Corrupted by association

Genesis 19

Read though Genesis 19 with its account of a mob set on rape, the undervaluing of women and incest, and I am sure that you will agree that we are being given another example of how wicked the human race can become. We are also being given a warning about not getting closely associated with and influenced by bad characters who can mess up our lives and the lives of our family. 

In 2 Peter 2:7 we are told that Lot was a "righteous" person who was "greatly distressed" by the "wicked" conduct of Sodom but he was also foolish or stubborn enough to choose to go and live in a tent near to the notoriously "wicked" city of Sodom (Genesis 13:12-13). Later Lot obviously chose to move into the city and become a leader in this community. The NIV Study Bible comments that in the Ancient Near East, 'a city gate served as the administrative and judicial center' of a city, and that's where Lot was found when the two angels entered Sodom (Genesis 19:1). Lot obviously had a home in the city to which he invited the two visitors (Genesis 19:2-3). As a result of this close association with these "wicked" people, Lot and his family get badly affected in a number of sad ways.

Firstly, it is obvious that Lot had lost his moral compass when he offered his two betrothed daughters to an abusive mob in his over concern to show his visitors hospitality (Genesis 19:8, 14). The Faithlife Study Bible notes that in Ancient Near Eastern culture the abuse or rape of a bethrothed woman was a serious crime. At the end of the chapter we learn that sadly Lot's daughters had also lost their moral compass (Genesis 19:30-36).

Secondly, Lot and his family are in danger of sharing in the destruction about to rain down on Sodom (Genesis 19:12-13).

Thirdly, some of Lot's family think that the warning about a coming destruction is a joke. Up to that point, Lot had apparently not appeared to his future sons in law as morally distinct from the culture of Sodom. Therefore his sudden preaching of the need to flee a city about to be judged by God did not have an impact on these young men (Genesis 19:14).

Fourthly, Lot's wife seems to have not been able to get her heart and mind out of Sodom. She disobediently kept looking back (longing to return?) and was destroyed in the judgment on Sodom (Genesis 19:17, 26).

Lot's entire family was badly messed up because he chose to go and live in a notoriously "wicked" city and become closely associated with it and influenced by it. (See 2 Corinthians 6:14-18.)  Though we are called to be "in" this wicked world, we are not to be "of" the world in the sense that we need to keep a moral distance from its corrupting influence. (See John 17:11, 14).