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(note: this lesson falls between “Abram and Sarai Get New Names” and “God Tests Abraham’s Faith“)

Making it Simple

Lesson 8

Lot’s Choices are Proven Unwise

Genesis 13, 14, 18:16-19:38

Chapter 13:1-13

Abram leaves Egypt.  He returns to Bethel.  Abram and Lot both are so wealthy that the land cannot maintain both men’s herds and people.  There began to be fighting among the herdsmen of Lot and Abram and those herdsmen of the local people.  Abram tells Lot to choose which way he will go with his possessions, and Abram will go the other way so that there would no longer be arguing between them.

V.10      “Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the valley of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere – this was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah – like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go to Zoar.”

Lot chooses the valley of the Jordan and journeys eastward.  From this point on he and Abram are separated from each other.

V.13      “Now the men of Sodom were wicked exceedingly and sinners against the Lord.”

 

Chapter 14

While Lot is living in the valley of the Jordan, the king of Shinar, the king of Ellasar, the king of Elam, and the king of Goiim made war against the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (Zoar).  Through the course of events in the war Sodom and Gomorrah were taken captive; all their goods, food supply, and Lot and his possessions.  A fugitive from the cities came and told Abram about the abduction.  Abram led 318 men in pursuit of Lot’s captors.  He defeated the kings who had overtaken the five kings who were allied.  Abram brought back Lot with his possessions, women, and people, as well as all the goods that were taken from the cities.

 

Chapter 18:16-33

After the Lord had told Abraham and Sarah that they would have a son of their own in a year, He decided to tell Abraham of what was getting ready to happen.  The Lord tells Abraham that Sodom and Gomorrah’s “sin is exceedingly grave.”  He tells Abraham that if the sin is as great as what He has heard, that He will deal with the cities accordingly.  Abraham expresses concern that the righteous will be punished along with the wicked.  Abraham gets the Lord’s agreement that if there are ten righteous men in the cities, the Lord will not destroy the cities.

 

 

 

 

 

(Warning: the following material MAY NOT be appropriate for all ages. Please use your best discretion when teaching. I personally would not teach the complete story to those under the age of 15.)

Chapter 19

Verses 1-14 The two angels who had been with the Lord at Abraham’s place came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting in the gates.  Lot rises to meet them and bows with his face to the ground.  Lot invites these men to stay in his house so they may rest and be on their way early the next day.  The men expressed their desire to stay in the square of the city.  Lot strongly urges them to turn aside with him to his house, prepares a feast for them and baked unleavened bread.  Before Lot and the men went to bed, the men of the city of Sodom surrounded Lot’s house – both young and old, from every quarter of the city – and demanded that the visitors come out so that all these people could “have relations with them”.  Lot goes out of the house and closes the door behind him.  He begs the men of the town to “not act wickedly”.  The men of the town dismiss Lot as an outsider who has no right to judge them.  They threaten to do worse to Lot than what they intended with the visitors! The men of the city started to attack Lot with such force that they almost broke down the door to the house.  The visitors reached out and brought Lot into the house.  They struck the men of the city with blindness, “both small and great, so that they wearied themselves trying to find the doorway.”  The visitors inquire as to how many people are in Lot’s care and warn him to get them all out of the city because they have been sent by the Lord to destroy it because of how sinful they have become.  Lot goes to his future sons-in-law to tell them to leave, but the men believe Lot to be joking.

Verses 15-29 The next morning, the angels of the Lord urged Lot to get up, take his wife and two daughters who were in the house with him and get out of the city or else be swept away in the punishment of the city.  Lot hesitated – but the angels seized his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hands of his two daughters and brought them outside the city. (The scripture says this was done because “the compassion of the Lord was upon Lot.)  The angels said to run and not look back.  Lot and his family were to escape as far as the mountains or they would be killed along with those in the cities.  Lot says he can’t go to the mountains for fear he will die there!  Can’t he stop in this small town to save his life? The angels of the Lord agree to not destroy the city of Zoar because of Lot.  The sun had risen by the time Lot came to Zoar.  At that time, the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven.

“and He overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. But his wife, from behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.”

Abraham awoke and saw all the smoke “of the land ascended like the smoke of a furnace.”

In this way God destroyed the cities of the valley but He remembered Abraham and Lot and saved them when He overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.

Verses 30-38 After Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed Lot went from Zoar and into the mountains, taking his two daughters with him.  The daughters thought that there were no men left on the earth for them to marry and have children with now.  The older sister suggested to the younger sister that they get their father drunk so that they could lie with him and by him have a family.  That night the older sister did this thing, and Lot was so drunk that he did not know when she came in, nor when she left.  The next day, the older sister encouraged the younger sister to do the same thing.  Again they made Lot to drink wine so that he was drunk enough to not know when the younger sister came in or when she left.  In this way, both girls were pregnant by their own father.  The older daughter bore a son, Moab. He became the father of the Moabites. The younger daughter bore a son, Ben-ammi.  He became the father of the Ammonites.

 

In Your Bible:

Re: Ch.19:1 Lot sitting in the gates of Sodom – Genesis 34:20; Exodus 32:26; Deuteronomy 22:15;

Deut. 25:7; Joshua 20:4; Ruth 4:1,11; 2 Samuel 19:8; Esther 5:13; Psalm 69:12; Proverb 31:23; Jeremiah 38:7; Lamentations 5:14

Luke 17:28-31

Luke 17:32-34

Deuteronomy 29:22-23

Deuteronomy 32:32-33 (Israel’s sin against God is such it is of the “vine”of Sodom and Gomorrah)

Isaiah 1:9-10; Is. 3:9; Is. 13:19

Jeremiah 23:14; Jer. 49:18; Jer. 50:10

Lamentations 4:6

Ezekiel 16:44-59

Zephaniah 2:9 (Moab and Ammon will become like Sodom)

Matthew 10:15; Matt. 11:23-24

Mark 6:11

Luke 10:12

2 Peter 2:4-10 (God knows how to save the righteous and punish the unrighteous; Sodom and Gomorrah are examples)

Jude 1:6-7

 

 

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