Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. Tonight is study #3 of Genesis, chapter 19. We are continuing to read Genesis 19:1-3:

And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground; And he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant’s house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your ways. And they said, Nay; but we will abide in the street all night. And he pressed upon them greatly; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house; and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat.

We have been considering what God has said in the opening verses of Genesis, chapter 19. It is the beginning of the account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Keep in mind that the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah ties in with Christ coming as the Judge at the end of time and the final judgment. We noticed that in Genesis, chapter 18 God came to Abraham in the form of three men and in Genesis, chapter 19 He appeared to Lot in the form of two messengers. The emphasis on “three witnesses” or “two witnesses” cannot be missed, as it identifies with the witness of the Word of God, the Bible.

God has come to Lot as he is sitting in the gate of Sodom. We were looking at that in our last study and we noticed from other Scriptures that to sit in the gate has to do with ruling, like elders or kings would sit in the gate to judge. And here is Lot, who was lowly esteemed in the eyes of the people of Sodom, but he is the only one sitting in the gate of the city. We went to a couple of verses that indicated that God’s elect (the seed of Abraham) would possess the gate of their enemies and the gate of those that hate them. That is the case with Sodom. They were enemies of the kingdom of God. They had set themselves against God through their evil deeds and their many transgressions and, yet, Lot is sitting in the gate of a city that was in opposition to God and His kingdom. Certainly, we can see the connection in those Scriptures with why Lot was sitting in the gate of the wicked city of Sodom.

We also went to Genesis 28 where the Lord appeared to Jacob in a vision of the night. Jacob declared, “and this is the gate of heaven.” The gate of heaven, therefore, became tied to the idea of the place where God communicates and brings revelation, as He did through the dream that Jacob had.

When we put it all together, we saw that the “gate” is like the “door,” which is Christ. It says in John, chapter 10:7-9:

Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.

Christ is the door, but Christ is also the Word made flesh. The door to heaven throughout the church age and throughout the Latter Rain (during the second part of the Great Tribulation) was the portal by which a sinner could enter into heaven, in the sense of being seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus in salvation. That entrance point (the door) was ministered to people through the Bible, the Word of God. The Bible, for all intents and purposes, is the doorway to heaven.

So, Lot was sitting in the “gate” or the “door” of Sodom, which is pointing to God’s elect (that are made righteous by the righteousness of Christ) taking a position of watching in the Bible. They are “keeping their eyes peeled,” as it were, for what God will declare to them in His Word. If you do not believe me…and we should not trust any man, no matter who he is; we trust a man only insofar as he is faithful to the Word of God, the Bible. If an individual is teaching faithfully, we follow him only as far as he follows the Word of God. That is what the Apostle Paul was led to say. The Lord’s people will only follow the teaching of another man if the individual is teaching faithfully. If the person veers off course, he is put to the test. Anyone that is following the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, will pass the test. The elect always pass that test and they will continue to follow the Word of God, the Bible, and they will no longer follow the person that has gone off course.

So, here, Lot is sitting in the gate, like the elect are seated (in authority) as they look to the Word of God, the Bible. We read an interesting passage in Habakkuk, chapter 2. It says in Habakkuk 2:1:

I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.

The prophet Habakkuk is standing upon his watch. This is similar to the command Christ gave in the New Testament on occasion. He commanded, “Watch ye, therefore.” How do we watch? Are we to look up at the sky? No – there is no point in doing that because God will not give physical signs like that. The way to keep the watch is to read and study the Bible. In due time – in the proper time and season – God opens the Scripture at the time of the end to reveal things that were sealed until the time of the end. As God’s people faithfully watch in the Bible, comparing Scripture with Scripture and harmonizing everything, when the proper time comes, we will see.

Notice the language in this verse: “I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower.” That would be like watchman of old would sit in a high tower and watch for the approaching enemy army. Then it says, “and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.” God is using the visual illustration of a watchman in a tower as he is looking to see. Then it suddenly switches from watching and it says, watch “to see what he will say unto me.” Where does God speak? He speaks only in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. Once the entire Bible was completed, God determined to no longer break the barrier of the supernatural to bring revelation in any other form than the written Word of God, the Bible. And this is where Habakkuk is watching. Then God speaks to him. It is not anything physically visible that Habakkuk is seeing as he watches upon the watch tower, but he is hearing. In the Bible, “to hear” and “to see” are basically the same thing, as the Lord declared, “Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not?” Both “seeing” or “seeing not” and “hearing” or “hearing not” have to do with seeing the Word of God or failing to see the Word of God or the truth of the Scripture.

Then it says in Habakkuk 2:2:

And JEHOVAH answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.

This, of course, then becomes part of the written Word. As far as the idea of “running,” we read in the Psalms that we “run the way of thy commandments.” We begin to understand a doctrine and then we begin to perform the doing of it and we keep the Word that God has said. Then it said, “Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables.” For example, the Ten Commandments were written on two tables of stone and the “tables” points to the Scripture. Then it goes on to say in Habakkuk 2:3:

For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie…

The pronoun “it” should be the masculine pronoun “he.” Then it says in Habakkuk 2:3:

… though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.

Again, “though he tarry, wait for him; because he will surely come, he will not tarry.” It is pointing to the Holy Spirit coming at the end of the world and opening up the Word of God to “speak” to us. Mark 13, verses 10 and 11 tie in with this, as God has opened the Scriptures to reveal tremendous amounts of Biblical truth at the end of time.

Going back to Genesis 19, Lot is seated in the gate of Sodom. Notice what it says next, in Genesis 19:1:

… and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them…

Only Lot is there. The rest of the people of Sodom are not at the gate because this “gate” has to do with the Bible, the meeting point between God and man. The problem with the people of Sodom is that they have no ability to perceive spiritual things because their sins are evidence they are still unsaved. They have no spiritual sight or spiritual ears, so that leaves only the righteous, typified by Lot, at the meeting place between God and man, the Word of God. The rest of the men of the city ignore that “gate.”

It is just like most people of today. Are they watching and concentrating on the things the Bible says? No – it is the opposite. They ignore the Bible. They dismiss it. They mock it. It is nothing to them. Anyone who spends his time focused on the Word of God (believing and trusting in it) are lowly esteemed, just like Lot was lowly esteemed by the rest of the inhabitants of Sodom. They were too busy. They were occupied with their evil desires and their evil deeds, so they had no time for the holy Word of God.

Lot had time. He knew what was really important, because God had saved him. So, he sat in the gate. We are not told how long he sat at the gate. Was it customary for him to do this? Yes – it was probably a customary thing with him. It would be unusual that the one time God visited the city in judgment would be the day that Lot would change his routine and go down to sit in the gate. It was probably a habit with Lot. For a time each day, he would go to the gate and sit. This points to God’s people that have a habit of spending their time, day after day after day, sitting at the gate of heaven, the Word of God, the Bible. We read it and study it and we watch and wait in the Word. You know, the Lord Jesus said that you know not the time He comes, whether in the second watch or the third watch or the fourth watch and we did not know for much of history, so God’s people were to keep watch in the Bible. Then in the proper time and season we would know, because God would cause His people to know time and judgment. We were given discernment of these things.

So, Lot is where he is accustomed to being, as he is seated in the gate of the wicked city. Again, God’s people are focused on the Word of God as we live among the people of a wicked world. It is a very wicked world.

Lord willing, we will pick this up again when we get together in our next Bible study.