Title I thought it was a joke
Contents br> It was the day before the wicked city of Sodom was destroyed by God's brimstone judgment. God, who hates iniquity, has decided to judge the sin of Sodom that has already reached its peak. After making a decision, He sends angels to the earth to meet the righteous Abraham before the judgment of the city of Sodom. And inform him of this judgment. “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, saith the Lord? Will not Abraham become a mighty nation, and all the peoples under the heavens will be blessed through him? I, the LORD, have done what the LORD has said about Abraham. And the LORD said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and their iniquity is very serious. I will see and let you know” (Genesis 18:17-21).
When Abraham heard the prophecy, he was greatly astonished and pleaded with God. The basis of Abraham's plea was the conviction that God would never destroy the righteous along with the wicked. He opens his mouth to God with the question, “Will you destroy the righteous along with the wicked?” (Genesis 18:23). He then speaks again. “If there are fifty righteous in the city, will you destroy it, and not forgive it for the fifty righteous? It is impossible for you to do so, to kill the righteous with the wicked, and to make the righteous and the wicked equal. Will not the one who judges them do justice?” (Genesis 18:24-25)
Abraham asked God in this way because there were blood relatives Lot, Lot's family, and son-in-law who promised to marry Lot's daughters in Sodom. Abraham asks God. His question is, “If there are 50, 45, 40, 30, 20, or 10 righteous people, will God destroy the city?” But God's answer was that there were no ten righteous people in Sodom.
Abraham had nothing more to say. Just before Abraham heard God's word and made this request, the angels who had already received God's instructions went to the city of Sodom first. Lot, who was sitting at the gate of Sodom, met two angels, and begged them to spend the night on the street to welcome them into his home. At this time, the wicked people of Sodom took out Lot's two guests who had nothing to do with them and rushed to gang rape them, and even tried to harm Lot who stopped them.
“Lot begged him, and then he turned and entered the house. Lot set a table for them, and they baked unleavened bread, and they ate. Before they lay down, the people of the city, young and old, and all the people of Sodom, gathered around the house and surrounded Lot. He called and said to him, "Where is anyone who has come to you this evening? Bring them out, and we will deal with them." Lot went out to the crowd outside the door and shut the door behind them, saying, "I beg you, my brethren, do not do this evil. I beg you, I bring them down to you, and do to them whatever is good in your eyes, and do nothing to these men, since they have come into my house. “Now we will do more harm to you than they do.” So he pushed Lot and came near and tried to break the door” (Genesis 19:3-9).
This incident clearly proved how wicked the people of Sodom were, and God's judgment could not be delayed. The two angels appearing as humans speak to Lot. “Is there anyone else that belongs to you besides this? Bring your son-in-law, children, or all who belong to you out of the city. Because the outcry against them is great before the LORD, the LORD has sent us to destroy this place, and we will destroy it. Genesis 19:12-13)
Hearing this, Lot hurriedly went to the sons-in-law who had promised to marry his daughters. and tell them
“The LORD will destroy this city; get up and depart from it” (Genesis 19:14).
However, the sons-in-law who heard Lot's future father-in-law did not follow Lot's words, "taking it as a joke." In the end, they were judged by God.
How many sons-in-laws are there now in the 20th century? Those who take the word of God, the gospel of God's salvation, and the truth of God as a joke. They take the atoning death of Jesus as a joke. I think of Jesus' ascension and second coming as fictional jokes that lack the truth. I think of the Bible verse about the afterlife, heaven and hell, as a joke. I think it's a joke that there is God's final final judgment.
Look at the laughter and ridicule of Lot's sons-in-law in the 20th century. These are terrifying jokes to even move on.
“How can a virgin bear a baby? Are you saying that you were really born of Jesus or the virgin Mary?” “How can a man walk on water? In the Bible, Jesus' walking on water is a fiction." "How can the dead come to life? It's enough to die.” “What is it that there is a heaven and a hell? Heaven and Hell are fictional, imaginary, and fantasy.” “When a person dies and rots, it ends. “The Bible is not the Word of God, but the religious literature of the Jews.” “There is no salvation for the soul. Salvation is living like a human being in this world.” “Eternal life is a lie. there is no eternal life It is a spiritual thing, not the actual eternal life of the soul.” “It is a lie that Jesus will return in the clouds. Is Jesus Goku?” “I won’t go because the temple is full. Rather, I will go to hell” “If there is a brimstone fire burning in hell, I will go to hell and get a brimstone monopoly license to do business” “Man is not God’s creation. Man is an evolved being.” “There is no God. God is a concept”
The Apostle Peter foretold that in the last days, people who would mock these Bible truths would appear.
“Know this first, that in the last days scoffers will come and walk after their own lusts, mocking them, saying, “Where is the promise of the coming of the Lord?” (2 Peter 3) :3-4)
Why did Lot's sons-in-law take Lot's warning of judgment as a joke?
First, it was because of disbelief. Lot must have met them and told them in detail that God's judgment was imminent. He must have made it clear that the two angels who warned of judgment were now in his house. He may have begged him to believe him.
He must have persuaded the sons-in-law for a while. But their hearts did not change. He must have thought that his father-in-law was possessed by a ghost or that he had lost his mind. You must have come this night and bothered me for doing this. In the end, they took the warning of God's judgment from the father-in-law as a joke. It was because of disbelief. they didn't believe They were no longer believers in God. They were unbelievers. That is why they did not believe the word of God, the warning of God's judgment. They didn't even trust their father-in-law Lot.
In our view, Lot was not such a distrustful person. He was a righteous man at that time. However, they did not trust their father-in-law, who was a trustworthy person. Neither God nor the man of God believed.
Second, it was because of attachment to the world.
The city of Sodom was, at that time, a favorite place of the people as a beautiful city with natural conditions.
“Lot lifted up his eyes and looked at the Jordan, and there was plenty of water in all the land as far as Zoar, and it was like the garden of the Lord, and it was like the land of Egypt, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah” (Genesis 13:10).
Lot's two sons-in-law in Sodom, a livable place like this, must have been enjoying fleshly satisfaction and pleasure. There was no reason to leave Sodom, a good place to live, and leave. Home, job, friends, wealth, play… It's all satisfying and so good to leave this place, they just couldn't understand.
Outside the city of Sodom is a barren wasteland, how can you live in such a place? To leave such a place, I thought the artisan was joking. So they didn't leave. Even those who had promised to marry them would leave Sodom with their father Lot, but they did not. This was when they were betrothed to Lot's daughters and were about to get married. However, they did not leave Sodom, even though the people who would become their wives left Sodom. How much they loved Sodom, enjoyed their life in Sodom, and immersed themselves deeply in Sodom.
They probably thought that we could marry any other woman in Sodom if we weren't Lot's daughters. They loved Sodom. They loved the world. Their love of the world made God's Word a joke.
Jesus said.
“It will be as in the days of Lot, when men ate and drank, bought, sold, planted and built houses, and on the day Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them” (Luke 17:28-29).
Third, it was because of spiritual insensitivity.
Lot's sons-in-law could not discern the warning of God's judgment foretold to them through Lot. He didn't know what the hell he meant. Their souls were paralyzed. They must have seen and heard the wickedness of Sodom, but they did not realize how wicked and dangerous the city they lived in was. Spiritual indifference to the times, spiritual insensitivity, made them take God's warning word as a joke. It is people's freedom to receive and believe God's Word as it is, to take God's Word as a joke and not believe it. But the results are sure to be there.
It is people's freedom to believe the Bible as it is, to take it as a joke and not to believe it as it is, saying that Jesus ascended from the resurrection, that Jesus will come back to this earth, and that the world will be judged and the end will be destroyed. But that freedom has its consequences. What happened to Lot's sons-in-law as a result of taking God's word as a joke? They were judged by God's fire. I was punished by God. cursed by God. suffered destruction. They died in Sodom, which they loved and loved so much. Their souls were not saved. Everything that belonged to them is gone. The houses they treasured, their wealth, their clothes, their furniture, their lamps, their friends… All perished in the fire of brimstone. The word of God that was foretold to them came true.
“And the LORD rained brimstone and fire from heaven, the LORD, upon Sodom and Gomorrah, and overturned its cities, and all the fields, and all the people who lived in them, and all that was on the land.”
From that day on, Sodom has disappeared from the earth. Sodom and its surrounding cities, the fertile and fertile fields like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, and the beasts, their produce, and all the people who lived there will all perish?