Bad choices, we all make them from time to time, so it is good to analyze what happens behind the scenes and a good way to do that is to look into an example in the word of God. Let’s look at the example of Lot. Before we dig into the example of a good man going bad, let us first consider that he is called a “righteous man,” therefore we must first grasp that his bad choices did not come from a heart that had never known God, rather, one that had fellowship with God. What happened?
First, we find there was strife between Abraham and Lot as they both had a great deal of flocks and possessions. Instead of working to keep peace with Abraham, Lot appears to have done nothing, so to keep peace or in this case make peace, Abraham still known as “Abram,” took the initiative of reconciliation.
Genesis 13:7–9 (ESV) — 7 and there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land. 8 Then Abram said to Lot, “Let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are kinsmen. 9 Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left.”
How did Lot respond? Notice his mind was guided by selfish motives in that he looked to what appealed.
Genesis 13:10 (ESV) — 10 And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)
As we continue with Lot, we see he goes from looking toward Sodom to living in Sodom. You can see how his defenses were broken down by strife and appeal so much so that he becomes a citizen of a city that is soon to be destroyed for their sin.
Genesis 13:12 (ESV) — 12 Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom.
God provided a warning to Lot when he and many of the people of Sodom were taken into captivity by the king of the North. When Abraham heard about this, he and his men rescued Lot and the others but rather than see the error of his ways and leave for good, he returns to city dwelling in Sodom.
Genesis 14:16 (ESV) — 16 Then he brought back all the possessions, and also brought back his kinsman Lot with his possessions, and the women and the people.
When God was about to destroy Sodom, he sent messengers to bring Lot and his family out of the city. Since Lot had evidently been living a compromised lifestyle when he went to the men who were engaged to his daughters to warn them to flee the city, they treated him like he was mocking and not serious. How sad!
Genesis 19:14 (ESV) — 14 So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, “Up! Get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city.” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting.
Finally, when the angels or messengers from God came to Lot to bring him out of the city, he lingered. How pitiful that Lot went from looking toward Sodom to lingering in Sodom when God’s wrath is about to fall.
Genesis 19:15–17 (ESV) — 15 As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.” 16 But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. 17 And as they brought them out, one said, “Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.”
Bad choices begin when we drop our guard and become focused on ourselves as Lot did in allowing strife between he and Abraham. His journey from Abraham to Sodom began with the appeal of the flesh as he considered the well-watered plains but he didn’t stop with just a view, he set his focus upon not only the plains but the city of Sodom and the next thing we find he is his dwelling there. When God provided a wake up call to escape when he was taken captive by the king of the North, upon returning after being rescued by Abraham, he returned to Sodom. Having lost all credibility because of his compromise even the men who should have respected him because they were engaged to be married to Lot’s daughters, treated him as if he were a joke when he warned them of the wrath to come. Finally, Lot’s bad choices culminated with his lingering when he was told to leave quickly. If not for the fact that we are told he was a righteous man and that his righteous soul was vexed by the conditions in which he lived in Sodom, we might think Lot, based upon his bad choices, was far from being righteous.
2 Peter 2:6–8 (ESV) — 6 if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked 8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard);
Take a lesson in the anatomy of bad choices presented in God’s word by Lot, and know that the chain of bad choices more often than not begins with thinking too highly of ourselves to striving with those around us. Consider Lot.
Godspeed,
Bob Brubaker
