrous mystery.

He the hell-bound man, He the perfect Son of man. He the perfect Son of man. In His living, in His suffering, never trace nor stain of sin. See the true and better Adam come to save. The hell-bound man, the hell-bound man. The hell-bound man, Christ the great and sure fulfillment. Of the law in Him we stand. Come, behold the wondrous mystery, Christ the Lord up on the tree. In the stead of ruined sinners, hang the Lamb in victory.

See the price of our redemption. See the Father's plan unfold, bringing many sons to glory. grace unmeasured, love untold. Come, behold the wondrous mystery, stained by death the God of light. But no great could ever restrain Him. Praise the Lord, He is alive. What a foretaste of deliverance. How unwavering our hope. Christ in power resurrected, as we will be.

Christ in power resurrected, as we will be. Christ in power liberated, as we will be. Christ in power liberated, as we will be.

And along with that is the Easter resource booth. That is going to be outside on Resurrection Sunday. So look for that booth. Our outreach team is going to be there. There are going to be resources there. It is going to be a red canopy. And they will have a banner set up. And we will be having some people there to field questions. And it should be a really good opportunity. For people that may have questions about Christianity. Maybe they are going through things in their lives. To bring them over to that. And we can pray with them together. We can walk through different things together. And with the Passion Week overall. Please remember that next week. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. We will be meeting in the main sanctuary.

For the Passion Week. Devotions. And we are going to be having some of our brothers and sisters. Giving their testimonies on those nights as well. On Thursday. If you have yet to sign up for the Passover meal. Please do. It is going to be right here in this room. There is room. So go ahead and sign up for that. On Good Friday. On Good Friday. Parking is going to be a little tough. So keep that in mind. Make sure that you don't try to get here by like right on time. Because right on time means you will be late. So please try to get here a little bit earlier. And then Resurrection Sunday is going to be. We are going to be starting with the early rice service at 6am that morning. Food will be provided that day as well.

And so you can keep all of that in mind. And be looking forward to that. Now before we get into our Bible study. If we could just. Get a few short things. So. Sorry. Hold on one second. I was told the color is weird when I do that.

All right. So we are here. Now in session six. The promised birth of Isaac. And then we are looking at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. A lot of strange happenings in these chapters. But a quick review. We are not going to actually review the things. But just looking back and remembering a few things. Number one. Please don't be tied to my questions. I know there is a ton. It could be overwhelming. But try to learn to come up with your own questions. So inductive study is just asking lots and lots of questions today. We will be asking lots and lots of questions together. But you do not need to sit there. And feel like you have to answer every single question that I am giving. Those are there.

To help guide. Help aid. You don't even need to answer those questions if you don't want to. Okay. But whatever it is that helps you to understand what is going on in the text. That is what we are shooting for. So create your own inductive questions. This is easier than you think. Especially with like Genesis for example. Because of the cultural things that were going on in these texts. It can feel very intimidating. But asking questions is really, really easy. It is like, huh? Why? Why did they do this? Why did they do that? So asking is a lot easier than you think. Working through it can be a little challenging. But that is how we build it up. We start off by asking good questions. And as another reminder, please try to stay away from AI answers.

Okay? I know like, it is so crazy now. It is not just ChatGPT. A long time ago you would like Google something. But now it is like, it forces AI onto you in the beginning. Right? Gemini. So just keep that in mind. It is very, very tempting. But the reason why we say this is because it is just pulling things from lots of different places. And sometimes it could just be majority consensus and it just puts it out there. It sounds really, really good. But we have to learn to stay away from that. What we want to do is get into the text ourselves. Ask lots of good questions. Cross reference all over the Bible. And we will look a little bit into that today. And then at the end, if we want to look into a commentary or something like that, it will help us out.

But our goal is not to try to figure out every detail, every nuance of what is going on in the text. We want to get kind of the big picture. I will try to fill in some of the cultural background things that might be helpful. But again, your goal is not to impress one another in these tables. So we are not like here, we have our little thesis and then we are giving it to one another. And then we just get fat heads. We do not want to do that in our groups. We want to come with hearts that are large, that are ready to receive and to learn. And so AI can directly inject Botox into your head. And you just walk around with like a big bobble head. Please, please, let's try to fight that temptation.

And let's really, really try to work on a wrestling with the text. And the more we wrestle with it, AI could spit us into Hebrews right away. But if we work our way there, somehow we land there and then we discover it's like gold. And it will stick in you much, much, much longer than if you just had AI spit it out for you. And so there is a reasoning behind this. There are multiple things why it might be beneficial to do that. Plus, AI has given me heresy before too. So we do not want to do that as a church. Okay. So here are our questions. We'll meet back here at eight o'clock. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Well, if we are ready, let's go ahead and begin.

I'll pray to open this time. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray that you would help us to see and understand your words, your heart. God, thank you so much that in the examples given that we can really see how everything is pointing to Jesus. It's in his name we pray, amen. Amen. Genesis 18 and 19. We are in the promised birth of Isaac and some of us would, I mean, pretty much all of us, we probably are seeing a little bit of deja vu. We recognize that the promise has already been given many times, actually. And then just last chapter, it seemed like there was a very similar rehashing that had happened. And then we see the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. We're going to break these two chapters into five chunks today.

So we'll go a little bit bigger, wider swaths. And you can do this. You can do this easily, which is especially in narratives, what you want to do is break them up into chunks. And so, for example, you don't have to do exactly like this, but number one, God visits and reaffirms the Son. Very simple. And it helps us to see in these chunks what's going on. Number two, the judgment and the intercession. So God pronounces this judgment and then we see this back and forth between God and Abraham. And then, number three, the two angels go and we see the wickedness of Sodom. And then, number four, the warning that's given to his family and then the destruction that comes and then the aftermath. So by breaking it down like this, it helps us to see a little bit better what's going on in the flow of the text.

So here's the first. God visits and reaffirms a Son. Chapter 18, verse 1 through 15. Now, what you want to do in inductive study, again, you don't want to just come and listen to what I'm doing here or just try to listen to what everybody else got. You want to be trying to ask the questions. We can all do this quite easily. So, ask questions. Go through the text. Don't just have question marks over your brain. What you want to do is look and, like, actually write them down on a piece of paper or type it out or on a notepad or something. Who were these three men? Very, very simple. And you could start piecing some things together. Why Abraham's hospitality? Why was he doing all of this? Why Abraham's frenetic energy?

It seems like he's kind of running around everywhere. Isn't this man, like, 100 years old? What's he doing? Why the reiteration of the promise this time next year? Like, we're listening to this and we're like, do we have a timing right here? Didn't he already say this? Is this, like, really close to each other? Why the details of Sarah hiding and laughing? And so, we have all of those questions. And then we just kind of take it chunk by chunk. Now, we start reading. It says, now the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre. And the oaks of Mamre should already start sticking to our brains now. Remember, the oaks of Mamre is where Abraham and Lot, they had actually right before. This is where Abraham came right after they split.

Do you remember? When God said, I'm going to give you this land. And then Abraham said, I'm going to let Lot choose because their men were fighting each other. And so, Lot chose what is seen as Sodom and Gomorrah. And then Abraham ends up residing at the oaks of Mamre. It's called Hebron. And so, it's right there. And it's next to the Dead Sea, if you remember. Just keep remembering Dead Sea, the Valley of Siddam right here, or the Salt Valley is what some people will call it. There's the River Jericho that goes, sorry, Jordan River that goes all the way up north. And then, today we're just going to use this map. So, we have the Moabites and the Ammonites that reside there. This is in the future.

This isn't at our text today. And then we remember this place. Then Abraham moved his tent and came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron. And there he built an altar to the Lord. And so, this is an interesting place to kind of revisit because, again, this is where Abraham settles after Lot leaves for Sodom and Gomorrah. And then we're kind of picking this back up. Remember, we've been like in this Hagar thing for a while. And we're kind of picking back up here. Genesis 14, 13. Then a fugitive came and told Abram the Hebrew. Now, he was living by the oaks of Mamre, the Amorite, brother of Eschol and brother of Aner. And these were allies with Abram. And so, this is headquarters.

This is home base for him. Later on, when he dies, we're going to see this again. When Sarah dies, we're going to see this place again. Going back to the text. Now, the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre. Now, we're already starting to track these appearances of God. In the beginning, it was just a voice. It was like God says, go, right? And we have no idea what that looks like. And then later, a theophany happens. Remember, it's in a vision. And then there's a smoking furnace kind of thing. And so, we see just crystallizing of God in the reiteration of his promise happening more and more and more, deeper and deeper and deeper. And here, we get the clearest image yet. Now, remember, God appears as an angel of the Lord, but he has not yet appeared to Abram in that manner.

That was only with Hagar. Do you remember that? And so, here, this is almost like very fascinating, right? When these three men appeared, they were standing opposite him. And when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth. It's not a vision. It's not some voice of God. He's seeing them. They're right in front of him. And they even began to eat together. This is God trying to communicate. God getting closer and closer and closer. And so, we see the reverence that immediately happens. We don't know if he knows this is Yahweh. But we know that Abraham sees something very, very unique, supernatural, and special that's going on here. This is of God at the very least if he doesn't know that this is God.

And it says, he saw them, he ran from the tent to meet them, and he bowed himself to the earth. There's a lot of verbs. There's a lot of action happening here. And then he says this, My Lord, if I now have found favor in your sight, please do not pass by your servant. Please let a little water be brought and wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree, and I'll bring a piece of bread that you may refresh yourselves. After that, you may go on since you have visited your servant. And so, he's showing hospitality. Now, this one is a little bit of cultural background needed. Back during this time, ancient Near East, hospitality is huge. Hospitality is very, very important. Your very own honor and the very person of who you are is invested in your hospitality.

And so, we see two things going on here. Abraham, and we also see a similar thing going on with Lot and how he tries to protect them. And so, we'll visit that in just a moment. So, Abraham, now, here's the frenetic energy. Hundred-year-old man just running here and there. So, Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, Quickly, prepare three measures of fine flour. Knead it and make bread cakes. Abraham also ran to the herd and took a tender and choice calf and gave it to the servant. And he hurried to prepare it. He took curds and milk and the calf which he had prepared and placed it before them. And he was standing by them under the tree as they ate. Hurried, quickly, ran, hurried. They're trying to paint a picture here.

God is trying to show that he's making this feast for them. He said, I just want to prepare some bread for you. Like three measures of fine flour. This can feed a bunch of people. This is like overkill. And then he goes and kills a choice calf. A fat calf. These were ones that were saved. These were ones that were being fed the best food so that for a celebration can be given. And Abraham gets all the best of what he has. Lays it down before these men. Now, we start like kind of just thinking things. We want to start like cross-referencing in our minds. And we might have, some of us, this might have triggered. In Hebrews 13 too, it says, Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers. For by this, some have entertained angels without knowing it.

Okay. That's interesting. But we see that there are theological points that we can kind of pick up here. In Matthew 25, 37, Then the righteous will answer him, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you something to drink? And when did we see you a stranger and invite you in or naked and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and come to you? And the king will answer and say to them, Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them you did it to me. And we see a very clear glimpse of God's heart. Why this is important. The one who knows God, the one who walks with God, has the heart of God. And this is what God's heart is like.

He loves and cares for people who are in need. He will care for the stranger. He will care for those who are naked, who are hungry, who are sick, who are in prison. Ultimately, this points to what? Spiritual poverty. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Ultimately, this is pointing to the fact of people who are in great need of God. And so we see this. Now, I'm going to make a quick plug here. Into Bible. This is very helpful. So what I'm going to do is, oh, I guess I have to do it this way. Just to help you, you can use resources like this. And this is Into Bible. One of our brothers, Daniel, he helped develop this. Very, very good resource. And it's helpful because you can just do things like this.

If you hit that thing right here, then it has a lexicon. And it shows you what these words mean. So it's very, very helpful. And so you don't need to ask AI. You can just do it yourself. And so when we look at things like this, and you're like, I don't know where to go. And that's very, very, it's easy to feel that way. It's easy to feel a little bit overwhelmed, especially in these passages that have so much cultural background to it. And so you look at this and go, these three men, who are they? And sometimes they'll give you things like these cross-references. You open it up, and then you see, oh, look at this. It helps track things like this. Oh, a man wrestled with Jacob. Oh, okay. And so you start to connect things.

It lifts up his eyes. There's a man standing opposite him with a drawn sword. And all of these things pointing to Christophanes, right? But if you go far enough, and this is where I found this text, do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by it some have entertained angels without knowing it. And so it just kind of helps you to start to build a biblical worldview. Sometimes you might not even know how it connects, but knowing about it helps you to start creating some form of container that will help you in the future. So you can't conquer it overnight, but resources like this are very, very helpful. Okay. So there's that. Now, moving on. He said, I will surely return to you at this time next year, and behold, Sarah, your wife, will have a son.

And so there's a reiteration, and you're already thinking this is deja vu. We've heard this before. And even this idea of where is Sarah, your wife? You're like, man, does God do this a lot? He does. Like, where are you? And he goes to Cain. They're like, where's your brother? Where's Sarah, your wife? Like, do you not know that she's right there behind that tent door? You know, he knows, but it's for them. It's for humanity. It's not for him. Why does he have to come down with these two angels? Oh, that's a spoiler alert. I hope that's okay. Why does he have to come down? He knows what's going on in Sodom and Gomorrah. Why make the painstaking effort of coming down into the world, going to them, have to walk around, talk to people, go over here, and have to go through this with these wicked men?

It's not for God. And we're seeing something here. And so God, he even, like, uses these times to kind of reiterate these promises because it's for them. It's for humanity. It's for people. Then God said to Abraham, I will bless her, and indeed I will give you a son by her. Then I will bless her, and she will be a mother of nations. Kings of peoples will come from her. Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said in his heart, will a child be born to a man 100 years old? And will Sarah, who is 90 years old, bear a child? But God said, no, but Sarah, your wife, will bear you a son. You shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.

But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this season next year. And when he finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham. One of the guys in my table brought up kind of an interesting point, and I wonder if that was it. Because I had that question, and I didn't get it answered, which was, why is he doing this so quickly? One thing for sure is that here in chapter 17, it says that God appeared to him, but we don't know how. We don't know what it looks like. But in chapter 18, it says that he actually came and walked amongst, like with Abraham, right? They walked together. And so we know it's getting closer and closer, more and more crystallized as a promise.

But maybe it had something to do with the fact that he was circumcised. If you're circumcised, it might be difficult to have kids right after that, right? And so perhaps, maybe that's why. I'm not sure. We keep going here, though. So he asked, where's Sarah, your wife? And he's there in the tent. Sarah was listening at the tent door, which was behind him, and Sarah laughed to herself. Now, I want to remind you, before you ridicule Sarah, remember everything that they've gone through. Remember the years that have gone by where they have been trying to be faithful to him. And remember her identity and security as it was exposed in the story with Hagar. All of that was there. And so God comes and says, she's going to have a son.

And then it's just for her, she's like, I don't know. You know, like this is like you're crying wolf.

And so the Lord said to Abraham, why did Sarah laugh, saying, shall I indeed bear a child when I am so old? Is anything too difficult for the Lord? Because you start asking, why didn't he do this faster? Why all the waiting? Why all the detail? Why all this, the shenanigans? Is he just playing with us? Is he just playing with Abraham and Sarah? Does he derive some sick joy? No, it's because he cares. It's because he loves them. It's because he's trying to grow them. It's not just the destination. It's the journey that it is to get there, to understand, to test their faith, to see, do you believe in a God who can do anything? Is anything too difficult for the Lord? And the answer to that is no.

Do you remember this? For nothing will be impossible with God. Do you remember that? Does anyone remember where that comes from? Luke. Luke chapter 1. It's a lot, but let's read it because it's meant to evoke memories. Now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph of the descendants of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And coming in, he said to her, Greetings, favored one, the Lord is with you. But she was very perplexed at this statement and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was. The angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus.

He will be great, and he will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end. And Mary said to the angel, How can this be, since I am a virgin? And the angel answered and said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. And for that reason, the Holy Child shall be called the Son of God. And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age. And she who was called barren is now in her sixth month, for nothing will be impossible with God. It's meant to show us. God is trying to develop faith.

Yes, he could have made this come faster, but he is exhibiting patience, compassion, kindness towards us. Matthew 17, 20, and he said to them, Because of the littleness of your faith, for truly I say to you, If you have the faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, Move from here to there, and it will move, and nothing will be impossible to you. So it's not great. Their faith is crystallizing. It's shaping. We've seen lots of mess-ups, and you're like, How can you laugh, Sarah? It's very understandable. Just remember where they're coming from. Remember when God said to them, Go forth from your country, and from your relatives, and from your father's house to the land, which I will show you.

And I'll make you a great nation, and I'll bless you, and make your name great, and so you shall be a blessing. And I'll bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you, all the families of the earth will be blessed. And look at just the littleness of faith. Without having any kind of proof or evidence for anything, it says, So Abram went forth. So all the way back in chapter 12. And this is the entire journey that he's been on thus far. And he just went. Remember this? He just went. He just believed. And yes, he falls flat on his face over and over again. But it is at the appointed time, God says. At the appointed time, I will return to you at this time next year.

And Sarah will have a son. And Sarah denied it, however. I did not laugh. You know, you're like, oh, Sarah, come on, you know. You're like, I did not laugh. For she was afraid. And he said, no, but you did laugh, you know. Okay. It's just funny. 2 Peter 3. But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved. Remember, we saw this last week. That with the Lord. That with the Lord, one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. Because God does it at the fulfilled, appointed time. The timing is always perfect. But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, so that he might redeem those who are under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

As sons. This is needed for the fullness of the Gentiles even to come in. And so, I want to remind us, it's going to be many more years. We think it's taking forever for Isaac to come into the picture. Come on. It's going to be thousands of years. But all because of his compassion. And the point is to anticipate in faith. To grow in your faith. And so, we can pull application. Now, each one here in the italics, I'm just going to put, reminding you, we're trying to see who God is. And we derive our application from who God is. So, that's where I got this question. Look at how Abraham responds when the Lord arrives. How can I cultivate a heart that has the same urgency and desire to please God as Abraham?

Why is Abraham there wanting to give the choicest of his cattle? Why is he there trying to grab all of this bread? They're going to eat just a little. Why is he making enough for a host of people? Look at his heart. He wants to lavish these things. How can I cultivate a heart that doesn't give God my leftovers? That doesn't give God just like what it is that like, ah, just like, well, how much do you need to give? And we're like nickel and diming. Like, what would that look like? Who is God to me? How can I be like Abraham? Two. The judgment and the intercession. Verses 16 through 33. So, again, ask questions. Now, we're not going to go through each of these. But just ask. Why are the men heading towards Sodom?

Why is he revealing his plans to Abraham? All of these questions you can ask. All right. So, it says, then the men rose up from there and looked down towards Sodom, and Abraham was walking with them to send them off. Okay. What's happening here? So, we need to be reminded of something here. Sodom and Gomorrah, we know, and we should know them from a few places. One place was actually in the Table of Nations. In Genesis 10, 19, the territory of the Canaanite extended from Sidon, which is way up top, as you go towards Gerar, and as far as Gaza, as you go towards Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, as far as Asha. Four places given there to show the territory of the Canaanites. And remember, the Canaanites were cursed.

Remember when God said, cursed be, not Ham, but Canaan. The curse be Canaan. And so, that's our first understanding. So, there was a foreboding that was happening when Lot chose Sodom and Gomorrah. So, Lot chooses the land. Genesis 13, 10. Lot lifted up his eyes, saw all the valley of the Jordan that was well watered everywhere. This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as you go toward Zor. Okay. Bookmark Zor. Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled in the cities of the valley, and moved his tents as far as Sodom. Now, the men of Sodom were wicked exceedingly, and sinners against the Lord. So, what we're seeing with Sodom, Gomorrah, Adma, Zebuim, and Zor.

Now, where did we see those five nations? In the Eastern Conference versus the Western Conference, right? Do you remember the battle, the war that had happened? Those were the five kings. It was those five, right? And so, this is very purposeful. And do you remember why it was that they were saved? Because of Lot, through Abraham. And so, that's why they were saved. But they're exceedingly wicked. Now, just one more here about Sodom.

Genesis 14, 21. At the end, if you remember how it ends, the king of Sodom said to Abram, give the people to me. Take the goods for yourself. Okay? All right. So, we have these, like, memories. Now, in verse 17, the Lord says, shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? Since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation. And in him, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. Reiteration of the covenant, right? And then, he says, for I have chosen him. Remember, election. We've talked about election now. So that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice. We're seeing a lot of juxtaposition here about a man of faith who is living by righteousness and justice.

Okay? And so, the juxtaposition is, I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless. This is Abram, Abraham. And then, we have Sodom and Gomorrah. Now, the men of Sodom are wicked exceedingly and sinners against the Lord. So, we have these two things going on next to each other. So, the outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great. Their sin is exceedingly grave. I will go down now and see if they have done entirely according to the outcry. And the crying out of justice. Like, we saw that even with Cain and Abel. Which has come to me, and if not, I will know. Okay. He already knows. He's doing this for us. To show us something. To give us example.

Okay. Then, the men turned away from there and went towards Sodom while Abraham was still standing before the Lord. So, you have to, remember in the narrative, you have to imagine what's going on. We have Abraham. And then, we have the three men. And one is Jesus. Okay. One is Jesus. And then, those other two, they're angels. Some people will even say they're a part of the divine council or something like that. Right? And so, after they eat, what ends up happening is, the Lord stays with Abraham and they're talking. And then, the two others are going towards Sodom like that. Okay. So, that's what we have to imagine happening here. And this is where we see that exchange just with the two of them now.

Okay. Because God has just said, Yahweh has just said, shall I keep it hidden from them? From Abraham? And it was like, no. And then, the two go and they're doing this now. Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from you, shall not the judge of all the earth deal justly. So, Abraham is trying to talk about justice. But his understanding of justice is a little skewed here. Right? He's talking kind of like the way we would talk. Like, really? Like, this is how far you'll go? Like, he's working with them, but there's a lot of reverence.

Do you hear it? You heard the Asian reverence here. The judge of the earth, I venture to speak to the Lord, although I am but dust and ashes. Oh, may the Lord not be angry. Now, behold, I venture to speak to the Lord. Oh, may the Lord not be angry. He's showing reverence and awe. And then, he starts to count down from 50 to 45 to 40 to 30 to 20 to 10. And some of us ask, like, why did he stop? Right? Why did he stop? And it's a great question. It's a great question to ask. But what we call what Abraham is doing here is called advocacy. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Therefore, he is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. Why? Because this is what Jesus is like. He's constantly interceding on behalf of people. Now, when Abraham is saying, what about if there's 50, 45, 40, 30, 20, 10? What do we know about righteousness? Romans 3.10? There is none righteous. No, not one. None righteous. Right? And so we have an advocate. We have someone that is interceding for us. And this is what you would call shadow. Shadow. So, what is an application we could take? Why do you think Abraham intercedes so fiercely rather than just care about Lot? How fiercely do I intercede for others in my life? What does this teach me about how my prayers for others ought to look like?

Hopefully, you're seeing so much of Jesus in Abraham. Number three, the wickedness of Sodom. Now, we're going to verse 1 through 11. Again, ask questions. You can ask questions like, why was Lot sitting at the gate? What's he doing? Is he bored? Why does the narrative of Lot have so many similarities to Abraham's narrative a chapter before? Why were the men of Sodom acting the way they were? Was there something cultural going on? Was it okay for Lot to offer up his daughters? Seems horrible. Why did the angels say they wanted to stay in the square first? So, just ask lots of questions. Talk out loud. Please do not come. Just go like, I understand what happened. Or like, I just know. Like, ask.

Ask deeper and deeper questions. Okay. Now, the two angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. Okay, so what was going on at the gate? Well, the gate is usually a place where a lot of business happens. So, Lot has made residency in Sodom. He is there because that is where everybody conducted their business. It shows that there is something going on in his life. Initially, remember when Lot chose the land for himself? Now, the men of Sodom were wicked exceedingly and sinners against the Lord. But, a chapter later, it shows that he was now living in Sodom. So, before, he was headed towards Sodom. Now, he is living in Sodom. And here, now what we are seeing is that he is sitting at the gate in Sodom.

He has made residency. Okay. For me, I didn't, yeah, like, you don't have to make these, like, exact things. But, it really reminded me of Psalm 1 about the wicked. About do not walk with, do not stand, and do not sit with the wicked. But, there is something going on here with what is going on with Lot. Now, we know with Lot, if you went into the New Testament, that he is called righteous Lot. So, that scripture helps keep us grounded. And we don't go flying off into outer space here. But, there is some kind of compromise going on. Now, Genesis 14, 21. The king of Sodom, if you remember, remember the juxtaposition? Lot made residency in Sodom. But, look at Adam. The king of Sodom said to Abram, Give the people to me, and take the goods for yourself.

But, Abram, he said to the king of Sodom, I have sworn to the Lord God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take a thread or a sandal thong or anything that is yours. For fear, you would say, I have made Abram rich. But, not Lot. Not Lot. Lot looks different than Abraham. Lot, when he saw them, he rose to meet them, and he bowed down with his face to the ground. So, there is a lot of similarities. Do you see it? The hospitality. Now, behold, my lords, please turn aside into your servants' house and spend the night and wash your feet. Then you may rise early and go on your way. He prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. Same thing, right? And then they said, however, No, but we shall spend the night in the square.

Yet he urged them strongly, so they turned aside to him and entered his house. Why would he urge them strongly? He knew Sodom and Gomorrah. He knows what's going on out there. And you have to ask the question, Lot, what are you doing there? Why are you living there? Why are you raising your children there? How can you be with your wife there?

Verse 4, Before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter. And they called to Lot and said to him, Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may have relations with them. Now, if you got to Judges 19, while they were celebrating, behold, the men of the city, certain worthless fellows, surrounded the house, pounding the door. And they spoke to the owner of the house, the old man, saying, Bring out the man who came to your house, that we may have relations with him. Then the man, the owner of the house, went out to them and said to them, No, my fellows, please do not act so wickedly.

Since this man has come into my house, do not commit this act of folly. Here is my virgin daughter and his concubine. Please let me bring them out, that you may ravish them and do to them whatever you wish. But do not commit such an act of folly against this man. But the men would not listen to him. So the man seized his concubine and brought her out to them, and they raped her and abused her all night until morning. Then let her go at the approach of dawn. As the day began to dawn, the woman came and fell down at the doorway of the man's house where the master was until full daylight. She dies there. And so what we see here is a ton of sin going on. It's homosexuality is happening. Sexual assault is happening.

Violent abuse, humiliation, mob mentality. And so this is why it's saying exceedingly wicked. Exceedingly wicked. Oh, I put too much time on this one. Sorry, we're kind of stuck. Hold on. Okay. Remember what he had said. Even before all of this had happened in chapter 6, before he brings the flood into the world, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The Lord was sorry that he had made man under the earth, and he grieved in his heart. And the Lord said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky, for I am sorry that I have made them.

And so we know that up until this point, everything is falling apart. Remember what it says in Romans 1.26. We see this about the sinfulness of man. I'll just cherry pick the homosexuality part because it seems to be so glaring and evident here. And there is punishment that is going to happen in this life, but then ultimately it points forward to an eternal punishment that is coming to all. So everything falls apart. And so we see a similar thing. Lot grabs his daughters. He says, I have two daughters who have had no relations with man. Please let me bring them out to you and do to them whatever you like. Only do nothing to these men in as much as they have come under the shelter of my roof.

But, but, in this story, what happened in Judges does not occur. God doesn't allow the judgment to go all the way there. Oops, sorry. I didn't have that for you. Quick reminder here. Descriptive versus prescriptive. Are we allowed to give our daughters to that? No, no. Remember, we have stories about Abram trying to give his wife to the Pharaoh, right? No, we don't do that. It's showing you the brokenness. It's showing you that this is not right. But, God is good. God is compassionate. God is gracious. The men reached out their hands, brought Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. They struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves trying to find the doorway.

They are so wicked that even when they are struck with blindness, they're not like, what happened, right? They're still trying to get into the door. Their wickedness was that great. We ask the question, why? Why are the angels so compassionate to them? And so we take a break here. What signs of compromise did I see in Lot's life? Are there any similar forms of compromise in my life? Are there areas where I'm tolerating or normalizing what God calls wrong? How can a believer slowly become too comfortable in a sinful environment? What are some warning signs of drifting into this? What makes compromise so easy to justify? Because you recognize really, really quickly in this story that Lot had somewhat compromised.

And we'll see it as we move forward. The warning and the destruction. And so ask lots of questions. You could do it yourself. Now, he says, get out because I'm going to destroy this place. Sons-in-law thought they were just joking around. They didn't take him seriously, right? But look at what happens with Lot. He hesitates even when he says that the judgment is coming. Why would Lot hesitate? Because remember why Abraham and Lot had to separate? Because they had so many possessions. And he had made residence in that world. He had made his riches in that world. And he hesitated because he had everything there. And even when he goes, he says, oh no, my lords. When they say, go into the cave.

Go into the mountains. Don't be saved from God's wrath. He says, behold, your servant has found favor in your sight. And you have magnified your loving kindness, which you have shown me by saving my life. But I cannot escape to the mountains. For the disaster will overtake me and I will die. Now, behold, this town is near enough to flee to. And it is small. The key word, small. Please let me escape there. Is it not small that my life may be saved? And so, I would just be like, forget it. Do whatever you want, you know? Like, you're going to turn into pillar of salt too. No, he doesn't do that. The man sees his hand, sees his wife, sees his two daughters. In compassion, he says, escape for your life.

He says, he's calling out to them. Repent is almost kind of like what's there. And he says, hurry, I will grant you even this. And you're like, man, the God, the audacity of Lot, the audacity of Abraham, right? He says, but I will. He says, so fine, hurry and escape to Zor. Remember, out of those five nations, that was the fifth. Remember that? Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone 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. So everything Lot owned proof. Gone. Just like when we leave this world, everything we own, gone. Everything we pursued, everything we idolized, everything that meant something to us.

If it is of this world, it's gone. Everything was gone. And so he goes to Zor and boom, it's all gone. Gone. This is what destruction is. It's just a little snippet of what we see here. But this is pointing to eternal things. And the wife turns, looks back and becomes a pillar of salt. Now we're going to, I'm going to read J.C. Ryle. It's three slides of text, but I think it's that rich. The last of the Puritans. He writes this. When Abram first received the promises, it is probable Lot's wife was there. When her husband was taken by Chedral Elmer and delivered by God's interference, she was there. When Melchizedek, king of Salem, came forth to meet Abraham with bread and wine, she was there.

When the angels came to Sodom and warned her husband to flee, she saw them. When they took them by the hand and led them out of the city, she was one of those whom they helped to escape. Yet what good effect had all these privileges on the heart of Lot's wife? None at all. Notwithstanding all her opportunities and means of grace, notwithstanding all her special warnings and messages from heaven, she lived and died graceless, godless, impenitent, and unbelieving. The eyes of her understanding were never opened. Her conscience was never really aroused and quickened. Her will was never really brought into a state of obedience to God. Her affections were never really set upon things above. The form of religion which she had kept was kept up for fashion's sake and not from feeling.

It was a cloak worn for the sake of pleasing her company, but not from any sense of its value. She did as others did around her in Lot's house. She conformed to her husband's ways. She made no opposition to his religion. She allowed herself to be passively told along in his wake. But all this time her heart was wrong in the sight of God. The world was in her heart, and her heart was in the world. In this state she lived, and in this state she died. It is a great privilege to live in a house where the fear of God reigns. It is a privilege to hear family prayers morning and evening. To hear the word of God regularly expounded. To have a quiet Sunday and to be able always to go to church. These are the things that you ought to seek after when you try to get a station.

These are the signs which make a really good place. But take heed that you do not rest content with these things. Do not suppose because you have all these spiritual advantages that you will of course go to heaven. You must have grace in your own heart, as well as attend family prayers. If not, you are at present no better than Lot's wife. After I read this, I had to just kneel down and pray.

That is what happened to her, and she became a monument. Now Abraham arose, juxtaposition. Abraham arose early in the morning, went to the place where he had stood before the Lord. Remember? He is at that place again where he had stood before the Lord all those years ago. And he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah where he saw Lot go all those years ago. And toward all the land of the valley. And he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land ascended like the smoke of a furnace. And it was not because of Lot's righteousness. It was because God remembered Abraham that Lot was saved. God remembered Abraham. And this points to Jesus. It is not because of my righteousness that I am saved. It is because he remembers Jesus.

Okay. Just, we get like really interesting things. We're out of time now. So, in Deuteronomy 28, 29 is important. Curses upon Israel. It curses upon Israel. And so, he gives lots of examples. And all its land is brimstone and salt, a burning waste, unsown and unproductive. And no grass grows in it like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Adma and Zebuim. And when we hear those four names, we're always like, we're missing one. Which one is it? Zor. We're missing Zor. Which the Lord overthrew in his anger and in his wrath. And you're like, wait. Did God, like, not just do Sodom and Gomorrah. Maybe he got all four. I don't know. We don't know. But we do know that he overthrew all four of those.

But he saved Zor. Zor was out of the five nations, five kings. Interestingly enough, the first four had kings named, but Zor didn't have a named king. Very interesting. And in fact, it was named something before it was called Zor. It was called Bella, which means destruction. And the name was changed to Zor. Small. And so, God is doing something here. Okay. We'll get to the application. Here's the aftermath. Crazy stuff happens. Now, he gets out of Zor because he's afraid. Two daughters are there. And we see the brokenness that goes on here in this cave as the two of them, one at a time, go into Lot and they bear children. And we know that in the caves, constantly in the Bible, it talks about going into the caves because of God's judgment.

But the idols will completely vanish. Men will go into the caves of the rocks and into holes of the ground before the terror of the Lord and the splendor of his majesty when he arises to make the earth tremble. At the end, in the last days, the abomination of desolation, they are going to flee to the mountains. And they are going to not be able to turn back to get their cloaks. They are going to, some things will happen. Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. And they said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the presence of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.

For the great day of their wrath has come. Who is able to stand? There is going to be no cave. There is going to be no mountain on this day that any man is going to be able to run to. Only Jesus. That's it.

And so from this craziness, we get Moab, we get Ben-Ami, and their names matter. They're immortalized. Moab means from father. Ben-Ami means son of my kin. And so the Moabites and the Ammonites come from these two. And whenever you see now, Moabites and Ammonites, it's supposed to evoke in you this memory of brokenness. And from now on, remember that Moabites and Ammonites are related to Israel but also become Israel's enemies. And there they are, Moabites and Ammonites. Okay. And just a quick pop quiz. What significant individual emerges from Moab?

Okay. In two weeks, we're going to go into Genesis 20 through 21. Sorry, that was a little bit longer, but we have to cover two chapters. But we're going to do two more chapters, but we have two weeks this time. So try to do chapter 20 this week and then chapter 21 the following week, if possible. Okay. I gave a lot less questions, though, just 10 for the two chapters. So that's that, and here's the application. Let me pray for us, and then we'll close. Heavenly Father, I pray that you would help us to understand again your heart, to be able to apply these texts. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you.