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  Week 14: He Is Not Slack, His Judgement Will Not Wait Forever  

Contents of this week’s study:

Day One: Miscommunication

Day Two: Lot's Bargain

Day Three: Righteous Judgement

Day Four: Don't Look Back

Day Five: Fear and Desperation

Day Six: Shemah - Section Three  

Day One: Miscommunication    

Genesis 19:12-14 (CJB)  
12 The men (messengers or angels) said to Lot, “Do you have any people here besides yourself? Whomever you have in the city — son-in-law, your sons, your daughters — bring them out of this place; 13 because we are going to destroy it. Adonai has become aware of the great outcry against them, and Adonai has sent us to destroy it.” 14 Lot went out and spoke with his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters, and said, “Get up and leave this place, because Adonai is going to destroy the city.” But his sons-in-law didn’t take him seriously.  

1. How tragic! What happened here; why did Lot's sons-in-law not think he was serious? Obviously, there was a miscommunication somewhere.   

2. Look at the angel’s words again, did the angel clearly tell lot to get people out?  

3. Was it clear that Adonai was aware that Sodom was corrupt and that rampant sin was spreading like a wildfire across the plain?  

4. Did the angel make it clear that time had run out for Sodom?  

5. Did the Angel state clearly that God had ordered the city destroyed?  

6. What would you say is the kindest thing God can do in a situation where people's evil actions have released a flood of distortion, disease, violence and agony which threatens to destroy an ever - increasing number of lives?    

Genesis 19:14B

“But his sons-in-law didn’t take him seriously”: This is worded differently in the KJV, which says; “But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons in law”.   

 
In the Strong’s:  

Mocked 6711H tsachaq, tsaw-khak; (PR); to laugh outright (in merriment or scorn); by implication, to sport: --- laugh, mock, play, make sport.  

7. According to the definition of the word "mocked", how would you say Lot presented this vital warning?  

8. Verse 14 makes it seem that Lot may have had a reputation as a storyteller or jokester, but it may also be that Lot had agreed to his daughters marrying men who didn't know or revere God. Perhaps Lot used his daughters to leverage his connections for his own financial and political gain. If so, Lot’s married daughters died an awful death because of their father’s ambitions. 

Destroy 7843H shâchath, shaw-khath´; (PR); to decay, i.e. (causative) ruin (literally or figuratively): --- batter, cast off, corrupt (-er, thing), destroy (-er, -uction), lose, mar, perish, spill, spoiler, x utterly, waste (-r).  

9. In your opinion, does it seem Lot was actually conveying this warning as impending doom to his sons in law?   

10. Could it be Lot had made a practice of joking about his uncle Avraham’s unwavering faith and about the futility of adhering to Biblical standards? Now, all of a sudden, Lot is saying the God of Avraham is going to destroy Sodom because of the great sin culture there.  Would you take this warning seriously coming from such a man?   

Last week we discussed that it appeared that the men of Sodom had let Lot think he was a great sage and that they respected him, but when he tried to quell their demands they turned on him and would have raped or murdered him if God's messengers hadn’t saved him.   

We are told that God had great mercy for Lot, but not whether Lot had embraced the lifestyle in Sodom (whatever the actual problem was, and there are many opinions on the subject), but I have a suspicion that the core issue was that Lot was like many people today; seeing more value in his presumed status among his heathen neighbors than being a humble, obedient servant in covenant with God. 

I imagine he chose to focus on God only as the loving creator and refused to grasp the understanding of God, the righteous judge who has a right to condemn and destroy His creation if it morphs into a vile, painful, destructive trap that sucks increasingly more people into its clutches.    

How many people today want to believe God is all about love and "He gets me; He will obviously just forgive me because He will be so glad to have me in His kingdom"? How many of us are guilty of softening the Bible’s message of coming judgement which has been prophesied throughout the scriptures. How many are worrying more about buying a new car, a bigger house, the latest fashion trends... than our eternal soul or the souls of those around us?  

Lot and his family didn’t want to leave sin city -- this will become even clearer as we read on.

Genesis 19:15-16 (CJB)  
15 When morning came, the angels told Lot to hurry. 

“Get up,” they said, “and take your wife and your two daughters who are here; otherwise you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.” 16 But he dallied, so the men took hold of his hand, his wife’s hand and the hands of his two daughters — Adonai was being merciful to him — and led them, leaving them outside the city.   

Don’t miss what the author is relaying to us here. Lot was told that if he didn’t leave the plain, he and his family would be destroyed in the judgement right along with their wicked neighbors, but when Lot weighed the price of staying in Sodom against sacrificing his lifestyle to be delivered, he found that, in many ways, his lifestyle was too difficult to leave. This is the deception you and I are risking if we don’t commit to building an actual relationship with God and by washing ourselves free from the perversion of the world with the waters of studying His word, reverent prayer and quieting ourselves humbly in His presence.  

Journaling:

Meditate on the following and write your thoughts and insights in your journal.

Lot dallied, he laid in bed refusing to respond to the angel’s urgent message, and had to be told to get up and go. 

Lot’s family was dallying too. None of these people wanted to give up their worldly lifestyle or to accept that their evil city was actually going to be destroyed. The angels finally had to take all these people by the hand and force them out of the city. 

Q) Do you think Lot could have delivered a serious warning to his son's in law and whoever else he happened to tell the news he was commissioned to deliver?

We need to learn this lesson from Lot's family my friends. Let us take the times we live in seriously; refuse to let lust rule over us and put aside jealousy, anger, resentment and people pleasing. We should be guarding our ways most carefully and getting ready to leave this place quickly, and by all means, sharing God's path with everyone in our sphere of influence so they also know to get themselves and their family and friends ready to stand before the eternal judge.    

Day Two: Lot's Bargain  

Genesis 19:17 (TLV)  
17 When they brought them outside, one said, “Flee for your life! Do not look behind you, and do not stop anywhere in the surrounding area! Escape to the hills, or else you’ll be swept away!”  

*I have to say, this message that was given to Lot before the destruction of the cities of the plain is vitally contemporary. Today the world is self-destructing around us. It is only a matter of time before God must bring judgement to halt man's progression toward self aggrandizement and utter evil. If we are going to stand for God we must get out of worldly mindsets, out of worldly lifestyles, out of worldly or carnal appetites. As God’s messengers told Lot and his family, “Go! And don’t look back!   

Genesis 19:18-22 (TLV)  
18 But Lot said to them, “No, my Lord, please! 19 Look, please, your servant has found favor in Your eyes and You have magnified Your merciful loyalty, which You have shown me by letting me live. But I can’t escape to the hill country—for the disaster will overtake me and I’ll die! 20 Look, please, this city is close enough to flee there, and it’s little. Please let me escape there. Isn’t it small? And let me live!”  21 So He said to him, “Behold, I will grant your request concerning this matter too—not to demolish the city of which you have spoken. 22 Hurry! Flee to safety there, because I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” (This is why the town is named Zoar, little or small).  

*This is outrageous! Lot has been rescued from certain death and given the chance to escape, but in verse nineteen, he’s standing there bargaining!    

*Lot notes that he has found favor in the eyes of God, but I think he has taken God’s love and favor for granted. Lot assumes he can manipulate God because the messengers made sure he had ample opportunity to take advantage of God’s merciful gift of salvation, but he clearly has no intention of overcoming his tendency to compromise.    

*Lot was right, Hashem [God] had shown incredible mercy to this entire back-slidden family, just as He shows mercy to each of us today. God’s mercy, however, merely provides the way. We must choose to accept the gift and follow God’s commands. Lot has an incredible opportunity, but as we see very clearly in the next few verses, this man has a horrible time putting the world behind him.  

*As we already noted, Lot has been given the chance for a brand new beginning. Lot is told to race to high ground. What he asks for, however, is to be allowed to stay in the plain but only in a “little city", which I want to suggest we can relate to the idea of a place of "little sins". 

Friends, if we are bargaining with God that we will give up our big sins if we can hold on to our, so called, “little sins”, we are risking our own destruction. “Little sins”, as it is with little cities, grow, and the cycle of trouble will begin all over again. I’m not saying that it is easy let go of our cravings and make the move to high ground, but we must not delude ourselves into thinking that God will allow a bunch of unruly, unrepentant, sin addicted subjects in His kingdom.  

Journaling:

Answer the following questions using today’s scripture and Avraham’s bargain with God in Genesis 18:23-33.  

1. Was Lot bargaining to save others or to get what he wanted?  

2. Was Avraham bargaining for someone else or to get what he wanted?   

3. Did Lot acknowledge that he was not worthy to question almighty God?  

4. Did Avraham acknowledge that he was not worthy to question almighty God?  

5. If Avraham hadn’t interceded for Lot and his family, do you think they would have been spared? Remember that this family had to be led out under force. Do you think your prayers of intercession work in the same way as Avraham’s?   

6. Write what you find is the most telling difference between Avraham’s and Lot's bargain with God. This should be something that reveals the difference in the two men’s hearts (priorities).  

7. What do you make of Lot’s request to live in a small city in the corrupted plain?  

*I think we’re safe to assume that Lot was spared because Avraham, the friend of God, found favor, and it was Avraham’s pure desire that his nephew, Lot, be spared if possible. 

As for Lot, God knows what’s in our hearts, and what is in our hearts will always come to the surface. We'll soon get yet more glimpses of Lot’s troubled heart.   

Day Three: The Reality of Righteous Judgement

Genesis 19:23b - 25 CJB

By the time Lot had come to Tzo‘ar, the sun had risen over the land.  24 Then Adonai caused sulfur and fire to rain down upon S’dom and ‘Amora from Adonai out of the sky.  25 He overthrew those cities, the entire plain, all the inhabitants of the cities and everything growing in the ground. 

What is described here is the total annihilation of the cities of the plain. We would expect the remains of these cities, especially Sodom and Gomorrah, to be full of ash, barely recognizable as a city, but with traces of the sulfur and evidence of intense fire beyond imagination. There are some in archeology who persist in looking for these cities among those in which there is evidence of a fire, but not the total destruction described in scripture. If we believe the Biblical testimonials, however, we understand it is not just a common house fire that is being described. Read the end of vs. 25 again. The destruction included "everything growing in the ground". We're looking for something akin to a lunar landscape. 

Deuteronomy 29:23 KJV describes what the Lord will do to any of the families among His people who leave their covenant with Him and go off to worship idols and practice the abominations of the nations. 

Here God compares what will befall that place to what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah. 

[Future generations and foreigners will see] "23 And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath:"

Jeremiah 49:18 KJV

As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbour cities thereof, saith the Lord, no man shall abide there, neither shall a son of man dwell in it.

Journaling:

For today, lets watch the following video 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHQEcqwrYxc&t=1025s

then write your thoughts on Yeshua's words in: 

Luke 17: 26-33 CJB

26 “Also, at the time of the Son of Man, it will be just as it was at the time of Noach.  27 People ate and drank, and men and women married, right up until the day Noach entered the ark; then the flood came and destroyed them all.  28 Likewise, as it was in the time of Lot — people ate and drank, bought and sold, planted and built;  29 but the day Lot left S’dom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.  30 That is how it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed.  31 On that day, if someone is on the roof with his belongings in his house,  he must not go down to take them away. Similarly, if someone is in the field, he must not turn back —  32 remember Lot’s wife!  33 Whoever aims at preserving his own life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will stay alive. 

Day Four: Don't Look Back

Genesis 19: 25-26 CJB

25 He *[God] overthrew those cities, the entire plain, all the inhabitants of the cities and everything growing in the ground. 26 But his *[Lot's] wife looked back from behind him, and she became a column of salt. 

We wonder why Lot's wife looked back toward Sodom; after all, the messengers said "don't look back". Was there something back in Sodom that she was longing for? Perhaps she was curious as to how the destruction would play out, or trying to process what was happening and that it was real and not a nightmare. Maybe the noise and flashes of light were too much for her to ignore. She did look back, however, and was, as Michael Rood pointed out in yesterday's video, reduced to her mineral elements.

It is unclear whether Lot and his wife had older, married daughters who stayed behind in the plane or if it was their two daughters who left Sodom with them who were just betrothed to the "son's in law" who were mentioned before. I've seen this section of scripture interpreted both ways. The fact is that whether Lot's wife looked back toward Sodom because she was curious or she was longing to return to Sodom or out of anxiety over what her grown daughters were going through; she did look back and she died.

Yeshua said; in Matthew 10:37-39 (TLV)

37 “He who loves father or mother more than Me isn’t worthy of Me, and he who loves son or daughter more than Me isn’t worthy of Me. 38 And whoever does not take up his cross and follow after Me isn’t worthy of Me. 39 He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.   

This is a harsh reality. To be worthy of inheriting God and His kingdom, there can be nothing of more importance than our great and mighty King and spending eternity serving in His kingdom.

We are faced with a dilemma here my friends, and the time of choosing and setting our choice in stone is now. If you are a husband or wife, a parent, or a grandparent... if you have a really great house, furniture, a pool in your back yard, expensive cars or expensive clothes (I could go on, but you get the picture), will you look back? 

This is truly an excruciating choice. We love our families and want them to know how much they are loved. We want them to be sure of our devotion. They cannot, however, be of more importance than God. This is the time to pray for our loved ones and to prepare ourselves to give the solid answers and doctrinal correction that will make God real to them and help them to understand that they need God's help and protection. 

Now is our opportunity to help our family and friends understand that a relationship with God is built upon the covenants He established with our ancestors: Abraham, Isaak and Jacob, and keeping our covenant with the King is a matter so serious that it determines how we will be effected by the coming judgement. This is not a game, so we must learn a lesson from Lot's mistake (miscommunication), and make sure we repent (even in front of our loved ones) if we have been less than serious about our relationship with God, and we must make sure we clearly communicate both: 1) the warning of the coming judgement and 2) the Bessorah [good news that the kingdom is ready]. 

The choice we and our loved ones must make is not merely of choosing to "not do" what God has said not to do. We must also learn and try to start "doing" what God has commanded us to do. Our choices now will prove whether we are like Avraham, Lot or the demented souls who perished in Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim.

Genesis 19: 27- 29 CJB

27 Avraham got up early in the morning, went to the place where he had stood before Adonai, 28 and looked out toward S’dom and ‘Amora, scanning the entire plain. There before him the smoke was rising from the land like smoke from a furnace! 29 But when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Avraham and sent Lot out, away from the destruction, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.

Avraham and Sarah's encampment was up and away from the destruction, but they had to have seen and heard the judgement befalling the sin plagued valley throughout the day and night.  Avraham could not have known for sure that Lot and his family had made it out safely. As the sun began to rise Avraham was concerned and went right a way to see what was left of the area. It had to be heart breaking that such harsh judgement had been warranted. To think that there were not ten righteous men left in the cities of the plain. 

Journaling:

Get somewhere quiet to spend a little time praying and meditating on the priorities of your heart, asking God to help you love and devote yourself to your family and friends appropriately, to help you lead your loved ones to keep covenant with Him and to also help in your efforts to continue to devote yourself more fully to Him at all times. 

Day Five: Lot Went Up?

Genesis 19:30a CJB

30 Lot went up from Tzo‘ar and lived in the hills with his two daughters,  because he was afraid to stay in Tzo‘ar. 

Why was Lot "afraid to stay in Tzo'ar"? After all, God's messenger said that they could escape there. 

Did the place of "little sins", though not in the direct path, actually take some of the fallout of God's judgement or could it be that everything that had transpired finally made Lot take God more seriously? 

The word interpreted as "afraid" [feared in the KJV] in vs. 30 is actually the word we looked up before; 3372H Yaw-ray' in the Strong's, which we saw actually indicates the idea of "reverence". 

Please note: there are other words which transmit the idea of actual fear.

So, maybe we are safe in thinking that God actually got Lot's attention on some level with the destruction of sin-city and the death of his wife. We cannot take this idea too far, however, because Lot is still set to reap the result of having raised his children within the gates of the perverted city of Sodom. 

Genesis 19: 30b - 32 CJB

He and his two daughters lived in a cave. 

31 The firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there isn’t a man on earth to come in to us in the manner customary in the world.  32 Come, let’s have our father drink wine; then we’ll sleep with him, and that way we’ll enable our father to have descendants.”

Remember, before the destruction of Sodom, the messenger just told Lot to take shelter in the hills, but here we are being told Lot took his heartbroken, confused, bedraggled daughters to a lonely outpost and is "living" in a cave.

If a person is not firmly rooted in sound moral teaching and given the support to process tragic events, stress and anxiety such as Lot's daughters experienced, can do something to the mind, and if not dealt with appropriately, can cause episodes of mental illness such as stress induced psychosis. 

Read vs. 31 again. Note the older daughter's statement that their father is getting old and "there is not a man on earth to come in to them". Do these girls think the whole earth has been destroyed -- again, and that they and their father are the only people left alive?

Are they merely worried about being baren for the rest of their lives, or hating the idea of their father not being able to have more offspring or do they feel they have to ensure the survival of mankind?

Lot seemed to have reached Tzoar, but did the girls actually see the town, or did Lot rethink his priorities and bypass the village when Mrs. Lot died; thereby keeping the girls from understanding what had actually happened?

Had Lot, being overcome with anxiety and feelings of guilt, failed to explain things clearly to his daughters? 

Genesis 19: 33 CJB

33 So they plied their father with wine that night, and the older one went in and slept with her father; he didn’t know when she lay down or when she got up.  

Lot's daughters used wine as a drug to incapacitate their father, and I believe this indicates that they were quite positive he would never agree to such a plan -- even if they were the only people left on earth. 

Genesis 19: 34 - 35 DJB 

34 The following day, the older said to the younger, “Here, I slept last night with my father. Let’s make him drink wine again tonight, and you go in and sleep with him, and that way we’ll enable our father to have descendants.”  

35 They plied their father with wine that night also, and the younger one got up and slept with him, and he didn’t know when she lay down or when she got up.  

Again, Lot seems to have been oblivious to what was happening, but there are so many questions left unanswered in this account.

36 Thus both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father.

37 The older one gave birth to a son and called him Mo’av; he is the ancestor of Mo’av to this day.  38 The younger also gave birth to a son, and she called him Ben-‘Ammi; he is the ancestor of the people of ‘Amon to this day.

https://www.abarim-publications.com › Meaning › Ammi.html

Day Six: The Shama, Part Three -- The Scriptures

Devarim 6:5-9
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might. Take to heart these words with which I command you this day; teaching them to your offspring; reciting them when you stay at home and when you are away; when you lie-down and when you get up. Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead; inscribe them upon the doorpost of your house and on your gates.”

Devarim 11:13-21
“If then, you obey the commands I enjoin upon you; loving the Lord your God with all your heart and soul; I will grant the rain for your land in season; the early rain and the late. You shall gather in your new grain, your wine, and your oil, and I will also provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and thus, you shall eat your fill.
Take care not to be lured away to serve idols or bow to them, for the Lord's anger will flare up against you, and He will close the skies so there will be no rain, and the ground will not yield its produce, and you will parish from the “good-land” that the Lord is assigning to you;
therefore, impress these, my words upon your very heart; bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead; teaching them to your offspring; reciting them when you stay at home and when you are away; when you lie-down and when you get up; inscribe them upon the doorposts of your house and on your gates to the end that you and your offspring may endure in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to assign to them as long as there is a heaven over the earth.”

Bamidbar 15:37-41 

Gather tzit-tzit in right hand and recite:
“The Lord said to Moshe as follows, 'instruct the people of Israel to make for themselves fringes upon the corners of their garments --- throughout the ages --- let them attach a cord of “blue” to the fringe at each corner; that shall be your fringe; look at it and recall all the commands of the Lord and observe them, so that you do not follow heart and eyes according to your lustful urge.
Thus, you shall be reminded to observe all My mitzvot and to be holy to the Lord your God; for I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Mitzrayim --- to be your God. I the Lord your God!”