We live in a time when sin runs rampant and is even treated as fashionable in certain cases. In fact, it has become popular practice for Christians to compromise on their beliefs and tolerate the sin in the world, which can seem frightening and confusing to believers doing their best to follow the Lord and His commands. That’s why I want to take the time today to encourage you: this is not a new problem. The Bible is filled with stories of sin and the tolerance of it, and I want to tell you one of those stories today as both an encouragement and a warning.

Abraham’s nephew, Lot, had a great beginning to his spiritual walk. When Abraham and Sarah left Haran and began to follow God to the land of Canaan, Lot was traveling right beside them. When Abraham decided to build an altar to dedicate himself to God, who do you suppose helped him collect the stones for it? Very likely, it was Lot. When Abraham and Sarah went to the land of Egypt and lied to Pharoh, Lot was right there observing the hand of God working in both justice and blessing towards his family. Abraham is praised for his walk of faith, and he was certainly the leader, but we often forget that Lot was right beside him every step along the way.

Lot was truly blessed with a strong foundation of faith, but unfortunately, like many believers today, he soon placed himself in a situation of moral compromise. God had richly blessed Abraham’s family, but that started to become a problem when there was just not enough room for Abraham and Lot to live in the same place with all of their animals and servants. To avoid strife, they decided that it was best that they part ways, and Abraham offered Lot first choice of where he wanted to go.

Right here, before he had even separated from Abraham, is where Lot’s mistake of moral surrender began. The Bible tells us in Genesis 13:10–11: 

“And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other.”

Lot had followed Abraham faithfully for years, but the moment he was presented with a choice of his own, he immediately began to make bad decisions, and it caused a separation between him and his spiritual father.

You see, the place where Lot pitched his tent was right near the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and we see all throughout the Bible that these were some of the most evil places in all of history. Right after Lot decides to move there, the Bible tells us, “But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly” (Genesis 13:13). Right at the beginning, we learn how evil this place is, and this idea has been repeated by many biblical writers throughout history. In Deuteronomy 29:23, Moses said Sodom and Gomorrah were so horrible that when God destroyed them, nothing would grow there. In Isaiah 3:9, Isaiah specifically stated that their sin was shameless and out in the open. Jeremiah 23:14, Ezekiel 16:49, 2 Peter 2:4–6, and Jude 7 talk about the various sins that filled those cities, such as adultery, lies, pride, lasciviousness, and sexual perversion. Amos wrote that if other cities did not repent, they would be judged just like Sodom and Gomorrah (Amos 4:1–12), and in Revelation, John described Sodom as the symbol of sin and all kinds of defilement (Revelation 11:7–8). Even Jesus spoke about Sodom and Gomorrah on several occasions.

These cities were purely evil, so horrible that God Himself overthrew them, so why in the world would a man like Lot — a man who had walked with Abraham on the path of righteousness and who knew God — move toward Sodom and Gomorrah?

The answer is tragically simple: he was lured in by the financial opportunity there.

Abraham stayed in the land of Canaan, in the promise of God, but Lot began to lift up his eyes and look to the opportunities in Sodom and Gomorrah. He was not ignorant about these cities and their sin, but he beheld the beautiful Jordan valley in front of him, and it appealed to his flesh. He was mesmerized by the affluence and prosperity of all the cities there, loaded with business opportunities that he could seize. In many ways, that area was also very similar to Ur of the Chaldees, which he had left to travel with his uncle, so his heart’s strings were tugged to go back to what he had been delivered from. So he left Abraham and, as the Bible tells us in Genesis 13:12, pitched his tent toward Sodom.

Lot had been walking the hard road of faith with his uncle Abraham for a long time, and the idea of going somewhere that was a little easier was very alluring to his flesh, but unfortunately, Lot did not turn around or even just stop there. Initially, he lived outside the cities in the plain of Jordan, but the Bible says he pitched his tent toward Sodom and Gomorrah. He would sit under the flap of his tent, seeing the lights, hearing the sounds, and smelling the smells of the city. Like a magnet, those cities began to pull at his flesh, to allure him, tantalizing him to move closer and closer and closer until he finally found himself living right in the middle of wicked Sodom.

Lot placed himself in temptation, moving closer and closer to Sodom, and now, that wicked city had claimed him. Lot had coaxed himself into believing that because of the opportunities that were there, it was alright for him to move in, no matter how evil it was. This was the tragic mistake of moral surrender. He compromised his morals for the sake of opportunity, and if not for Abraham, it would have cost him everything.

The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah — the sin in those cities — was so horrible that God Himself could hear it all the way in Heaven, and He decided that He would destroy them. We see the beginning of this story in Genesis 18:1–2:

“And the Lord appeared unto him [Abraham] in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground,”

Two of these men were angels, and one was the Lord, and Abraham prepared and served a special meal for them. At the end of this meal, the Lord revealed to Abraham what was about to happen: The angels were being sent into Sodom and Gomorrah to determine whether the outcry of wickedness that God had heard in Heaven truly reflected the situation there, and if it did, the cities would be destroyed.

The Bible says Abraham stood yet before the Lord. He knew that when the angels arrived in the cities and saw the decadence and the perversion — they would destroy it. Rather than just throw up his hands and say, “Well, there’s nothing I can do for my nephew,” Abraham drew near to the Lord and interceded on behalf of his family, and the Lord agreed to spare the cities if He could find just ten righteous men.

We return to Lot as the two angels approach the city in Genesis 19:1:

“And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground;”

Here, we get a glimpse of how far Lot had morally sunk. Those who sat in the gate of the city were usually the leaders of the city, so if Lot was there, he was clearly one of them, but the picture only gets more bleak as the story continues. Lot invited the angels to stay at his house, and that was when something truly shocking happened:

“But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.”

—Genesis 19:4-5

These men, all of Lot’s neighbors, were asking him to give up his guests so that they might sexually know them by force, and Lot’s response shows how far he had fallen. He said to them, “I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly. Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof.” (Genesis 19:7-8).

Lot’s thinking had become so twisted that he was able to look at the faces of these wicked men and call them all “brethren” — his identity was truly compromised. When he tried to tell them what was right and wrong, they grumbled against him, wondering how he dared to judge them, because by compromising, Lot had lost his moral authority. Further, even though he recognized that it would be evil of this crowd to rape the angels, he offered his virgin daughters instead! Lot, who once walked in step with Abraham, had become so reprobate in his thinking that he recognized and accepted the evil of this horrible, twisted city.

As the crowd continued to press Lot, the angels took back control, and they warned him of the coming destruction and urged him to gather up his family and leave. He tried to convince his sons-in-law to come, tried to act in righteous faith, but they refused to believe him — again showing that Lot had given up his moral authority — and the next morning, only Lot, his wife, and his two daughters fled the city. 

Still, even with the coming destruction, the Bible says “And while he lingered” (Genesis 19:16). He lingered! Even after all the evil he had seen and the promise of destruction, Lot’s heart was still attached to Sodom, and he was only saved from fire and brimstone by God’s mercy and Abraham’s intercession.

Friend, this is why it is so important to maintain our morality in the face of an evil world. Lot had a strong beginning to his walk, but as soon as he went out on his own, he allowed the temptations of the flesh to enter into his life, and he lost his identity, his safety, and his moral authority. If it had not been for Abraham, who remained righteous and interceded for him, Lot would have been lost. I urge you friends, do not be a Lot in today’s morally compromised world, giving up your identity and authority for the sake of comfort. Be an Abraham, righteous and unyielding, so that you can lead back and strengthen those you love when they stray from the only path to eternal life.