Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. Tonight is study #21 of Genesis, chapter 19. We are going to read Genesis 19:15-16:

And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city. And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; JEHOVAH being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city.

I will stop reading there. We know this is a true historical occurrence that happened thousands of years ago. God is giving us a record of some of the details leading up to the event and the actual destruction of Sodom and the other cities of the plain.

God had appeared the night before. He came to the gate of the city and He met Lot, His righteous servant. They spent the night at Lot’s house after an interesting incident with the men of the city of Sodom. God struck the men of Sodom with blindness, so they wearied themselves to find the “door.” Then they left.

Then God asked Lot if he had any in the city besides his wife and two daughters. Lot went to His sons in law and tried to reason with them regarding the need to flee out of the city and, yet, he seemed as one that mocked unto them. Then we read in Genesis 19:15:

And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city.

The “morning arose.” This is indicating that it was the time in God’s timetable for Sodom to be destroyed. God allows for consultation and checking things out in the Scriptures. He encourages that. As a matter of fact, He warns against believing things without checking them out in His Word. Everything a child of God hears should be checked out in the Bible, but there is also a timetable of events in God’s program of times and seasons.

For example, God opened the Scriptures that had been sealed unto the time of the end. I believe it was 2001 when information came forth from the Bible about the end of the church age (1988) and the desperate need for the people of God to flee the churches and congregations of the world. There was a time limit because God was also opening up information in the Bible to reveal a date for the final judgment of the world, May 21, 2011, which was only 10 years from the time that He opened up the information regarding the end of the church age and the need to depart out of the midst of the congregations.

Many people heard the initial report that the church age was over, and that Satan had been loosed to rule in the congregations and God had departed out. Some pondered it and discussed it and they reasoned among themselves, but they did not act in 2001 or in 2002. Some people had to hear about it for years; perhaps in 2005 or 2008. They thought there was still time to consider and discuss these things, but there was a tendency to “linger” when the command had been urgently given right from the start in 2001. It was a desperately urgent command to get out of that place. We see elements of this in the historical parable of Lot and his family.

We can also see why Lot did spend some time lingering, but we will talk more about that when we get to the next verse. But, again, it says in Genesis 19:15:

And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city.

Again, we must not confuse these two virgin daughters with other daughters that were married and living with their husbands in their own households. Lot was told to take his wife and two daughters, lest they be consumed in the iniquity of the city. The two men (who were God) hastened Lot. The word “hastened” is a word found in several places. For instance, we read, “but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent,” in Proverbs 28:20. We also read, “Seest thou a man that is hasty in his words? there is more hope of a fool than of him.” (Proverbs 29:20) Also, the Bible indicates in Proverbs 19:2: “…and he that hasteth with his feet, sinneth.” In each of these verses, being “hasty” is a negative thing; it is not to be done. God’s people are to be patient and wait upon the Lord, praying for wisdom and direction. And, of course, we are to search things out thoroughly. We are not to be hasty with our feet or our mouth.

It says in Exodus 5:13:

And the taskmasters hasted them, saying, Fulfil your works, your daily tasks, as when there was straw.

The Egyptian taskmasters were hastening the Jews regarding the making of bricks and they gave them no straw. Again, it is a negative use of the word “hasted,” but it is the same word used in our verse. All the references I just gave use this word, but if it is God that is hasting, it is not negative or sinful in any way. There is purpose. The two messengers “hastened” Lot because the time had come. When it comes close to the Day of Judgment and the time when “fire and brimstone” would fall from heaven, you would have less and less time to “do your research” or to continue in lengthy discussions. There comes a time to act.

You know, the wonderful thing about this is that God’s people hear His voice. We can discern the voice of Christ. We know His voice, whereas we know not the voice of a stranger and God uses that fact when it comes to matters like this. Lot heard God’s voice. He did not need much convincing when the two men (God) appeared to him. He listened when they told him to make haste and get out of the city. He believed them. Lot’s sons in law were told the same thing, but they did not believe the message. That is what it comes down to between those that are the elect and those that are not the elect. The unsaved, natural-minded person has no ability to discern and hear the voice of Christ and to know it as the voice of God. The unsaved tend to not believe those things that are true, as Jesus said in John 8:45:

And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.

You see, this is the insurmountable problem for the unsaved when they are faced with an urgent revelation from God, as was true regarding the command to get out of the churches. It did not “ring true” to them; it did not sound right to their “ears.” They cannot discern the voice of Christ. They do not believe and the reason they do not believe is not because it is not true, but because it is true. If it were a lie, they would have a greater tendency to believe it, because their father is the devil, the father of lies: “When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own.” Man’s heart is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things, so he is of the lie – he is inclined to the lie. He is open to falsehood, but not when it comes to the truth.

So, we had an entire church world of “wheat and tares” that were hearing this information and how they heard it depended on their spiritual condition and whether they were saved or not saved. It was possible that a good number of unsaved people came out of the churches with the tares and it did not mean that everyone that came out of the churches was elect of God. But it was true that all the elect did come out of the corporate churches. Then God had a later plan to deal with the non-elect “hangers-on” that came out of the churches with the wheat and God has been dealing with them since May 21, 2011. But God’s people did hear His voice and those that are not His people do not hear His voice. As we got closer to May 21, 2011 and time was expiring, the urgency of the command to leave the congregations got greater and greater among the elect.

Again, it says in Genesis 19:15:

And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city.

The word “consumed” is the same word that was translated as “destroyed” in Genesis 18:23-24:

And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?

Our word is the word translated as “destroy” and this word is translated as “consumed” in Numbers 16:24-26:

Speak unto the congregation, saying, Get you up from about the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. And Moses rose up and went unto Dathan and Abiram; and the elders of Israel followed him. And he spake unto the congregation, saying, Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest ye be consumed in all their sins.

That is exactly what is being said to Lot and this part of his family. If they did not go out of the city, there was danger they would be “consumed” in the sins of the city. With that statement, God is letting us know (without any question) that there is no way that someone who stayed behind in the city would not be destroyed. In other words, if someone said, “I believe the church age is over. I believe that God wants me to come out, but I am a saved individual and when you are saved you can never lose your salvation. So, I am going to stay here and talk to my family and others and try to convince them and remain here within the church and I will minister to people in this location.” Of course, when it came to the end of the church age and time running out on the command to depart out of the churches, it meant a spiritual destruction. And we can be sure they were spiritually destroyed with all the other tares within the congregations. That would mean the individual was, in fact, a tare all along, despite the belief that he was a child of God. In remaining behind, he was destroyed in the iniquity of the city and it is impossible for God to destroy the righteous with the wicked, spiritually, proving that this person was not saved.

However, we should underscore the fact that the good work of leaving the churches does not mean that it saved anyone. I have already said that a good number of people that came out were not really saved. Doing that good work (being obedient to the command of God) would not save anyone, but God’s elect performed that good work in obedience to the commandment of God because we are elect. God gave us the spirit of discernment. Remember, it says in Ecclesiastes that a wise man’s heart discerneth both time and judgment.

Lot had a wise man’s heart. He discerned the voice of JEHOVAH. He knew it was true and, therefore, he had to get out of the city. He discerned it was the time and he discerned it was the judgment of God and it was time to flee, whereas Lot’s sons in law and their wives had no such discernment. The men of Sodom had no such discernment and, likewise, neither did those in the churches and congregations at the time of the end.

God’s elect came out of the churches because we were already saved and, as a result, we performed that good work. Others came out for various reasons, but they were not saved. Some individuals are very independent-minded, and they liked the idea of not being subject to pastors, elders and deacons or church authority. They like being on their own. It was very appealing to certain people. You know, it is the nature of a rebel to be that way and mankind is in rebellion against God, so they rebel against authority. Man rebels against the Bible and against God Himself. And these natural-minded individuals were proud and arrogant because they were unsaved and they saw an opportunity to rebel against church authority. So, they came out and they became their own authority. We should not think they placed themselves under the authority of the Bible because that is impossible for an unsaved person to do, but they could be their own authority and do what seemed right in their own eyes. They could believe whatever they thought the Bible said and who was to say their understanding of the Bible was not true? It was a good situation for a rebellious individual to be free to rebel and, yet, have the “cover” of doing something Biblical and of keeping the commandment of God and, yet, in their hearts it had nothing to do with being obedient to Christ’s commandments, but it was really for other purposes.

Again, it said in our verse, “Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city.” Staying in the city meant death. There was no option for anyone to stay – if they stayed behind, they died. If they went out, they could survive and live through the destruction of the city. Of course, it was another matter regarding Lot’s wife and we will look at that later. But insofar as this urgent command was concerned, they were to go forth and get out of the city.

Then it says in Genesis 19:16:

And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; JEHOVAH being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city.

After everything we have read and what I was just saying about Lot and the nature of an elect child of God hearing the voice of Christ and knowing it as truth, we would expect to read that Lot made his way as quickly as possible out of the city with his two daughters and his wife. We would think that he immediately left the city and, yet, that is not what we read. It says, “And while he lingered…” Why did Lot linger? The answer is obvious, if we look to the Bible for understanding. We will spend some time looking at this, so we are going to wait until our next Bible study and, Lord willing, we will look at the word “linger” and some possible reasons Lot did linger. We will be able to relate it to the end of the church age, once again.