II. JUDGING SODOM AND GOMORRAH
The negative side of God’s history during the life of Abraham was God’s judging of Sodom and Gomorrah. The positive side was God’s motivating, stirring up, and initiating the divine things in Abraham’s life, which is a sign of the Christian life. On the negative side, God judged Sodom and Gomorrah.
He burned Sodom and Gomorrah and all the Plain with brimstone and fire (Gen. 19:24-25) because of their grievous sin (Gen. 18:20). Because of Abraham God sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow (Gen. 19:29, 12-22). This is also a part of God’s history. When God judged the evil world, God remembered His friend’s talk with Him concerning Lot, even though they did not mention Lot. When Lot and his family were fleeing, Lot’s wife became a pillar of salt by looking back (Gen. 19:26). Her lingering look back at Sodom indicated that she loved and treasured the evil world that God was going to judge and utterly destroy.
We can see that Abraham suffered from two sources—from his wife Sarah and from his nephew Lot. In Genesis 13 Abraham had to solve the problem with Lot over the shortage of land. Then in Genesis 14 Abraham had to fight for Lot. Eventually, by the time of Genesis 18 and 19, Lot had entered into Sodom, the center of sin, which was condemned and judged by fire from heaven. Lot escaped from God’s judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah to the mountains. But his two daughters made him drunk and committed incest with him. The children they had by this incest were Moab and Ammon. The Moabites and Ammonites were rejected by God even to their tenth generation (Deut. 23:3). This record of Lot should be a warning to us.
Through our fellowship in this message, we can see that Abraham is a sign of the life of God’s chosen people. He is a sign of the Christian life. We all are the descendants of Abraham. He is our forefather and a sign to us. We should live according to the model of his life.
(The History of God in His Union With Man, Chapter 6, by Witness Lee)
