Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. Tonight is study #6 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.
In our last study we began to look at the name “Sodom.” As we looked up that word, we found that God uses Sodom as a way of referring to an unfaithful church or to unfaithful Israel. One of the clearest verses is Isaiah 1:9-10:
Except JEHOVAH of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah. Hear the word of JEHOVAH, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.
God was addressing Israel, the people of God, and He was calling their rulers “rulers of Sodom” and their people “people of Gomorrah.” If we allow the Bible to define its own terms and words, we realize that this relates to the churches and congregations. That is exactly what we found in Revelation, chapter 11 concerning the two witnesses that would prophesy for a period of time and then Satan would be loosed and would overcome them and their bodies would lie in the street of that great city that spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt. So, we see very clearly that God is tying together Sodom with the apostate churches at the end of the church age. They became like the city Sodom.
By the way, there is a timeline from the year the city of Sodom was destroyed in 2068 B.C. If we go from 2068 B.C. to 1988, which was the 13,000th year of earth’s history and the year the church age ended, the timeline breaks down to “2 x 12 x 13 x 13.” It takes us from the destruction of Sodom to the beginning of the end of the world. They are very important numbers. The number “2” has to do with the caretakers of the Word of God, the Bible. We find that “two messengers” came to the city. The number “12” has to do with fulness and the number “13” has to do with the end of the world (and it is doubled). So, without question, God is tying together the events we are reading about in Genesis 19 with events that would happen at the time of the end of the world. At that time, the corporate churches would go astray and become apostate.
The word “apostasy” is from a Greek word that is found in 2Thessalonians, chapter 2, where it is translated as “falling away.” Before Christ would come, there would be a “falling away.” The word translated as “falling away” is the word “ap-os-tas-ee-ah” and this is where we get the English word “apostasy,” which means to fall away from truth or to go from it. At the time of the end the two witnesses were ministering the Word of God within the churches and congregations of the world. The two witnesses are a spiritual picture of “Moses and Elijah,” or the Law (Moses) and the prophets (Elijah). The Law and the prophets point to the Bible, so the Bible had its witness within the congregations of the world throughout the church age. Satan was loosed in 1988, the 13,000th year of earth’s history, and the two witnesses were immediately overcome and slain, as it were. What this means is that when the Word of God, the Bible, was actively witnessing the truth within the churches throughout the church age, the “two witnesses” were alive. But when the Holy Spirit departed out of the churches and Satan entered in as the man of sin and took his seat in the temple to rule the congregations of the world, the Word of God or the “two witnesses” came to an end because there was no “life.” The Spirit of God had departed. The churches still had Bibles in their pulpits and Bibles in their pews and, yet, it was “lifeless” because it requires the Spirit of God to bless the Word unto salvation: “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Of course, it requires the Holy Spirit to open a person’s spiritual eyes and ears to become saved through the Word of God. Without the Spirit, no faith (Christ) can come in and there will be no blessing of salvation. There is no growing in grace and in the knowledge of God. It is something that simply cannot occur without God’s Holy Spirit. That is the situation in the churches since 1988.
We read Revelation 11 in our last study and I want to read it again because it ties in to what we are reading in Genesis 19. Speaking of the 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 reason God refers to Egypt is because Egypt was a place of bondage and the churches became a place of spiritual bondage. They were in captivity to Satan. Pharaoh typified Satan and Pharaoh ruled over Egypt. Satan was loosed and he overcame the camp of the saints. The two witnesses were slain, and Satan ruled in the churches, just as Pharaoh did in Egypt. Pharaoh ruled over the Jews and they were his slaves. Satan ruled over those that professed to be God’s people in the churches and they became slaves in spiritual captivity. It was far worse than the original condition of Israel in bondage in Egypt because it was a “return to bondage” and God had departed out of the churches and vowed not to deliver anyone that remained in the churches and congregations; that is, He is no longer saving anyone in the churches. So, no man will redeem them. No man will set them free. It necessitated coming out of the churches while God was saving in the second half of the Great Tribulation as the Latter Rain fell all over the earth outside of the churches. But there was no hope of salvation in the churches and congregations. So, the dead bodies of the two witnesses lay in the streets of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt.
By the way, I often refer to spiritual meanings and I will say something like, “Spiritually, this represents a certain thing.” And I can see why some people may get tired of that and, yet, that is exactly what God did when he referred to the great city and gave a spiritual connotation: He linked Sodom and Egypt spiritually to that great city where the Lord was crucified. Where was the Lord crucified? He was crucified outside the city of Jerusalem, a city in Israel. Remember what it said in Isaiah 1 about “ye rulers of Sodom” and “ye people of Gomorrah.” Unfaithful professed Christians in the churches are like “Sodom and Gomorrah” and they are just like Israel of old and, therefore, it became the place where the two witnesses lay dead in the streets. They had the Word of God, the Bible, and when we go back to Genesis 19, we read 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; and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat.
Once we read Revelation 11 and we see the two witnesses are killed and their dead bodies lie in the street and the people rejoiced over them, we can see Lot’s concern spiritually, and not just his concern in the historical context. It represents the time at the end of the world when the two witnesses were slain in the churches and congregations and their dead bodies lay in the streets. And at that time, God was still coming to destroy “Sodom,” the wicked corporate church. Where did the final judgment begin? According to 1Peter 4:17, judgment begins at the house of God.
Here, God is first coming to Sodom and He is going to destroy Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim, the other cities of the plain. He had planned to destroy five cities, but due to the intercession by Lot God spared the little city of Zoar. (We will discuss that later.) But God destroyed four cities and the number “four” has to do with universality. It points to the complete judgment of the house of God. It began with Sodom, which identifies with the churches and congregations. Also, from what we understand from God’s judgment on the churches, which began with the end of the church age and no one becoming saved within the congregations, the completion of the judgment can be understood as the raining down of “fire and brimstone” to make it utterly desolate; all God’s elect, the righteous ones, had already come out of the churches, just like Lot would come out of Sodom and flee the city with a few of his family members. God said that He could do nothing until Lot had entered into the city of Zoar and when Lot crossed that threshold, God did destroy the cities of the plain, which points to the judgment that began on May 21, 2011. God had separated the wheat from the tares in a process that took place over 23 years, but He did not completely destroy the corporate church until May 21, 2011. Up to that point, there had still been hope that more people would come out and find safety and refuge and (possible) salvation outside of the corporate church.
You can see how this relates to Genesis 19. God came to inform Lot of the judgment and Lot received these two messengers in the gate of Sodom. Then Lot pressed them greatly to come to his house and not stay in the street, because in the street there was no place for the “witness” of God; there was no place there for the two messengers to send forth the Word of God there any longer.
We need to look at this word “street” in the Bible and I do not think we will have sufficient time in this study, but let us look at one verse before we conclude today. It says in Proverbs 1:20-23:
Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets: She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying, How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.
It says, “Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets.” Who is wisdom? Wisdom is Christ, according to 1Corinthians 1:30. He is made unto us “wisdom.” Jesus is wisdom. Jesus is the Word made flesh, so the Bible is the essence of wisdom and, as it says, “Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets.” That is why the two witnesses wanted to stay in the street. They are accustomed to being there because that is where “Wisdom” sends forth wise counsel and the wise counsel was: “Turn you at my reproof.” Remember what is says in 2Timothy 3:16: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof…”
So, God came to the gate of the wicked city. God comes to His people. He came to Lot, who was reading the Bible, as it were. Lot was listening, watching and waiting for the Lord and “Wisdom” came to him. You see, the Word of God cannot operate and remain in the streets of Sodom because Sodom was so wicked and in the streets of Sodom the “two witnesses” were killed. God’s presence was no longer in the churches and, yet, the two witnesses entered into Lot’s home, just as God is with His elect people, individually. He was not dwelling in the house of God in the midst of the congregations any longer, even though for a time the elect were still in the churches (Sodom) during part of the Great Tribulation. The elect were not aware for a time that God had left the churches and God had to inform us to depart out of the city and flee to the mountains. God said, in effect, “Remove from this wicked place, for I will destroy it.” There would come that final day in which the tares would be bundled for burning and cast into the fire and that final day was May 21, 2011, the beginning of Judgment Day. It destroyed all the tares in the congregations, spiritually.
Lord willing, in our next study we will continue to look at the “street” of Sodom to see what the Bible has to say about this word.