Sermon(Gen 19:23-28): Lot's wife who became a pillar of salt

The original Korean text: https://blog.naver.com/stevision/50025251973

 

 

>> 23 The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. 24 Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven; 25 and he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. 26 But Lot’s wife behind him looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. 27 And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord; 28 and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley, and beheld, and lo, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace. (Gen 19:23-28) <<

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My brethren, why were Sodom and Gomorrah cursed by God and destroyed in a day? Because the inhabitants, young and old, enjoyed homosexuality. >But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house; and they called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them." (Gen 19:4-5)< God sent down fire of brimstone to these filthy people and burnt them all to death. May the punishment upon Sodom and Gomorrah be upon those mad men who disregard such wrath of God and speak of the human rights of the homosexuals! Amen! The word 'sodomy(= homosex, bestiality)' originated from the cursed people of Sodom. It was the funniest comedy in all the human history that some dirty homosexuals said that God loved them and had mercy on them. It was no less funny than that that some theologians and clergymen defended them.

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Lot, who was living in the dirty city, lost everything - his wealth, son-in-laws and wife. Even his daughters did something strange, so he lost all he had. Lot, Abraham's nephew, had lived under Abraham's protection as one of God's people, and he separated himself from Abraham and managed to live in the dirty world for a while, but lost his all, leaving behind only the disgraceful descendants of Ammon and Moab. The Ammonites and the Moabites were the descendants of Lot's two daughters who gave alcohol to their father, slept with him and conceived Ammon and Moab. Lot's family was completely devastated by the perverted sex-life of the people and the incest of his family. If we Christians do not expel dirty sex culture, dirty mental culture and dirty homosexual culture from the society, we may lose many precious things when God punishes such dirty culture.

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In the Bible, women are very curious. Let's see Eve. This woman was driven out with her boyfriend from Eden because of her curiosity. In such a comfortable and glorious garden, she couldn't resist the curiosity about what the fruit of the tree of knowledge would taste like, and ate the fruit and was banished. Look at Lot's wife. The angel destroying Sodom and Gomorrah had said clearly to Lot's family, "Flee for your life; do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley; flee to the hills, lest you be consumed. (Gen 19:17)" Nevertheless the woman looked back and changed into a pillar of salt thanks to the curiosity as to what happened behind.

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Through episodes of Eve and Lot's wife, God gives us the lesson that we should absolutely obey God's commands. Especially, God urges us not to judge God's deeds as we like, thinking, 'The loving God would not do such a thing.' Do not think like this: 'It is impossible for God to kill humans just because they ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge. It would be irrational if God punishes a woman because she looked back just once. Maybe God would not punish me for doing this only once.' My brethren, why are such doubt and curiosity as 'How can God ...' and 'Maybe ...' dangerous? Because the doubt and the curiosity are baits put by Devil. The moment we bite these, two things happen to us: 1. the living servant of Devil, 2. the lifeless pillar of salt.

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My brethren, we become servants of Devil when we commit sins. Especially when we deliberately disobey God's commandments, we begin to live as servants of Devil. By just one injection of drug, a man can become a slave to drug all his life. Many people end their life with lung cancer as servants of the cigarette after they smoked just out of curiosity. Someone rapes a woman at first out of curiosity, and, never giving up the bad behavior, will spend his life in the prison. A man starts committing an affair out of curiosity, and his sin ends in the destruction of his home. Like this, 'doubt (or false assumption)' and 'curiosity' are the attractive wide gates through which humans enter the den of sin, and the means by which the Devil conceals his deadly stings. If we do not remove this 'doubt and curiosity' from us, we will always live an unstable life within the range of Devil's shelling. When you bite these demonic baits of doubt and curiosity, you become a servant of Devil. If you commit filthy homosex just once, you may live a cursed life for the rest of your life. Some people, just by putting one leg in the homosexual world at first, hand over their self (ego) to the Devil, and keep doing such a terrible deed. They live so because they prefer to live a perverted life in others' condemnation and derision rather than to live without such censure. They will be scorched forever in the flames of the hell like the Sodomites and the Gomorrahites. The cost of satisfying the momentary curiosity is one's ruin in the world and perpetual pain in the eternal hell.

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Lot's wife, who ignored the warning not to look back, immediately became a pillar of salt. Why did the angel tell Lot's family not to look back? God forbade Adam and Eve to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge because he didn't want humans to judge good and evil by their judgement, in the position of God. Now God forbids Lot's family to look at Sodom and Gomorrah, the opposite of the garden of Eden, while the sinful cities were punished and destroyed by God. Why did Lot's wife turn back and see Sodom and Gomorrah? Perhaps she had some curiosity. But she saw the cities because of the pity for the inhabitants or her friends of the cities who were being destroyed, I think. My brethren, do not be sorry for those whom God is angry with and punishes! Do you see them with such compassionate eyes because you are more merciful than God? Do you have more love than God that you weep and mourn for them? My brethren, if you object to the judgment of God, you are extremely presumptuous and are to be punished with them. The two sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, offered fire that was not prescribed by God and were punished by God to be burned dead on a day. Aaron was sad then, but he didn't challenge God. He could feel sad as a father when his two sons made a mistake and were killed. By the way, the people of Sodom and Gomorrah had been willfully living for a long time a wicked life that was more degenerate than the life of animals, that is, the life of homosex. God told Lot's family even not to see them. God commanded them so because the inhabitants of the two cities didn't deserve even 'just one second of mourning of any people'. In general, it is not forbidden to hold a funeral for a felon who was executed. He committed a grave sin, so was executed; but at least he is qualified to be mourned for by his family and acquaintances who loved him. However God strictly ordered people not to see the inhabitants of the two cities while they were being killed, because God thought they didn't deserve even such mourning. My brethren, do not object to the judgment and punishment of God, in human compassion. God does not like it. People who are a little humble like Lot and his two daughters think of their own salvation and endeavor to gain it, not spending time in being worried about other sinners. The three didn't look back, but ran to a safe place in order not to die. God drives out from Eden those who break his commandments; he immediately changes those who challenge his judgments into a pillar of salt as a punishment. The pillar of salt here refers to a number of concrete punishments.

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The pillar in the text today means a kind of change in the nature. When a man does not overcome the false assumption and the curiosity and transgresses God's command and lives a sinful life, first, he will become a servant of Devil, losing the life and the identity as God's son. That is, a son of God has changed into a pillar of salt. The Spirit of God dwells in the children of God and makes them full of life, but he leaves the servants of Devil, so the spirit of death seizes them. And the power of sin will overwhelm them. The warmth of love will vanish from them, and the chill of cruelty will prevail in them. There is not the voice of thanks and praises to God but only the silence of deep solitude and despair with them. They are dead already, so they grow no more, and, just as a pillar of salt collapses in the wind, so their spirit and flesh keep decaying with the passage of time. A man in the path of the sin is already a dead man like a pillar of salt.

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But we have Jesus Christ. "Do you not know that if you yield yourselves to any one as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. for just as you once yielded your members to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now yield your members to righteousness for sanctification. .... But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 6:16-23)"

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Women easily yield to >the bad assumption and curiosity< in the Bible. But men behave no better than them. Eve and Lot's wife stand for all fragile humans of little faith. Think of Peter who had been known as a very brave guy before. Didn't he deny the Lord when a maid said just a word to him? Since everyone is vulnerable to sin, the Bible stresses us repeatedly to be tough and bold. "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; be not frightened, neither be dismayed; for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. (Josh 1:9)" My brethren, you will be liable to succumb to sin if you are not determined to reject sin. Christians need to have a strong will not to commit sin. Those who are tempted to sin lack a strong will as in Joseph. Have the determination of Joseph who rejected the seduction of the wife of his master without hesitation. As you wake up in the morning, say to yourself, "Today, I'll never commit sin no matter what temptation comes to me!" Be resolute, make your heart firm and strong. Strong as the power of the Holy Spirit is, it does not prevent you from feeling the sweetness of the temptation of sin. Do not relax your nerves because you have lived a righteous life so far with great effort, killing all greed. Be filled with the Holy Spirit and of great courage so that you can overcome the power of sin. If you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you can discern between the way of sin and the way of righteousness; if you are resolute, you can reject the sweetness of the way of sin and take the suffering of the cross that the way of righteousness gives you. Those who wish to overcome sins without making their heart strong and resolute are like ones who lie in bed till meat falls in their mouth. They are lazy and foolish. Lazy, because they even do not rule their mind. Foolish, because they disarm themselves before the Devil. No matter what a good sword of the Holy Spirit you have, you'll never defeat Devil if you are foolish. I hope that you'll always be victorious by the power of the Holy Spirit.

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May everyone of you be a mighty soldier of God like the three hundred men of Gideon.

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Chong Tack Kim

                                           - Dongtoma Sunshine Church -

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