Genesis 19:16, commentary and pictures

While he was urged to leave Sodom Lot lingered, and the men took him by the hand with his wife and his two daughters and brought them out and set them outside the city. He lingered because he was stupefied with grief at leaving his married children and all he held dear, and because he could not bear to leave his family and home and possessions, so that without the angels he would have perished in the overthrow. The rescue was hurried because judgment was about to fall and any delay would have been fatal, yet it was done in mercy to him despite his reluctance. His lingering revealed how long dwelling among corrupting influences had blunted his discernment, and his choice of Sodom for rich lands and worldly prosperity had bound his interests to its people so that he was led out with nothing and barely saved his own soul. As he was hurried out before destruction by fire, so God's people are now to separate without compromise from sin and sinners and to flee without delay, choosing first the moral influences surrounding the home rather than earthly advantage.

Lingering and Rescue

While he was urged to leave Sodom, Lot lingered, and the men laid hold on his hand and on the hands of his wife and his two daughters and brought them forth and set them outside the city. The escape was an act of divine mercy despite his reluctance, with the Lord's mercy given as the reason they were rescued. The deliverance came before destruction by fire and brimstone.

He lingered because he was paralyzed and stupefied with grief at leaving his married children and all he held dear on earth, sad at leaving a wife who refused to go without them, his heart almost breaking. He lingered because he could not bear to leave his family, home, and possessions, and without the angels he with his wife and daughters would have perished in the overthrow. Before being brought out, he warned his daughters and sons-in-law, but the sons-in-law mocked his faith and perished, leaving his married children behind.

The rescue was hurried because divine judgment was about to fall, with the urgency of the escape underscored by the brief delay before the fiery judgment. The storm of judgment was held back only until the fugitives could escape, so that any hesitancy or delay would have been fatal. While Lot was being led out, messengers of wrath waited to pour forth fiery blasts to consume the inhabitants and blot out the entrancing beauty of that highly favored city and its suburbs, making bleak and bare a place God had once made very beautiful. He went into Sodom rich and was led out with nothing.

Not even ten righteous persons were found in all the cities of the plain, but the one man who feared God was delivered in answer to Abraham's prayer. After leading them out the destroying angels left them and returned to Sodom, while He with whom Abraham had pleaded drew near to Lot. The men who rescued him were the angels he had sheltered in kindness, who protected him and his household from the doomed city. Their act shows angels as ministering spirits near to protect God's faithful people from dangers seen and unseen, a care whose full extent will be known only in eternity, and presents their rescue from destruction as a mission of angelic mercy.

Mercy Amid Judgment

The laying hold on the hands of Lot and his wife and his two daughters and bringing them forth to set them outside the city was the Lord being merciful to him while he lingered and hesitated to leave Sodom. The angels took them by the hand and hurried them out because divine judgment was about to fall, and the brief delay before the fiery judgment underscores the urgency of the escape. Though Lot had entered Sodom rich, he was brought out with nothing, and his rescue from the doomed city was an act of God's mercy despite his reluctance. His delay endangered his family, for had he hastened as God desired his wife would not have become a pillar of salt.

Mercy ceased to plead with the guilty inhabitants, and only Lot with his wife and two daughters were spared while all the rest were consumed by fire sent down from heaven. Only a few were saved from Sodom's destruction though they had been warned, only three people escaping despite having received warning. Few may heed a warning and escape destruction, so following the majority is no assurance of safety.

Salvation depends on how the warning God in mercy sends is treated, for men cannot with impunity reject it. When the warning is rejected God withdraws His Spirit and leaves men to destruction, as with the world in Noah's day that perished in the waters of the flood, as with the unbelieving Jews in Christ's day whose house was left desolate, and as with those in the last days who receive not the love of the truth and are left to strong delusion and damnation.

God's mercy does not mean He is too good to execute the final penalty for transgressing His law. The Sodomites were punished with fire fallen from heaven for disobedience of God's requirements while just Lot was saved, and the inhabitants were not winged by that fire straight into glory. The destruction of the disobedient and the saving of the obedient proves that obedience to all God's law is absolutely essential to eternal life and that transgressing the law cannot bring a person to heaven as well as obeying it.

God means what He says in destroying Sodom with bolts of fire from heaven for persistent sin. That destruction stands in the steady increase of sin since Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and lost the Eden God gave them, and since the flood that destroyed the world saving only Noah and his sons. It stands alongside the threatened destruction of Nineveh that was averted when its inhabitants repented and later came when they returned to idolatry and their sins reached to heaven.

The inhabitants of Sodom walked in the imaginations of their own hearts in headstrong, independent wickedness that God could not perpetuate, so in mercy He proved Himself a God of vengeance in destroying them. The destruction reveals a character that abundantly blesses and is full of compassion, ready to pardon, to meet fallen man and to heal the bruised and smitten, yet strong to punish persistent, independent despisers of grace. Those who now stand on the very borders of the heavenly Canaan with all advantages, light and evidences of truth and do not purify their souls by living up to them carry the same guilt as Sodom and the antediluvian world.

Lot was saved out of Sodom when fire from heaven destroyed its wicked inhabitants because he did not corrupt his way before God. The corrupt city was destroyed as the corrupt old world was destroyed by the Flood.

Sodom's Corrupting Influence

Long dwelling among corrupting influences had blunted Lot's sensibilities so that he could not discern God's works and purposes, and this is revealed in his lingering when he should have fled and in his need to be taken by force. He lingered paralyzed and stupefied with grief at leaving his married children and all he held dear on earth, sad at leaving a wife who refused to go without them, his heart almost breaking, and he with his wife and two daughters would all have perished in the overthrow had not mercy sent deliverance to lay hold on his hand and their hands and bring them out and set them outside the city.

Sodom stands as a warning of what the world may become when people are led to treat desire as law and wrongdoing as harmless. Its inhabitants are an example of extreme moral corruption and of wickedness given over to pleasure-seeking, facing destruction. They are an example of extreme social and sexual wickedness and of a society marked by sexual sin and moral corruption. The world in Lot's time had itself become like Sodom, marked by widespread sexual corruption and moral degradation, a warning about the general pollutions of the last days.

The Sodomites were forward, common people given to flirtation between young men and women, cheap talk and ways, and breaking down all barriers of reserve and true decorum. Youth who make advances, flirt, and exchange notes even in meeting are fast becoming like them while professing to be Christians. Sodom is the corrupt and doomed condition a land of liberty and advantage reaches when wealthy winebibbers and blasphemers give tone to public opinion and lead society, with money as their god, wine beclouding reason, and open contempt for the Son of God preparing the way for every excess of wild license.

Sodom's destruction warns against the same evil practices found among the Canaanites. Its days picture a world corrupted by sin and a society marked by evil. The verse belongs to the setting behind the comparison between Sodom and morally corrupt cities and towns, showing Lot and his family being brought out as judgment fell on the city.

Ruin From Wrong Choice

Lot chose his home in Sodom and the fertile plains for temporal and financial advantage, for rich lands, beautiful surroundings, worldly prosperity, wealth and honor, without regard to its corrupting associations and moral influence on his family. Greatest financial advantage must not be the first study in choosing where to settle, and the most beautiful surroundings and the most fertile land do not make a place desirable if its dwellers corrupt themselves and do not reveal purity and virtue and love for truth and righteousness. Worldly treasure did not save him, for he left Sodom with nothing while its inhabitants and the city faced destruction.

He entered Sodom intending to keep himself free from iniquity and to command his household after him, but he signally failed. The corrupting influences weakened his own faith, and his children's connection with the inhabitants bound up his interests with theirs. He went into Sodom rich and was led out with nothing, his possessions destroyed, some of his children perishing, his wife becoming a pillar of salt, his married children and riches lost, and he himself escaping with his life only so as by fire, barely saving his own soul. While he was being led out, messengers of wrath waited to pour forth fiery blasts to consume all the inhabitants and to blot out the entrancing beauty of that highly favored city and its suburbs, making bleak and bare a place which God had once made very beautiful.

Escape from Sodom still leaves life-work lost and life a sad failure when a home was chosen for temporal advantage and worldly prosperity rather than for moral and religious influences. The atmosphere of lax morality, unbelief, indifference to religious things, rebellion against parental and divine authority, temptation, evil associations, and attachments to infidels and enemies of God counteracts parental influence and ruins piety and right character. Even Lot, who stood uncorrupted amid moral pollution and saved his own soul when he fled, had habits and customs cling to him and had assimilated more than he was aware.

God will not work a miracle to change natural causes that can be controlled, so if a person places himself and his family in the current of the world, he and his children will be borne downward by it. A beautiful and fertile country with wrong surrounding influences weaves a spell upon the soul that sinks to perdition, and children may be lost because they were not placed where they would cultivate a love for divine things. Lot's delay endangered his family, and had he hastened as God desired his wife would not have become a pillar of salt. Though mercifully taken by the hand, he still had to choose to flee and use his own strength in cooperation with God, while his wife's desire to stay left her behind when judgment fell.

Call to Separate Today

Lot's being seized by the hand and hurried outside the doomed city is the pattern for the last days, when God's precious people are hurried out of doomed churches before judgment falls. As mercy laid hold on lingering Lot, so mercy hurries them out because destruction is imminent. That rescue requires a marked separation from sin and sinners, with no compromise between God and the world and no turning back to secure earthly treasures.

Large cities are now becoming as Sodom and Gomorrah as the world grows worse and worse, and it is against God's counsel to make large plants and establish business interests in them. To do so puts out the eyes of the people so they cannot discern the signs of the times. Hesitation in obeying the call to leave evil and seek safety endangers the family, for had Lot hastened as desired his wife would not have become a pillar of salt. Those already corrupted must therefore flee without delay before destruction comes, as before sundown, with the horrors and consequences of defiling sin set before them to urge escape, to confirm the uncorrupted, and to keep the ignorant from ever forming the habit. Fleeing means not carrying unsubdued appetite and passions along, but repenting, confessing and forsaking sins, arousing the will, and relying wholly on the strength of Jesus to become an overcomer, and even after years of disobedience mercy gives another chance to come out.

Choosing a home for temporal advantage brings terrible loss, for Lot entered Sodom intending to keep himself free from iniquity and to command his household after him, yet signally failed as corrupting influences weakened his faith and his children's ties bound up his interests with the inhabitants. He was brought out by mercy barely saving his own soul, with children ruined, married children and riches lost, wife lost, possessions destroyed, and life-work lost in sad failure. Greatest financial advantage must not be first in choosing where to settle, and the most beautiful surroundings and most fertile land do not make a place desirable if the dwellers corrupt themselves and do not reveal purity, virtue, and love for truth and righteousness, for after a time of test the Lord lets wrath break forth upon them. True wisdom considers first of all the moral and religious influences surrounding the family, accepts less worldly prosperity to secure the immortal inheritance, and will not voluntarily place the family in worldliness, unbelief, lax morality, indifference to religious things, rebellion against parental and divine authority, temptation, evil associations, and attachments to infidels and enemies of God that counteract parental influence, hinder piety and right character, displease God, and drive holy angels from the home.

One must be wise and discriminating in regard to spiritual advantages and gather correct influences about oneself and children, for God will not work a miracle to change natural causes that can be controlled, and placing self and family in the current of the world bears them downward. Habits and customs clung to Lot even though he stood uncorrupted amid moral pollution and saved his own soul, for he had assimilated more than he knew, and a beautiful and fertile country with wrong influences weaves a spell that sinks to perdition and may lose children to the cause because they were not placed where they would cultivate love for divine things. It is better to lose every worldly advantage than to lose Jesus or dishonor Him by careless inattention, and obedience is owed at any sacrifice. A home in the wicked city exposes the family to many evils avoidable at a distance, and corrupt practices threaten purity, so the senses, associations, and work must be guarded and such places kept as far from as possible. Remaining in cities for convenience makes preserving integrity and purity difficult, yet the warning to flee applies there.

Taking the family into Sodom warns against placing young people among worldly influences and calling youth to associate with people of every kind, as in gathering them to Battle Creek. It warns likewise against establishing institutions amid wicked city surroundings, for settling there is going into Sodom. Even so, deeply corrupt cities may still contain people who can be rescued, for there are Lots in every Sodom. God had His own man in very wicked Sodom and in mercy brought him out, and He has His own people even in wicked places like New York who pant after pure truth as the hart pants after the water brooks, so such cities are ready to be worked and must not be left untouched. Those hidden faithful are called to stand for God's law, defend it, relieve suffering, and help bring reform.