The Days of Lot – Part One

It was the same as happened in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building; but on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed.

Luke 17:28-31 NASU

It will be as the days of Noah, the days of Lot, when the Lord of lords, King of kings, Messiah and Son of God is revealed on the earth. Lot, the man who picked the more fertile land to settle in when given the choice by Abraham. Lot, the man whose wife was turned into a pillar of salt for looking at what the angel said not to. Lot, the man whose daughters got him drunk so they could have sex with him and propagate the family line. Lot, who Peter called righteous… (not what I was thinking of calling him).

Lot…an example our Lord gave of what earth would look like at His return. Why is this the analogy the Lord uses at the most pivotal time the earth will see since the Cross was raised? Lot…the days of Lot. Our Lord depicts a normal life going on, look: commerce, trade, futures, building and planting! Normal life going on when the Son of Man is revealed. NORMAL activities. Not the cataclysmic Armageddon the Left Behind series depicts. And why did God select two times on earth to equate the setting for His return: the days of Noah, and the days of Lot?

I was disturbed when I read about God rescuing “righteous Lot”. What did He mean “righteous”?? He settled in Sodom – the hot seat for sin in the territory. He offered his daughters to the men of the city who wanted to rape the angels! What is righteous about that?!?

Oh the mysteries of God! Oh the deep counsel of His heart! If only we would learn to pursue His heart for His understanding, to cry out for His wisdom, wouldn’t our lives be radically changed? Peter had insight into this, look:

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter; and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds), then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority. —2 Peter 2:4-10a NASU

And this is where we gain insight and counsel: Lot saw and heard lawless deeds all about him, and it tormented his soul. The activities that were going on in his city, in his society, his environment, were oppressive and disturbing to someone who was trying to live righteously. He was “vexed with the filthy conversations of the wicked” according to the King James. The original Greek would indicate vexed as worn down with toil, labored, filthy as licentiousness, and conversations as behavior [see Strong’s Concordance]. The New American Standard translated this as “oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men”, but the richness of the original language is slightly obscured by this translation.

Now, what does it look like, what does it feel like, to be worn down by continual talk and behaviors that are filthy, sexually immoral? Apparently this behavior was so vexing to Lot, who was posited in the midst of this culture, that he would do the unthinkable: offer his virgin daughters to wicked men! Apparently his soul was so tormented by this culture that his only solution was to try to straighten what was crooked, i.e. put the right and natural thing in their midst to offset the perverted wickedness. And Peter, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, called this man righteous. (in right standing with God) Surely this is just a little mind-numbing to ponder!

But these days of Lot, these days of perversion and wickedness and no barometer for righteousness, these are the days that will be on the earth at the return of Christ. But wait! Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed “as an example for those who would live ungodly lives thereafter”! Basically the Word of God is telling us: you’ve been warned!

Now the emphasis I’m intending isn’t really the sexual deviances of our culture, as that’s a given and obvious. It’s the other part Christ refers to: “they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building…” In the midst of a corrupt society! The righteous are settled in the midst of these societies! The righteous are vexed by the corruption! Society is carrying on in its normal activities, doing the work thing, the home thing, the family thing, the friend thing, the growing thing, and simultaneously the society has vexing sexual deviances in its midst that is hostile to right living. Perversions are abounding in the midst of a “normal” society; all this is co-existing with the righteous in its midst.

Be careful. We are living in the days of Noah and in the days of Lot. Yes, it can get worse. Yes, it can get plainer (for those with eyes to see), but it is still here right now, in this place and at this time. Sexual deviances abound, we’re still buying and selling, building and planting, marrying, eating and drinking, and the righteous are vexed, worn down toiling against the corrupt systems of the earth. As Daniel [12:10 NASU] said, “…but the wicked will act wickedly; and none of the wicked will understand, but those who have insight will understand.” The wicked will continue being wicked, and only those with insight or wisdom will understand. The time is nearly ripe for the return of our King.