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wickedness, Moab and Ammon. It is surely something more than coincidence that the
final prophetic utterance concerning Moab and Ammon takes us back to the destruction
of Sodom. "Surely Moab shall be as Sodom, and Ammon as Gomorrah" (Zeph. 2: 9).
An Ammonite or a Moabite were not allowed to enter into the congregation of the Lord
even to their tenth generation (Deut. 23: 3).
Lot's deliverance from Chedorlaomer was entirely the result of Abraham's activity,
and Lot's deliverance from Sodom was for Abraham's sake. The Scripture does not say,
"And God remembered Lot", but "God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the
midst of the overthrow". All the vexing of Lot's righteous soul did not avail to save one
Sodomite. Abraham who never entered its gates prayed that even if only ten righteous
persons were to be found in Sodom it might be spared. We do not know just the reason
why Abraham stayed at "ten", some think he felt certain that Lot, his wife, his daughters
and their husbands, together with their servants, would account for that number. It was
not so however, Lot's only recorded attempt at preaching sounded as so much mockery--
his practice was far too eloquent.
Sodom occurs 39 times in the O.T. (13*3), and 9 times in the N.T. Both numbers are
indicative of rebellion and judgment. The references to Sodom in II Pet. 2: 6, 7 and
Jude 7 show us the character of the last days fast approaching. In this light the
connections between Sodom and Babylon are suggestive (Isa. 13: 19; Jer. 50: 40).
The attempt once again to intercept the purpose concerning the promised seed, and
defile the Messianic stream, seems manifest. Sodom stand for all that is anti-Christian.
The dead bodies of the two witnesses shall be in the streets of that great city, "which
spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified" (Rev. 11: 8).
This world with its possessions, even though they may appear as attractive as the garden
of the Lord, is on the verge of judgment. The lesson of Lot seems to be echoed in
I John 2::--
"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the
world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world. . . is not out of
the Father."
Whatever our interpretation of such a passage as, "All things are of God", certain it is
that the Father repudiates the world and its ways as being of Him. Throughout the
dispensations, different as they are in many particulars, there has always been the call of
God on the one hand, and the attraction of the world on the other. Shall it be with us, "a
tent in the land of promise as in a strange country", or shall it be the city with its plenty,
its protection, its advantages--and its loss? The true Hebrew still says, "here have we no
continuing city, but we seek one to come".
Christ is still "without the camp". Let us therefore go out unto HIM. The
fundamental truth, true for all dispensations, which is brought forward prominently by a
comparison of the O.T. and the N.T. story of Lot, is the distinction which must ever be
drawn between salvation and service, between the One foundation and the building
erected thereon, between the hope and the prize.