Remember Lot’s Wife... and His Children

 

Lot made a choice when his family was young.
He pitched his tent toward Sodom.
Years later, we find he actually moved into the city.

Perhaps he didn’t at first intend to live inside that wicked city.
After all, Scripture records his righteous soul was vexed every day by the wickedness around him.
But yet, he chose to live there!

Why?
Probably because it was more comfortable and convenient.

After all, farming is dirty, hard work. And it’s often not as lucrative as other forms of business.
And think of the opportunities for the family! Children could get a better education… wife could shop for necessities easier, and more quickly. Overall, it just made sense to move into Sodom.

Lot knew better. His spirit was not at peace.
But he rationalized his choice.

What Lot didn’t realize was how much it was going to cost him in the end.

 

While Lot was pursuing social and financial advancement… his family was growing up.

They were learning how to think like Sodom.
The children of Lot thought of themselves as Sodomites.
Because they were steeped in that culture.
It was their norm.

Lot’s wife shepherded her children through their growing up years, in this compromised situation.
How she loved her children!
Her older girls grew up, and got settled in homes of their own.
There were two girls yet at home. But they were still virgins. They were protected.
They were trained not to live loose lives, like those around them.
This says something about the home they came from.
It says something about their mother.

But then came that fateful night, that horrible night, when it all fell apart!

The homosexual gangs trying to beat down their door, to get at the two strangers within their walls.
And Lot did something he never thought he would do.
He offered his daughters to be gang-raped, as a consolation prize.
That is something beyond our understanding. How a father could do that.

But it may be the reason he did it, is because he had been inching toward it for years, without knowing it.

For years, he had been sacrificing his children to wicked influence, bit by bit.
From the moment he pitched his tent toward Sodom, he rationalized how it was all for the best.
The compromise he allowed, messed with his ability to see things clearly.
His ability to make wise decisions. Until he made a horrible offer – the ultimate betrayal of trust. To offer his daughters to a gang wild with lust.

Thankfully, they turned his offer down. That was nothing but the intervening grace of God!

 

How Lot’s wife must have felt that night!
Her married daughters were trapped!

Their husbands just laughed at Lot’s warnings – they weren’t used to this Lot. They were used to the Lot who went along to get along. They were used to the Lot who kidded around and enjoyed life alongside wicked people.
Now here he was, trying to get serious, talking about God. They thought he was kidding, as usual.

Her heart was breaking that night, as she ran alongside her husband. Her body was there, running… but her heart was back in Sodom, with her missing daughters.

Maybe she looked back to see if they were coming after all.
We don’t know.

But we do know she disobeyed.

Jesus said that in the last days, we must remember Lot’s wife.
Why?

These days, the homosexual agenda is advancing fast.
America – and the entire world – is becoming Sodom.
Our children are becoming infected with this evil pandemic.

How many times have you heard of Christians who once would never have considered compromising on the issue of homosexuality being sin… reconsidering … when one of their own children “came out of the closet”?

Because when it’s one of your own children, it hurts.

Because this issue separates people. Children who embrace the liberal agenda become part of the new “cancel culture.” And they’ll cancel their parents. Blocking them. Refusing to talk with them. They cut off their parents.

Could anything be more painful, on an emotional level?
For a mother to give birth to a child and train him up in the ways of God, only for him to turn his back on all she taught him?
And then, for him to cut off communication with her?
To label her an ignorant or bad person, for still believing the Bible?

Jesus also said that in the end times, children will betray their own parents to be killed.
We are getting very close to that day, here in America!

Did you know that one of the candidates for president in this election has promised the first thing he would do is push through The Equality Act?

The Equality Act is online. I’ve read the text.
It makes the gay agenda part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Which means simply speaking against homosexuality would be a hate crime. Anyone who performs marriages but refuses to perform a gay wedding, would be charged with a federal hate crime!
Simply preaching the Word of God on the subject would be a crime.

In fact, any translation of the Bible that faithfully prohibits homosexuality, would be legally seen as equal to white supremacy literature!  If "Cancel Culture" gets voted into power, this would be a banned book. To be caught with a real Bible could be a serious crime.

These are perilous times.

We’ve got to stay faithful, no matter what.
Even if our children are trapped in Sodom.
Even if we know they’re close to judgment.
We’ve got to keep our eyes on Jesus, our only hope for salvation.
No looking back.

But in the meanwhile… those daughters still with Lot.
They thought they got them out. They thought they were safe.

But in the end, those girls proved to be as filthy as Sodom, mentally and spiritually.

Though those girls had been delivered from Sodom, they had been infected with the evil.
Their actions in that mountain cave proved Sodom was still inside of them.

Outwardly, they looked like pure girls.
They were physically virgins. They hadn’t yet committed the evil of Sodom.

But they thought like Sodom.

Too many Christians of today don’t realize their children are growing up in Sodom.
They try to teach them and protect them, to a certain extent.
And as long as their children act right, they think they’ve got them trained right.

But if we have “pitched our tents toward Sodom” allowing compromises in one thing after another…
If we have pursued financial and social status at the expense of spiritual integrity…
If we have allowed worldly entertainment to become the norm in our households..

Then we have already begun to offer our children as a consolation prize to Sodom.
Their “norm” is already less than Godliness.

Lot’s soul was vexed daily by the wickedness around him.
He took for granted that it should vex his children, too.
But to them, it was normal. It was their world.

What can we do, in our messed up country, in this wicked time, to keep ourselves and our children unspotted from the world?

Look to Abraham. Notice how he raised Isaac. Separate from the world. Surrounded with godly influence. He kept Isaac close to him.

And Isaac was intimately aware of his father’s walk with God.

In fact, Isaac found himself bound and laid on the altar by his dad, in sacrifice to God.

How did that impact Isaac?

We know Abraham loved Isaac as “His son,  his only son, whom he loved!”

Abraham was probably in tears as he bound his son and laid him on that altar.
Isaac felt his dad’s love.
But Isaac also felt his dad’s love for God.

All of this deeply impacted Isaac. And for the rest of his life, Isaac walked the path of Abraham.

We will sacrifice our children on an altar.
We have the choice which altar it will be.

The altar that is the center of our home will shape the worldview our children hold.

What altar is the center of your life… your home… your entire world?

Of course, salvation is a personal choice.
We cannot train our children to be saved.
They can have perfect parenting, and still turn away from God.

After all, the Bible says Adam was the son of God… and Adam chose to rebel.
So, if it's always the fault of the parent when a child goes bad, then the Fall was God's fault.

But we can shape our children's inner norm.
We can lovingly imprint on their minds what it’s like to live in harmony with God’s holy presence.
And the Bible promises us, that will stick with them the rest of their lives.