Don’t Stop Praying For Them - Genesis 16-19

Genesis 19:1-4 (ESV)

The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed himself with his face to the earth and said, “My lords, please turn aside to your servant’s house and spend the night and wash your feet. Then you may rise up early and go on your way.” They said, “No; we will spend the night in the town square.” But he pressed them strongly; so they turned aside to him and entered his house. And he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

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.

When Abraham and Lot, years before, had to split due to their large prosperity, Abraham allowed Lot to choose where he wanted to live.   The choice was:

Genesis 13:12 (ESV)

Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom.

Eventually, apparently, Lot moved closer and closer.    When the angels arrived to Sodom, Lot was now sitting among the elders of the city.  He has promised his daughters to be married to their men.   That probably negotiated him to higher levels of influence in the city.  Lot was fully assimilating his life into the world of Sodom and Gomorrah.  

When the angels arrived, however, Lot must have had the righteousness in him, come alive.  Apparently, although living among them, he was still bother by them.  Note what Peter, through the Holy Spirit, says about Lot centuries later:

2 Peter 2:7 (ESV)

and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked

Lot brings the angels into his home and bakes them a meal, somewhat lacking as compared to what Abraham had provided them in the last chapter.  But times may have been hard for Lot.  The key is that he was not fully gone and done in by the wickedness of Sodom.   But God still had to send someone to pull him out.  Abraham intercession for him in the last chapter, moved God to remove him in this one.  The angels had come to destroy the city.   But also came to rescue Lot.  Through intercessory prayer we can rescue those who are living close to sin’s capital.   Never stop praying for those you see pitching their tent to and in the Sodoms of this world.