Outcry

Read the story of Lot today.

About how he chose the "better" land. And pitched his tent "near Sodom." (Genesis 13)

About how he eventually moved into the wicked city of Sodom (Gen 14:12).  How he was captured and taken prisoner. Then how he returned to living in Sodom even after his uncle Abraham rescued him.

That should have been a wake-up call.

Yet, there he was, sitting at the city gate when those two angels showed up.  He knew he needed to protect them from the men of the city.  He knew.

And the men, they knew that Lot was different.  

"This one came in to stay here, and he keeps acting as a judge." (Gen. 19:9)

What had Lot been doing in Sodom?  He could have been trying to help them, to show them a better way.    He could simply have been choosing to sin differently.  Whatever it was, he had continually been acting a certain way toward them or around them.  And they felt judgment.

The angels warn Lot to get out and resists.  He lingers.  His sons-in-law don't believe him. That's an integrity issue:  Lot wasn't believable.  

What else had those around him seen?  Were his actions continually not matching up to his words?  The way his daughters behave at the end of chapter 19 also hint at how he lived life in front of those who watched him most.

So the last few times I've seen this story, I have come to see more and more each time that Lot did have faith.  Whatever he saw in how Abraham related to God had affected him.  But he left his uncle too soon to be able to live out his faith with integrity.

Today the verse that triggered all thoughts of Lot and his life--something the angels said to Lot: 

For we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it. (Genesis 19:13)

Someone was praying for Sodom.  And the answer, the response of God was the destruction of the city.  Probably not the answer someone on "the inside" wanted.

I think Lot was the one praying.  

Peter refers to Lot as righteous and says he was "greatly distressed."  

if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard). (2 Peter 2:6-8) 

And I usually think, "Well, not distressed enough to leave Sodom."  But how often do I "linger" because I am committed to a cause or a person.  I ignore the wake up calls, the escape signs.

Lot is called "righteous" in the inerrant Word of God--so I then presume Lot is in heaven, however dismal his witness in Sodom was.  Because he was doing something, including sending up and outcry.

The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. (James 5:16b)

 And the answer to Lot's cry for his city was sending fire to destroy it.  Ouch.  Sometimes when I cry out for this land that I live in, I wonder, "How will God answer my prayer?"