Gênesis 19

Gênesis 19

Meyer - Genesis 19:27 Abraham got up early to the place where he stood before the Lord, and looked. There was not much sleep that night for this loyal heart! With the spring of day he was where, probably, Lot, years before, had looked on the face of the country, and beheld it as a garden of the Lord. But how great the contrast! The smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace! Have a place where you stand before God. — It may not always be to speak to Him, but to be spoken to, to be judged, to have the motives and intentions of the heart winnowed and sifted. Well is it to stand each day before the judgment-seat of Christ, and to receive his verdict on our innermost life. Oh that the grass of that trysting-place may be well worn through our frequent intercourse with our beloved Lord! Follow up your prayers. — Abraham was not content with shooting arrows into the air; he followed them to see how they sped, and where they fell. We do not need to reiterate our petitions with unbelieving monotony, as though they were not safe in God’s keeping; but we should remind Him by our upward look that our expectation is from Him. View the fate of the ungodly from God’s standpoint. — We are apt to consider it from that of our own pity, or commiseration, or tolerance of shortcoming. We judge lightly, because we dread too searching a judgment on ourselves. But we need sometimes to see sin as God sees it. Stand on Calvary and learn what sin is, and how much it has cost the Savior. There, too, you will learn that God goes further than his servants’ prayers. Though He may not be able to discover the ten, yet He will deliver the one righteous man. “His countenance doth behold the upright.” James Smith - A SOLEMN REFLECTION Genesis 19:27, 28 “Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord; and he looked toward Sodom; … and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.” This was a sacred spot to him. Here the Lord met him, and here he made intercession for the righteous in Sodom. Now from this holy place he beholds the judgment of God. Those flame-girt columns of smoke declare the fulfilment of His word, and reveal His awful character when dealing in righteousness with sin and guilt. “Our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29). It is when we stand like Abraham in these high and heavenly places, walking by faith in fellowship with the Lord, and in the spirit of intercession, that we see and understand what a holy, sin-hating God we worship. As we in imagination stand with Abraham gazing on the fiery doom of Sodom, let us reflect on the— I. Awfulness of Sin. It constrained the Lord to come down from Heaven to deal with it (Ge 18:20, 21). The cry of Israel in Egypt brought the Lord down to deliver. The cry of Sodom brought Him down to destroy. The cry of the world’s need brought Jesus our Lord from Heaven that He might deal with it. When God comes in grace He deals with sin, putting it away by the sacrifice of Himself. When He comes in judgment He deals with the sinner, putting him away. “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). II. Certainty of Judgment. “We will destroy this place; … the smoke went up” (Ge 19:13–28). A man might as well hope to escape from his own shadow as from guilt and punishment so long as his sins are unforgiven. The judgment of God may slumber, and guilt may lift up its haughty and defiant head; but (1) it is certain; (2) it may be sudden; (3) it will be complete. III. Sovereignty of Grace. As Abraham looked with tear-filled eyes upon the smoke of perishing Sodom he might have asked himself, “Why am I not there? How have I been saved from it? Why was I called out of Ur? What better was I than many left in their sins?” The answer is, “By grace are ye saved” (Eph. 2:8). IV. Security of Believers. “I can do nothing till thou be come hither.” “I will not destroy it for ten’s sake.” God will not destroy the righteous with the wicked. All who belong to Him are under a special providence. God said to Moses, “Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them” (Num. 16:21). Before the flood came the righteous were shut up in the ark. Before the judgments are poured out on the earth the Church will be translated to Heaven. “Neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand” (John 10:28). V. Importance of Witness-Bearing. The Sodomites, like the men of this world, were under condemnation, but believed it not. God has not left us in ignorance of our doom if we reject His Son. “He that believeth not is condemned already” (John 3:18) VI. Value of Present Opportunity. Soon our day of testimony will be over. Soon those among whom we live will be clothed in white robes before God, or rapt up in the smoke of torment. Lot’s twenty years in Sodom were fruitless to God. Now the day of his privilege is gone and his very companions perish in their sins. Behold, now is the accepted time both for salvation and service (see Jude 20–23). Genesis 19:28 and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the valley, and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land ascended like the smoke of a furnace. Ps 107:34 2Pe 2:7 Jude 1:7 Rev 14:10,11 18:9,18 19:3 21:8 Genesis 19 Resources - Multiple sermons and commentaries Related Passage: Psalm 91:8 You will only look on with your eyes And see the recompense of the wicked. ABRAHAM LOOKS TO SODOM AND GOMORRAH and he looked down (saqap) toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the valley, and he saw, and behold (hinneh), the smoke of the land ascended like the smoke of a furnace - When Abraham saw Sodom burning, he knew that God had not found even 10 righteous men in the city! It is fascinating that the verb looked down (saqap) is translated in the Septuagint with the verb epiblepo which means literally to "look upon" and so to gaze at, to look intently or to look at with close attention! Epiblepo is the same verb used to describe Lot's wife look back at Sodom in Ge 19:26! What a difference in these two looks! One person was warned not to look and disobeyed with salty consequences. The other person had no warning not to look and suffered no consequenes Recall that Genesis 18:1 records this high elevation as being the “oaks of Mamre,” located in Hebron, nineteen miles southwest of Jerusalem, and was 3,040 feet above sea level. NET NOTE - It is hard to imagine what was going on in Abraham’s mind, but this brief section in the narrative enables the reader to think about the human response to the judgment. Abraham had family in that area. He had rescued those people from the invasion. That was why he interceded. Yet he surely knew how wicked they were. That was why he got the number down to ten when he negotiated with God to save the city. But now he must have wondered, “What was the point?” Looked down (08259) saqap It means "to look down on, to overlook. It has the sense of God looking down, observing from above. The basic idea is "to look down at a sharp angle from a great height" as one would look down from a pinnacle or onto the street from a high housetop. In Ex 14:24 this verb presents us with is a bold anthropomorphism that "Yahweh looked down." This verb is always with some demonstration of either mercy or wrath. Saqap - 22v - Gen. 18:16; Gen. 19:28; Gen. 26:8; Exod. 14:24; Num. 21:20; Num. 23:28; Deut. 26:15; Jdg. 5:28; 1 Sam. 13:18; 2 Sam. 6:16; 2 Sam. 24:20; 2 Ki. 9:30; 2 Ki. 9:32; 1 Chr. 15:29; Ps. 14:2; Ps. 53:2; Ps. 85:11; Ps. 102:19; Prov. 7:6; Cant. 6:10; Jer. 6:1; Lam. 3:50 Genesis 19:29 Thus it came about, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot lived. that God: Ge 8:1 12:2 18:23-33 30:22 De 9:5 Ne 13:14,22 Ps 25:7 105:8,42 Ps 106:4 136:23 145:20 Eze 36:31,32 Ho 11:8 Genesis 19 Resources - Multiple sermons and commentaries GOD REMEMBERED ABRAHAM Thus it came about, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew (haphak; Lxx - katastrepho) the cities in which Lot lived. - Remembered speaks of God's faithfulness to His covenant with Abraham and His responding to Abraham's intercession in Genesis 18. This verse illustrates the truth of James 5:16+ that the "fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." In short, God delivered Lot because of Abraham's intercession! Bob Deffinbaugh adds that "these verses underscore the real reason Lot was spared. While a just God would not destroy the righteous with the wicked (18:25), the stress here is that ‘the prayers of a righteous man availeth much’ (James 5:16+). It was Abraham’s faithfulness and not Lot’s which resulted in Lot’s deliverance. Humanly speaking, there was little reason for sparing Lot other than the character of God and the concern of Abraham over his fate. From City Councilman to Caveman) NET NOTE - Heb “remembered,” but this means more than mental recollection here. Abraham’s request (Gen 18:23–32) was that the LORD not destroy the righteous with the wicked. While the requisite minimum number of righteous people (ten, v. 32) needed for God to spare the cities was not found, God nevertheless rescued the righteous before destroying the wicked. God showed Abraham special consideration because of the covenantal relationship he had established with the patriarch. Yet the reader knows that God delivered the “righteous” (Lot’s designation in 2 Pet 2:7) before destroying their world—which is what he will do again at the end of the age. God’s removal of Lot before the judgment is paradigmatic. He typically delivers the godly before destroying their world. Bob