Genesis 19:1, commentary and pictures

Two angels came to Sodom in the evening while Lot was sitting in the gate, and he rose to meet them and bowed with his face to the ground in courteous greeting as to ordinary travelers. They were sent on a mission of mercy to rescue righteous Lot, and also to mark the deeds of the people and see whether Sodom had passed the limit of divine forbearance beyond hope of redemption. Lot pressed them to shelter in his home because hospitality to strangers exposed to the dangers of the wicked city at nightfall was duty, and his kindness reflected the religious habit learned with Abraham in which small daily courtesy reveals character. His welcoming of strangers brought angels into his house, and the guests he sought to protect then protected him and led him out of the doomed city, showing that holy angels in all ages minister to and encamp about God's people to deliver them from dangers seen and unseen. His dwelling in Sodom after choosing for temporal advantage rather than moral influence warns families to put religious influences first in choosing a home, for Sodom stands as a warning of what unchecked sin brings when pleasure and indulgence bear sway over reason.

Evening Arrival at Sodom

Two angels came to Sodom in the evening while Lot was sitting in the gate of the city. Lot rose up to meet them when he saw them and bowed himself with his face toward the ground in courteous greeting. The visitors looked like ordinary men or travelers, and Lot did not at first recognize them as heavenly messengers.

They were sent on a mission of mercy to rescue righteous Lot from the fiery destruction of the city. Their coming to the gates of Sodom to deliver him from its fiery doom is proof that in all ages holy angels minister to God's people.

They also came to record the deeds of the people and to see whether Sodom had passed the limit of divine forbearance. They came to see whether its people had so ruined their ways that there was no hope of redemption, and they found the city had passed the limits of forbearance. They came on a mission of destruction, yet the people perceived no danger and went on in ordinary pleasure as the evening appeared lovely and secure.

Lot's Courteous Hospitality

Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom in the evening when two travelers arrived, and he rose to meet them and bowed with his face toward the ground in courteous greeting. He did not know they were angels, for they appeared as ordinary men, yet he welcomed them and invited them to his home. In that wicked city hospitality was a duty, because strangers were exposed to danger.

Knowing the perils that threatened travelers at nightfall, he insisted on taking them into his home for shelter. He gave no thought to the risk to himself and his household in doing so. To protect people in danger and to care for the homeless was part of his life-work.

His courteous spirit had been shaped by living with Abraham, and his kindness toward the strangers was the fruit of religious habit. Though the visitors looked like ordinary men, they were angels sent with a message, and his hospitality mattered in the danger that followed. Small daily acts of courtesy and self-forgetful service reveal character and can have serious consequences.

His kindness to unknown travelers brought angels into his home. The guests whom he led to safety protected him when violence threatened, and then led him and his household out of the doomed city at dawn. Such hospitality can bring blessing and hope, while turning a stranger away can mean rejecting God's messenger.

Angels Minister and Protect

The two angels came to the gates of Sodom on a mission of mercy to rescue righteous Lot from its fiery doom. That rescue is one proof that in all ages holy angels have ministered to God's people. They protected Lot and led him safely out from the midst of Sodom.

Their protection shows that angels are near to Christ's faithful followers in every age. The armies of heaven encamp about all who love God to deliver them from the vast confederacy of evil arrayed against all who would overcome. By the interposition of angels they are preserved from dangers seen and unseen. The angels who appeared to Lot illustrate that angels may also be present among people today without being seen.

The two came at evening in the form of men, for angels are often present in human form in the assemblies of the righteous. They also visit the assemblies of the wicked to make a record of their deeds. Their visit to Sodom was to determine whether its people had gone beyond the limit of God's forbearance and passed the boundary beyond hope. The Lord delights in mercy, restraining calamities and prolonging the tranquillity of multitudes for the sake of the few who really serve Him. Yet sinners against God who ridicule and oppress that faithful few do not realize that they owe their own lives to them.

Sodom's Corruption and Judgment

Sodom was a great and wicked city whose corrupt practices spread as its inhabitants taught them to others until its sins reached heaven, and the land was defiled by those who lived in it. It was a place of moral pollution and corruption, a depraved society living for self and an example of sexual immorality and deep corruption. Its ways stained purity, so that Lot dwelling there was set amid surroundings from which the young should stay as far as possible by guarding senses and associations. It stands as a picture of a wicked and corrupt place, later consumed in judgment for abominations like those of Canaan, warning that turning to evil and rebellion brings God's judgment.

Its inhabitants had corrupted their way before God and were steeped in licentiousness, following the imaginations of their own corrupt minds and dishonoring God by wicked inventions. They lived headstrong, independent lives of impurity and crime, indulging destructive lusts until they no longer discerned between the pure affections and attributes of human nature given by God and corrupt lust, becoming corrupt in body and soul and as sinful as those before the Flood. Their licentiousness shows the corruption Satan continually seeks to bring back into the world, and casting aside God's law and restraint produces the same polluted and corrupt society as in Noah's day. Want of strict purity, carnal living, being sold unto sin, and adultery practiced even by men and women professing godliness make the present world a second Sodom and Gomorrah, and whole families corrupting their way in the same manner need to be terribly alarmed.

Its ruin is connected with abundance of idleness, which weakens the mind, degrades the soul, and distorts understanding. A people educated by idle holidays to believe laziness is essential to health and happiness, with youth not trained to diligent habits but to love excitement, to glorify self, and to follow the imagination of their own evil hearts, produce depravity, cruelty, violence, and crime now as then, the same order of corruption as in the world in the days of Noah. Its conduct degenerated from lightness and frivolity to debasing sins that called forth wrath in most dreadful destruction, for inclination and passion bore sway over reason, self was god, and knowledge of the Most High was nearly obliterated through selfish indulgence of corrupt passions. Eating and drinking and buying and selling and planting and building are necessary, but when gratification of appetite occupies thoughts and time to the neglect of eternal interests it abuses the body, destroys health, unbalances the mind, and strengthens animal propensities until the sword of justice is awakened.

Its corruption included sexual forwardness and moral commonness, with young men and women making advances, flirting, seeking each other's society, and breaking down reserve and true decorum by common cheap talk and ways offensive to God and destitute of Christlike humility. Professed Christians, especially youth with great light and privileges who profess to keep the Sabbath yet act this way even in meeting, are fast becoming like the Sodomites, controlled by Satan and as destitute of the Spirit of God as the hills of Gilboa without dew or rain. Their perversion of powers and privileges brings God's close judgments near, for the end is near, and unless moral taste is refined and Christ becomes an abiding principle in the soul few such youth will ever see heaven but will reap a harvest they will not be pleased to garner. A clear distinction between men's and women's clothing helps restrain vice and protect virtue against such degradation. Free indulgence in wine, loud contempt for the Son of God, and delight in such blasphemy as wit ripen a favored land of liberty and advantage into Sodom's corruption under God's unseen witness, when wine-drinking blasphemers who openly despise Christ give tone to public opinion and take the lead in the highest circles where money is god.

Sodom had so ruined its ways that there was no hope of redemption and it had passed the limits of divine forbearance, so that wrath followed and God in mercy proved Himself a God of vengeance. The cities of the plain were destroyed by fire and brimstone from heaven the same day Lot went out of Sodom, destroying them all to rid the earth of the curse of their contaminating influence. This proves God means what He says when He threatens judgment, standing in line with Eden lost through eating the forbidden fruit, the world destroyed by the Flood with only Noah and his sons saved, and Nineveh first spared through repentance then destroyed after returning to idolatry, while sin has steadily increased since the Flood. The punishment of Sodom for disobedience while Lot was saved shows God's mercy does not make disobedience harmless, and only a few were saved despite warning, illustrating that the majority may reject warning and few follow the way to life.

Choosing Home Wisely

Lot settled in Sodom because he chose for temporal advantage and worldly gain, drawn by beauty and fertility and apparent natural advantages, rather than considering the moral and religious influences on himself and his family, and he did so without investigating its morals and religion. His choice of residence without regard to his associations brought him into a place whose influence endangered piety and devotion, though its beauty and apparent advantages could not protect it from destruction. He entered intending to keep himself free from iniquity and to command his household after him, but he failed signally.

The choice led to loss, for he entered the city rich but left with nothing, escorted by an angel while messengers of wrath waited to destroy Sodom. His possessions were destroyed, some of his children perished, his sons-in-law mocked his faith and perished, his wife became a pillar of salt, and he was saved only as through fire, barely saving his own soul with his life-work lost in sad failure. Like Lot many see their children ruined and barely save their own souls.

The account warns families to choose homes and paths carefully, not for worldly gain alone, with moral and religious influences considered first of all above temporal advantage, beauty, fertility, or prosperity. Children are not to be brought into surroundings of worldliness and unbelief, lax morality and indifference to religious things, rebellion against parental and divine authority, and attachments to unbelievers and infidels who are enemies of God. Young people are warned to guard their senses and associations and to stay as far from such depraved surroundings that stain purity as possible, and not to be placed in an environment surrounded by worldly influences of every kind.

Corrupting influences and associations weaken faith and piety, bind up interests with the inhabitants of Sodom, counteract parental influence, endanger devotion, and draw youth into evil associations. The atmosphere and associations of such moral pollution are dangerous, especially to one weak in moral power. God warns to flee from Sodom in entire separation from its associates, and carrying unsubdued appetite and passions prevents His prospering and blessing. Voluntarily placing oneself in influences unfavorable to Christian character displeases God and drives holy angels from the home, but wherever duty calls God will enable those who watch and pray, trusting in the grace of Christ, to stand uncorrupted. True wisdom accepts less worldly prosperity to make sure of title to the immortal inheritance rather than securing worldly wealth and honor at the expense of eternal interests, which proves a terrible loss.

Establishing a religious institution in a corrupt city is like going into Sodom, for outward surroundings may be like the garden of Eden despite wickedness yet expose God's workers to harmful surroundings and interfere with keeping the Sabbath in peace.

Warning and Faithfulness Today

Sodom stands as a warning of what unchecked sin brings, for abandoning self-restraint and purity leads toward ruin. Its state is coming again in cities and even in country towns corrupted by pleasure-seeking and dissipation. That return is seen in a people educated by idle holidays to believe laziness is essential to health and happiness, with youth untrained in diligent habits but trained to love excitement, to glorify self, and to follow the imagination of their own evil hearts, a training that produces depravity, cruelty, violence, and crime now as it did then in the same order of corruption as in the world in the days of Noah. Cities growing worse and becoming like Sodom and Gomorrah face judgment, and their condition is a sign of the times.

The conduct of the cities of the plain degenerated from lightness and frivolity to debasing sins that called forth wrath in most dreadful destruction by fire and brimstone from heaven the same day Lot went out of Sodom, destroying them all in order to rid the earth of the curse of their contaminating influence. Inclination and passion bore sway over reason, self was their god, and knowledge of the Most High was nearly obliterated through selfish indulgence of corrupt passions. Eating and drinking and buying and selling and planting and building are necessary, but when gratification of appetite occupies thoughts and time to the neglect of eternal interests it is sin for which God will punish, because it abuses the body, destroys health, unbalances the mind, and strengthens the animal propensities until Satan leads to the very things that awaken the sword of justice. As it was in the days of Lot so shall it be in the days of the Son of Man, so Christ's followers must be temperate in eating and drinking and not indulge appetite at the expense of health and spiritual growth, but seek those things which are above where Christ sits at the right hand of God.

The account together with Genesis 18 calls hearers to seek the Lord most earnestly and to take a more decided stand for the Lord. It calls them to be not only professedly believers in the truth but obedient to all of God's requirements. That response leads to confession, softened and subdued hearts, and earnest prayer under the touching power of the Spirit.

Lot living in Sodom represents the faithful people who can be found even in cities steeped in sin and moral corruption. His presence there shows that people may stand for what is right amid widespread wrongdoing and stand uncorrupted amid moral pollution, though the atmosphere and associations are dangerous, especially to one weak in moral power. There are Lots in every Sodom, for even a wicked city has a people panting after pure truth as the hart pants after the water brooks, as seen in a great and wicked city like New York, so that the city is ready to be worked and the power of God must carry the truth there through self-denying effort. God warns to flee from Sodom and not remain there, requiring entire separation from its class of associates, and carrying unsubdued appetite and passions prevents His prospering and blessing.