Genesis 19:30: The last movement in the story of the plain, and it is uphill
Read it →Commentary on Genesis 19:30
God has just rescued Lot from Sodom. Now Lot leaves the town he begged to be spared and settles in a cave with his two daughters. The verse raises a hard question: why does a rescued man still live by fear?
Fear, Not Faith
Lot ends up in the hills — the very place he had already been told to flee to. His address has changed. His motive has not.
Though saved from the destruction of Sodom, poor Lot is still ruled by fear. He is afraid to live in the very city he chose, so he falls back on the mountain he had been told to flee to. But even so, he goes to the mountain driven by fear of men, not led by faith in God. There he becomes caught up in the shameful act of his daughters. He passes out of the story with no record of his end, leaving behind descendants who become the constant enemies of God's people.
Put beside Abraham, Lot's loss is plain.
Abraham usually walked by faith, but Lot had never learned that lesson. This time fear moved him. He found a cave and lived in it with his daughters. How poor he had become! Lot's story is a warning to every child of God. Friendship with the world may cost you nothing in material things, but it always leaves you poor in spiritual things.
Safety Without Peace
Lot begged for Zoar and got it. Yet he could not settle there. One writer traces that unrest to half-hearted obedience.
At Zoar Lot had safety, but he had no rest, because he had not obeyed the Lord completely. The person who turns to God half-heartedly is safe, but he is not very happy. Many a man who believes in Jesus is not at peace. I will tell you why. He does not follow the Lord fully. Perhaps he does not have enough energy of soul. You have just enough of Christ to make you miserable. The real place of safety for you and me is to be in Christ, and then to be taken up with Christ, delighting in Christ as He now is, accepted in glory.
Afraid in the Wrong Places
Notice the timing. He would not go up when God told him to; he goes up now that fear drives him. His fear and his trust land in the wrong places.
And there Lot too goes up out of Zoar. He was afraid to go when God told him to, though there was nothing to fear there. Then he became afraid to stay in Zoar any longer. And now he was not afraid to go — yet this was the place and the moment he would have dreaded most, had he known the trap he was walking into, a trap of wine and women. And, sad to say, of his own daughters.
Even now, the judgment he has just watched teaches him only half a lesson.
Judgment stands so close to the place mercy spared that Lot runs from it. He recognizes God's judgment of the world, but he never judges the spirit of the world himself.
Saved, With Nothing to Show
The cave shows what Lot has left: his life, and no more. One writer sees in him a believer who stands safe on the foundation while his work burns.
Since he himself is on the foundation, the burning will not touch him, but he suffers the loss of his works. Lot is a most painful example of this in Genesis 19. He escaped the terrible judgment of Sodom, but the fire took everything he owned. How sad that a believer may have nothing of real spiritual value to show for all the years God has given him on earth!
Two men lived through the same day and came out with different things.
Everything Lot built in Sodom perished when the place burned. He was a righteous man tied to the world in a false and evil partnership, and he was snatched out like a stick pulled from the fire. The reward was Abraham's, but deliverance was Lot's.
Distance, Not Communion
Lot is out of the plain at last. But distance and communion are not the same thing.
If Lot had sought the face of God, he might have found the mountain a place of communion with Him. Instead it is the scene of his lasting shame. Being separated from the world does not always mean being in communion with God. The worst corruptions of the world can appear inside the quiet of a monastery or a convent, just as in a wicked city. Sodom had left its mark on Lot's daughters, and they brought into the cave what they had learned there.
(Where these writers say "mountain," the ESV reads "the hills.")
Summary
- Rescued. Lot leaves Sodom alive but with nothing. He is saved; his work burns.
- Restless. Zoar gave him safety but not quietness, because he had never fully obeyed the word that sent him higher.
- Ruled by fear. He reaches the right place at last, driven by fear of men rather than led by faith in God.
- Reduced. Friendship with the world may cost a believer no money at all. It still costs him spiritual wealth: a cave is all Lot has left.
- Removed, not renewed. Distance from Sodom was not communion with God. His daughters carried Sodom into the cave.
