And the two angels came to Sodom at even. And Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. And Lot saw them, and rose up to meet them; and he bowed down, the face toward the ground,
Genesis 19 opens with Abraham still interceding with God for the city. His nephew Lot is sitting in the gateway of that same city, and God is about to destroy it. That one detail — where Lot is sitting — raises the question commentators keep coming back to. What has this believer's chosen place cost him?
In the chapter before, the Lord Himself was among the visitors who came to Abraham. Here the group is smaller. One writer sees every detail of the arrival marking a contrast:
How every circumstance seems designed to bring out the contrast! Two angels come, not men: there is distance, not familiarity; and the Lord Himself does not come near. So communion there is not and cannot be. Evening, too, has fallen; they come in gloom, and as if not to be seen.
Another writer links the hour to their errand:
While the Lord came to Abraham in the full light of day, the two angels come to Sodom "in the evening." They come, not to give a public witness to Sodom, but, as it were, in the secrecy of the evening gloom to pull a falling saint out of the fire of judgment (Gen. 18:1; Gen. 19:1).
In an ancient city the gate was where elders sat to judge and to govern. So the phrase is not describing a man resting by the roadside:
As they approached, Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. That means, of course, that he had accepted the office of a magistrate in that extremely wicked city. He not only saw and heard terrible evils as a private person, but came into contact with it all as a magistrate.
More than one writer takes Lot's motive kindly. He settled in Sodom hoping to improve it. But one writer questions the method:
Lot was sitting in the gate, the place of a judge.
Lot rises, bows, and urges his guests to come home with him. Yet they refuse at first, and one writer weighs both facts:
The Lord no longer stoops to accompany His messengers, nor visits Lot as He visited Abraham. At last they yield to his pressure, enter his house, and accept his unleavened bread.
One writer opens this chapter by looking ahead:
The history that now opens before us is one of contrast, and it is full of instruction for us, who stand on the eve of a judgment far larger in scale. Our Lord Himself applies it, as He applies the disaster in the days of Noah, as a warning for the present… It will be a judgment of God… and as none of the wicked will understand, so none will escape.
This is also where the visitors are first called angels. One writer links that name to the reason Lot is saved at all:
Those who appear in Genesis 18 as "men" to Abraham go on to Sodom as "angels" in Genesis 19. They go there to deliver Lot, but they cannot show him the closeness they show to Abraham. Righteous as he is, and "greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked," he is still one who is "saved, but only as through fire." He is found, not in his tent door at Mamre, but in the "gate of Sodom." He is one of those righteous men in an evil place, for whom Abraham intercedes with God. When he is delivered, it is said of him: "God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot lived." (Gen. 19:29.)
- Place decides everything. Abraham is at his tent door outside; Lot sits in the city gate. The same day brings one man communion and the other a warning.
- The gate is an office. Lot had taken a seat of authority in Sodom, so he met its evil not just as a neighbour but as a magistrate.
- Position replaced testimony. Settled in Sodom hoping to improve it, he made himself unable to warn it of the judgment coming.
- Distance shows in the details. Two angels came, not the Lord. Evening, not full daylight. They refused Lot's invitation before accepting it. Courtesy survived; nearness did not.
- Grace reaches even there. God pulled Lot out of the fire of judgment because He remembered Abraham, who was interceding while Lot sat in the gate. Jesus later used that day as a warning.
and he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant's house, and lodge, and wash your feet; and ye shall rise up early, and go on your way. And they said, No; but we will pass the night in the open place.
Two angels reach Sodom in the evening, and Lot presses them to spend the night at his house. They refuse, and their answer raises a sharp question: why is Lot met so differently from Abraham, who welcomed heavenly guests one chapter earlier?
Lot's welcome is real, but it is stiffer than Abraham's, and he already suggests an early start for his guests.
Lot met the angels with great respect, though not with Abraham's refreshing warmth. Abraham had run to meet his visitors and bowed to the ground. Lot rose and bowed with his face toward the earth — a stiffer, more formal greeting. As a believer, he invited the men into his house for the night. He suggested they rise early and go on their way. Perhaps he felt it would not be very safe for the men to stay long... Lot urged them strongly. No doubt he realized the danger they would be in if they were outside.
The word "house" carries weight. Abraham lived in a tent, ready to move; Lot's address had become a fixed one inside the city he once only camped near.
Poor, selfish Lot! He had gone down to Sodom. From the tent pitched toward Sodom, he had ended up living in Sodom. There he no longer had a tent — he had a house. He had settled down and given up his character as pilgrim. His daughters were fully at home in Sodom, and they married unbelieving men of Sodom. More than that, Lot had taken a position in Sodom. He "was sitting in the gate of Sodom," and the mob said, "This fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge!"
The angels' answer is more than a polite decline.
The angels' word to Lot is an outright condemnation of his position in Sodom. They would rather spend the night in the town square than enter under the roof of one in a wrong position. Indeed, their only object in coming to Sodom seems to have been to rescue Lot, and that because of Abraham.
Commentators differ on where the fault lies. Mackintosh points to Lot's position in the city. Another writer points to the house itself.
They would not enter Lot's house. You say, Why not? I think the reason is very simple. They did not think Lot's house was of good repute. The behaviour in his house made the two messengers prefer to stay outside rather than go in. Christians, what a lesson for you and me. What is the atmosphere of your house and mine? Is the atmosphere of your house such that God would like to come into it?
Small details in this scene mark the distance between the guests and their host.
How every circumstance seems designed to bring out the contrast! Two angels come, not men: there is distance, not familiarity; and the Lord Himself does not come near. So there is no communion, and there cannot be. Evening has fallen too; they come in gloom, as if not to be seen. And although Lot's hospitality is as ready as Abraham's, there is no such readiness in the response... Off the path of faith, he does not master his circumstances; they master him.
The wording of the earlier visit sharpens the difference.
In chapter 18 we are told that when Abraham looked up, he saw three men standing near him. The true rendering of that word is "stationed themselves." It carries the sense of wanting to stay, in surroundings that suited them in every way. Is this not in sharp contrast to the two angels, who answered Lot's urgent pleading, "No; we will spend the night in the town square"?
Lot will not take no for an answer, and the refusal gives way. The messengers had their own reason for being in Sodom.
Lot's urgent pleading, however, wins the angelic messengers over. As we learn further on, God in His providence had sent them to keep Lot safe when the guilty cities were finally overthrown... Here was a man who tormented his righteous soul day after day over the lawless deeds of wicked men. He kept himself apart from the corruption around him, and could provide what suited his heavenly guests in every way. But he had no power to hold on to what pleased God, because of his unholy and defiling ties.
- Position. Lot no longer has a tent but a house, and a seat at the gate — he has traded the pilgrim's life for a settled place inside Sodom.
- Politeness. His welcome is real and respectful, yet formal, and he already wants his guests gone by daybreak.
- Refusal. Choosing the town square is rebuke, not rudeness. They would sooner sleep outdoors than under the roof of a man in a wrong position.
- Distance. Two angels instead of men, evening gloom, no visit from the Lord Himself — the setting leaves Lot no room for communion.
- Rescue. They give in to his pressing. But they came to get him out, and he had no power to hold back the evil he had settled among.
And he urged them greatly; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house. And he made them a repast, and baked unleavened cakes; and they ate.
Two angels arrive at Sodom in the evening, and Lot has to beg them to come under his roof. Their hesitation, his feast, and his flat bread all reveal the man who once travelled with Abraham.
Lot has to press them because the messengers first refused. One writer explains that refusal from what Lot's home was like.
They would not enter Lot's house. You say, Why not? I think the reason is very simple. They did not think Lot's house had a good name. The way his household lived made the two messengers feel they would rather stay outside than go in. Christians, what a lesson for you and me. What is the atmosphere of your house and mine?
The contrast with the chapter before is hard to miss. Abraham's guests came in at once; Lot had to force his.
The Lord stayed to talk with Abraham, and only sent His angels to Sodom. Lot could barely persuade these angels to enter his house or accept his hospitality: they said, "No, we will stay in the street all night." What a rebuke! How different from Abraham's invitation, which they gladly accepted with the words, "Do as you have said."
They did come in at last. One writer says that this does not soften the rebuke.
The angels of the Lord would rather stay all night in the streets of guilty Sodom than go in to a child of His who was not walking in obedience. Their later agreement to go in does not weaken the point. Their answer teaches us something most solemn and practical. They do enter Lot's house, it is true; but if they do, it is only to undo the sad effects of Lot's sin.
Another writer sees fear behind Lot's pressing, and traces the visit itself back to Abraham's prayer.
Lot no doubt offered the angels hospitality partly because he knew all too well what kind of men the Sodomites were. Angels had no need of human protection, and they were very unwilling to accept what he offered. God's messengers had not come to be entertained in the doomed city. They came to carry out divine judgment. Their entry into his house, and their eating of his meal, showed God's mercy to him because Abraham had prayed, "Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?"
Lot's table is not empty. What is missing is the Lord Himself.
The Lord no longer sees fit to accompany His messengers, nor visits Lot, as He visited Abraham. He would have been ashamed to be called the God of Lot. Lot "sat in the gate of Sodom," while his relative the pilgrim ran to meet them "from the tent door." Yet much was the same: no less courtesy, perhaps, but only a little hospitality.
Others compare the two meals.
Abraham's meal was simple, wholesome food, though he called it only "a morsel of bread." Lot clearly prepared city food, perhaps quite fancy, to make an impression.
The one detail the verse pauses on is the bread. One writer asks what it said about the man who baked it.
Leaven stands for evil, so unleavened bread in Scripture teaches separation from evil. Was Lot telling his visitors that he believed in separation from evil? If so, his lifestyle did not back it up.
Another writer looks at Israel eating unleavened bread in Egypt, and finds a warning there.
Their obedience to God's command was not, sadly, the fruit of a spirit of obedience. It came from necessity: they were forced out of Egypt… In the same way, when disaster and distress fall, men wake up to reality… There are times when even Lots become real. Yet this is only the fruit of circumstances. Nothing in it has to last, and it has no power to lift a man who is in fact so low.
For all the rebuke, Lot's kindness is not despised. Scripture later points back to this night to urge hospitality on us.
Scripture urges hospitality, and it encourages its readers by pointing them back to their own past: by welcoming strangers, some have entertained angels without knowing it. Lot showed his readiness to entertain the two angels who appeared as men at the gate of Sodom. He urged them strongly to enter his house, and they accepted. He feasted them, and then learned that his visitors were angels. Under God, he owed them his rescue the next morning (Gen. 19). Neither Abraham nor Lot had cause to regret his hospitality.
- Address — Lot lived in Sodom, and his house had Sodom's name. The messengers preferred the street to his door.
- Pressure — Abraham's guests came at once. Lot had to force the same welcome, yet it still brought his rescuers indoors.
- Mercy — They came in to undo the damage of his choices. That was an answer to Abraham's prayer, not a reward for Lot's table.
- Bread — Unleavened bread speaks of separation from evil; Lot could bake it, but his life did not match it.
- Reality — Hard times can make even a Lot real for a night. What circumstances give, circumstances take away.
Before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, from the youngest to the oldest -- all the people from every quarter.
The two visitors have barely stepped inside Lot's house when the whole town arrives at his door. This is not a gang or a fringe group. It is the whole male population, young and old, from every part of the city. Such complete corruption raises a hard question — about the city, and about the believer who chose to live in it.
The verse sets the stage. The next verse gives the demand. One writer sums up what the crowd came for:
But many men of Sodom, both young and old, rudely interrupted their visit. They boldly demanded that the two men who had come to Lot's home come out to them, to suffer the horror of homosexual relations (vv. 4-5).
The arrival of God's messengers did not create this evil. It brought the evil into the open, where Lot could say nothing to excuse it:
The presence of the angels exposed the wickedness of Sodom at Lot's very door. It only magnified the guilt of "both old and young, all the people from every quarter." What could Lot say to lessen such unbridled lust?
The phrases in this verse are the point. No age group is exempt and no district of the city is missing. One commentator reads the wording as the moment when the city's real character finally speaks for itself:
Their visit brings out the open and unnatural depravity of the people of the city — "both old and young, all the people from every quarter" (v. 4). They pour out their shame without shame (v. 5).
Just before this, Abraham had pleaded for the city. He asked God to spare it if ten righteous people could be found there. Verse 4 gives the answer, and the timing matters:
It is beautiful to see that the Lord does not judge Sodom until it has become so bad that not even ten righteous people are left there. If there had been ten, God would have spared the cities. Abraham keeps interceding until this comes to light.
One writer traces such evil back to its root:
The first chapter of Romans puts this before us. There we find a list of crimes that shames us even to read, given not as some rare result of man's sin, but as the natural fruit of his departure from God. God gives them over to evil like the evil that brought judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah. He gives them over to evil so corrupt that no one can even speak of it. It is as though the Spirit of God set the root and the fruit side by side and said to men: cut loose from God, and you give free rein to every form of evil the flesh can produce.
Lot had a seat in the gate of Sodom — a place of civic authority. The mob at his door shows what that position was worth:
The shameless proposal Lot made to his fellow citizens showed how powerless he was. The man who sat in Sodom's gate could not restrain their corrupt and lawless ways. If he had ever thought he could improve the people of Sodom by his influence and advice, this moment must have brought the truth home to his poor deceived heart. His life among them had been wasted, and all his efforts were useless.
Another writer explains why Lot could do nothing:
Off the path of faith, he does not master his circumstances; they master him. The men of Sodom break in on him. His very effort to host the heavenly guests only stirs up the lusts of the flesh.
Jesus pointed back to this night. One writer reads the scene as a picture of what is still ahead:
Lot holds an honoured place as a city official. But the city is doomed, and the time has come when it is ripe for judgment. From the Lord's own words in Luke 17, we know that this solemn scene foreshadows the judgment about to fall on this present evil world. There we read, "As it was in the days of Lot… so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed."
- Exposed. The angels' arrival did not cause Sodom's sin. It drew that sin out into the open at Lot's door, where old and young alike stood condemned.
- Complete. "Both young and old, all the people to the last man" — the corruption had no exceptions. The search for ten righteous people had its answer.
- Patient. God waited until the evil was complete; ten righteous people would have saved the city.
- Powerless. Lot's seat in the gate gave him no power to stop anything. The world masters the believer who settles in it.
- Prophetic. Jesus pointed back to this night as a picture of the world's state on the day He is revealed.
And they called to Lot, and said to him, Where are the men that have come in to thee to-night? bring them out to us that we may know them.
The whole town — every man, young and old — comes to Lot's door and states its intention out loud. An evening of hospitality turns into a public display of Sodom's guilt — and it settles a case heaven had already opened.
The verse does not soften what the crowd wanted, and neither do the commentators.
But many men of Sodom, both young and old, rudely interrupted their visit. They boldly demanded that Lot bring out the two men who had come to his home, to subject them to the horror of homosexual relations.
The angels did not cause the evil. Their arrival brought it into the open.
The presence of the angels fully exposed the wickedness of Sodom at Lot's very door. It only increased the guilt of "both young and old, all the people to the last man." Lot might plead with the sinners to hold back from the gross evil planned in their wicked hearts... but he could not plead with the angels to spare the men of Sodom. Nothing but divine judgment could meet the evil.
God had said He would come down and see whether the reports matched the reality. That night at the door settled the question.
The Lord said, "Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me." Sadly, when the angels came into Lot's house, they found that Sodom's grievous sin matched the cry the Lord had heard in heaven.
God's delay was never ignorance:
Of course the Lord knew every detail of the evil in those cities. But He is always slow to judge until the wickedness proves beyond remedy.
Commentators trace the outburst back to comfort. Sodom sat in a rich, easy place, and ease left the men time on their hands.
There was also "abundance of idleness," which gave the men of Sodom plenty of time for their pleasures. When Adam was driven from Eden, he was to eat of the ground with sorrow all the days of his life. God added, "By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread." ... With all their idleness, the men of Sodom had clearly managed to eat their bread without the sweat of Adam.
Lot sat in the gate, the seat of a judge. The crowd at his door showed what that was worth.
Lot's position as judge now counted for nothing. In fact they threw it back at him as though he had no right to the office at all. If he had flattered himself that he could exercise an influence for good, he was now undeceived.
The root of the failure was where Lot had chosen to live:
Lot settled in Sodom with apparently some hope of improving it. He was a righteous man, but he "tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds" (2 Peter 2:8). He was simply in the wrong place, and made himself incapable of warning the people of God's judgment against evil.
The New Testament looks back at these cities and names the kind of sin it was.
Jude says: "Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire." Here it is clear that this was a breaking out. It was not merely into sin, but into what was flagrant beyond measure — not evil alone, but contrary even to fallen nature.
Two things outlived the city — a word, and a warning:
The memory of the evil and its judgment has lasted. Our language still uses the word "sodomy" for sin of an especially vile and unnatural kind. This judgment, moreover, was a sample of what is yet to come on a much greater scale in "the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly" (2 Peter 3:7).
Jesus Himself used this night as a preview of His return.
The city where Lot holds an honoured place as a magistrate is doomed to judgment. The time has come when it is ripe for judgment. From the Lord's own words in Luke 17 we know what this solemn scene means. It foreshadows the judgment about to fall on this present evil world. There we read, "As it was in the days of Lot... so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed."
- Cry. Sodom's sin had already reached heaven as an outcry. God came down to see, and the demand at Lot's door matched the report.
- Cause. Plenty and idleness fed the appetite. These men ate their bread without Adam's sweat, and had spare time for their pleasures.
- Collapse. Lot sat in the gate as a judge. When the mob came, his office counted for nothing. Settling in the world gives a believer no power to restrain it.
- Condemnation. Scripture treats this as evil beyond ordinary sin, against even fallen nature. The ruined cities remain an example of judgment.
- Coming. The Lord makes that night a preview: as it was in the days of Lot, so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed.
And Lot went out to them to the entrance, and shut the door after him,
Genesis 19 opens with two angels arriving at Sodom's gate, where Lot is sitting as a man of standing in the city. The crowd outside demands his guests, so Lot steps out and shuts the door behind him — an act that shows both what was good in him and how far he had drifted.
Going outside was in Lot's favour. He put himself at risk for the men under his roof. What he offered once he was outside was not to his credit.
Lot's concern for his guests was commendable. He even went outside, closing the door after him, to plead for the two men who had come under the shelter of his roof (vv. 6-8). But his offer of his daughters was far from commendable. How could he offer them to men of such vile character? He had no right to offer them to anybody, and they were already engaged to be married. He says the men had come to his home for protection. Abraham's words in Genesis 18:5 were very different. Abraham knew his visitors had come to have their hearts comforted by his fellowship.
The shut door had a second purpose. Lot was uneasy about the city he had chosen. He did not want his guests to see what he had settled into.
On the whole this is a sad scene. A believer in the world would have importance in it, and do good. He sits in the gate — the gate of Sodom! But Lot is not easy at being found there. He acts as though he were at ease, but he would keep the strangers from knowing what a place they had found him in. It is no use. He takes it on himself, uses atrocious means — for what could he do against them? Power delivers him, that is all.
Standing outside, Lot addresses the mob as his brothers. One writer links that word to something Lot had lost.
Lot goes out to plead for his guests and to reason with his fellow-townsmen. Sadly, he calls them "brothers." He even offers them his two daughters (vv. 6-8). He has lost the simplicity of faith. In this scene of difficulty, danger and surrounding wickedness he no longer looks only to the Lord. Instead he uses worldly wisdom, choosing what he thought was the lesser of two evils.
Lot meant to protect. What the scene proves is that he had no strength to do it.
We also see that Lot is a true believer. He recognises the heavenly visitors and treats them with due reverence. He seeks to honour them and to shelter them from the insults of the men of the world. Sadly, he only finds that he has no power to restrain their wickedness.
Lot did not arrive at this night in one move. One writer traces the steps that brought him to this door.
Bearing this in mind, our chapter is full of the most solemn warning for us all. He may have regarded his election as a judge as a step up; it was in truth a sad fall, bringing dreadful consequences. We saw him at first pitching his tent toward Sodom. Then he dwelt in it, and shared in its defeat, as recorded in Genesis 14. Now he has become a leader in it. And with what effect? Has he cleaned up its degraded morals? Has he improved its ethical standards? Not in the least! He has, as we shall see, only involved himself and his family in its evils.
Lot's pleading achieves nothing. The crowd turns on him, and the door he shut behind him becomes the door that saves him.
Lot argues with them. He pleads with them. He is even ready to degrade his own children to cover and protect these strangers. In the end the riot gets so bad that they say to him, "Stand back!" Their anger is roused, and they cry, "This fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge!" What moral power has he over them when their passions and lusts are roused? None. They tell him plainly, "Now we will deal worse with you than with them." They would have broken the door in. But at that moment the door opens, and the men pull Lot inside.
- Door out. Lot's going outside to plead for his guests was good — he put himself between them and the mob.
- Door shut. He also wanted to hide from the strangers what a place they had found him in. The closed door hid nothing.
- Door word. He called the mob "brothers." He had lost the simplicity of faith, and he now chose what he judged the lesser of two evils.
- Door powerless. Tent toward Sodom, then living in it, then leading in it. He improved nothing there, and he could not restrain the city's wickedness for a single night.
- Door opened. His pleading saved no one, including himself. Hands reached out from inside and pulled him in — power delivered him, and that was all.
and said, I pray you, my brethren, do not wickedly!
Lot steps out of his own front door, pulls it shut behind him, and addresses a mob bent on violence as family. He calls them "my brothers." That one word raises the question of the whole chapter. What happens to a believer's voice once he has settled down inside the place he is trying to correct?
Commentators fasten on that single word. It shows where Lot had come to belong.
Verses 6, 7. What a picture of the falseness of his position. How strange that he could have settled there — and my brothers!
That word was not his starting point. One writer traces the slow drift behind it.
Lot's speech plainly shows how deeply he had become involved in the affairs of Sodom. He intended to stay only a little while. Instead he became a judge among them, and he looked on them as his brothers. Many a Christian has become thoroughly immersed in the world in the same way. He has touched the world in some small way, meaning to get away again. But he has gone further and further into its ties, until he found himself helpless, or unwilling, to break them.
Lot puts himself between the crowd and his guests. Then he offers something no father had the right to offer.
Lot's concern for his guests was commendable. He even went outside, closing the door after him, to plead for the two men who had come under the shelter of his roof (verses 6-8). But his offer to sacrifice his daughters was far from commendable. He had no right to offer them to anybody. Children are not the property of their parents, and his daughters were already engaged to be married (verse 14).
Lot begs the men to hold back. His plea could go only so far.
Lot might plead with the sinners to hold back from the gross evil planned in their wicked hearts. He might propose a lesser evil, as he saw it, to spare the guests he had brought under the shelter of his house. But he could not plead with the angels to spare the men of Sodom. Nothing but divine judgment could meet the evil. Lot's shameless proposal to his fellow citizens showed how powerless he was. The man who sat in Sodom's gate could not restrain their corrupt and lawless ways. Perhaps he had once thought he could improve the people of Sodom by his influence and advice. If so, this moment must surely have shown his poor deluded heart that his life spent for them had been wasted.
Why did a righteous man reach for such a proposal? He had stopped looking to the Lord.
Lot goes out to plead for his guests and to reason with his fellow townsmen. Sadly, he calls them "brothers." He also offers his two daughters (verses 6-8). For he has lost the simplicity of faith. In this scene of difficulty, danger and surrounding wickedness he does not look only to the Lord. Instead he chooses by worldly wisdom what he thought was the lesser of two evils.
The crowd answers that this newcomer has made himself their judge. The taunt exposes his position.
If a man mixes with the world to get ahead, he must make up his mind to bear the sad consequences. We cannot profit from the world and testify effectively against its wickedness at the same time. "This fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge!" This will never do. The true way to judge is to stand apart, in the moral power of grace, not in the superior spirit of the Pharisees.
Lot's message that night was a plea for better behaviour. He had a better one to give.
Lot was sitting in the gate, the place of a judge. He was a believer making an effort to control the evil natures of ungodly men... the Christian is "not of this world." He has a message of grace with power to deliver people "from the present evil age" (Galatians 1:4)... Lot settled in Sodom with apparently some hope of improving it. He was a righteous man, but he "was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard" (2 Peter 2:8). He was in the wrong place, and he made himself incapable of warning the people of God's judgment against evil.
- Wrong place. Lot meant to stay in Sodom a little while. He ended up seated in its gate, and that position cost him the power to warn anyone.
- Wrong word. Calling the mob "my brothers" exposed his false position. The men he rebuked were the company he had made his own.
- No power. He could ask them not to act wickedly; he could not stop them. His plea showed how little the man in the gate could restrain.
- No credibility. A believer cannot profit from the world and testify against it at the same time. True judging means standing apart in the power of grace.
- No resource. He had lost the simplicity of faith. So he weighed two evils instead of looking to the Lord, and the message that rescues people out of a doomed world went unspoken.
Behold now, I have two daughters who have not known a man let me now bring them out to you; and do to them as is good in your sight only, to these men do nothing; for therefore have they come under the shadow of my roof.
Lot stands outside his own door, bargaining with a mob, and the price he offers is his two daughters. It raises two questions: how could a man the Bible calls righteous say this, and what had brought him to it?
Lot's words come out of a mind that has stopped looking upward. One writer traces the offer to that failure.
Lot goes out to plead for his guests and to reason with his fellow-townsmen. Sadly, he calls them "brothers". He offers his two daughters (vv. 6-8). He has lost the simplicity of faith. This is a scene of difficulty, danger and surrounding wickedness. Instead of looking only to the Lord, he chooses by worldly wisdom what he thought was the lesser of two evils.
Protecting his guests was right; the means was not. A commentator points out that Lot had no authority over his daughters to give in the first place.
Lot's concern for his guests was commendable. He even went outside, closing the door behind him, to plead for the two men who had come under the shelter of his roof (vv. 6-8). But his offer to sacrifice his daughters was far from commendable. How could he offer his virgin daughters to men of such vile character? In fact, he had no right to offer them to anybody. Children are not the property of their parents. Besides, his daughters were already engaged to be married (v. 14). As for the two men, Lot says they had come to his home for protection. How different were Abraham's words in Gen. 18:5! Abraham realized that his visitors had come to have their hearts comforted by his fellowship. We may be sure that the two angels would not have allowed Lot to give his daughters to the men of the city.
The offer measures two things: what years in Sodom had done to Lot's thinking, and what his standing in the city was worth.
Lot tried to calm them by sacrificing his two unmarried daughters. That shows how low he had sunk in his own mind through Sodom's contamination. His position as judge now counted for nothing. They threw it back at him as though he had seized the office with no right. If he had flattered himself that he could have a good influence, he was now undeceived.
The men of Sodom threw Lot's position back in his face. One writer says their reply was fair.
He was troubling his righteous soul over their unlawful deeds. Yet the men of the city have a right to say to him, "What business have you here?" They said, "This fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge!" (v. 9). You are quarrelling with sin in the place of sin. They have a perfect right to judge like that. Association with the world destroys all power of testimony. He ought to be witnessing to his total separation from the world. There is vexation of spirit, but no power.
The end of the chapter shows what Lot's public office produced — including for the daughters he tried to bargain away here.
When Lot "sat in the gate of Sodom" (v. 1), he was acting as a magistrate. Being a righteous man, he must have longed to help improve its terrible state of unrighteousness and immorality. He achieved nothing. He only wrecked his own power to witness against it, and destroyed his family. "He seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting" (v. 14). He himself barely escaped at the last moment, with no power to deliver others. He even lost his own wife. The angels did rescue his two unmarried daughters, but they soon drew their father, who had drifted away from God, into drunkenness and immorality — the very sins of Sodom itself.
Nothing in this chapter would lead you to call Lot a good man. Yet the New Testament does.
We cannot see any redeeming feature in the sad history. Yet the Holy Spirit is quick to discern anything of Christ in any one of us. He says that God "rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds)." How refreshing that verse is! It is like an oasis in the desert, a silver lining on a gloomy cloud.
(The quotation is from 2 Peter 2:7-8, given here in the ESV; the writer used an older translation.)
- Place. Lot's shocking offer is not an isolated lapse — it is the harvest of where he chose to live, "quarrelling with sin in the place of sin."
- Loss. Living inside Sodom cost him the simplicity of faith. In a crisis he weighed the lesser of two evils instead of looking to the Lord.
- Powerlessness. He had no right to offer his daughters. He had no strength to protect anyone. The mob turned on him instead.
- Family. He took office to improve the city. It wrecked his witness and ruined his family: wife lost, sons-in-law scornful, daughters corrupted.
- Mercy. Despite a record with no redeeming feature, God calls Lot righteous and rescues him. That is the one bright line in the story.
And they said, Back there! And they said [again], This one came to sojourn, and he must be a judge? Now we will deal worse with thee than with them. And they pressed hard on the man -- on Lot; and drew near to break the door.
The mob at Lot's door does not just refuse his plea — they turn on him. In one line they throw out the man who had set himself up as a judge among them, and the taunt shows what living in Sodom had cost him.
Lot spoke against their sin, but he spoke from inside their city. One writer grants the mob's objection its full force:
"The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials," and He delivers "righteous Lot." But while he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds, the men of the city have a right to say to him, "What business have you here? This fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge" (v. 9). You are quarrelling with sin in the place of sin. Association with the world destroys all power of testimony, when he ought to be witnessing to his total separation from it. There is vexation of spirit, but not power.
"Sojourn" means a short stay. The sneer measures how far Lot had drifted from it — and what he ended up calling the men of Sodom:
And how very solemn to hear one who had been a companion of the man of faith speak to these debased Sodomites and call them "Brothers," only for them to revile, rebuke and threaten him. This was the world's reward to the righteous man who had given his life in service for them. Lot's address shows how far he had gone into the affairs of Sodom: his intention was to sojourn, to stay for a little while, but he became a judge among them and looked on them as his brothers.
Lot had made himself a judge in Sodom. That standing now bought him nothing:
Lot tried to calm the mob by offering them his two unmarried daughters. That shows how low he had sunk in his own mind through Sodom's corruption. Lot's position as judge now counted for nothing; in fact they flung it back at him as though he had been a mere usurper of the office.
Lot had an argument for staying: a good man's duty is to improve the place he lives in. One writer traces his slide back to that reasoning:
Step by step Lot drew nearer to guilty Sodom. How often he flattered and excused himself that his was the wise and right course, unlike his exclusive uncle Abraham! What is the use, what the duty, of a good man in the world, if not to improve it? ... Lot had no such clearness of vision. He had more confidence in human nature, more assurance of the moral influence of a good man like himself. He hears too late the rebuke of his folly from the lips of the most unclean Sodom: "This fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge."
The threat was not bluster. It turned at once into action against Lot:
He had judged them often. Day by day their abandoned way of life tormented his righteous soul, and his presence among them had no doubt curbed their lawless ways to some degree. But their resentment at his interference now comes out in their threat: "Now we will deal worse with you than with them." It was no idle threat, for "they pressed hard against the man Lot, and drew near to break the door down." If the angels had not stepped in, they would have carried out their wicked threat.
Can a person take profit from the world and correct it at the same time? One writer answers no, and gives the alternative:
If a man mingles with the world to get ahead, he must make up his mind to endure the sad consequences. "This fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge." This will never do. The true way to judge is to stand apart, in the moral power of grace, not in the superior spirit of self-righteousness.
Abraham stayed a stranger among his neighbours. The same world that told Lot to stand back had different words for him:
He confesses before the sons of Heth, "I am a sojourner and foreigner among you." As such he gains the respect of the world, for they say, "You are a prince of God among us." How striking the contrast to poor Lot — the believer who gave up his pilgrim character to dwell in Sodom. The world treats such a man with well-deserved contempt. In the day of his trouble they say, "Stand back… this fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge."
- Sojourn. Lot meant to stay a little while. The mob's own word for him shows he never planned to settle there.
- Settle. In the end he called the men of Sodom his brothers. That shows how far in he had gone.
- Judge. He became a judge, hoping a good man could improve the city. The men of Sodom flung the office back at him as if he had stolen it.
- Stand back. Nobody can profit from the world and rebuke it at the same time. Commentators say the mob's objection was fair — and its threat was real.
- Rescued. The door held only because the angels acted. Lot escaped the judgment, but with no power left to deliver anyone else.
And the men stretched out their hand, and brought Lot into the house to them, and shut the door.
The crowd of Sodom had turned on Lot and was pressing hard at his own door. His words and his standing in the city saved nothing; the guests he had taken in reached out and pulled him inside.
Lot had tried everything. He welcomed the visitors, appealed to the crowd, and even offered his own daughters. None of it held the men of Sodom back.
Lot is a true believer. He recognises the heavenly visitors and treats them with reverence. He seeks to honour them and to shelter them from the insults of the men of the world. Sadly, he only finds that he has no power to restrain their wickedness. In his desperation he is even ready to stoop to the shameful step of handing his two daughters over to the mob's lust, to quiet the uproar. His efforts only make the men of Sodom angrier. They tell him to "stand back." They argue that this man, who came among them as an outsider, now takes it on himself to act as their judge. With these threatening words they press hard on Lot. Only the angels' action saves him from the violence of the mob.
Lot also held office in Sodom. Another writer weighs what that was worth.
Lot's position as judge now counted for nothing. In fact they threw it back at him, as though he had seized the office with no right to it. If he had flattered himself that he could exercise an influence for good, he was now undeceived.
The angels pull Lot in and shut the door. What they do next is more than an escape plan.
The men of Sodom threatened to treat Lot worse than they had meant to treat his guests. Then the two men quickly pulled Lot back into the house and closed the door. But they did more than that. They used the power of God to strike the attackers blind, and this thwarted their wicked intentions. It is a picture of the way God will inflict judicial blindness on the ungodly. They have willingly blinded themselves to the truth of His word, and so they have laid themselves open to His dreadful judgment. Such blinding is a warning of greater judgment to come.
The order of events matters. The blindness came first, and the fire came after.
The world is left to its blindness and the next thing is that judgment falls.
The same visitors who blinded a city also drew one man out of it to safety.
We may gather from Scripture that the service of angels has a twofold character. On one hand they carry out judgment. On the other hand they are "ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation" (Ps. 104:4; Heb. 1:14). We see them in this twofold service at Sodom. They had come in judgment, to destroy the city. In God's providence they were also there to rescue a true believer from a false position!
Genesis 19 opens by calling the visitors "two angels." From this verse on, the account calls them "the men" again. One writer sees grace in that change.
How touching it is to see how, in the troubles that surround Lot in Sodom, these angels begin to appear as "men" again! (Gen. 19:10, 12, 16.) Sweet grace of God, shining out in the very middle of the trial from which it could not exempt us, because we needed that trial!
The angels pulled Lot inside. That was a rescue, not a victory — and when he went out to warn his family, nothing he said carried weight.
The believer in a false position has no power in testimony. Lot went out and warned his sons-in-law of the coming judgment, but to them he seemed to be joking. It was indeed a witness to the truth, but it condemned him. Had he not claimed to be a righteous man? Yet he was so drawn to Sodom that he chose to live there, and even took a leading part in its affairs. Did he really believe the LORD was about to destroy the city? His whole life flatly contradicted his testimony.
Another writer sets Lot beside Abraham.
On the heights, Abraham interceded as a friend with God. Down in the worldly cities of the plain, Lot was defiled and powerless. That contrast is worth careful thought, and it should sink into all our hearts.
- Powerless. Lot pleaded, bargained and pulled rank on the crowd. Nothing worked. Only the angels saved him.
- Pulled. The hand that reached out was not his own — the rescue came from outside the door, not from anything inside the house.
- Blinded. The angels blinded the attackers first, and judgment followed. It pictures the judicial blindness God sends on people who blind themselves to His word.
- Twofold. The same visitors came on two errands: to destroy a city, and to serve one believer as ministering spirits.
- Saved, yet loss. The angels brought Lot out alive, but his own family heard his warning as a joke. Rescue is not the same as a life that counts.
And they smote the men that were at the entrance of the house with blindness, from the smallest to the greatest; and they wearied themselves to find the entrance.
The men of Sodom are clawing at Lot's door. His two visitors answer the mob with a stroke of blindness that leaves the whole crowd fumbling in the dark. Two questions follow. Why blind these men instead of destroying them? And why did they keep hunting for the door once they were blind?
By this verse, everything Lot tried had failed: his appeal, his offer, his place in the city. He had nothing left. The rescue was not his doing.
Lot is a true believer. He recognizes the heavenly visitors and treats them with the respect they are due. He tries to honour them and to shelter them from the insults of the men of the world. Sadly, he only finds that he has no power to restrain their wickedness. In his desperation he is even ready to stoop to the shameful act of handing his two daughters over to their lust, to quiet the crowd. His efforts only rouse the anger of the men of Sodom. They tell him to "stand back." They argue that this man, who came among them as an outsider, now takes it on himself to act as their judge. With these threatening words they press hard on Lot. Only the action of the angels saves him from the violence of the mob.
The blow fell on the whole crowd, small and great alike. These men had already blinded themselves to God's word, and now God blinded their eyes.
The two men used the power of God to strike the attackers with blindness, and this stopped their wicked plans. It is a picture of how God will inflict judicial blindness on the ungodly. They have willingly blinded themselves to the truth of His word and laid themselves open to His dreadful judgment. Such blinding is a warning of greater judgment to come.
But if God takes a man's sight, how is the man still to blame? One writer answers.
God never made any man bad. But He may, and in certain cases does, give people up to the consequences of their own folly and evil. That is, He hardens in judgment those who treat His grace lightly and reject it... All are responsible. Sin destroys the ability to obey God, but not the responsibility.
Blind and worn out, they still groped for the door. God's hand had touched them, and they did not stop.
I suppose this shows very persevering wickedness; no sense of God's hand on them.
The blindness bought one night, no more. It stopped the crime without changing the criminals.
As the struggle reached its climax, the angels stepped in and took charge. Their power blinded the evildoers, and it left them baffled for that night, just before their destruction the next morning.
This blindness did not end at Sodom. One writer sees it in people who hold the Bible and still cannot see what is in it.
God is striking this land with blindness, you may be certain... Only the Holy Spirit gives a right understanding of Scripture. The natural person does not understand the things of the Spirit of God, and that is the lesson one learns from Sodom in Lot's day. God leaves the world in its blindness, and the next thing is that judgment falls.
Lot had lived in Sodom for years and disapproved of what he saw. Now the mob turns on him.
Some Christians think they can help the men of this world do what is right by joining hands with them. They would do well to study how the men of Sodom treated Lot at this point. He had often judged them. Day by day their shameless way of life distressed his righteous soul. His presence among them had no doubt curbed their lawless ways to some degree. But their resentment at his interference now comes out in their threat: "Now we will deal worse with you than with them." It was no idle threat... If the angels had not stepped in, they would have carried it out.
- Light refused. The blindness fell on men who had already shut their eyes to God's word. God gives people up to the results of the evil they choose.
- Light removed. Judicial blindness takes away the ability to obey. It never takes away the responsibility. The blind man is still accountable.
- Sin persists. Struck blind, they still searched for the door: wickedness that keeps going with no sense of God's hand on it.
- Judgment falls. The blindness only baffled them for one night; it was a warning of the greater judgment that came at dawn.
- Lot's lesson. A believer who joins hands with the world loses the power to restrain it. Lot became the mob's target, and only the angels saved him.
And the men said to Lot, Whom hast thou here besides? a son-in-law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and all whom thou hast in the city -- bring [them] out of the place.
Two visitors are in Lot's house in Sodom. They turn to him with a question and a command. The city is about to be destroyed, and there is still time to get people out.
The command comes with a reason. The outcry against Sodom had reached God, and He sent the visitors to destroy the city. One writer notes that its guilt was beyond doubt.
The men then speak to Lot with great urgency. No doubt at all remains about how great Sodom's wickedness was. They have shown it in public, without shame. The only answer to this whole matter is the well deserved judgment of God. They would destroy the city because its iniquity had passed all bounds and the Lord had sent them to destroy it. What news of terrible weight for Lot!
That outcry had been building for a long time.
We have already learned that "the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord" (Genesis 13:13). Now we learn that their sin cried out to the Lord for judgment, for it was "very grievous." God waits. He bears long with the wickedness of men, but He is not indifferent to sin. It cries out to Him until at last it is ripe for judgment.
The first words to Lot are a question about other people. One writer sees a principle here: God's mercy reaches the whole family of a righteous man.
We call attention here to Lot's own family. Not only Lot, but his family too were spared, or had the opportunity of being spared, in that day of destroying judgment. Remember that Lot, in spite of his grievous position, was a "righteous man" (2 Peter 2:8). God linked the family of His servant with him. His mercy and grace went out and embraced everyone connected with the righteous man, offering them salvation from the judgment about to fall on that doomed place.
The call to leave hit Lot hard. His whole life was inside those walls.
It was hard for Lot to leave the city. In it were all his possessions, all his associations, everything he had worked for, everything he had found his life in, and perhaps some of his relatives (see Genesis 19:12). Poor Lot and his wife and daughters were almost dragged out of Sodom. Their hearts were tied to the evil city by many strong bonds. What did they have outside it?
Lot carried the warning out to his family. Writers point to why it carried no weight: his own choices had said the opposite.
A short pause is allowed. In it Lot carries a message to his son-in-law, a testimony about the judgment coming fast. But what power could that testimony have? It came from a man who had chosen to come in and settle among them… How could Lot expect his words to carry any weight when his ways had so sadly contradicted them?
Another writer goes further. Lot was a righteous man, and that did not repair the damage.
And then we see how complete the wreck of his testimony had been, in a man who was himself righteous. That very character of his would only help them reject so strange a story. Would God bring striking judgment on a place for its wickedness, when Sodom had proved so attractive to righteous Lot?
Who exactly was in the list? Commentators differ, and the Hebrew leaves room for both readings.
Very able scholars agree with the Latin translation here. The two daughters were only engaged and still living in their father's house, not yet taken to their future homes. The Hebrew allows the Revisers' marginal reading in verse 14, "were to marry"; the word means "the takers of." The older English translation follows the Greek. If they were right, it would mean there were other married daughters who died in the judgment that fell on Sodom.
One writer turns the question to the reader today:
Are you the only one in your family? Have you any still unsaved? "Bring them out," says God. "Get them out of the world. Break the fatal spell that ties them to the world of the dead. Loosen the chain that holds them. Bring them out to Jesus." He wants your faith to pierce the clouds, make its way to the very throne of God, and leave your loved ones there at the feet of Jesus.
- Cry — Sodom's sin had been crying out to God for a long time; He bears long with wickedness but is never indifferent to it.
- Command — the outcry reached its limit. The answer was judgment, with an order attached: bring them out.
- Circle — the first word to Lot asks about everyone else. His family had the same offer of rescue he had.
- Cost — everything Lot owned and loved was in the city. That is why he had to be almost dragged out.
- Credibility — the warning was true. But Lot's own life had contradicted it, so his words carried no weight.
For we are going to destroy this place, because the cry of them is great before Jehovah, and Jehovah has sent us to destroy it.
The two visitors at Lot's door came as guests, but now they speak as executioners. They name who sent them, why they came, and how little time is left.
The reason given for Sodom's destruction is a sound — an outcry that has grown loud in God's hearing. One writer follows this idea through the Bible. Sin itself has a voice.
It is a solemn truth, reader, that sin has a voice, which cries to heaven for God's righteous retribution. The word of God, both in the Old Testament and in the New, confirms it. God says to Cain, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground." God then pronounces judgment upon Cain. In the New Testament we read: "Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts."
The night just past had confirmed the report. When the men of the city surrounded Lot's house, heaven's information proved exact.
The pride, luxury and leisure of Sodom brought in grievous sin, which was not unnoticed by God... when the angels were in the house of Lot, they found that Sodom's grievous sin matched the outcry the Lord had heard in heaven.
The cry had been rising for a long time before this night. God's delay was never indifference, and it was never permanent.
God waits and bears long with the wickedness of men, but He is not indifferent to sin. It cries out to Him until at last it is ripe for judgment. But, even so, the Lord is slow to judge.
The same messengers who announce the ruin are the ones asking Lot to name everyone he wants saved. One writer notices that their assignment runs in both directions.
They have a double commission. The Lord sends them to announce the coming judgment. But before it falls, they want to rescue not only Lot himself, but anyone Lot cares about. How touching are these words: "Have you anyone else here?"
The same question presses on every believer with unsaved family.
Christian! Have you no unconverted sons? Have you no unconverted daughters? Have you no unconverted loved ones? Hear God's solemn question and command of grace: "Have you anyone else here?... bring them out of the place."
Lot carries the message, but it carries no weight. One writer traces that to the life Lot had built in Sodom.
There is a moment's pause, and Lot carries a message to his sons-in-law, a testimony about the judgment rushing toward them. But what power could his testimony have? He had chosen to come and settle among them, and they had lived and moved from earliest childhood in the middle of that godless scene. How could Lot expect his words to carry any weight when his ways had so sadly contradicted them?
Another writer turns the lesson on us:
Let us be deeply serious as we testify. God's judgment will fall very soon on a godless world, and the only escape is in Christ Jesus.
The destruction is certain, yet it waits. Later the angel tells Lot he cannot act until Lot reaches safety. One writer presses on that word.
Why "cannot"? Not because the power to judge was lacking. The reason is a fixed principle of God's ways: wrath that punishes forever must never touch His people... The "vengeance of eternal fire" could never touch Lot, since he was a righteous man, though a misguided one.
Sodom's end is not only history. One writer reads it as a preview.
Lot holds an honoured place in this city as a magistrate. But the city is doomed, and the time has come when it is ripe for judgment. The Lord's own words in Luke 17 show that this solemn scene points forward to the judgment about to fall on this present evil world. There we read, "Just as it was in the days of Lot... so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed."
- Cry — Sin is not silent; it has a voice that reaches God and calls for His righteous response.
- Patience — God bears long with wickedness. He is not indifferent, and He is not quick — but sin ripens for judgment.
- Grace — The messengers of destruction ask a rescue question first: is there anyone else to bring out?
- Credibility — Lot's warning was true, but his settled life in Sodom had already contradicted his words.
- Escape — Judgment could not fall while a righteous man was still inside. The same pattern holds for the day the Son of Man is revealed.
And Lot went out, and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters, and said, Up, go out of this place, for Jehovah will destroy the city. But he was as if he jested, in the sight of his sons-in-law.
Lot has one night to get his family out of Sodom, and his warning falls flat. His sons-in-law hear that the city is doomed and take it as a joke. Why did nobody believe him?
The wording is easy to read backwards. It does not say the sons-in-law made fun of Lot. It says Lot came across to them as a man making fun of them. Older translations render this as "he seemed as one that mocked."
Lot now saw everything in a very different light, and went out to his sons-in-law to warn and deliver them. But to them he seemed "as one that mocked." Notice: it does not say that they mocked him. It says they thought he was mocking them, or making fun of them — that he was really joking... We shall each do well to ask ourselves this question. If I testify that the second coming of Christ draws near, and that it brings the judgment of the present world system, will they take me seriously? Or will my manner of life lead them to think that I am joking?
They were not being rude. They simply drew the obvious conclusion from what they knew of him.
Do the sons-in-law mock Lot? Oh, dear, no! They have too much reverence for that. They do not mock him. They listen to his words, hear all he had to say, and draw their conclusion.
Lot had chosen Sodom, moved in, and taken a public seat in its affairs. His panic on the last night could not undo the years his neighbours had watched.
Lot had come in and settled among them by his own choice. What power could his testimony have on people who had lived and moved in the middle of that ungodly scene since their earliest childhood? How could Lot expect that his words would have any weight when his ways had so sadly contradicted them? He might now urge them, with terrified face and earnest pleading, to leave a place he knew was doomed to everlasting destruction. But they could not forget the calm and deliberate way in which he had at first "pitched his tent toward Sodom," and finally taken his seat "in the gate." His sons-in-law were doubtless responsible before God for rejecting the testimony; but Lot could not expect them to pay him much attention.
The message itself was true. What failed was the messenger's standing to deliver it.
The angels told Lot to warn his relatives that the LORD is about to destroy the city. This brings to light the solemn fact that the believer in a false position has no power in testimony... His warning was indeed a witness to the truth, but it condemned Lot himself.
Something in Lot's normal manner made "he's joking" the natural reading of his face that night.
"He seemed as one that jested." That speaks volumes to me... Through the bitterness of personal experience I can understand, better than you may, that Lot had been in the habit of jesting, even though his soul was troubled. He may have been a very witty man, always ready with a joke. Whether this is so or not, I am sure it was not the first time Lot had jested with his sons-in-law. Otherwise they could never have mistaken his desperate earnestness on that awful night for a jest.
Translations differ here. The ESV says the sons-in-law "were to marry" his daughters; other versions say they had already married them. Commentators read the Hebrew two ways.
Very competent people agree with the Latin Vulgate here. They hold that the two daughters were only engaged and still in their father's house, not yet taken to their future homes. So the Hebrew well bears the margin of the Revised Version, "were to marry" in verse 14; it is literally "the takers of." ... If these are right, it would of course mean there were other married daughters who perished in the judgment that fell on Sodom.
Lot's sons never even heard the warning.
Why did he not warn his sons? Did he think it was no use saying anything to them? ... It is not surprising if his sons received no good, solid instruction from him, backed up by faithful example. Let us be deeply serious in our testimony that God's judgment will fall very soon on an ungodly world, and that only in Christ Jesus is there any escape.
The refusal was not stupidity. Sodom looked safe, and that made the warning sound absurd.
The very idea of their city being overthrown was ridiculous. Sodom had never been busier or more prosperous. The sun was shining, and there was no sign of coming judgment. They refused the message that told them of the way of escape, and perished in its overthrow. It was sheer unbelief, and how many times has the preacher seemed to you as one who mocked? But search the Scriptures, and see whether these things are true or not.
- Read it right. The sons-in-law did not laugh at Lot. To them, Lot seemed to be joking. The failure was on the messenger's side.
- Life first. His ways had contradicted his words, so his words carried no weight. A believer in a false position has no power in testimony.
- Habit costs. Nobody believed the joker when he was in deadly earnest, and his hearers perished.
- Reach ends at home. He warned his sons-in-law. No sons came out, and only two daughters escaped. A spent witness reaches no further.
- Same night, still running. Sodom looked sunny, busy and prosperous when the warning came. Refusing it was unbelief, not proof of safety. Search the Scriptures — the only escape from judgment is in Christ Jesus.
And as the dawn arose, the angels urged Lot, saying, Up, take thy wife and thy two daughters who are present, lest thou perish in the iniquity of the city.
At daybreak the angels press Lot to leave, on the last morning Sodom will ever see. Three things stand out here: the mercy in the call, the need to hurry a rescued man, and the cost of his delay.
The call at dawn is not a new task for Lot. It is a rescue for a man whose chance to serve God in Sodom is gone.
Mercy always triumphs over judgment, and this scene is no exception. "Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city" was Mercy's voice to Lot. She says to Lot, so to speak: "You cannot impress other people now. You have had your chance, and you have missed it. You might have been God's witness in Sodom. You have failed in this, and lost your opportunity. Now, before judgment falls on it, escape yourself." And what does he do? He lingers. He procrastinates. He begins, we might say, the sad history of procrastinators — a race you read much about in Scripture and see all around you.
The angels do not say "your two daughters". They say the two "who are here". Asked whether Lot had only those two, one writer answered:
It seems that besides the two unmarried daughters in his house, Lot had other daughters outside with his sons-in-law. He tried in vain to save them from the doomed city. Excellent men have often made this mistake, but that carries no weight against the plain force of the word.
Strangest of all, the angels had to push a rescued man toward the door. The reason lay in everything the city held for him.
It was hard for Lot to leave the city. In it were all his possessions, all his associations, everything he had worked for, everything he had found his life in. Some of his relatives may have been there too. Poor Lot and his wife and daughters were almost dragged out of Sodom. Many strong bonds tied their hearts to the evil city. And what did they have outside it?
Another writer traces the delay deeper, to what unbelief does to the heart.
The Lord sends Lot out of the middle of the overthrow. Angels warn him, and faith makes him listen. But his heart is still there. There are connections that bind him to Sodom, and he would like to take them with him. But you cannot take anything out of Sodom for God; you must leave it all behind. The Lord must put the pain where you find the pleasure. He still lingered. There is hesitation and lingering in the place of judgment, though God has already announced His judgment. He should have left at once. But the place, the path, and the spirit of unbelief drain the heart. If the Lord shows His faithfulness in saving Lot, He shows it also in breaking the links that bind him to the place.
Lot's delay decided how he left, and how he left decided what he kept.
When morning came the angels had to urge him to leave the city. Yet still he lingered. Did he want to take at least some of his possessions with him? Then the angels took him, his wife and his two daughters by the hand and all but dragged them out of the house. They had two hands each, so that was all they could take.
Writers turn the scene toward us. The same pattern runs on today: a warning given, and hearts still tied to a doomed place.
If Lot could have looked ahead to this moment, and foreseen the doom of the cities of the plain when he chose the well-watered plain of Jordan, he might have chosen differently. But even that choice would not have come from a purer heart. God has forewarned us of the coming judgment of the world. Despite this, many Christians are entangled in its connections, chasing its pleasures and its prizes. Like Lot, they will have to be dragged out of the world when the Lord Jesus Christ comes.
- Morning. The angels come at dawn with one word for Lot: get up and get out before judgment falls.
- Mercy. The command is mercy speaking. Lot had already lost his chance to be God's witness in Sodom, and mercy still came for him.
- Here. The angels name only the daughters "who are here". Other daughters were outside with his sons-in-law, and Lot tried in vain to save them.
- Lingering. Everything Lot had worked for sat inside the city. Unbelief drained his heart, so he hesitated when he should have run.
- Hands. Lot left with only what two hands could hold. The rescue was complete; the loss was total. Writers hold the same picture up to believers tied to this world today.
And as he lingered, the men laid hold on his hand, and on the hand of his wife, and on the hand of his two daughters, Jehovah being merciful to him; and they led him out, and set him without the city.
Morning had come. Sodom stood under sentence, and the only righteous man in the city still would not move. What holds a believer to a place already under sentence, and what does God do about it?
The delay is the strange thing. The angels had warned him and urged him to go. Still Lot dragged his feet. One commentator traces that delay to where Lot had been living.
"But he lingered" — there is hesitation and lingering in the place of judgment, when the judgment has already been pronounced. He ought to have left at once. But the place, the path, and the spirit of unbelief weaken the heart.
Something was pulling against the angels' grip. Lot was not leaving an address; he was leaving a life he had built.
How compassionate and patient God is! He was not content with urging Lot: "But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the LORD being merciful to him." It was hard for Lot to leave the city. In it were all his possessions and all his associations. There too was everything he had worked for, everything he had found his life in, and perhaps some of his own relatives. Poor Lot and his wife and daughters were almost dragged out of Sodom, because their hearts were tied to the evil city by many strong bonds. And what did they have outside it? Sadly, many Christians are like Lot. Their practical ties are with this present world, and they know little of the bonds that bind a true believer to Christ in heaven.
He did not walk out. The angels pulled him out — and the way they did it settles what he could carry with him.
Then the angels literally took him, his wife and his two daughters by the hand and all but dragged them out of the house. They had two hands each, so that was all they could take.
One writer sees God's own character in that grip.
Oh, what grace! It is just like God's grace to take a lingerer by the hand.
Lot came out alive. He came out with nothing else.
Even while warning others, Lot is reluctant to leave Sodom. When urged to hurry out of the doomed city, we read "he lingered." Even so, the mercy of the LORD "brought him out and set him outside the city." His wife and two daughters are brought out with him, but all his possessions are left behind. He is saved so as through fire.
The loss was not a side effect of the rescue.
If the Lord's faithfulness is shown in saving Lot, it is shown also in breaking the links that bind him to the place.
Just before this, Abraham had pleaded with God over the city. What God then did for Lot went beyond what Abraham had asked.
Abraham is silent, "and the LORD went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham"; but He did more than Abraham asked. He withdrew Lot from Sodom and saved him. Nothing could be done till Lot was safe. God's eye was on him. What blessedness to be able to count on His love for the righteous!
The mercy shown here is real, but it is not an argument for waiting. One writer turns the verse straight on the reader who keeps postponing the decision.
There is nothing that leads a person to ruin like procrastination. It means putting off till tomorrow what should be done today… May the Lord's mercy meet you, as it met Lot. The infinite mercy of that God has spared you until now, and again gives you the opportunity of salvation through this simple message.
- Cause. Lot lingered because he had settled in a city already under sentence. Living there had weakened his heart for the moment he most needed to act.
- Ties. His possessions, his associations, everything he had worked for — all of it was in Sodom. That is why the angels almost had to drag him out.
- Grip. Mercy did not argue with the lingerer; it took him by the hand. Grace does that, and two hands each was the measure of all he carried away.
- Loss. Mercy set him outside the city alive, but with nothing — saved as through fire. His wife and daughters came out with him; his goods stayed behind.
- Result. God did more than Abraham asked; nothing could be done until Lot was safe. His eye was on the righteous man. That same mercy is why a warning, not fire, reaches you today.
And it came to pass when they had brought them outside, that he said, Escape for thy life look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain escape to the mountain, lest thou perish.
The angels have taken Lot by the hand and set him outside Sodom, and one command follows: run, don't look back, don't stop in the valley, reach the hills. Everything he built is behind him, and the verse presses one question: will a rescued man obey the word that rescued him?
The command comes to a man the angels have just led out. One writer traces both sides of that mercy — God saves him, and God also cuts the ties holding him.
The Lord sends Lot out of the middle of the destruction. Angels warn him, and faith makes him listen. But his heart is still there. There are connections that bind him to Sodom, and he would gladly take them with him. But you cannot take anything with you for God out of Sodom; you must leave it all behind. The Lord must put the pain where you find the pleasure… As for the goods, the sheep, and all the cattle, he must leave them behind. If the Lord's faithfulness is shown in saving Lot, it is shown also in breaking the links that bind him to the place.
The verse does not stop at "escape" — it names a destination. Leaving the city is one thing; arriving is another. (The writers quoted here say "mountain" and "plain"; the ESV reads "hills" and "valley.")
Led outside the city, he and those with him are put on the road to safety; but being on the road is not enough — they must reach the spot of safety… Sinner, have you really escaped to Christ?… There is nothing but judgment for those who linger in the plain. There is no safety until you reach God's appointed spot at the mountain top.
Lot had once chosen the plain because it looked rich. The place he is now sent to is the opposite kind of ground.
The mountains speak of a level higher than that of the world. They picture the presence of God, the only real safety.
Judgment falls on the plain too, so the very ground he had valued gives him nothing.
In God's goodness Lot escapes the fire; under God's government he still loses all his possessions, and finds the things he had valued reduced to ashes. The plain that had appeared to him as the garden of God holds no refuge for him; it too is to be destroyed. All its rich and fertile pastures were soon to be like a smoking furnace. What a lesson for the Christian! What a warning for those who seek to settle down in the delights of a doomed world!
The next verses show what happens when someone ignores this command. One writer draws out the meaning of the punishment itself.
When the angels brought Lot out of Sodom, their command was, "Escape for your life. Do not look back." But Lot's wife "looked back, and she became a pillar of salt." God had brought her out of Sodom, yet she had left her heart there. She cared more about Sodom than about the word of God spoken by the angels… To the disciples, the Lord Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth." Lot and his wife should have been "salt" in this way in Sodom. What she should have been in character inside Sodom, she becomes in body outside it — a monument to "the goodness and the severity of God."
Lot answers this command by asking for a nearer, smaller place. One writer sees that plea repeated ever since — a real step away from evil that stops short of the goal.
Neutrality is the Zoar, the little city, to which many a righteous Lot has fled for refuge since the days of Genesis 19. It is not Sodom, it is far removed from that wicked city, but it is not the "mountain," God's place of safety. It is a place reached without much difficulty, because it is in the plain. No hard climb up the mountain lies before those who want to reach it… Still, it is a step in the right direction, and so is every step away from evil. But it is a resting place short of the goal, so it becomes a snare.
Why does a rescued man bargain for less? One writer points to what unbelief does to a believer's judgment.
He has lost the sense of security in the path of faith. That is always the result of the path of unbelief in a believer: he thinks the path of faith is the most dangerous path in the world.
- Escape. The danger is real, so the word is urgent. The same hand that rescues also breaks the ties holding a man to the doomed place.
- Empty-handed. No one can carry anything out of Sodom for God — goods, flocks and cattle all stay behind, and what Lot valued ends in ashes.
- Eyes forward. "Do not look back" tested whether the word of God outweighed Sodom. Lot's wife failed, and became a monument of God's goodness and His severity.
- Elevation. The valley that once looked like the garden of God is doomed too. Safety lies only on higher ground, which pictures the presence of God.
- Every step. Out of the city is not the same as reaching the hills. A step in the right direction that stops short becomes a snare — halfway is not safety.
And Lot said to them, Not [so], I pray thee, Lord;
Angels have just pulled Lot out of Sodom and told him to run for the hills. His first answer is a refusal — why would a rescued man argue with the terms of his own rescue?
The refusal is not defiance but panic. The angel gives him a clear direction, and he cannot bring himself to take it.
What a picture! He seems like a drowning man, ready to catch even at a floating feather. The angel commanded him to flee to the mountain, but he refuses. He still clings to the idea of "a little city" — some little shred of the world. He feared death in the very place where God, in mercy, was directing him... He does not cast himself wholly on God. Sadly, he had walked too long at a distance from Him. He had breathed the thick air of a "city" too long. So he could not value the pure air of God's presence, or lean on the arm of the Almighty.
What Lot says next is a prayer. It is polite, grateful, and full of distrust. He thanks God for mercy already given, and refuses the mercy God offers now.
How many prayers unbelief dictates! And how plainly it marks this prayer all the way through! He admits a mercy he still dare not trust. He asks God for Zoar as a little city, so that He would spare it because it is little. And he asks for his own good, not for the human lives at stake. How base unbelief is! How wonderful the goodness that could spare Zoar at such a request!
The place Lot dreads is the very place Abraham had walked with God. Two believers looked at the same high ground and saw opposite things.
From the outside, the path of faith looks very painful. But for everyone who walks in it, it is full of sweetness and peace. The mountains, where God talked with Abraham and Abraham with God, were an object of terror to Lot. He thought he would die there.
One chapter earlier, Abraham prayed for other people. Here Lot pleads only for himself. Two prayers, two very different lives.
Are we interceding for others in love, as Abraham does in Genesis 18? Or are we begging off from what we dread, as Lot does in Genesis 19?... So it always is. Saints who live like everyone else in the world share the world's fears. Their prayers taste of its condition.
Lot's argument is size. He is not asking to stay in Sodom; he is asking for a smaller version of it.
Going into Zoar is like people who want to be saved, but want a little bit of the world as well. "Is it not a little one?" says Lot — that is, he is half-hearted. Must I make a clean break? he asks.
A Zoar is easy to reach. That is what makes it dangerous.
Neutrality is the Zoar, the little city, that many a righteous Lot has fled to for refuge since the days of Genesis 19. It is not Sodom, it is far removed from that wicked city, but neither is it the "mountain," God's place of safety. It is an easy place to reach. It lies in the plain, and no hard climb stands in the way of anyone who wants to get there... It is still a step in the right direction, but because it is a resting place short of the goal, it becomes a snare.
God grants what Lot asks. But later the chapter gives a reason that points away from Lot, and Lot does not stay in the town he begged for.
"And Lot went up out of Zoar and lived in the hills with his two daughters, for he was afraid to live in Zoar. So he lived in a cave with his two daughters" (verse 30)... Nothing could be done to Sodom and Gomorrah until Lot reached Zoar; but was that not for Abraham's sake? It happened then and there because "God remembered" — not Lot, but "Abraham."
The escape he asked for did not hold him long.
Yet he is not at ease even in Zoar, for he leaves it and goes up to the mountain. He does, through fear, what he would not do at the command of God's messenger.
- Rescued. Lot really is saved. Stronger hands pull him out. His failure is not whether he escapes, but how far he goes.
- Refusing. His "no" is fear, not rebellion: he dreads the mountain God points him to and trusts a town he can see instead.
- Praying. His prayer is built on unbelief. He thanks God for past mercy, will not trust present mercy, and asks only for himself.
- Shrinking. "Is it not a little one?" is half-hearted talk. It keeps a smaller piece of the world instead of making a clean break. It looks safe because it is easy to reach.
- Remembered. God spares Zoar, but He does it because He remembered Abraham. Lot then flees to the hills he first refused.
behold now, thy servant has found favour in thine eyes, and thou hast magnified thy goodness, which thou hast shewn to me in preserving my soul alive; but I cannot escape to the mountain, lest calamity lay hold on me, that I die.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Behold now, this city is near to flee to, and it is small I pray thee, let me escape thither -- is it not small? -- and my soul shall live.
Angels have dragged Lot out of Sodom and told him to escape to the mountain, but instead of obeying he bargains for a nearer, smaller town. His plea raises a hard question: is being rescued from judgment the same as trusting the One who rescues you?
Lot begins by admitting God's mercy. He ends by asking for something other than what God told him to do. One writer traces that inconsistency through the whole prayer:
How many prayers unbelief dictates! And how plainly it marks this prayer all the way through! He admits a mercy he still does not dare to trust. He asks God for Zoar as a little city, so that He might spare it as such. And he asks for his own good, not for the human lives at stake. How low unbelief is! How wonderful the goodness that could spare Zoar in answer to such pleading!
The failure was not in the rescue, but in what came next.
God's mercy delivered him, and he is told to "escape to the mountain." He admits the mercy that saved him. But he has little faith in the protecting care of the One who sends him to the mountain. Fear and unbelief move him to plead that God will spare the little city of Zoar as a place of refuge.
Lot's whole case rests on size: the town is small, so sparing it costs little. Writers on this verse weigh that logic against how God saw Zoar:
Lot's plea was that Zoar was only a little city... his plea suggests that God might spare Zoar because it was small, since its evil would not be as great as Sodom's... Zoar might look different in Lot's eyes; it was little different in the Lord's eyes. Its sins, like Sodom's, reached to heaven, and called for the judgment of a righteous and holy God.
The same reasoning is easy to hear in modern form — a small allowance, a modest exception:
Lot hurries on. Listen to his miserable, rambling pleading that he might live in Zoar, because it was a little city. Oh, for a little pleasure, a little recreation, let me read just a few choice novels of a religious kind! This is how those plead who have fled from Sodom and long for Zoar.
God grants the request. One writer sets that answer beside God's earlier offer to spare Sodom:
God also granted his request to shelter in the fifth and smallest city of the plain, instead of fleeing to the mountain... God would have spared Sodom if only ten righteous persons had been in it. He spared Zoar because only one righteous man entered it. Such is the abounding mercy of our God, and His slowness to judge.
Lot got exactly what he asked for. The half-way refuge kept him alive, but it did not give him rest:
At Zoar Lot had safety, but he did not have quiet, because he had not fully obeyed the Lord. The soul that turns to God half-heartedly is safe, but not very happy. Many a man who believes in Jesus is not at peace, and I will tell you why. He does not fully follow the Lord... You have just enough of Christ to make you miserable... He is safe, but not at rest in Zoar, so soon he goes on to the mountain top, the real place of safety.
Read as a pattern, Zoar is the middle ground — clear of the city under judgment, short of the place God named:
Neutrality is the Zoar, the little city, to which many a righteous Lot has fled for refuge since the days of Genesis 19. It is not Sodom, it is far removed from that wicked city, but it is not the "mountain," God's place of safety. You can reach it without much difficulty. It lies in the plain, and no hard climb stands in the way... It is still a step in the right direction, but being a resting-place short of the goal, it becomes a snare.
In the chapter before, Abraham prays for other people. Here Lot prays about his own fear:
Are we interceding for others in love, as Abraham did in Genesis 18, or pleading away what we dread, as Lot did in Genesis 19?... So it always is. Saints who live like everyone else in the world share the world's fears. Their prayers show the mark of the world's condition.
- Rescued. Mercy pulls Lot out of Sodom, and he admits that mercy in this very verse.
- Distrustful. He takes the rescue but not the direction. Unbelief in God's ongoing care shapes his prayer.
- Small. "Is it not a little one?" measures sin by size. But Zoar's sins looked no different to God than Sodom's.
- Granted. God spares Zoar for one man, showing mercy wider than the faith that asked for it.
- Restless. He gains safety and loses peace, and later leaves Zoar for the mountain after all — the half-way place is a snare, not a home.
And he said to him, Behold, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city of which thou hast spoken.
The angels have just hurried Lot out of Sodom and told him to flee to the mountains, but he asks instead for a small town on the plain. Why does God grant a prayer so clearly shaped by fear, and what does it show about the man who prays it?
Lot does not doubt that mercy has saved him; he doubts that mercy will keep him. Commentators read his plea as fear talking, and the granting of it as pure goodness on God's side:
How many prayers does unbelief dictate! And how clearly it marks this prayer from start to finish! He admits a mercy he still does not dare to trust. He asks God for Zoar because it is a little city, so that He would spare it as such. And he asks it for his own good, not for the human lives at stake. How low unbelief is! How wonderful the goodness that, at such a plea, could spare Zoar!
The wonder of the answer does not soften the failure behind the request. God had just rescued him by an act of grace, and still he did not obey:
Lot's attempt to save Zoar seems a terrible proof of how low he had sunk morally. Grace is indeed shown wonderfully — but that such an amazing intervention of grace should not have led him to joyful obedience to the Angel's word!
Abraham had pleaded for Sodom and stopped at ten righteous men. The contrast between the two prayers shows how ready God is to accept any plea made on the ground of grace alone:
The friend of God does not get this, because he dares not ask for it. He has a conscience of righteousness. Yet the Lord grants that very thing to the fearful cry of troubled, unstable Lot, with instant and unhesitating grace. Dread wrung that cry out of him, and it came out in petty, distrustful arguments. It shows what the Lord's heart, and will, and mind were. He gladly welcomed any mediator who would plead for mercy on the ground of grace alone... And if He spares so freely for such a mediator, what will He not do for Him who pleads for His own? By His death and resurrection He has justified them and reconciled them.
The count runs the other way here. Sodom needed ten righteous men; Zoar needed one:
God granted his request to shelter in the fifth and smallest city of the plain instead of fleeing to the mountain. God would have spared Sodom if only ten righteous people had been in it. He spared Zoar because only one righteous man entered it. Such is the abounding mercy of our God, and His slowness to judge.
God ties a reason to the permission: He holds the destruction back until Lot arrives. Writers see that delay as a settled principle, not a one-off favour:
The angel's word in verse 22 is worth noting: he cannot do anything until Lot reaches Zoar. Why "cannot"? Not because He lacked the power to judge, but because it is a fixed principle of God's ways that punishing, eternal wrath is never to touch His people. The vengeance of eternal fire could not possibly touch Lot, since he was a righteous man, though a misguided one.
The same principle reaches wider. The presence of the righteous holds judgment back from a whole place:
God had to provide for Lot before the fiery storm could come down. The Lord said He could do nothing till Lot had gone out of the city, and He spared the little city of Zoar for Lot's sake, because Lot asked Him to. For the sake of the righteous, God spares the wicked. "You are the salt of the earth."
Lot's argument is about size. One writer answers that smallness is his measurement, not God's:
Zoar might look different in Lot's eyes; it was little different in Jehovah's eyes. Its sins, like Sodom's, reached to heaven and called for the judgment of a righteous and holy God. The principles of the world are seen in both Sodom and Zoar. The Christian is called to walk apart from these principles... not to be trapped either in the small cities or the large cities of men.
- Fear asks. Lot's request grew out of unbelief — he admitted the mercy that saved him but would not trust it to keep him safe on the mountain.
- Grace grants. The Lord gave at once what Abraham's careful conscience had not dared to ask.
- One saves many. Ten righteous would have saved Sodom; one righteous man entering Zoar saved Zoar.
- Judgment waits. The angel could do nothing until Lot was safe. That is not weakness but principle: wrath does not fall while God's people are still in its path.
- A greater plea. God spared a whole city for one frightened man's plea. He will do far more for those Christ pleads for, whom He has justified and reconciled by His death and resurrection.
Haste, escape thither; for I cannot do anything until thou art come there. Therefore the name of the city is called Zoar.
Judgment on Sodom is settled and the fire is ready. Yet the angel tells Lot that nothing can happen until one man reaches a small town he picked himself. The verse holds two surprises. God's care for a believer holds the judgment back, and a whole town survives because that believer ran into it. (Older translations read the angel's words as "I cannot do anything till you come there.")
The word is striking on the lips of a messenger sent to destroy. One writer asks why, and answers from the way God always acts, not from any limit on His power.
The word of the angel in verse 22 is worth noting: "I cannot do anything till you come there." Why "cannot"? It is not because He lacked power to judge. It is a fixed principle of God's ways that penal and eternal wrath is never to touch His people. The judgment of these cities was not only a matter of governmental wrath. Penal wrath was involved too, as we see in Jude 7. The "vengeance of eternal fire" could not touch Lot. He was a righteous man, though a misguided one.
In the chapter before, Abraham bargained down to ten righteous people in Sodom. Ten were not found.
Abraham is silent (Gen. 18:33), "and the Lord went His way, when He had finished speaking with Abraham"; but He did more than Abraham asked. He withdrew Lot from Sodom and saved him. Nothing could be done till Lot was safe; Gen. 19:16, 22. God's eye was upon him. What blessedness to be able to reckon on His love for the righteous!
Zoar's survival mirrors Sodom's fall. The numbers run the opposite way from Abraham's plea.
He asked to shelter in the fifth and smallest city of the plain instead of fleeing to the mountain, and God granted it. Sodom would have been spared if only ten righteous persons had been in it. Zoar was spared because only one righteous man entered it. Such is the abounding mercy of our God, and His slowness to judge.
The angels had told Lot to run to the hills. He argued for a nearby town instead. One writer is hard on the heart behind that plea, and amazed that God answered it. The verse's closing line ties the town's name to that request.
How many prayers unbelief dictates! And how plainly it marks this prayer all the way through! He admits a mercy he still dares not trust. He asks God for Zoar because it is a little city, and asks Him to spare it as such. He asks for his own good, not for the human lives at stake. How low unbelief is! How wonderful the goodness that, at such a request, could spare Zoar!
"Escape there quickly" sits right beside the guarantee. Being sure of rescue was never a reason to slow down. One writer turns this against every excuse for delay in leaving what God has condemned.
We may also remember that Lot believed the angel and yet is told to escape "quickly" (Gen. 19:22), that Ananias urged Paul the believer not to "delay," but to be baptised (Acts 22:16), and that Paul himself, writing to the Hebrews (Heb. 6:18), speaks of those who "have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us."
The delay lasted exactly as long as Lot's journey — not one moment more.
The One to whom vengeance belongs has settled the whole plan of safety. But a solemn scene of judgment goes with all this. The sun had risen on the earth as Lot entered Zoar. And that sunny hour was the very time for the rain of brimstone and fire to fall. Nothing could be done till Lot entered the city, but then nothing remained to be done before the fire came down.
One writer finds the same order in an earlier judgment, and in the one still to come.
God could do nothing till Noah was safe in the ark, after He Himself had shut him in. So also in the case of the five cities of the plain. Lot had to be provided for before the fiery storm could come down, and the little city of Zoar was spared for his sake and at his request. For the sake of the righteous the wicked are spared. "You are the salt of the earth." And the world is preserved now because the children of God are in it, for "He is not willing that any should perish"; and all these, the true Church, must and will be taken out of it before judgment comes down on it.
- Cannot — the angel's "I cannot" is not weakness. It is a fixed rule of God's ways: penal wrath never falls on His righteous ones.
- Care — God did more than Abraham asked; His eye was on Lot, and the whole judgment waited on one man's safety.
- Cover — Zoar lived because one righteous man walked into it, while Sodom died for lack of ten.
- Concession — Lot's plea came from unbelief and self-interest. God's goodness granted it anyway.
- Clock — safety first, then fire. The sun rose, Lot entered, and judgment fell at once. God keeps that order still.