Four different views at Sodom.
                                                                              Peter Tuchyna
 
Gen. 13: 1-10
 
Sodom does represent this world with its splendor, worldly values, glory and wicked lifestyle.
There are some spiritual and practical applications we can learn even in our generation, in our personal lives and the lives of our families.
 
After the Lord confounded the language in Babel, Terah, the Abram’s father moved his family from the Ur of the Chaldeans to Haran.
 
After the death of Terah, the Lord revealed himself to Abram and spoke to him to leave Haran ch. 12.
 
Abram took with him his nephew Lot and all of his household with the servants in spite of the clear command of the Lord to leave his family behind ch. 12:1.
 
When they arrived to bethel and dwelled there for a while, the servants of Abram and Lot begun to quarrel about the water for their flock, for it appeared that there was not enough water to support two very big households with a tremendously big cattle stock.
When we are reading about Abram, our first thoughts are that it was just a small family. We tend to overlook that Abram’s household with all servants and their families were very big. He had 318 men plus their families that were adults and able to fight as later they went to rescue Lot.
 
After some conversation Abram said to Lot that there is no point to strife and live in a conflict. The land is big and able to support us well, we just need to spread out.
 
So you Lot choose the direction and site and I will go in the opposite direction.
V10, so Lot looked out and far and he was impressed whit what he saw.
Beautiful green pastures, well-watered, picturesque surroundings and reasonable flat, so no need to walk steep up the hills. It was in the direction towards Sodom and Gomorrah.
 
Thou they had the same and mutual upbringings and family relationship, we are learning that this fact is not assurance that the conflict will not arise.
 
So the word is presenting to us how Abram and Lot handled the conflict.
 
1)    So Lot pitched his tent towards those wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
V 13, but the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly.
What Lot saw with his eyes was much water, much food for his cattle and great prosperity without much effort and hardship. All plains were like a garden of the Lord, he concluded v 10.
So gradually he was shifting his tent closer and closer towards the city.
One Scripture declares that he was righteous in the sight of the Lord, but he refused to understand and acknowledge what sort of influence there will be upon the lives of his wife and children. He compromised in his life.
 
He didn’t want to go through hardship. He didn’t want to dig new wells for his flock. He didn’t want to depend upon the rain provided from heaven. He wanted to have an easy life.
The only way to have it easier was to move closer and closer to the wicked city.
And we know what sort of result it had upon the life of his children.
 
2)    Lot’s wife fell in love with the material possession that they acquired there. She loved the pleasures of life available in the city. Her heart was in the city even when she walked out of it at the command of the angels to preserve their lives before the judgment would fall upon the city.
 
She looked back, breaking the commandment she received.  Just one more look, one more experience for the eyes (lust of eyes, lust of flesh). Likewise, so many believers at one stage in life being delivered from the spiritual Egypt are looking back to the world with regret what they left behind.
It wasn’t just the look. It was regret what she was leaving behind.
 
The Lord knows and sees the condition and desires of the heart.
Israel was walking in the wilderness towards the promised land, but their hearts were still back in Egypt.
 
Lot’s wife was delivered from Sodom by the grace of the Lord. Abram was praying for her, but she didn’t looked forward, in her heart she was looking backwards to Sodom.
 
The Lord Jesus is warning us in the book of Lk 17, about his second coming.
The heavenly kingdom will not come by the observation, v 26 as it was in the days of Noah, they did eat and drank, they married wives and they were given in marriages. V 32  Remember Lot’s wife.
 
3)    The Lord saw deeper in the hearts of men that Lot did.
Ch 13: 13 The men of Sodom were wicked and sinners.
Ch 18:16 The angel lifted their eyes towards Sodom v 20 because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great and because their sin is very grievous, the Lord decided to destroy it.
The Lord does know what is in the heart of men: wickedness, unrighteousness, violence, unrepented heart, desire to enjoy sin and multiply it.
 
4)    Ch19:27 What did Abram see? He went to a place where he stood before the Lord.
What he saw was different to what Lot saw. Abram saw the smoke of the country as the smoke of a furnace.
Abram choose to trust the Lord and to lean on him for everything.
By faith he left the Ur of the Chaldeans.
Heb 11:10 By faith he expected the Lord’s blessings, provision, and protection.
He was willing to work hard and to dig the water well. Lot chose to compromise. He didn’t want to depend upon the lord for the water and the food. He didn’t want to work hard for a new water supply.
 
Yet it was Abram who was protected and blessed by the Lord.
Lisen, Lot after years living in Sodom left it empty handed.
He lost his wife and ended in incestuous relationship with his two daughters being the founder of perverted nations of Ammon and Moab.
What a tragedy.
 
Living for the Lord is a life of self-denial and personal sacrifice. It is a life of faith and full and total dependance upon the Lord.
We may be tempted often to take it easier. To compromise just a little bit. We can start relying upon the job security of this world more than upon the Lord.
The result would be disastrous.
We can lose our own soul; our decision may be the reason for the soul of a husband or a wife or children to be lost.
 
Let us not think that the Lord would overlook our compromise leaning upon the carnal security more than upon the grace of the Lord if we would choose rather to please the spouse like Adam contrary to the will of the Lord and to rely upon carnal security more than upon the grace of the Lord.
 
No one can lay other foundation than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ 1 Cor 3:11.
My house is built upon the foundation. So is Centrepoint tower in Sydney that is much higher. But that foundation is much deeper than the one under my house. Many Christians have very shallow foundation.
Nothing great can be built upon shallow foundation of knowledge, shallow foundation of faith, shallow foundation of commitment, shallow dedication, and shallow sacrifice.
 
No individual, no church can grow great, strong and be victorious upon the shallow foundation.
People who did obtain the vision of God’s eternal plan are able to know, to recognize and to understand what the spirit of the Lord  is saying to our generation.
The Lord has preserved the vessels in every generation to whom He gives the higher perspective.
Would you like to be such a vessel?
 
Shallow knowledge of the Word of God leads to shallow faith, shallow faith leads to shallow trust and the shallow trust is leading to shallow expectation.
 
Shallow expectation leads to relying upon oneself.
Lk 21:43 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away. And take heed to yourselves lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting (overeating) and drunkenness and cares of this life and so that day (of coming) come upon you unawares.
 
The Lord gave us a promise to take care of us. The lack of faith in the Lord’s providence leads to a conclusion to take care of this life into our own hands.
 
From that moment on there is no more desire for the studying of the word of the Lord, the prayers, for the church fellowship and attendance, for witnessing, for any involvement regarding the church involvement.
 
The Lord promised to defeat our soul’s enemy, which he did. 1 Sam 17:48-51
From time to time, we are tested and tempted.
 
The Lord prepared for us to do great things under the anointing of his spirit.
Our relationship is built on the only foundation that id the Lord Jesus Christ.
 
Our decision today, what we do with the Word of Jesus will determent what the Lord will do with us at His coming.
 
So let us not get weary in following Jesus and act according to His revealed will.