It sounds like heresy, doesn’t it? “When Being Righteous Isn’t Enough.” I understand. When this first hit me, I was challenged to understand what God wanted of me.

Let me tell you a Bible story.

There was a man by the name of Lot whose story parallels his uncle, Abraham. Lot followed Abraham from Haran to Canann. As their flocks multiplied, they decided to split up. Lot settled near the wicked City of Sodom. When the Lord appeared to Abraham and informed him He was going to destroy Sodom, Abe panicked. He began interceding for Lot.

He challenged God by asking, “You wouldn’t kill the righteous with the wicked, would you?” God said something we all need to hold on to. He told Abraham, “I will always do what’s right!” So, Abraham plea-bargained with God, starting with 50 righteous men in Sodom and ending with 10. God would spare Sodom if there were only 10 righteous men in that city.

Abe stopped at 10 and hit the “EASY” button. Earlier in Genesis, Abraham fought five kings to rescue all the captives they had taken from four kingdoms, including Lot’s family. Jewish tradition tells us Lot had immediate favor after Abraham gave all of their stuff back. He was believed to be the “mayor” of Sodom.

There’s no proof of that, but follow the logic. When the angels came to the city, Lot greeted them at the city gates. Elders of cities conducted business at the city gates. At the very least, Lot was on the city council. Abraham figured that as an influential person, surely Lot had won several people to the Lord.

Reading on, we see Lot’s influence was not as highly regarded as Abraham thought. Lot and his family had to be dragged out of Sodom by the angels.

Here’s what needs to be looked at. In II Peter 2:7-8, Lot is referred to as a “righteous man” three times. He was righteous, yet he didn’t use his influence to make any difference in Sodom.

Lot escaped by the skin of his teeth. The angels told him to flee to the mountains, and he whined. “Can’t I just go over here to Zoar? It’s not that far.” After being told not to look back, his wife — possibly regretting everything they left behind — looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt. Now it was just Lot and his two daughters. These girls, raised in a godly home, turned out not so godly after all. Lot’s fatherly influence and faith didn’t trickle down to even his children.

I guess you can’t blame them. When the men of the city gathered outside Lot’s door demanding he turn the angels over to them so they could rape them, Lot offered his virgin daughters instead. Can you imagine being his daughters and hearing the mob outside the house being offered your bodies to rape and ravish?

Eventually, they ended up in the mountains where the angels told them to go in the first place. The future looked bleak for the daughters. Their fiancés were toast back in Sodom, so the problem of carrying on Lot’s legacy fell to them. They got their dad drunk, slept with him, got pregnant, and gave him two cute little grandsons, Moab and Ammon.

Did you know both of these children forged nations that became deadly enemies of God’s people? Choices have consequences!

What kind of legacy will you leave behind when you’re gone? Will it be a godly legacy, or a legacy as a hater of God? Lot had influence, but he never used it to make a difference in his community.

How about you? Are you making a difference? Am I?

Something to pray about.
Semper Fidelis