Most readers here will be familiar with the story already, but for those who are not I will offer a quick recap. God appeared in bodily form to Abraham in Genesis 18. With Him were two other angels (they are described as angels in Genesis 19:15, for example). God told Abraham that He was going to destroy Sodom. At the end of Genesis 18, Abraham asks if God would spare Sodom if fifty righteous men could be found. The LORD agrees to that. Abraham then asks, “What if five are missing?” and again the LORD says He would not destroy the city if there were forty-five righteous men. Abraham continues until the end of the chapter, where the LORD agrees not to destroy the city if there are but ten righteous men.
After this, the two angels depart and go to Sodom. Lot finds them in the town square and offers them lodging, but the men of Sodom want to take the angels by force. The angels end up rescuing Lot, pulling him into the house and shutting the door, then striking the men of Sodom with blindness. They then tell Lot to gather his family and get out of town. Lot asks if, instead of running to the hills, he can go to the town of Zoar instead, and this is granted to him. After Lot flees, Sodom is destroyed.
So what is the part that I missed before? It is a subtle point located in these two verses:
As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.” But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city (Genesis 19:15-16, ESV).We are often told by our Arminian brethren that God respects our freedom so much that He would allow us to go to hell rather than violate our wills. Yet here, God was not willing that Lot should perish, and forcibly removed him and his family from the city. Again, Lot did not choose to depart; he delayed. The angels warned him he had to move and when he did not, the angels seized him.
And this violation of Lot’s will, far from being described as negative, is described as “the LORD being merciful to him.” Just as a Calvinist argues that it is not loving for a parent to stand on the side of the road and beckon his child to come to safety because true love is running out into traffic to actually save the child, regardless of what the child wants, so too, here God’s loving action is to rescue Lot even if it means He has to seize the man and forcibly remove him from the city. When God wishes to save someone, He will do so. He does not need our permission.
And thank God for it!
I now know another awesome scripture that I'm going to bring up in future arguments with my arminian brethren. I had never considered this before. Thanks, Peter!
ReplyDeleteHello Prince Asbel. You said: "I had never considered this before." Nor had I. That's part of why I wanted to post it instead of just having a personal "a-ha!" moment. Ultimately, while Calvinists have huge chunks of Scripture we can point to as evidence for our theology (e.g., John 6, Ephesians 1 - 2, Romans 9), for me it is the fact that these little "nuggets" permeate the entirety of Scripture that really solidify the Reformed faith as true.
DeleteThis is why I always read Triablogue- because you share these nuggets with the reader along with your thoughtful analysis. I may have read that passage many times before and probably would never have caught that little gem had I not also kept an eye on Triablogue.
DeleteThank you, Prince Asbel. That brightens my day :-) I do have one correction to make on the post though. I no longer have a two hour delay because they decided to just close and give everyone a snow day. So there is that... :-D
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ReplyDeleteCertainly.
DeleteIronic how God saved Lot's wife against her will, only to allow her to look back. Or did he also make her look back against her will?
ReplyDeleteOf course, you could have saved a lot of energy by just by reading the passage instead of trying to be clever: "the LORD being merciful to him."
DeleteGod intended to save Lot.
By the way, Thumper, you might also want to consider what would have happened if Lot's wife hadn't looked back. Lot may not have run off to the hills above Zoar. But even if he did, it is almost certain that had his wife been with him she could have stopped his two daughters from getting Lot drunk and sleeping with him. The first daughter giving birth to a man named Moab.
DeleteWithout Moab, there would have been no Moabites.
Know who else was a Moabite? Ruth.
And do you know who Ruth's grandson was? David.
And of course, we know who the most important Son of David was.