God carried me back to the words of 2 Chronicles 16:9 “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him…” In the Bible the word perfect and righteous concerning man does not refer to sinless perfection. It is a matter of the heart—a matter of right relationship with God that seeks to please Him. It is one who judges, deals, sacrifices, and speaks righteously; and one who learns, teaches, and pursues after righteousness. It is those who stand for right and justice. God and God alone is perfect righteousness and justice and He desires to see it reflected in the lives of His children as salt and light.
Just as in the days of the Old Testament times, I believe that the eyes of the LORD are searching out those whose heart and mind are fixed on Him. Let’s look back to the days of Lot to a time that God was searching for the righteous in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. God said in Genesis 18: 20 that their sin was grievous. God revealed to Abraham that judgment was going to come. Abraham became the intercessor and appealed to God not to destroy the righteous with the wicked. God’s answer to him was: “Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?” God’s all-searching eyes looked upon the people and could not even find 10 righteous in the city.
God sent two angels in the form of men to Sodom and spoke to Lot as he sat in a place of authority in the city gate. Lot knowing the wickedness of the city urged them to come to his house. Before bedtime, the men of Sodom both young and old surrounded the house and cried out to Lot for the men (angels) to come out of the house so they could have sex with them. Lot pleaded with the men to depart from their wickedness, but they threatened him and the angels rescued Lot and inflicted blindness upon the men and they could not find the door to enter. God sent the angels as watchman to warn. They instructed Lot and his family to flee the iniquity of the city. The angel said: “Escape for your life; do not look back nor stay in the plain, escape to the mountain.” (Gen. 19: 17) In the midst of this judgment Lot asked for grace and mercy to allow them to go to the nearby city of Zoar. (v. 20) The ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah have been discovered and bears witness to the judgment of fire and brimstone that fell from heaven. Many are saying that the devastation in Maui is of biblical portions and gives us some idea of what the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah looked like.
Lot’s choice for worldly gain and status (Gen. 13:12) cost him his wife and daughters accepting the morals of Sodom and resulting in his wife’s death and his daughters conspiring to commit incest with their father. In haste, the daughters decided to help continue their father’s seed in the earth by having children with him. Lot would probably have never gone for this soberly, so his daughters helped him make the decision by getting him drunk. They laid with their father and had children—Moab and Ammon. The lineages of these sons were perpetual enemies of Israel and still exist today in the country of Jordan. In Jeremiah chapter 48, the entire chapter covers calamities that will overtake the Moabites because of the god they served, Nebo. Moab took a beating because of their harm and participation in the destruction of the children of Israel. In verse 42, it says, “Moab will be destroyed from being a people because he has magnified himself against the LORD.” Nevertheless, in the latter days, the LORD will bring the captivity of Moab back. In Chapter 49, the LORD warns the Ammonites for their greed, harshness, backsliding, and promises to make them a desolate heap. The sins of the fathers were passed down to Solomon as we read in 1 Kings 11: 31-33 where he took wives of the Moabites and Ammonites and they led him to worship Chemosh the god of the Moabites and Milcom the god of the children of Ammon.
What lessons can we learn from the history of Lot and his family? Abraham and Lot are contrasted characters. They were of the same family (Gen. 11: 31), subject to the same environments, and both justified men in the sight of God (Gen. 15:6). Abraham is found in the list of the heroes of the faith in Hebrews 11: 8-19 but Lot is missing. The answer lies in their respective choices at a crisis in their lives. Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan for selfish advantage; Abraham, waiting “looked for a city which hath foundations” (Heb. 11:10), “came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron.” (Gen. 13:18) The men are representative of the worldly and the spiritual believer. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. (Gen. 15: 6) On the other hand, Lot was not in his right mind in many decisions he made in his life. His goal was wealth, fame and the pleasures the world offers and dismissed or never saw his role and purpose in life. Hebrews 11: 6 says: “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” Faith is confidence in God’s power, His promises, and His tenderness towards His people as demonstrated throughout the Old Testament, on the cross, and at the resurrection. May we like Abraham walk by faith and not by sight as Lot did.
His daughters violated the laws against incestual relationships in Leviticus 18:8-18 and 20: 11-21. They were corrupted by the people in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah that violated 18: 22 where God forbids homosexuality and calls it an abomination. Lot’s daughters sought to solve their problem according to the world and not God. They could have waited a few months or even a year and consulted with their father and the Almighty Father regarding their situation. They would have learned the earth wasn’t destroyed and they were not the last people on the earth at that time. They could have returned to Abraham’s compound and restarted their lives. God who sees all and knows all will direct our decisions if we ask Him. Proverbs 3: 5-6 says: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart; and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.” Jesus instructs His followers in Matthew 7: 7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”
God is the same yesterday, today and forever and the sins that were an abomination to Him in the day of Lot are still an abomination to Him today! Ruth Graham is credited with the statement: “If God does not judge America, He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah!” Proverbs 3: 32-33 says: “For the LORD detests the perverse, but He is a friend to the upright. The curse of the LORD is on the house of the wicked, but He blesses the home of the righteous.” I believe that God’s eyes are roaming to and fro across the world, our nation, our state, our county, our churches searching for those who are righteous. Have we like Lot compromised with the world and are tolerant of the violations against His commands and order? Jesus Himself made the connection between the days of Lot and the time prior to His Second Coming in Luke 17: 28-30, 32. They continued to oppose God and His ways until judgment came and destroyed them—remember Lot’s wife!
The choice is ours—“Will we stand with God and His righteousness and be blessed or follow the ways of the world and reap what we sow?” In the words of Hosea 10: 12: “Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, till He come and rain righteousness upon you.” Judgment is going to run down as waters upon all who oppose God but righteousness as a mighty stream on those who stand for and with Him! (Amos 5: 24)