When I warned the title, there were five reactions.
Contents
Genesis 19:12-29 When I warned you, there were five responses.
A stimulus has a response. But if you have a reaction in the absence of a stimulus, you are wrong. A madman has no stimulus, but a reaction. It's not funny, but it's funny. I didn't even make him angry, but he was outright angry. Conversely, there is a case where there is a stimulus, but there is no response. He's a blunt person. He is a dull person. The more sensitive the person, the more sensitively they respond to stimuli.
The Bible speaks of the days of Noah and of Lot as follows. “Before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they did not realize it until the flood came and destroyed them all” (Matthew 24:38-39). People were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, and building, and on the day Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them” (Luke 17:28-29).
Anywhere in Sodom and Gomorrah was a sin. Among them, there were two great sins in Sodom and Gomorrah. First, it was sexual depravity. The pinnacle of sexual depravity is homosexuality. In Genesis 19:5, when an angel disguised as a human and entered the homes of Sodom and Gomorrah, people flocked to them and told them to sexually transgress. It was meant to be homosexual. So, after that, the word homosexuality came to be called Sodomy in English.
Second, sin reached its extreme. In Genesis 18:20, “Then the LORD said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and their iniquity is very grave.” At that time, the image of sin began to be known through literature. The images of sin at that time are introduced as they are in the literature. “All the people of Sodom and Gomorrah were arrogant. I was proud. It was full of evil. They had cruel laws.
① Don't give food to the poor. : When a beggar came to a village and drank, I pretended to take care of him and gave him 100 won. And never sold food. If you die of starvation, you have to take the money back.
② You must never serve guests. ③ You must take everything from strangers passing through Sodom and Gomorrah. ④ 4. You can take the wealth of the rich. : So, two people knit and one takes the rich man and goes under the shaking wall. One man pushed the wall and the rich man was crushed to death. And the property was divided in half. This was the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Ladies and gentlemen, all lewd and sinful cities in history have been destroyed. Sodom and Gomorrah became synonymous with these cities. And in 70 AD, the Vesuvius volcano erupted, and Pompeii was covered with ash for 6 meters, and everyone died. A city devastated by a volcanic eruption in the Philippines a few years ago was the most lewd and sinful city in the Philippines. In any case, God warned that Sodom and Gomorrah would be destroyed with brimstone fire. Let's look at five reactions when these warnings are heard.
1. People's reactions
The people of Sodom and Gomorrah were completely indifferent to the warning that they would destroy Sodom and Gomorrah by raining brimstone and fire (Gen 19:24). There was no reaction at all. There is no sign of rebuttal that it cannot be. It is utter indifference.
2. Reaction of Lot's two sons-in-law
When Lot told his sons-in-law that God would destroy Sodom and Gomorrah with brimstone fire, they took it as a joke. God has never once joked throughout the Bible. Moreover, he was not one to joke about life. The sons-in-law took God's word as a joke.
3. Lot's wife's reaction
Lot's two sons-in-law ignored God's word, but Lot's wife ignored God's word. So it became a pillar of salt. Lot's wife seemed to follow God's word, but eventually gave up. They seemed to obey God's Word, but eventually they disobeyed. He seemed to believe, but in the end he disbelieved. I looked forward, but I looked back. He looked like a Zoar, but he was a Sodomite. They seemed to be saved, but they were not. He was a clumsy person.
In Ezekiel 47:11, the words pearl and tidal flat are mentioned. Pearls and tidal flats are neither land nor sea. When the water comes in, it is the sea, and when the water goes out, it is the land. In a way, he is a man of faith, and in a way, he is a man of the world. To borrow the words of Acts 20, it is Eutychus. He sat on the window sill and fell to death. I didn't come to church. That doesn't mean it didn't come. He is a member of the church like Lot's widowed wife. There are many such members in today's churches.
In Luke 18, a rich young man came to the Lord and asked, “What must I do to be saved?” Jesus told them to sell their possessions and give it to the poor and follow me. The young man had a lot of wealth and went away with a sad light. He came to Jesus and returned without being saved. The young man will now mourn in Hell.
There is a story like this. A long time ago, a couple with three sons and three brothers lived in Gangwon-do. While suffering from poverty, a Japanese man who came to work on a business trip begged him to adopt his youngest son. So I decided to do it because it worked out well. After some time, the Japanese took the son to Japan. Many years have passed. The Japanese died leaving a huge fortune to his son.
However, the son realized that he was Korean, not Japanese, and when his father and mother passed away, he arranged all of his wealth and returned to Korea with only one large suitcase full of money. And he wanted to find his father and mother in all directions. It was dark. He went to his house and asked, “Is it okay if I just sleep for one night?” The young man left his trunk with his father and went to sleep.
I was so tired that I thought I'd tell you all about it tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, the old couple secretly opened the young man's bag and almost fainted. It was money that I could never touch in my life. In an instant, the old man went into the room where the young man was sleeping, put a blanket on him, and killed him. And I was counting money all night with my wife. Early the next morning inspiration came to live in the neighborhood.
And I asked. “How does it feel to meet your son after a long time?” “Are you a son?” “What do you mean? I drove your son to your house last night...” The neighbor's spirit returned and ran to the dead young man and looked at his forearm. His son had three dots. He really was a son. The hatred of the world caused his son to die. The same is true. Lot's wife became a pillar of salt because of her lust for the world. Even today, like Lot's wife, there are church members who see the world while following God's word because the church is good and the world is good.
4. Lot's reaction
Lot and his two daughters were saved. But I received a shameful salvation. In what way? First, it is a shameful salvation because of delay. When Lot heard from an angel that fire of brimstone would come down and destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, he did not go out quickly and was delayed. It is that God was trying to destroy it with brimstone fire, but Lot was delayed, so he was kind and tolerated the brimstone fire a little. Destruction was withheld until Lot reached the city of Zoar.
Such words are also found in the book of Revelation. “He said, ‘Do not harm the earth, or the sea, or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.’” (Revelation 7:3) you said In fact, without God's mercy and love, Lot would not have been saved.
Second, it is a shameful salvation because Lot could not save his two sons-in-law and his wife. Lot became a shameful savior because he could not save three half of his family. Third, it is because we were saved because of Abraham's prayer. The Bible testifies to this. “When God destroyed the cities of the field, when he overthrew the city where Lot lived, he remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of overthrowing” (Genesis 19:29)
Lot was not saved by his own faith. Lot was saved through Abraham's intercession. It is so precious to have someone praying behind your back. Also, praying for someone is directly related to salvation. In this sense, Lot received a shameful salvation.
But there are also things that Lot did well. Lot and his two daughters valued God's command not to look back and kept it to the end. So they were saved from Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot must have known that his wife wasn't coming. How curious were you? Lot's two daughters would have known that their mother was not with them. How many times have you tried calling your mother anxiously? And how long have you been wanting to look back? But God told me not to look back, so I never looked back. Keeping God's word is Lot's strength.
5. Abraham's Response
When Abraham learned that Sodom and Gomorrah would be destroyed, he interceded with God. If there are 50 righteous people, he prayed that the destruction would be withheld. There was none. What if there are only 45 people? Only 40? If there were only 30, 20, or 10 people... All of them prayed six times. But because there were no ten righteous people, Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed.
Abraham's prayer is a typical example of a believer who prays knowing the difficulties of others as his own. When Abraham prayed to God, he prayed, “Even a nation like dust dares to tell you” (Genesis 18:27). As a result of this humble prayer, God gave the blessing of children like dust to Abraham, who had no children. Thus, when God said that Sodom and Gomorrah would be destroyed, each reaction was different.
God's warnings continue to come down these days. How will we react? Like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, if you are indifferent to God's warnings, and even if the end comes tomorrow, will you marry, marry, eat, have fun, and live only by accumulating wealth? Or, like Lot's two sons-in-law, would you take God's warnings as a joke? Or do you believe like Lot's wife, but because the world is so good that you leave your body in the church and your heart in the world? Will you procrastinate, knowing like Lot? We pray in the name of the Lord that we will always pray and live with awareness like Abraham.