Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. Tonight is study #5 of Genesis, chapter 19. We are reading 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.

I will stop reading there. We have been looking at verse 1 during our last two studies and this verse is full of curious things, as is true of much of the Bible. We wondered why God was sitting in the gate of the city by himself. It does not say he was all alone, but there is no mention of anyone else, so we can gather that he was there by himself; especially when we see that sitting in the gate has to do with keeping watch in the Bible.

We saw that the gate of the wicked city of Sodom points to the gate or doorway between the kingdom of God and this wicked world. The “gate” is God’s Word, the Bible, and God positions us in front of the Bible and we read it and study it. This is where God communicates with His people and where we meet God, spiritually.

This is exactly what is being pictured here as Lot sat in the gate of Sodom and saw God approaching, “and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them.” The righteous Lot is typifying God’s people in a wicked world and he has contact and communication with God at the gate. It is pointing to God communicating with us at the “portal” of the Word of God, the Bible.

Lot meets with the two angels and the word “angels” could be more accurately translated as “messengers” here. The two messengers are God Himself and He is coming to visit the city of Sodom to destroy it. It is the time of judgment. And this has all kinds of implications (and we discussed some of them) for when God would open the Scriptures to reveal both time and judgment. The Biblical calendar of history is a blueprint for God’s end-time judgment program, beginning with the Great Tribulation and the judgment on the churches, which transitioned to judgment on all the unsaved people of the earth. That transition has already been made and that is where we find ourselves today as we live in the world in the day of the wrath of God, the Day of Judgment.

God came to the wicked city of Sodom, typifying His coming in judgment against this world and Lot “sees” Him at the gate. The people of Sodom did not see Him at the gate because they were not at the gate. The people of Sodom were occupied with other matters, most of which were evil, and they were not at the gate with Lot as he was watching. In other words, the people of this world are not focused on the Word of God, the Bible.

Of course, that matches perfectly with the situation in the world today and the situation in the churches. The churches do not have their eyes upon the Bible. They claim to be watchmen and they claim to follow Christ’s command: “Watch ye, therefore.” They claim they are watchmen ready to sound the trumpet, but in the next breath they say, “You cannot see anything. You cannot know the day or hour. You cannot know times and seasons.” In other words, they have taken the trumpet away from the watchmen. It is ridiculous and foolish to set a watchman in the tower if he is blind, is it not? They tell their members, “Keep the watch, because Jesus told us to watch, but whatever you do, never sound the alarm. Never claim to see Christ coming.” They say, “Yes – Christ will come someday, but it is off in the distant future. It will be one day far away, which we can never know.” Basically, this causes their watchmen to be dumb dogs that cannot bark. They are blind watchmen because their Biblical hermeneutic prevents them from noticing anything spiritual. I would like to know how they could possibly have any information that they could share that would be of the slightest help to warn people about the coming of Christ. It is all simply “lip service.” And it is not even good “lip service,” when we consider the vast amount of information God has given in the Bible regarding Judgment Day, the judgment that began on the churches and then transitioned to the world. They have put on blinders and they cannot see or know anything about it.

And, let us be honest, that is exactly how they want it. The unsaved masses that are still in the churches and congregations want it this way because they are unsaved people of the world that have taken upon themselves the name of Christ. Do the people of the world want to hear about Judgment Day? Do they want to hear about the coming of Christ and the end of the world and the end of all the things they love so much? After all, this is all their inheritance. They do not have a new heaven and new earth to look forward to, nor do they have eternal life. This is it for them, so the last thing the people of the world want to hear is anything that reminds them of their great misery and their spiritual condition of being under the wrath of God and ready to perish. They will have nothing beyond this world, so the people of the world do not want to hear it.

And, again, the people of the world have entered into the churches at the time of the end of the world. You know, the church age is over, but during the church age there were both “wheat and tares” in the congregations. God has finished the separation process as He called out His people and delivered us out of the churches and congregations, leaving only the tares behind. Since only the tares are left, this gives us a good idea of the vast number of unsaved that populated the churches when God warned us of impending judgment. There are hundreds of millions of unsaved and they have the same “heart condition” as the rest of the unsaved people of the world outside of the churches. There is no difference, except that they have “intermeddled with all wisdom,” as they have taken the Word of God to their lips, but they are false witnesses because they have never become born again.

So, Lot is sitting in the gate of Sodom all alone. By the way, it goes on to say in Genesis 19:2-3:

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…

Again, these are curious and strange things that are going on here. For instance, God has come in the form of two messengers and God met “righteous Lot,” who is typifying all His people, at the point of the Word of God, the Bible. And, yet, God was not interested in going to Lot’s house, historically. They preferred to abide in the street all night and, again, we wonder why God would want to abide in the street of the wicked city of Sodom all the night long. And, even more interesting, we wonder why Lot pressed upon them greatly. He was insistent. He would not let these two messengers abide in the streets, even though they said, “Nay; but we will abide in the street all night.” Lot does not take “no” for an answer. We have that expression for someone that is insistent to have their way. Lot would not allow the two messengers to remain in the street of Sodom all the night long, but he pressed upon them greatly to enter into his house instead of remaining in the street of Sodom all night.

We are curious and interested to know why God wanted to remain in the street and, yet, they did not remain in the street. Historically, we know, do we not? We can read the passage and see what will happen. We see the character of the men of the city; they were extremely wicked and evil men. You know, in our major cities today (or even any city), there are parts of the cities that are extremely dangerous. If we knew someone was planning to spend the night out on these streets, we would advise them not to do that. We would certainly warn them: “Do not stay out on the streets.” Why? There is crime. They could be robbed, injured or even killed, so the safest place would be to enter into a safe house. Historically, Lot is concerned about their safety. He knows how evil the city is and he knows how the people are committed to their evil deeds. Lot is concerned for their safety and he insists that they come to his house. The men said, “We will stay in the streets,” but Lot says, “You cannot stay in the streets of this city. You must come to my house. I will fix a meal for you. I have a place for you to sleep.” He offered his hospitality, repeatedly, until they (apparently) changed their minds and went with him.

But, again, this is the Bible and these things have spiritual meaning. What could the spiritual meaning be? God is coming to the world (typified by Sodom) and He does not stay in the streets, but He goes into the house of His people, the elect of God.

To answer this question, we know what we must do. We go to the Bible and look up the words used here, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. God has given us wonderful Bible aids over the last hundred years, with Strong’s Concordance, the Interlinear Bible and other Bible helps. It is easy for us to look up the words in a verse and we have no excuse not to do so.

First, we want to look up the word “Sodom” and what it points to, spiritually. It says in Isaiah 1:10-11:

Hear the word of JEHOVAH, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith JEHOVAH: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.

Here, God is speaking to Israel and He is speaking of their rulers as being “rulers of Sodom” and the people of Israel as being “people of Gomorrah.” He does so because they were unfaithful. To be unfaithful means that they were involved in wickedness, transgressing the commandments of God, the Bible. Historically, this is what the people of Sodom were doing – they were transgressing God’s Law concerning their sexual conduct, especially. They were transgressing God’s Law, just like the people of Israel transgressed God’s Laws. Remember, Israel typifies the New Testament churches and congregations that also transgressed God’s Laws through their unfaithfulness to the Word of God, the Bible. So, it is interesting that God referred to the churches as “Sodom.” He did so not only in this passage, but He also said of Israel, in Deuteronomy 32:28-33:

For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them. O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and JEHOVAH had shut them up? For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges. For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter: Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.

This is referring to a rebellious corporate church and because of their rebellion God has judged them. They have come under the wrath of God and, therefore, one is able to chase a thousand and two can put ten thousand to flight. A good example of this is the fear that entered in to the churches and congregations when things of the world are making them fearful; that is happening because the Spirit of God departed out of their midst long ago and He is not protecting them. Their Rock is not the Lord Jesus Christ. They have another gospel and another foundation they are building upon and it is not the true foundation. Likewise, their “vine” is not Christ. Remember, Christ said that He was the vine and the Father is the Husbandmen. But their “vine” is the vine of Sodom. They are in the throes of iniquity. They are caught in their wickedness. They have gone astray from God. They are apostate and have fallen away from the truth and, therefore, they lost the blessing and protection and all that is good, spiritually. God is their enemy and He is no longer for them.

We have seen “Sodom” pointing to Israel in these two examples, but there is another example in Jeremiah 23:1:

Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith JEHOVAH.

This sets the context. It is a condemnation of the churches and congregations, especially their leaders that are not teaching the truth. God says in Jeremiah 23:13-14:

And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied in Baal, and caused my people Israel to err. I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.

Once again, it is because of their wickedness. It is the wickedness of Israel. It is the wickedness of the New Testament churches that call themselves by the name of Christ. God links them to Sodom and Gomorrah.

You know, this complicates things for us because we have been speaking of Sodom as a figure of the world and, yet, these three verses point to Sodom as a type of the corporate body, the New Testament churches and congregations. Someone listening may be saying, “No – it only identifies national Israel as Sodom, but not the churches,” and he may not understand that the Bible is a whole and he cannot understand the types and figures and the fact that Christ spoke in parables. For the natural-minded individual, it must be plainly stated in order for him to grasp it, so let us turn to Revelation, chapter 11. In this chapter, we have a very interesting tie-in to the two messengers that came to Sodom, as it says in Revelation 11:3:

And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.

And, of these two witnesses, it says in Revelation 11:7-8:

And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

The “two witnesses” refers to the New Testament church age and their period of prophesying. It is not pointing to the Old Testament in any way and, yet, God is saying that when they are “killed” they will lie in the street of that great city, which spiritually is called Sodom. Do you see why this is interesting? Where did the two messengers want to abide? “Nay; but we will abide in the street all night.” But Lot was fearful. In the back of his mind, he was thinking, “But the people of this wicked city will kill you if you abide in the street.” So, we read in Revelation 11 of two witnesses that are killed, and their dead bodies lie in the street of Sodom. Do you see the connection?

As I said, this complicates what we are reading in Genesis 19. What is in view? Is it the end of the world? Is it the end of the church age? Why are the two messengers taken into the house? They were not killed. Their bodies did not lie in the street of Sodom. So, we have a lot to think about and study, to see if the Lord will direct our understanding regarding what is going on here. Please read these verses and pray for wisdom. That is what I am doing, and this is what we always must do when we come to the Bible.