Genesis 19:23: A journey with a time on it, and two answers to how far it was
Read it →Commentary on Genesis 19:23
The sun rose over the plain that morning like any other morning. By the time it was up, Lot had reached the small town he had begged for. Two things hang on that one line. Why did the fire wait until one man was inside a gate? And why did the sky over Sodom look so calm on the day it burned?
Judgment Waited for One Man
The verse marks a moment in a plan. One writer shows how God fitted the rescue and the fire together:
The One to whom vengeance belongs has settled the whole plan of safety. The sun had risen on the earth, and after this Lot came to Zoar. And yet that sunny hour was the very time for the rain of sulfur and fire to fall. Nothing could happen until Lot entered the city; once he was in, nothing was left to do before the fire came down.
The angel had said he could do nothing until Lot arrived. One writer explains what lay behind that limit:
Why "cannot"? Not because power was lacking to act in judgment, but because 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 there too, as we see in Jude 7. The "vengeance of eternal fire" could not touch Lot, since he was a righteous man, though a misguided one.
A Town Saved by One Arrival
Zoar stood among the cities of the plain and should have burned with them. It survived because of who walked through its gate that morning.
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.
A Bright Morning With No Warning in It
Nothing in the weather that day hinted at what was coming. The city was busy, prosperous, and confident.
They held their market; their trading hall was open, and businessmen met there. In came the farmers with their produce from the country. The housewives went out to buy the food for the day, and everybody was busy. The sons-in-law would no doubt be there — godless men they were. They would be telling their friends how the old father-in-law had come in the dead of night and woken them with a foolish story: their city was about to be destroyed. The city had never been more prosperous. Look at the sun. It never shone more brightly. Yes, quite true, "the sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar," and on the surface nothing had changed in nature or in the city. God is not going to give the world one single bit of warning when He judges it, any more than He gave Sodom. Its only warning was the angels leading Lot out of it, and that warning they clearly despised.
The Pattern Repeats at the End
The Lord Himself pointed back to Sodom's last morning when He spoke of His own return.
How solemn are these words, "The sun had risen." It speaks of a cloudless day with no sign of the coming judgment. As the Lord tells us of the men of Sodom, "they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building." All went on as usual. But "on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all." The Lord adds the solemn words, "so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed" (Luke 17:28-30).
Why Lot Was in Zoar at All
God told him to escape to the mountain. He asked for a nearer, smaller place instead, and the sunrise found him there.
He admits the mercy that has saved him, but he has little faith in the preserving care of the One who directs him to the mountain. Moved by fear and unbelief, he pleads that the little city of Zoar may be spared as a place of refuge. His prayer is granted; and as the sun rises Lot enters Zoar.
Two Kinds of Safety
One writer compares Lot with Abraham, and finds a picture of Israel in Lot's position.
Israel will be much more like Lot, for they will be inside the very place where the judgment falls. Lot went into his shelter — that is, Zoar — when the judgment came. Abraham was completely outside the trial, pleading before the LORD in earnest prayer. Yet before the day came, he knew about it far better than Lot.
Summary
reason: repeated keyword frame; "above it" not what the quote says; cuts qualifier
