Genesis 14:12 - Homiletics

The capture of Lot, or Nemesis pursuing, sin.

I. AN EXAMPLE OF THE BITTER FRUITS OF WAR .

1. War is sometimes justifiable in its origin and objects . When undertaken to achieve or preserve national independence, to vindicate the liberties and secure the rights of men, or to repel the aggressions of ambitious despots, even war with all its bloody horrors may become an imperious and fierce necessity. It is difficult to determine whether on either side the campaign in the vale of Siddim was entitled to be so characterized. The kings of the Pentapolis were fighting for emancipation from a foreign yoke, and so far perhaps were entitled to be regarded as having right upon their side; yet they had themselves been invaders of a land which had originally been assigned to the tribes of Shem. But however the question of right may be settled as between these ancient warriors, it is certain their successors on the battle-fields of earth have much more frequently had the wrong upon their sides than the right.

2. Victory does not always favor those who seem to have the best cause . The maxim of the great Napoleon, that God is always on the side of the strongest battalions, is as wide astray from the exact truth on this important subject as is the prevailing sentiment that God always defends the right. The doctrine of Scripture is that the Lord of Hosts is independent of both regiments and rifles, can save by many or by few, and giveth the victory to whomsoever he will; and that not always does he choose to render these arms triumphant which are striking for the holiest cause, but sometimes, for reasons of his own, permits the wrong to trample down the right. The history of Israel and the records of modern warfare supply numerous examples.

3. Disastrous and terrible are the usual concomitants of war . Not that God does not frequently overrule the hostilities of contending nations, and evolve from the murderous designs of monarchs results the most beneficial, making war the pioneer of civilization, and even of religion; but the immediate effects of international strife are ever ruinous and appalling—fruitful fields devastated, fair cities sacked, valuable property destroyed, lives of men wasted, a nation's blood and treasure poured out like water, lamentation: mourning, and woe commissioned to many homes, and a burden of care and sorrow laid on all. All this was exemplified in the present instance.

4. When war arises the innocent largely suffer with the guilty . Had the campaign against the kings of the Pentapolis not been prepared, it is probable that the Rephaims, Zuzims, Emims, Horites, Amalekites, and Amerites would not have suffered at the hands of Chedorlaomer, and it is certain that Lot would not have been made a prisoner by the victorious monarch. Now, so far as the primal reason of this invasion was concerned, all these were innocent of any offence against the Asiatic king, and yet they were amongst the victims of his wrath against the rebels of the Jordan circle.

II. AN INSTANCE OF DIVINE RETRIBUTION .

1. Deserved . Although Lot was a righteous man, he had egregiously sinned,

Consequently God avenged himself upon his erring servant by allowing him to lose his property, and to come near the losing of his life as well in the sacking of the city. So "the face of the Lord is set against them that do evil."

2. Unexpected probably as to its cause, Lot thinking he had committed nothing worthy of chastisement, for sin has a strange power of obscuring the moral vision and deadening the voice of conscience; almost certainly as to its time, God's judgments for the most part taking men unawares (cf. Psalms 73:18 , Psalms 73:19 ), and evil-doers being commonly snared in an evil time, like the fishes of the sea ( Ecclesiastes 9:12 ), walking like blind men because they have sinned against the Lord ( Zephaniah 1:17 ); and more than likely as to its form, those who anticipate the outpouring of Divine indignation being seldom able to discern beforehand the special character it will assume.

3. Appropriate . Lot had chosen the Jordan circle as the most advantageous locality for thriving in his flocks and herds, and Chedorlaomer's armies swept his folds and stalls entirely clean. He had elected to live among the filthy Sodomites, and so he is compelled to fare as they. God's recompenses to evil-doers (whether saints or sinners) are never unsuitable, though man's often are.

4. Merciful . He might have lost his life in the general massacre of the city's inhabitants, but he only lost his property, or rather it was not yet lost, although, doubtless, Lot imagined that it was; only pillaged and carried off along with himself, his wife, and daughters. So God ever mingles mercy with judgment when dealing with his people.

5. Premonitory . Though all retribution is not designed to admonish and reprove, this was. The vengeance taken on the wicked at the Day of Judgment will be purely punitive; that which falls upon transgressors while on earth is aimed at their amendment. Unhappily, however, as in the case of Lot, it is sometimes inefficacious. Instead of taking warning at what might have proved his ruin, Lot was no sooner rescued than he returned to Sodom. So great providential judgments and great providential mercies are often equally despised.