To be fair, Lot had grown up in the shadow of his Uncle Abram. Lot's father died early and Abram took him in. When Abram left for the promised land Lot had a slim chance to choose to stay in the hometown. Lot lived with Abram's decisions. He saw Abram make poor decisions only to come out stronger on the other end.
Genesis 13 retells the classic moment when Abram gives Lot the right of first choice. Both were rich. Both were in the same business with scant resources. Families were bickering. Something had to give. Do you want the east or the west, Lot, you may choose.
The Lord God was not consulted by Lot at anytime in this process. Abram was a careful Uncle, but his example would not be enough for a God inspired decision. By sight, by self, the decision for the Jordan Valley was easy.
Lot was beseiged soon after his entrance to the valley. His riches and business had attracted the unsavory. Abram had to save Lot's life by force. Not much longer after that Lot's friends are picked off by the sodomites and adulterers into lives of sin filled ease.
Genesis 18 and 19 detail Lot's end. And what do we find? Lot's riches are gone. Lot's business is gone. Lot has no servants, no extended family, his daughters aren't even married yet. Lot has no influence, instead he is forced to live unprotected outside the city walls. His habit is to linger by the gates of the city to turn people away from the danger within those walls. It is all he has left of his heritage.
Odd visitors arrive to counsel Lot and his family to leave their post to flee from the coming wrath. Lot hesitates, why?
The visitors force Lot into action. The destruction begins to descend on the city. Lot's wife turns to view the horror. She is turned into a pillar of salt, a reflection of her stony soul. Lot's daughters stay with him through the small town of Zoar where Lot fails his prophetic opportunity to flee to the Jordanian mountains.
A small cave houses the three in their depressive isolation. The daughters choose as the father did throughout his life: the seen over the unseen, the selfish over the godly, the flesh over the spirit. Lot is enticed by them to drink heavily, is used by his daughters to impregnate themselves, and inadvertantly spawns the nations of Moab and Ammon.
Lot is described in 2 Peter 2:7 as a righteous man distressed by the "filthy lives of lawless men". However, Peter is concentrating on the lawless men. The concern of this review is with those of us who are called to make decisions about our family, work and friends.
Let us not become so like our degrading society that we are not different for safety's sake. Let us choose to pray, wait and listen for the truth of God to be pressed into our soul. Let us choose paths of blessing, even through the rough rocky results of that decision. Let us also stand firm for our family, build an altar of remembrance, and seek to influence our neighbors to trust Christ for their direction in life. So Part I ends.
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