Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. Tonight is study #12 of Genesis, chapter 19. Again, I will read Genesis 19:4-11:

But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them. And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him, And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly. Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof. And they said, Stand back. And they said again, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door. But the men put forth their hand, and pulled Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door. And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied themselves to find the door.

I will stop reading there. We have been looking at Genesis 19, spiritually, with no apology for doing it. It is a shame for anyone to read the Bible and not look for a spiritual meaning – it empties the Bible of its glory. The Bible tells us that it is the honor of kings to search out a matter. So, the elect children of God delight in that honor God has given us in searching the Scriptures, the greatest “mystery book” that has ever been written.

If you love mysteries, you should love reading the Bible because almost every verse is a “mystery.” It is an unending mystery. We cannot find all the solutions, but we are thankful when God opens our understanding to one verse here or one verse there. We go slowly through the Bible, waiting upon God to help us because we can never open the understanding ourselves. It requires God to grant us understanding in to the things He has said.

By God’s grace, we are finding spiritual insight in this historical passage about that night in Sodom, when God came to judge that city. He came in to the house of Lot and dwelt there that evening with Lot. Then the wicked men of the city compassed the house round and they wanted Lot to bring out his two guests, as it said in Genesis 19:5:

And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.

I do not know all the spiritual meaning, as far as the wicked men wanting to “know” the two angels or messengers. We know the two men are God Himself, so it is really as if they are saying, “Bring God out to us. We want to know Him.” You know, the Bible does tell us that to know God is eternal life. The Lord Jesus said in Matthew 7:21-23:

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Christ knows His own. He knows those He has saved – those predestinated elect individuals whose sins He had paid for at the foundation of the world. He knows them very intimately and personally, but for the rest of mankind He has no such relationship, so He said, “I never knew you.” Of course, He knows who they are, and He knows everything about them. He formed them in the womb and He knows every thought they have had. He knows everything that happened in their lives, and so forth, but on this one level that regards salvation, He does not know them. In that intimate experience of salvation, He never knew them.

So, since Sodom represents the churches and congregations at the time of the end when there was great apostasy and God had come to bring final judgment and destroy them, God has intimate communication with His elect (righteous Lot) and, yet, He does not know the rest of the people of the city in that intimate way. So, the men of Sodom are attempting to “force things” and take the kingdom of heaven by violence, as it were, as they called unto Lot and said, “Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.” It is as if they are saying, “Bring them out that we can have salvation.” But you cannot force God in anything. God is sovereign. He will do His will, especially when it comes to salvation. And when we look at the church at the end of time, it is a church given over to the idea that they can “will” their way to heaven; they can force their way into the kingdom of God and eternal life: “Here is how you do it.” They will be glad to tell you: “Just accept Christ. Make a decision for Him. Repent and be baptized. Confess the name of Jesus.” It is work, after work, after work and through the doing of work, they claim people can “know” God. None of that is true, though they may try endlessly to break their way into heaven. No matter how much they try to use the power of their own will to enter into the gate of heaven, they are unable to do it.

I think this touches on the idea presented as they demand, “Bring God out to us that we may know Him.” They were keeping an eye on righteous Lot and they observed (through Lot) these men, just like people keep their eye on God’s elect and through keeping an eye on us, they can see the light shine and they can see the work of God in our lives. It has this kind of connotation.

It says in Genesis 19:6:

And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him,

When the elect are saved in this world, we can go “in and out,” do we not? Upon the moment of salvation, we are transported into the heavenlies to be seating in Christ Jesus at the right hand of God. And, according to John 1, we immediately descend again with the commission to be a messenger in the day of salvation, as well as to feed God’s sheep in our day. But we “go in and out at the door.” We have been given that grace where we have our citizenship in heaven, but we are still living on the earth. So, as typified by Lot, we go out the door and shut the door after us; we are only doorkeepers.

In this situation, Lot went out of his house and shut the door of his house behind him, not allowing these men to come in. It was not allowed for him, spiritually, to bring the wicked into the kingdom of heaven, so to speak. We were never called to do that. We were called to bring the Gospel message in the day of salvation and God found His lost sheep and brought His elect into His kingdom. We never did that. We never had the ability to do that. So, Lot did not open the door and invite everyone to come in. He went out and tried to talk to these people, as it says in Genesis 19:7:

And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly.

At this time in the end of the world, what is the least effective thing you can say to people that have been given up to their sin? Let me just read some of the sins the world has been given up to as detailed in Romans 1:26-32:

For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

Here, God has given man up to do evil. And not only do they do evil, “but have pleasure in them that do them.” God has given up man to work wickedness at the time of the end. How effective is it to say to the world today or even to say to the churches as they are going after false doctrines, “Brethren, do not so wickedly”? When you tell them not to do wickedly, you are indicating that there is a law or commandment – there is a right way. And they are not doing things according to the laws and commandments of God. They are doing wrong, so nobody listens today, including all the unsaved in the churches and the world. Instead, they are going after their iniquities and if you point out what the Bible says, it will not stop them. They cannot be stopped. The only thing that will stop a man from doing iniquity until his death is God, but God is the one who has given them up. First, He turned the churches over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh and then He gave up the world or the nations to do the evils that we see across the face of the earth. This is why it is vain for people to try to legislate morality or get involved in protesting some evil doing, like abortion. There are professed Christians that get involved in politics and campaigns against this evil or that evil, but it is completely vain. It if futile. It will never succeed because, in one sense, they are even fighting against the will of God, because God is the one that gave up the world to their vile affections, allowing them to go after these things and be overcome by them. How can anyone stop it? If it is God’s doing, why would we want to stop it? Of course, we are grieved and sorrowed by all the evil in the world and the terrible things that are happening, but it is all according to God’s end-time judgment program that these things are happening.

So, Lot was attempting to reason with the people of Sodom: “I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly.” It goes on to say in Genesis 19:8:

Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof.

The word “nothing” is a Hebrew word that is negating the word “debar,” the Hebrew word for “word.” It is really saying, “Do ye to them as is good in your eyes; only unto these men do no word.” We are not going to quickly go through this verse, because this is important. Lot is offering up his two daughters to protect the two men. And we know these men are God. We read this, and we are shocked. It is shocking that Lot would offer the mob his two daughters to protect the guests that are in his house. But I think there is a way we can understand at least some of what is going on here, spiritually.

We will have to do that in our next Bible study. Lord willing, when we get together in our next study of Genesis 19, we will look at why Lot was willing to bring out his two daughters to satisfy the lusts of this evil mob. How could he possibly do that?