Category: Patriarchs
Scriptures:
Genesis 19:15-19:29
Genesis 19:15-19:29
15 When the morning came, then the angels hurried Lot, saying, “Get up! Take your wife, and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the iniquity of the city.”
16 But he lingered; and the men grabbed his hand, his wife’s hand, and his two daughters’ hands, Yahweh being merciful to him; and they took him out, and set him outside of the city.
17 It came to pass, when they had taken them out, that he said, “Escape for your life! Don’t look behind you, and don’t stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be consumed!”
18 Lot said to them, “Oh, not so, my lord.
19 See now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your loving kindness, which you have shown to me in saving my life. I can’t escape to the mountain, lest evil overtake me, and I die.
20 See now, this city is near to flee to, and it is a little one. Oh let me escape there (isn’t it a little one?), and my soul will live.”
21 He said to him, “Behold, I have granted your request concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken.
22 Hurry, escape there, for I can’t do anything until you get there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.
23 The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar.
24 Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Yahweh out of the sky.
25 He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew on the ground.
26 But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
27 Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he had stood before Yahweh.
28 He looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and looked, and saw that the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace.
29 When God destroyed the cities of the plain, God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the middle of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.
Commentary
God revealed to Abraham the destruction of Sodom: Genesis 18:16-22 The two created angels went toward Sodom while Jehovah continued with Abraham and would not hide from him what he intended to do. Though God long forbears with sinners, He will finally deal with sin when the day of his wrath comes.
Abraham's intercession for Sodom: Genesis 18:23-33 This is the first solemn prayer in the Bible, and it is a prayer for the sparing of Sodom. Abraham prayed earnestly that Sodom might be spared if but a few righteous persons should be found in it. We learn from Abraham what compassion we should feel for sinners and how earnestly we should pray for them. We see here that a righteous man's effectual, fervent prayer avails much. Abraham failed in his request for the whole place, but Lot was miraculously delivered.
Genesis 19:1-29 Lot was good, but there was not one more of the same character in the city. All the people of Sodom were very wicked and vile. The salvation of the righteous men is of God's mercy, not by their own merit. We are saved by grace. God's power also must be acknowledged in bringing souls out of a sinful state. Concerning this destruction, observe that it is a revelation of the wrath of God against sin and sinners of all ages. We must learn from this the evil of sin leads to ruin.