Two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. “My lords,” he said, “please turn aside to your servant’s house. You can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning.” (Genesis 19:1)
Hebrews 13:2 advises, “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.” Before we continue, we must understand that the two angels that came to Sodom were in human form. Later in the chapter, they are referred to as men.
The angels declined Lot’s generous offer and said they would sleep in the city square. But Lot strongly insisted, so they stayed. “Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.” (verses 3-5) When Lot refused them, they pressed toward the door to get to the two men. Lot stepped out of the house and tried to make the men from the town go away. But the two visiting men reached out, grabbed Lot, and pulled him back inside. Verse 11 tells us “they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door.”
2 Peter 3:9 tells us that God is long-suffering. It is his will that none should perish, but all should come to repentance. These men (angels) were sent to Lot directly from God. We read in verses 12-13 that they were sent to save Lot and his family, and to destroy the city. I want to take a closer look at verses 15-17. “With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.” When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them. As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!” Once again, God extended his mercy to Lot.
The angels told Lot and his family, “don’t look back.” But, Lot’s wife did look back and she became a pillar of salt. Now salt is a preservative. If we demonstrate to God that we love our old life or the things of this world, he will preserve us in it. He is merciful, but he is also jealous, and he will not share us with another love. (Exodus 34:14)
The angels told Lot to flee to the mountains. Spiritually speaking, the mountains represent the high places in God. Moses went to Mount Sinai to meet with God. (Exodus 34:2) Jesus went to Mount Tabor. (Matthew 17:1) Noah went to Mount Ararat. (Genesis 8:4) Abraham went to Mount Moriah. (Genesis 22:2) Elijah went to Mount Carmel. (1 Kings 18)
God told Moses in Exodus 33:17-23 that “no one can see God’s face and live.” Lot obviously knew this because in Genesis 19:19 he tells the angels, “I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me, and I die.” In verse 20 he goes on to say, “Behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one: Oh, let me escape thither, (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live.” In verse 22 we learn that the name of the city is Zoar, meaning “less than”.
Unfortunately, like Lot, there are many Christians today who, for whatever reason, do not go to the “mountains” (the high places) with God. In Old Testament times you would literally be struck dead if you saw his face. Today, we are blessed. Jesus Christ came, died on the cross, and rose again, bridging the gap between God and man. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3:18, “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” This is why we hear some Christians refer to seeking God’s face.
Although Christ bridged that gap between man and God, there is still a death penalty for seeing God’s face. It is not a literal death as in the Old Testament times, but rather a spiritual death. In Galatians 2:20 Paul explains this. He said, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Simply put, we lay down our lives for Christ, just as he laid his down for us. By doing so, we relinquish our own will, our own way, and follow his will and way. This is precisely what Jesus did when he was on the earth, and the most known passage that reveals this is his prayer to the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane. “Not my will, but thine be done.”
We know that we are made up of three parts, body, soul, and spirit. It is the soul I want to focus on now. Our soul also consists of three parts. It is made up of our mind, will, and emotions. The Bible does not explicitly say this, but if we were to conduct a word study we would find this to be truth. There are many individual scriptures that back this up.
Those Christians who are not willing to go to the high places, who would rather settle in Zoar, (less than) are not moving in the Spirit realm. They are moving in the soulish realm.
Do not fear dwelling with God in the mountains. Jesus taught his disciples to pray and one of the things he said was “give us this day our daily bread.” Brethren, Jesus IS our Daily Bread, the Bread of Life. We can have a crumb, a slice, a hunk, or the whole loaf.
