My husband, Terry, and I both grew up around fishing. Most of my family vacations as a kid were built around camping and fishing. Truth be told, I really didn’t fish much. I probably did more to scare the fish away than catch them. (Fish don’t like rocks thrown into the water…who knew!) My Terry on the other hand, finds fishing fun. He enjoys trying to lure the fish in. He enjoys spending time figuring out what type of bait is needed for the fish he is trying to catch. He thinks about which rod works best for the type of fishing he is doing. He knows if he will need waders, vest, flies, or if he will need spinning rods with fishing lures and worms. All his planning is so he can lure the “big one” in. It’s all about getting the fish to bite.

I want to take a minute to flip a Christian concept that we have. We know that Jesus said He would make us fishers of men, but have you ever stopped to think that Jesus is not the only one “fishing” for us. Satan is very careful to pick a fishing lure out for you. Look at James 1:14 “¹⁴ Instead it is each person’s own desires and thoughts that drag them into evil and lurethem away into darkness.”Satan spends a lot of time fishing in the lake of our desires to find something that can lure us into his lies. He does all he can to hook us into his way of life. Let’s take just a minute to look at the story of Lot. This story shows a couple of satan’s best fishing lures.

In Genesis 13, Lot and Abram (Abraham) are having to make a decision. Both have become very wealthy. Both have a lot of possessions and a lot of people that work for them. Their herdsmen started arguing with each other because the land they shared would not support both of them. They needed to go their separate ways. Abram told Lot to take a look at the land and choose where he wanted to go. Whichever Lot chose, Abram would go the opposite direction. Abram would make a new home for his family and dependents away from Lot so they could live in peace. Verse 10 “Lot took a long look at the fertile plains of the Jordan Valley in the direction of Zoar. The whole area was well watered everywhere, like the garden of the Lord or the beautiful land of Egypt.”

There it is, the initial lure that satan used on Lot. Satan enticed Lot with the beauty of the Jordan Valley. Remember Abram had chosen to follow God. He left the country of his father, Ur, and followed God to unknown territory. Lot had traveled with Abram up until this moment.  Lot chose to be with someone that walked with God until he chose where he and his family would live. He chose to live near Sodom, a city that’s very name means burning. Isn’t it ironic that satan had an area that was beautiful to look at, rich in resources right up next to a place that was literally “on fire” with sin? (Genesis 13:13) The very first thing that satan enticed Lot with was pleasing to his eyes. (Sound familiar?  Genesis 3:6)

As you continue to read in Genesis 14, the city that Lot lives in goes to war. They are defeated. As the Sodom and Gomorrah armies fled, they fell into the tar pits of the Valley of Sidim. Lot was captured. A man escaped and told Abram of Lot’s fate. Abram took his men to rescue Lot and others in captivity. Abram and his men defeated Sodom’s enemy and rescued Lot. In an act of gratitude, the king offered Abram all the wealth he recovered during the rescue mission…the king just wanted his people back that had been rescued. Abram refused the gifts. He wanted his wealth to be only from God…nothing from man. I paused when I read chapter 14. Lot had another choice to make. He could return and live with Abram or return to Sodom. I have to think that satan lured Lot again. This time wealth was covering up satan’s hook. Wealth was the perfect lure to get Lot to bite. He chose to return to Sodom, the city that burned in sin. You see, satan is an expert fisher of men. Even today, he studies what our desires are and chooses the perfect lure to catch us. 

Now to Genesis 19. This chapter turns my stomach. The description of what goes on is hard to read, but it is crucial for us to understand. Lot had men (angels) visit his home. The men of Sodom demanded that Lot send his guests out so they could have sex with them (verse 6). This next part hurts. He begged the men of Sodom not to take his guests, but to take his two daughters and do whatever they wanted to with them. Really? Lot took satan’s bait…hook, line and sinker. In his mind, offering his daughters was not as bad as sending his guests out. Take a minute and let that soak in. Have you been lured in to satan’s lifestyle… one that your decision-making paradigm is based on which sin is “smaller”? Have you justified your sin because you have become desensitized to what is acceptable as “normal” in your life? This fish story just got real.

The angels told Lot and his family to get out of Sodom and Gomorrah. The wrath of God was about to reign fire from heaven.  Specifically, they told them, “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 satan had the perfect lure flashing in front of Lot’s wife. She paused. She longed for her friends, her wealth, her home. She turned around to look back. She paid the price because of the lure of sin. Lot and his daughters escaped. They escaped to a cave and lived there. Study notes in The Passion Translation say that at this point, Lot had gone from being a prominent man to a caveman. This was the price of the perfect lure that satan threw out to catch Lot.

Maybe you have been lured by satan into a harsh, sinful land. Don’t give up and think there is no way out for you. Maybe you have lived in the sinful land for such a long time that the bait satan throws out at you looks really good and you are not able to see the big hook hiding under it. Don’t think God has given up on you. Our God is a God of mercy. He is a God of forgiveness.  Just as we do today, Lot had consequences for being lured into satan’s hook. BUT he was not held captive by satan. Yes, Lot sinned. Yes, his choices caused him heart ache. BUT God rescued Lot. He can rescue you and me. God does not look only at our actions. He looks at our hearts. What a gift! I am a sinner. But just like Lot, I love my God. I get lured by satan into bad situations and into sin. But God sees me through His eyes, not man’s. 

2 Peter 2:7-9 “Yet he rescued a righteous man, Lot, suffering the indignity of the unbridled lusts of the lawless.⁸ For righteous Lot lived among them day after day, distressed in his righteous soul by the rebellious deeds he saw and heard.⁹ If the Lord Yahwehrescued Lot, he knows how to continually rescue the godly from their trials and to reserve the ungodly for punishment on the day of judgment. “