Lot: A Failing Finish

Tom Shrader walks through Genesis 19 to trace how Lot, a genuine believer confirmed by 2 Peter 2, descended from faithful obedience into catastrophic ruin through a pattern of small compromises and misplaced priorities. Lot's story illustrates that material ambition, long-term compromise, and the rejection of God's offered repentance harden a person's heart until they lose control of their own life. Shrader closes by urging men especially to pursue self-discipline, heed the way of escape God always provides, and rest in the love of God that holds believers even in their worst failures.

“The goal of the Christian life is to finish. And the goal of the Christian life is to finish better than you start, stronger than you got in.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: Standalone Teachings

Recorded: 2000 at East Valley Bible Church

Duration: 1 hr 14 min

Themes: compromise, finishing well, self-discipline, repentance, materialism, failure, temptation, hardened heart, struggling with compromise, chasing success, middle aged man, father, husband, young adult, new believer, feeling spiritually stuck

Scripture: Genesis 12, Genesis 13:5, Genesis 13:10, Genesis 19:14, Genesis 19:15-38, James 1:14-16, Romans 8:38-39, 2 Peter 2:7-9, 1 Corinthians 10:13

Theological Themes: perseverance of the saints, progressive hardening, sanctification, backsliding, assurance of salvation, means of escape, God's love for believers, spiritual decline

Full Transcript

A Failing Finish

One of the privileges I have is that I have spent a good part of the last 20 years ministering to students. I minister to an older group now in C2 — college students, career people, those just getting started. I have the great joy of looking at the start of people's lives. I get to be there for the first date of someone who ends up getting married, and then I get to do the wedding as well. Hopefully at some point in the future, we will get to see the first children born and witness a lot of firsts. It is a really exciting thing to watch that whole process.

But I do not spend a lot of time looking at the last chapter of people's lives. I do not deal with a lot of last-chapter people. The group I work with is just trying to find a matching pair of socks, let alone think about what the end of their life is going to look like. Not only that, but they do not understand at this point in their lives that life can be really disappointing. They are not 40 years old thinking, "My career didn't turn out the way I wanted. What about this? What about that?" They are not trying to make a mortgage payment. They are simply enjoying the easiness of starting something.

Lot's Story and What We Can Learn

We are going to look at somebody today who has a finish that I think we can learn a great deal from — just not a very good one. It is a finish that will not be held up in the Christian hall of fame as someone we need to be like. If anything, it is a story about somebody we do not want to be like. The sad thing is that in many ways we are like Lot. Hopefully not to the extent of Lot's disaster, but we can learn from the fact that here is a man who started out great and finished really poorly. There are a number of lessons we can learn from that.

We also get to see the last chapter of this man's life. We get to stop, take a snapshot, and ask: how did he finish?

The Relay Race

Years ago I had the opportunity, while coaching at a regional AAU meet, to run with a relay team. The best relay team in the country had a runner get hurt, and because I was there, they asked if I would run with them. I thought, this is the closest I am ever going to get to running on a team with two nationally ranked sprinters. We were just not going to tell them I was not fast, and maybe they would figure it out as we went. They asked me to run the opening leg. I thought, great — so they could false-start us out and ruin their whole hopes.

The idea was that I would run my leg, help them qualify, and they would put somebody better in later. So I got in and ran my leg and got the baton to a young man who went to school here in the valley and was ranked first in the nation in the 200 meters for 18 and under. I barely got him the baton. My exchange with him was: slow down, slow down, slow down. I got it to his hands, he took off, and he handed it to the third runner. The third runner took five steps with the baton in his hand and dropped it. Just dropped it. Right there. There went my gold medal — the only gold medal I was ever going to see in something like that.

Why? Because it did not matter that they asked me. It did not matter that I ran fast. It did not matter that the second man went. When it got to the third runner, we did not finish. The goal of the Christian life is to finish. The goal of the Christian life is to finish better than you start, stronger than when you got in. The sad thing is that after 20 years of working with students — which means indirectly working with their families — a lot of people do not finish better than they start. A lot of men do not finish better than they start. There are a lot of things out there that get them off track. Lot, I am telling you, is a poster boy for the stuff that gets us off track.

What We Know About Lot

So let us take a look at his life. What do we know about Lot? These things are important, because we are going to read the end of Lot's life and you are going to think: there is no way this man is a believer. But I think the Scriptures would differ with you.

We know that he followed God's call through Abraham. God calls Abram — at that time Abram, later to become Abraham — in Genesis chapter 12 and says, "Abram, pack up your family and go to a city and a nation that I am going to build. I will make you a great nation. You are just going to go, moving from a great city to nothing — but trust Me." And Abram says, "All right, I'll go." Lot goes with him. So we have to at least assume that Lot knew about the call, and that Lot decided to go. He left the comfort of Haran, where he lived, with no guarantees. Archaeologists tell us Haran was a beautiful city — architecturally beautiful, educationally advanced, comfortable. It could be Gilbert, I do not know, but it was a nice place. And he leaves that with no guarantees of anything.

We know that he received great blessings from God. Genesis 13:5 tells us that Lot, along with Abraham, saw his flocks grow, his business opportunities grow, and that he became a wealthy man. We also know that he had seen God bless and that he knew God's promises. He knew that when God said, "If you obey, I will bless you," He meant it — because Lot had seen it. When he was kidnapped along with his family and all his possessions, he saw Abraham take 318 men and defeat an army of thousands and get everything back. Lot knew God was real. He knew God meant business. He knew that when God said something, He would do it.

So Lot seems to be starting out great. Look at this man — this is great, we want this guy. Maybe we could get him to be a small group leader. We will sign him up. But sadly, that is not how he finishes.

Lot's Reluctance to Leave

Picking up at verse 15, the angels have now come to get Lot out of Sodom. God is determined to judge Sodom, and Lot is there in the midst of it. Here is the interchange: "And when morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, 'Up, take your wife and your two daughters, who are in the city, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.' But he hesitated. So the men seized his hand, and the hand of his wife, and the hands of his daughters, and the compassion of the Lord was upon him." Lot had no desire to go, but God's compassion compels him out of judgment.

Verse 17 continues: "And it came about when he brought them out that they said to him, 'Escape for your life, don't look behind you, and don't stay anywhere in the valley, escape to the mountains, lest you be swept away.'" To set the geography, Lot would have been moving out of the city heading north, with mountains on either side — east and west — of the Jordan Valley. The mountains on the west side would have been the hills of Mamre, where Abraham, in verse 27 of this section, is standing looking down after the judgment. He walks to the edge, looks down into the valley, and sees the destruction.

Mamre is the place where Lot had lived for a long period of time with Abraham under the blessing of God. The name Mamre actually means blessing, or fatness. Those are the mountains the angels are pointing Lot toward. But Lot does not go there.

Lot Bargains for Zoar

Instead, Lot responds in verse 18: "Oh no, my lords. Now behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your loving kindness which you have shown me by saving my life, but I cannot escape to the mountains, lest disaster overtake me and I die. Now behold, this town is near enough to flee to, and it is small. Please let me go there." The angels grant his request and urge him to hurry, because the destruction is coming.

The destruction itself comes in verses 24 and 25. By verse 27, Abraham goes to the edge of the valley the next morning and sees the devastation. This was not a small number of people — this was a million people upon whom the judgment of God had fallen, completely devastating the entire valley and all its cities.

Lot Abandons Zoar for the Cave

In verse 30, however, something shifts. Lot, now in Zoar, becomes afraid and leaves. Scripture does not tell us exactly why. He had wanted to go to this town, God had preserved it for him, and yet after a while he grew afraid and departed. Perhaps the people of Zoar were treating him with suspicion — the whole valley had been destroyed, yet he alone got out. We simply do not know. What we do know is that he leaves and goes up into the mountains.

The mountains Lot ends up in, though, are not the mountains the angels directed him toward. The angels pointed him west, toward Mamre, toward the place of blessing. But Lot ends up on the east side of the Dead Sea. The evidence for this comes from the children he will father. His daughters will make him drunk and become pregnant by him, and the children born from those unions become the Moabites and the Ammonites — peoples who settled and lived on the east side of the Jordan Valley in the hills. Because those very descendants grow up there, Lot never returns to the place the angels directed him. He goes east, ends up in a cave, and that is where this story reaches its terrible conclusion.

The Story Most Commentators Skip

The end of this story is so troubling that most commentators do not even address it. They simply omit it from their work. Even Calvin's commentary, in its translated form, leaves this section out entirely. When searching for help in understanding it, the consistent response is silence — as though the passage is too uncomfortable to handle.

But God includes it in the text for a purpose. That purpose is not simply to provoke a reaction of disgust and move on to the next chapter. God wants us to look at it.

Here is what happens. The firstborn daughter says to the younger: "Our father is old and there is not a man on the earth to come into us after the manner of the earth." They are saying that everything they knew has been destroyed, everything they had is gone. They fled Sodom, they left Zoar, and now here they are in a cave with their father, with no prospects and no one to care for them. So they say: "Come, let us make our father drink wine and we will lie with him that we may preserve our family through our father." They make their father drunk, both daughters become pregnant, and both have children — children who become two of Israel's most persistent and destructive enemies.

The Moabites introduced Moloch worship, from which child sacrifice spread. The Ammonites were constantly working to deceive and undermine Israel. This is a genuinely horrible story.

Why This Story Matters

So why tell it? Because it is a story we can learn from. The silence of the commentators is precisely what made it worth studying carefully. After spending four months studying this passage and three weeks teaching through it, the weight of what God is showing us here became clear. Every detail God preserved in this text is there for a reason, and that reason deserves our full attention rather than our avoidance.

A Failing Finish

It would be easy to dismiss Lot and simply write him off. But we have a problem, and it is this: the New Testament says something remarkable about him. "That if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men, for by what he saw and heard that righteous man while living among them felt his righteous soul tormented day after day with their lawless deeds, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation." Wait a second. You're telling me a man who disobeys the Lord, goes into Sodom, lives there, has no impact, and ends up in a cave with his daughters pregnant — you're telling me the New Testament now says this man is godly? Yes. That is what it says.

Does that mean his actions were godly? No. There was a time in Lot's life when his actions were godly. That is the first thing we covered — where he responded to the call of God, obediently went forth, saw the blessing of God, and stayed under the blessing of God. But something happened that moved him outside of that and started a pattern of descent into such devastating sin that we just want to turn the page and not even look at it. What happened to this man? He had a great start. He is a believer, but he has this devastating conclusion.

This Is a Story About Lot

Let me be clear: this is a story about Lot. It is not a story about your Uncle Charlie. You do not take Lot and say, "Lot was a disaster, therefore I have family members who are a disaster, and they made a profession of faith once, so if Lot is saved, then they are saved." Do not do that. This is a commentary on Lot, not Uncle Charlie. We do not know where Uncle Charlie is.

I meet with parents all the time, and what do they want to hold on to? Their child is rebellious, has no desire for spiritual things, is rebelling against everything. When you suggest there is a possibility the child has never come to faith in Christ, the response is, "Oh, no — he went to Camp Beaver Falls when he was five years old. He made a wallet that said Jesus and checked a box." The New Testament, however, is clear: when Christ comes into a life, He radically changes that life. There are people who will take the story of Lot and say, "See? Believers can live any way they want, and God's grace is so big it doesn't have to do anything in their life." That is not what this story is about.

This is a story about someone who starts out well, is a believer, and whose life ends up a shambles. That is what we need to look at. Do not draw a broad theological construct from this and say it is an argument for people who do not really believe, or that it proves believers can live without any transformation. It is a story about Lot, and we want to learn from him.

No Testimony

The first thing we see is that Lot has no testimony at the time of his life's end. Genesis 19:14 says: "And Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, and said, 'Up, get out of this place, for the Lord will destroy the city.' But he appeared to his sons-in-law to be jesting."

Think about this. Lot has daughters he has protected. They are virgins. He has these men who are engaged to them, and I would think he would hold a high standard — not only for them, but for his own behavior. I think about the level of protection I give to my own daughters. When a young man asked my daughter to homecoming, I told him that would be fine, but I wanted him to come and meet with me first. He came over, and I think he was a little afraid. In fact, when he had asked her to the dance, he had placed Hershey's Kisses all along the floor, up the stairs to her room, with a little note that said, "Now that I've kissed the ground you've walked on, will you go with me to homecoming?" I thought, that young man could get just about anything with that approach.

But here is the point: when Lot goes to share his testimony with the men who are to marry his daughters, they laugh at him. What does that tell us? It tells us that this man's witness is a joke. Somewhere along the way, something happened. He once had a testimony, but he has now arrived at a place where what he says about the Lord is not taken seriously. When I first came to faith, I was so far from it beforehand that when I told my friends I had come to Jesus and become a Christian, they said, "No, you're not. You're the guy who sells drugs. You're not the Jesus guy." But over a period of time, the change in life became the testimony.

No Testimony, Only Hesitation

He had a great deal of time, but no testimony. In fact, there is more missionary activity going on in a few hours than had been seen in his whole life. This man did not have a testimony as we look at him now. Not only did he have no testimony, he hesitates to obey.

We look at the text again. At morning dawn, the angels urge Lot, saying, come now, we have to go. Take your wife and your two daughters who are here. The city is about to be punished. And Lot hesitates. Lot did not hesitate because he was trying to protect the city — as though by staying he might prevent God's judgment. You cannot draw that from the text. The very next verse says the angels grabbed his hands and dragged him out, and it says the only reason was that the compassion of God was on him. It was God's love that compelled God's protection. It was not Lot. He was not concerned about those people. He had no testimony here.

This one is a little hard for me to process. Sodom was clueless — so involved in sin that they did not know judgment was coming, and when it came, they probably never saw it coming. But Lot knew better. How could he hesitate? How could we hesitate? When we know the truth, when we know what God says, when the obedience required is plain, and yet we hesitate.

Long-term compromise slows our obedience. Long-term compromise makes us foolish. I know there are people here today — among the 2,500 people who attend the five services at this church — who are in long-term sin. They have chosen a path and gone down it, and the first time they heard something preached about it, they thought, I have got to do something. But then they got over it. They came back, and it did not hurt as much the next time, and now they can hear it preached on and it hardly registers. Why? Because there is a long-term pattern of compromise.

In Lot's case, his hesitation to obey is entirely tied to that. He knew what was coming. He had watched God's deliverance when he was taken captive. Now God was saying He would punish the entire city. Lot knew it was coming — and still he hesitated.

Rejecting God's Pardon for Pride

Not only does Lot hesitate, he rejects God's pardon for his pride. It is interesting that when people are in sin and you come to them and say, you really need to repent, they reject it. That is not me. I do not need that. Look at what happens in Lot's case.

When the angels came, they said, "Escape for your life. Do not look behind you and do not stay anywhere in the valley. Escape to the mountains, lest you be swept away." I believe what those angels are saying is this: go back to the place of blessing where you were with Abraham. We will find out that something had happened between Lot and Abraham. He had moved away from the place of blessing. There was a conflict, and Lot took a path toward compromise while Abraham took a path toward blessing. I believe the angels are saying, go back to where the blessing is.

And Lot says, no. Think about the position he was in. Everything had been devastated. He had lost everything. He had gone into the valley thinking Sodom was a great place — well watered, agriculturally sound. He could keep up with Abraham. He could be bigger than Abraham. Now he had lost everything, and the angels said, go back, and he said, I cannot. "I cannot escape to the mountains, lest the disaster overtake me and I die." He came up with some reason. The reality is that later he does go to the mountains, though apparently not in the direction they asked. The point is this: even in his sin, God came to him and provided a way of escape. But he had gone so far in his pride that he would not take it.

I cannot tell you the number of times I have sat with fathers, or children, or others, where the sin is clear, God's path is clear, and the opportunity to confess and forsake the sin is right there — and they say, no. I am going my way. Because I am very, very smart. Why would I forsake this sin, leave it behind, go back to my wife, restore what is broken, and lead my children? No — I would rather pursue this thing that is going to devastate everyone around me and me as well, because I know more than God. That is what happens. We become foolish. Compromise makes us fools.

Where the Flesh Leads

The opportunity for Lot to turn was there, but he would not go there. He did not take it. And the last step of his life is even worse, because he ultimately loses control of himself and his life ends in disaster.

Get the picture. He began moving away from the blessing of God. There were all these points of compromise. He did not take the repentance God offered. He did not turn. And now watch what happens. He ends up in verses 32 through 38 in a cave with his daughters, who say, let us get him drunk, and then we will conceive and at least have something. What a disaster.

And do you know what it is a picture of? When we give the flesh its due — when we say, flesh, lead me, you are good at leading me, I will go wherever you say — where does Lot end up? He does not even have control of himself. His daughters get him drunk. He does something he cannot even control. That is where the flesh takes us. That is where we go. That is what happened.

The Downfall of Lot

The life of Lot simply loses complete control, and we don't hear anything else about him in the Old Testament except for those two tribes growing up and becoming the enemies of Israel. So here is a good question: how did it happen? What happened that began to move him in this direction? And here would be the clue. If it happened to Lot, it can happen to us who are believers — in a partial way, hopefully not in the same way — but how did it happen?

There was a confrontation between Abraham and Lot. Abraham's flocks had gotten larger, Lot's flocks had gotten larger, and their two flocks were getting bigger and bigger, and the herdsmen started to fight. They said, "Abraham, Lot, we don't have enough room here." Now, what should have happened was Lot should have come and said, "Abraham, we don't have enough room, so you tell me where you want me to go. You're the elder, you're the one who's being blessed. Let me ask you to direct me." But that isn't what happened. Abraham comes to Lot and says, "Lot, what do you need? You take whatever you want."

Abraham's Failure Versus Lot's Failure

Lot's failure ends simply in failure. Abraham's failure, on the other hand, totally changed him. Abraham went down to Egypt and was so afraid about what would happen to him because of his beautiful wife that he lied and said, "My wife is my sister." He tells a half-truth. In chapters 12 and 13, Pharaoh takes Sarah, and I believe consummates a relationship, because there is a great difference between that story and the story of chapter 20 with Abimelech. God brings plagues on Pharaoh, who says, "Why did you do this?" And Abraham says, "I'm sorry."

I believe that at that point of failure in Abraham's life he was so devastated that, if you follow him through the scriptures, he makes a beeline back to the altar that he built. He falls on his face and he worships God, because he is a transformed man. His failure brought repentance, brought transformation, and now he says to Lot — not "I'm in charge, you better do what I say" — he serves Lot. The man who was worried about himself and his own skin becomes a totally different man.

But Lot, on the other hand, says, "You're going to let me have what I want?" And that is where we get the moment when he looked. Genesis 13, verse 10 says he looked to the valley of Sodom. Archaeologists tell us it was probably one of the most prosperous places in the history of the world. Springs fed the valley, and from the standpoint of his herds and his flocks, they would have been completely blessed. So he looks and thinks, "Now, I know there's bad stuff going on down there, but from a purely business standpoint, this is a business decision. I'll move my flocks down there so they can grow."

The Process of Compromise

Then the next step is he pitches his tent in the valley, and then figures, "You know what? I'm out here in the valley. I could live in the city of Sodom. I know it's an evil city that has totally forsaken God and is dominated by sin, but it's not that bad. Maybe I can make a difference. I'll have a witness." And he moves in. When we find him in Genesis 19, he has become a councilman. He is part of the city, part of the system, sitting in the gate making judgments — but he has no testimony.

He is going to go from councilman to caveman in just a matter of days, and he doesn't even see it coming. It is the picture of compromise. It starts this way: we look, we start moving toward it, we get into it, then we are so far in we can't get out. That is exactly what James 1, verses 14 and 16 describes — that is the process we go through.

Stuff Is Not Enough

But can we learn anything from this disaster? Or should we just look at it and say, "Well, I would never do that, so it's not that relevant to me"? Let's see if there is anything we can learn. What is the "so what" here?

Here is the first "so what," and if you don't get anything else out of this morning, I would challenge you to get this: stuff is not enough. Lot's story is really a story about a rich man who wants more. He has everything. He is under the blessing of God. But he says, "God, it's not enough. I could take my stuff and go right over here, and I could be huge. I could have more." And what do we find out? Saying "it's not enough, I could have more" ends with nothing. He ends up losing everything.

It has been said that when women go crazy they buy a dress, and when guys go crazy they buy a boat. I don't want to take aim at the boat owners. And as much as I would tell you that there is very little in the world that sounds better and is more thrilling than sitting on a Harley-Davidson V-Twin — the sound, the wind, the whole thing — as awesome as that is, it is not enough. That is the point. It is not that God sits up in heaven and makes a list: here is the fun stuff, and it's bad; here is the good stuff, and it's good — motorcycle riding, fishing, and boating on one side, and organ music and church on the other, and you have to choose. That is not the equation. Here is the equation: "In Your presence is fullness of joy."

Stuff Is Not Enough

At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Stuff is not enough. We don't need to make a list of what is bad. The stuff should point us to God. We ought to be the ones who can use stuff and enjoy stuff, but when it starts to take control of us, that is not good.

Augustine says this — and you throw in an Augustine quote when you work with youth so you sound more theological: "Suppose, brethren, a man should make a ring for his betrothed, and she should love the ring more wholeheartedly than the betrothed who made it for her. Certainly let her love his gift, but if she should say, 'The ring is not enough, I do not want to see his face again,' what would we say to her?"

I have the privilege of working with college students who are getting engaged, and I know this: when a girl gets a ring, we notice. She'll come walking in — and we ask, did you happen to get a ring? The point is, the ring is a demonstration of the love of the one who gave it. If she took the ring and said, "That's about two carats, bigger than anyone else's — I don't need you anymore, I'll keep the ring," we would say that is ridiculous.

And it is just as ridiculous to say, "I now have my boat, and I am happy — a boat is enough." The boat is not bad. If you have a boat, ask me to go out — I will go with you. But here is the point: the boat is not enough. Everything material out there is a demonstration of a loving God who loves us, and He is saying, "I am enough."

Abraham understood that. He said, "God, Your presence is where I want to be." Lot said, "That is okay, but I could get wealthier, I could get more stuff." When we start down that path, we are in trouble. Stuff is good — it is just not enough. Do not make that mistake. Lot did.

One Small Bad Decision

What else do we learn from Lot? One small bad decision can wreck many good decisions. Lot has a great testimony. Things are going well. He has obeyed the Lord for a number of years. And then there he is at the point of confrontation, and he simply goes, "I'll just go over here in the valley."

Now, if you had told him, "Lot, if you move into the valley, you are going to move into the city, become part of the city, lose your whole family, and ultimately your daughters are going to get pregnant by you" — what do you think he would have said? I do not think he would have said, "Let's go." I think he would have said, "I had no idea." And that is exactly it — we never have any idea.

The Path to Disaster Is Gradual

Which points to the next thing: the path to disaster is gradual. If it were just a huge explosion of trouble, most of us would stay away from it. But it is gradual. It catches us slowly. We slowly get pulled into it.

So we must learn to say no now. One author puts it this way: "We as a nation are not used to any instruction or discipline on how to control our passions and desires in any area. We are pampered as toddlers, indulged as school children, spoiled as teenagers. By the time we come to young adulthood, we are floating in a small lake of material prosperity and assorted stock options." When, where, and in what area have we ever been told no? We want it, we charge it, we buy it on time — we do not say no. And it puts us in a position where we start moving down a path that we do not really want to be on.

Desire Must Be Disciplined

Desire must be disciplined. Another author says that self-control and self-denial are said to be highly overrated. We eat too much, we spend too much time with the television or newspaper, we do not get enough time with our families. We do not get enough sleep, do not exercise enough, and do not pray enough. We spend too much money and harm ourselves with too much red meat, sun, and drink. If we have so much trouble with self-control, what makes us think we are immune to the siren call of tremendous sexual sin?

The Apostle Paul said, "I am not immune." Even at the end of his ministry, he said, "I buffet my body and make it my slave, lest I preach to others and I myself be disqualified." He said, "I do not want to get all the way to the end of the race and fall off the track before I cross the finish line. I am going to discipline myself." If Paul says he has to do this, then I think we can look at that and say the same is likely true for us.

The Way Out Is Repentance

Perhaps the two most important things this whole story teaches us — the core of it — begin here: the way out of failure is repentance. If Lot teaches us anything, it is this: you cannot go so far into failure that God will not provide a way out. Do not sit here and say, "Look at the devastation of my life — there is no way out." There is always a way out. "No temptation has overtaken you, but such is common to man," and God is able to provide a way of escape. You may think no one knows how bad it is. But there is a way out. Take it.

The Love of God Cannot Be Broken

And then the last point — and I hesitate here because people misunderstand. We have a mentality that says, "I do these things for God, and God loves me." But watch: God did these things for God, and He put His love on His elect because He chose to, and there is nothing you can do to break it. Reformed theology ought to move us to a profound manner of life. Paul said it this way in Romans chapter 8: "I am convinced that neither..."

The Love of God Cannot Be Broken by Failure

"…death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

If the love of God and the compassion of God is what was pulling Lot out of that place, then it ought to show us that at the worst of our times, the love of God is still on those who believe. Someone might say, "Then if I continue to sin, God is still going to love me — so we can pretty much sin because it's all God's grace?" No. The right response to that love is this: if God loves me like this, then I want to love Him by obeying Him. It is the love of God that moves us to obedience. Failure cannot break God's love, and that is what answers the question: what is so amazing about grace?

Two Families, Two Legacies

There are really two families in this story: Lot's family and his legacy, and Abraham's family and his legacy. Lot's legacy was two daughters and two nations that were desperately evil. Abraham's legacy, even in his failure, was one of living under God's provision — still with mistakes, but remaining under that provision — and being blessed with a child. The blessing that we enjoy today comes right through his obedience.

Fathers, your actions matter. How you live matters. It may not feel like it matters to you, and you might be far enough into something that you have stopped noticing, but we have to look at who is following us. As the poem says, "No written word nor spoken plea can teach our youth what they should be, nor all the books on all the shelves — it's what the teachers are themselves." May that be true of us.

Closing Prayer

Father God, thank You for the power of Your Word. Lord, thank You that You do not hesitate to hold up failure. You don't erase it out of Your book or try to clean it up so that it becomes some nice religious package. You show us the failure of men because it shows us the power of Your grace, and You use us in spite of ourselves.

We don't fully understand, Lord, how Lot could end up where he did, though we do see the process. May it not be true of us, even on a small daily basis, that we would be moving down the path of Lot rather than the path of Abraham. God, as men, give us power to lead our homes. As believers, Lord, give us the grace to recognize the incredible love You have for us — that our failures, Lord, don't drive You away. We have nothing to prove and nothing to lose. God, You hold us securely by Your covenant.

May that motivate us today, Lord, and give us a fresh desire to love You, to walk with You, and to obey You. We thank You in Jesus' name. Amen.