We may remember that Lot pitched his tent near the city of Sodom when he parted from Abraham. After Abraham arranged his rescue, he returned to the city, but this time he became a permanent resident there.

This whole story is one of the terrible consequences of Lot’s decision to throw himself in with known sinners in that city. He started off only nearby, but eventually he completely moved in, with disastrous results for his family.

Like Abraham, Lot rushes to offer hospitality to his supernatural visitors, but then, in an attempt to prevent a sinful act, he himself offers to commit another. Women in that time certainly did not enjoy the freedoms and rights that we might expect today, but nonetheless, Lot’s daughters must have felt that their lives were valued very cheaply to be treated in this way.

Lot was rescued from the burning fire that fell, but he and his family were not rescued from themselves. He lost every material thing he had acquired. His wife could not stop herself from lingering to look back, and was consumed by the sulphur. Soon after their escape, his daughters demonstrated that although they had been taken out of Sodom, the influence of Sodom had not been taken out of them.

Rescued twice, but still not saved, Lot’s life story is an object lesson to us that every choice counts, even down to where we live. Lot could have gone anywhere, but greed drew him to a place filled with corruption. In the end, he lost all that his greedy eye had desired, and corruption infected his whole family.

Lot was a righteous man (see 2 Peter 2:7) but his choices made him stray further and further from righteousness. Let us commit all of our ways to the Lord so that we might not follow his path.

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NEWBOLD COMMUNITY CHURCH