Bible Prophecy and the Return of Jesus
As it was in the days of Lot…
By I Gordon
You would have seen from the study on the
days of Noah that Jesus compared His return to the days of two men – No prizes
for saying Noah, because I have just given that away! And I can’t really hand
out prizes for the correct identification of Lot
either because his name is in the title of this study! So we can learn, Jesus
said, something about the last days and His return by looking at the days of
Noah and the days of Lot. Now, you don’t have
to be the biggest scholar in the world to know that these were not ‘the good
old days’! In fact, they stand out in the Bible as probably being the two most
extreme judgements by God in the entire Old Testament. This study then will
focus on the days of Lot. We will look at what
is written concerning Him in the book of Genesis and will conclude by looking
at what the New Testament emphasises the most when speaking of the days of Noah
and Lot
Oh that dreadful sin of inhospitality!
Gen 18:16-21 ‘When the men got up to leave, they looked
down toward Sodom,
and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way. Then the LORD
said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I
am about to do? Abraham
will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will
be blessed through him. … 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.”
So we have picked up the story in Genesis
chapter 18 where the Lord Himself has come down to visit Abraham and to see if
the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is as bad as it really is. Now,
obviously, God knows everything and doesn’t need to come down and look! But He
has done so here so that His servant Abraham would understand the need for the
coming judgement. And it would give Abraham the chance to see the justice of
God in sparing those who were innocent. Now I’m sure you know what sin it was
that was so grievous that the Lord Himself came down to see if it was really
that bad… that’s right, it was that terrible grievous sin of inhospitality! Well
maybe not! Despite what some scholars with their own agendas may say, the Bible
is clear on the reason for the destruction of Sodom
and Gomorrah.
Jude
7 ”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.”
With Jesus contrasting His return to the
days of Lot, it shouldn’t be surprising that
sexual immorality in the form of homosexuality is
increasing in our day. That some so called Christian ministers just see it as
an ‘alternative lifestyle’ should surprise and shock us however.
Will God judge the righteous with the wicked?
Gen 18:22-25 ‘The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham
remained standing before the LORD. Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will
you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in
the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of
the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing—to
kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked
alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
As it was in the days of Lot,
so shall it be. God’s patience with sinful men has its limits and judgement
will come. As the Apostle Paul told those in Athens
Acts 17:30-31 ‘God … now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the
world with justice by the man he has appointed.’
That ‘day’ is called the ‘day of the Lord’. Now the
question that Abraham asked in the days of Lot
is essentially the same question that many ask today. We know from the Bible
that this day of the Lord, the day of Judgement is coming. But will the
righteous (the Church - the Lord’s
bride) go through this time? Will they experience the judgement of God along
with the world? To ask it, is to answer it is it not? You don’t have to be
Einstein to know that the Lord does not judge the righteous with the wicked! He
is just! Peter picks up on this very point in 2 Pet 2:6
‘..if
he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and
made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he
rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless
… if this is so, then the Lord knows how
to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of
judgment…’
Paul also speaks of the coming day of the
Lord and again confirms that the Church will not experience this time of
judgement upon the earth. 1 Thess 5:2-5
‘…you know very well that the day of the
Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “Peace and
safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant
woman, and they will not escape. But
you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a
thief. You are all sons of the light and
sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.
Lot’s solemn responsibility
Gen 19:12-14 The two men said to Lot,
“Do you have anyone else here—sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in
the city who belongs to you? Get them
out of here because we are
going to destroy this place. The outcry to the LORD against its people is
so great that he has sent us to destroy it.” So
Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who
were pledged to marry his daughters. He said, “Hurry and get out of this place,
because the LORD is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he
was joking.
We pick up the story again in the next chapter.
The two angels that came to Lot have warned
him to tell his other family members about the coming judgment from God. What a
responsibility Lot had! He knew that the
judgment was coming. He knew that anyone who remains in Sodom would perish because of that judgment. You
can probably imagine his pleas with his sons in law to escape. And yet they
didn’t listen. And why should they listen? “Cities don’t just get destroyed by
fire” they would have thought. “God doesn’t just judge like that… He is a God of
love. Lot must be joking or possibly the lift
isn’t going to the top floor anymore! We’ll be fine!”
If you are a Christian then Lot’s responsibility is also your responsibility. This
time, we are the ones that have been given the warning in advance that
judgement is coming.
And we are the ones who alone know that only by fleeing to Christ is true
safety found.
The
hesitation of Lot…
Gen 19:15-17 “With
the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot,
saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will
be swept away when the city is punished.” When
he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two
daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the LORD was merciful to
them. As soon as they had
brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and
don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept
away!”
Lot knew that God was going to destroy the whole place… yet he
hesitated to leave! Why do you think that was? Mmmm? Why would he hesitate? To
get his possessions and spare cash? A bite to eat maybe? Favourite television
program? Not
quite… There is only one logical answer – because of the people. His heart was
still with his sons in law who would not accept what he said. That is what made
him hesitate. Nothing else really mattered. Let me ask you a question… Is there
someone who would make you hesitate? Is there someone that the Lord has put on
your heart to share the good news with and you’ve put it off? If so, tell the
Lord again that you are willing to be obedient and ask Him to give you the
opportunity.
Well, you probably know the rest of the
story. Lot and his daughters escape Sodom.
But as the judgement of fire falls, Lot’s
wife, disobeying the commands of the angels who had rescued them, looked back
and was turned into a pillar of salt.
Ready, ready, ready!!!
Luke 17:28-30 “It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling,
planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from
heaven and destroyed them all. “It will be just like this on the day the Son of
Man is revealed.’
Matt 24:37-43 “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will
be at the coming of the Son of Man.
For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and
giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would
happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at
the coming of the Son of Man… “Therefore
keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come… So
you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do
not expect him.
I want to end this study with one last look
at the main point that Jesus wanted to portray in using the examples of both Lot and Noah. And that is the importance of simply being
‘ready’. This means don’t fall asleep in your faith! Watch and be aware of the
time in which you live! Look for the signs of the Lord’s near return and
realise that it could be this very day. There is
nothing that could stop Jesus coming back for His church today. There are no
prophecies that have to be fulfilled before the bridegroom can return to take
His bride back to the home he has prepared for her. When we
look at the two passages above, we see that the main point that Jesus is making
is that life in the times of Noah and Lot was
going on as normal. They were eating, drinking, getting married. It was
business as normal. They had no idea that judgment was right at the door. And
yet, like a thief in the night, it came. Jesus’ return for His bride is going
to occur just as quickly and suddenly. Are you ready?
