Lesson date: 05/21/5858AA

In John Milton’s book (epic poem) Paradise Lost – Book II he has Lucifer justifying what he did with the following, saying, “it is better to rule over – be like a king in hell than to serve somebody as a slave in heaven”. I have often wondered if that is where Lot is at this point in his life. He came to Sedom as an outsider and at first dwelt outside the city in his tents. It was obvious to the people of the city that he was a wealthy man. He had many flocks and herds and it was his uncle that had rescued the people of the city and the wealth of the city from the hands of Amraphel (Nimrod).

At the very beginning of Chapter 19 we see Lot sitting at the gate of Sedom, which means he is now a judge over Sedom and now resides in the city: 1Co 15:33 Do not be led astray, “Evil company corrupts good habits.”

I’m just speculating, that Lot feels that he has finally “arrived”.

He came to Sedom and dwelt outside the city and now he was a propertied man, with a real house for a home, respected as a judge of the city, had his own place at the city gate and his rich uncle still lived in a tent and suddenly he sees messngers of YHVH approaching him. Ever hear the old saying “looks like someone just walked over your grave”? It’s an old saying to describe the cold shudder or shiver of a sinking feeling where the place of burial of a person is made readily apparent. Do you think he suddenly tried to remember all the instruction his uncle had tried to teach him about being obedient?

Verse 1-3 – Lot rises and goes to meet the 2 messengers so he did remember his manners. It would have been considered very disrespectful to wait for the 2 messengers to approach him and then stand up. He met them before they arrived at the gate, bowed and extended and invitation for the two to come to his house for the night. Yet they declare they will spend the night in the open square. Lot begs them to reconsider and stay with him, I think hoping that his position as a judge would provide them a covering of safety. They follow him to his house and Lot prepares a feast for them.

Verses 4-6 – This clearly shows us that the “men” were protected by a threshhold covenant when we see Lot going through the doorway to speak with all the men of the city. The men of the city burned with an evil lust to have sexual intercourse with the 2 men that they had seen: Rev_22:11 “He who does wrong, let him do more wrong; he who is filthy, let him be more filthy; he who is righteous, let him be more righteous; he who is set-apart, let him be more set-apart.

Revelation 22:11 is very appropriate because the whole city is about to be judged so, make it clear where you stand; righteousness or evil.

Verse 8 – I think Lot knew that he could offer his daughters to the men and they would not accept them because they wanted men. They were over powered by their lusts.

Verse 9 – This makes it clear to me that if people won’t respect the Law of YHVH then they also will have no regard for the law of the land. They make it plain that their plain was just to sodomize the two “men” but now they are going to kill Lot.

Verses 10-11 – The men pull Lot back into his house and blind the men outside the house to where they cannot even find the door: Eph 4:17 So this I say, and witness in the Master, that you should no longer walk as the nations walk, in the futility of their mind,

Eph 4:18 having been darkened in their understanding, having been estranged from the life of Elohim, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart,

Eph 4:19 who, having become callous, have given themselves up to indecency, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

1Co 5:12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are inside?

1Co 5:13 But Elohim judges those who are outside. And put away the wicked one from among you!

Verse 12 – Is this a rhetorical question or, are the messengers trying to get Lot to understand the seriousness of their duties?

Verse 13 – The messengers make it plain that their reason is to destroy the city and its inhabitants.

Verse 14 – Have you ever tried to warn someone about the evil that is coming? Did they laugh at you, ridicule you, make fun of you? The same happened to Lot.

Verses 15-17 – Do you think that by loitering inside the city Lot thought that he might postpone the destruction of the city? But, the messengers physically grabbed him and pulled Lot, his wife and two daughters out of the city. He is told to escape to the mountains.

Verse 18 – “Oh no YHVH”. The last time we saw the messenger identified as YHVH he was talking to Abraham and Abraham walked with him to the edge of his domain and bargained with YHVH so that the cities would be spared. The other two continued on to Sedom. In Verse 13 the 2 “men” make it clear that YHVH sent them to do Hiw Will. Then in Verse 16 we see YHVH having compassion on Lot and his family, then in Verse 18 we see Lot address YHVH. Sure, they were Messengers and could have snapped their fingers and traded places in the night. I do not think so. It is plain to me that YHVH had placed His Name on one of the two and it was recognized by Lot: Joh_5:43 “I have come in My Father’s Name and you do not receive Me, if another comes in his own name, him you would receive.

Joh_10:25 יהושע answered them, “I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father’s Name, they bear witness concerning Me. ((Remember “bear witness”))

Joh_17:11 “And I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Set-apart Father, guard them in Your Name which You have given Me, so that they might be one, as We are.

Remember me telling you that Revelation Chapter 1 is the legend to the map that unlocks Revelation? Read here: Rev_1:9 I, Yoḥanan, both your brother and co-sharer in pressure, and in the reign and endurance of יהושע Messiah, came to be on the island that is called Patmos for the Word of Elohim and for the witness of יהושע Messiah.

So why was John on the island of Patmos? What was the witness?

Rev_6:9 And when He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the slaughter-place the beings of those having been slain for the Word of Elohim and for the witness which they held,

Rev_12:11 “And they overcame him because of the Blood of the Lamb, and because of the Word of their witness, and they did not love their lives to the death.

Once again, what is the witness that they held?

Rev_12:17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to fight with the remnant of her seed, those guarding the commands of Elohim and possessing the witness of יהושע Messiah.

Rev_19:10 And I fell at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “See, do not do it! I am your fellow servant, and of your brothers who possess the witness of יהושע. Worship Elohim! ((Please see the flashing lights and sounding bells here Worship Elohim!))  For the witness of יהושע is the spirit of prophecy.” <<<<<<<<

Trick question, so be on your guard: what was the role of the “Old” Testament prophets? What was the role of Yeshu’a?

Mat 21:34 “And when the season of the fruits drew near, he sent his servants ((Who are these servants)) to the farmers, to receive its fruit.

Mat 21:35 “And the farmers took his servants ((Who are these servants)) and beat one, and they killed one, and they stoned another.

Mat 21:36 “Again he sent other servants ((Who are these servants)), more than the first, and they did likewise to them.

Mat 21:37 “And at last he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They shall respect my son.’

Mat 21:38 “But when the farmers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and let us possess his inheritance.’

Mat 21:39 “And they took him, and threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.

Who are these servants? Rev_10:7 but in the days of the sounding of the seventh messenger, when he is about to sound, the secret of Elohim shall also be ended, as He declared to His servants the prophets.

Rev_11:18 “And the nations were enraged, Psa_2:1 and Your wrath has come, and the time of the dead to be judged, and to give the reward to Your servants the prophets and to the set-apart ones, and to those who fear Your Name, small and great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth.”

Was Yeshu’a ever identified as a prophet? Deu_18:18 I shall raise up for them a Prophet like you out of the midst of their brothers. And I shall put My Words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him.

Joh 4:19 The woman said to Him, “Master, I see that You are a prophet.

Mat_13:57 And they stumbled at Him. But יהושע said to them, “A prophet is not unappreciated except in his own country and in his own house.”

Mat_14:5 And wishing to kill him, he feared the crowd, because they held him as a prophet.

Sorry, OCD kicked in. Back to Bereshith 19:

Verses 19-22 – Lot is told to flee to the mountains: Mat 24:15 “So when you see the ’abomination that lays waste,’ spoken of by Dani’ěl the prophet, set up in the set-apart place” – he who reads, let him understand –

Mat 24:16 “then let those who are in Yehuḏah flee to the mountains.

Lot feels that he is unable to reach the mountains before the destruction takes place so he asked to be spared by fleeing to the city of Tso’ar. Now, Tso’ar was one of the 5 cities that was supposed to be destroyed: Seḏom, Amorah, Aḏmah, Tseḇoyim, Tso‛ar. The messenger relents and allows Tso’ar to remain because of Lot.

Verses 23-25  – Lot fled and his wife looked back and became a pillar/post of salt.

Verses 27-29 – Imagine Abraham’s thought when he saw all the smoke arising from the area of Sedom and ‘Amorah.

Verse 30-38 – Let’s put this in a more modern context, you are now in a cave looking out over all that you known now just smoking rubble, if that, as if a nuclear weapon had gone off. I believe these two girls believed that everyone else had been destroyed except themselves so in desperation that plotted to have sons for their father so that his name would not pass from the Earth. Was it right? No. And it became a problem for the nation of Israel forever after.

Ahavah vberakhot,