The Deadly Results of the Spirit of the Age (Genesis 19-20)

Genesis 19-20

Compromise and judgment. 

Two vastly different words that often lead to the same destination.  It is funny how we view these two words differently.  Compromise is mostly seen as a good word.  A meeting in the middle from two sides that otherwise would have no common ground.  Judgment, on the other hand, is seen as evil.  The picture of one person imposing his/her will over someone else who is powerless to resist.  (This is also often used to describe God as unrighteous in His judgments by the atheists of our day.)

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But when it comes to righteousness...compromise may be a more evil word than the judgment it precedes.

Think about where Lot started and where he finds himself and his family now.

He has traveled with his Uncle Abraham to the place where God was going to bless him.  He is the only family member to do so.  As a result of his faithfulness, he is blessed with possessions so great that the land couldn't support both he and his uncle.

But then they separate and things begin to go downhill.  In their separation, Lot chooses the land that he wants, the most fertile land...but also the most corrupt.  In time, Lot's land would be attacked and Abraham would have to rescue Lot and the inhabitants of where he lived.  So corrupt was the place where Lot had chosen that Abraham refuses to accept anything from the king under which Lot lived.

And then silence until this event about 13 years later.  Judgment is coming because of the evil in that place.  Abraham puts his wager that Lot has done some good in that place.  Enough good that Lot's actions should be able to save the town if he just convinced 6 people to live righteously over the past 13 years.  That's not too much to ask, is it?

And it is at this very point where compromise proves to be the most deadly and devastating of choices.

When the visitors appear, Lot puts them into his protection and offers them lodging.  However, it is when the crowd of people there confront Lot that we see how far he has fallen.  The men want to rape the visitors in Lot's protection.  So he offers his daughters instead...daughters that were already pledged to be married.  How is this ever acceptable in any culture?  How could Lot offer protection to complete strangers and yet choose willingly to have his daughters put into harm's way (even though the crowd refused the compromise)?  When fleeing, his wife turns back and is destroyed.  And when they literally run for the hills, his daughters seduce their father to have children by him.

Remember this was the action of one of the only 3 people considered "righteous" by God.  They definitely weren't righteous because of their actions, but only because of their belief in God.

Their actions had been corrupted by the compromise they were willing to accept in their lives.  It didn't happen all at once.  Over 13 years, it was a bad relationship here, a not so great choice there, a lifestyle change over here that lead to an unproductive life that looked no different than the culture they were to be set apart from.  One doesn't get from A to Z usually in one blind leap.  It is often a series of compromises that seem small at the time but lead down a path that ends in judgment and ruin.

I wonder where Lot wished he could have drawn the line and said..."No further."

I wonder if we are wise enough to draw our own line and not let compromise lead to our ruin too.