Genesis 19:17, commentary and pictures

Heaven sent angels to snatch Lot from doomed Sodom with the urgent command to flee for life without looking back, lingering nowhere in the plain, but escaping to the mountain before consuming fire fell. Lot hesitated in weakened faith and pleaded to stay short of the mountain, while his wife looked back in unbelief and clinging love for Sodom and its possessions and became a pillar of salt as proof that God means what He says. Obedience without delay or doubt is essential to life, for mercy does not excuse refusal and salvation comes only by ceasing to transgress and keeping all that God commands. The command means a decided separation from the wicked and from what endangers the soul, making no compromise to secure possessions and choosing moral and spiritual safety above fertile land, wealth and city advantage. The same warning given in the days of Noah and before the fall of Jerusalem is now given with terrible earnestness to escape doomed cities, sinful pleasure and transgression, and to call souls out of sin and fallen churches to lay hold on hope in Christ before mercy closes.

Command and Rescue at Sodom

Holy angels were sent on a mission of mercy to the gates of Sodom to rescue righteous Lot from its fiery doom, leading him safely out with angelic guidance and protection. The command was given with startling vehemence by the One with whom Abraham had pleaded, after the two angels left Lot to return to destroy the city, while messengers of wrath waited to pour forth fire upon the city and its suburbs. Though not even ten righteous were found in all the cities of the plain, Lot as the one man who feared God and did not corrupt his way before Him was snatched from destruction in answer to Abraham's prayer.

The command required immediate, urgent flight to save life: escape for life, look not behind, stay nowhere in all the plain, and flee to the mountain lest thou be consumed. It was a message of warning sent before destruction, urging Lot and his family to run for their lives out of Sodom appointed to utter destruction, to keep moving at once without stopping or lingering. The storm of divine judgment was only waiting for the fugitives to escape, so hesitancy or delay or one lingering regretful look from regret at leaving a beautiful home would be fatal and cost life.

Destruction came by fire and bolts of fire sent down from heaven after Lot left, consuming all but Lot with his wife and two daughters. The city's pollution and steadily increasing sin had become so great that God would bear with it no longer, and mercy ceased to plead with the guilty. They perished because they rejected the warning God in mercy sent them, proving that men cannot reject divine warnings without punishment and that salvation depends on how His message is treated.

Only three were saved at Sodom because they received and heeded warning, showing survival depended on heeding rather than following the majority and illustrating the danger of disregarding a warning and the need to act on it. Lot warned his family and urged them to flee at once and obey without turning back or lingering, but his sons-in-law mocked his faith and perished when Sodom was destroyed.

Lot's Household and Disobedience

Lot was reluctant to obey the command to go as far as possible, distrusting God and pleading to be allowed to remain nearer than the mountains. Living so long in the wicked city had weakened his faith and confidence in God's justice and blunted his sensibilities, so that he could not discern God's works and purposes and trust himself in God's hands. His hesitation and delay led his wife to lightly regard the warning, and his example failed to save her. Yet God in mercy spared Zoar at his pleading, and Lot afterward learned the angels knew better where he should go, so that he no longer dared to linger but fled to the mountains as directed, leaving his possessions behind without regret.

His wife looked back with regret, murmuring against God's dealings, and that backward look showed unbelief and presumptuous rebellion bringing God's judgment upon her. While her body was on the plain her heart still clung to Sodom, desiring the life of those who had rejected the warning and clinging to possessions, children and wealth left to ruin. She rebelled against God because His judgments involved them, felt severely dealt with instead of thankfully accepting deliverance, and felt little gratitude for preservation, showing herself unworthy of life. She was changed to a pillar of salt, left on the plain to stand as a warning to all who disregard Heaven's special mercies and providences that God means what He says and will not be trifled with.

Lot left Sodom with his bare life and nothing, led out by an angel's hand while messengers of wrath waited, while his children were ruined, his life-work lost and his life a sad failure. He had gone in rich, having chosen his residence by outward appearance without reference to his associations and intending to keep himself free from iniquity and to command his household, but the corrupting influences weakened his faith. His children's ties to the people of Sodom bound up his interests with theirs and shaped their character. That choice to make his home in the fertile plains for material advantage and greatest financial advantage cost him his wife, his married children and his riches, and ended in loss and judgment that blotted out the entrancing beauty of that highly favored city and left it bleak and bare, showing that beautiful surroundings and fertile land do not make a place safe when its people turn from purity, truth and righteousness.

The command required Lot's own prompt, strenuous action in all haste, arising and girding himself and uniting his will and muscles with God's will to walk out, since God does not carry men when they can walk, and his own will and muscles having carried him into Sodom must now carry him out. Looking back with desire to remain, even after wrath had fallen, brings destruction. Faith that acts on warning even when others mock it is required, for seeking to preserve life by hesitation or doubt instead leads to its loss.

Separation, Obedience and Holiness

The command is a call to come out and make a decided separation from the wicked in order to save life, making the most of the opportunity to escape without tarrying to secure possessions. It was given as a warning before the destruction of Sodom, as it had been given in the days of Noah and as it was given to the disciples before the destruction of Jerusalem, and it is given again in the last days when God bids His people separate from prevailing iniquity. It is the pattern for the last days, meaning that before the destruction of Babylon there must be a marked separation from sin and sinners, with no compromise between God and the world and no turning back to secure earthly treasures.

Obedience to what God has commanded is absolutely essential to eternal life, and disobedience brings the final penalty. Transgressors are not taken straight into glory, and mercy does not excuse refusal to obey, for salvation depends on ceasing to transgress and keeping all of the commandments with perfect obedience without hesitancy or doubt. God means what He says and will not be trifled with, and those who disregard special mercies and providences stand as a warning to all, as when lingering unbelief cost Lot's wife her life when she looked back murmuring against God's dealings and was changed to a pillar of salt. Divine warnings of judgment are certain and men cannot reject them without punishment, as shown when Sodom was destroyed by bolts of fire from heaven because sin kept steadily increasing, standing with the flood that saved only Noah and his sons and with Nineveh at first threatened then averted then fulfilled.

The verse calls those who profess to believe the truth to seek the Lord most earnestly and to take a more decided stand by being obedient to all requirements. It means to repent without delay, to seek God with all the heart, to tell Jesus of great need, unfaithfulness, blindness and lack of discernment, to make not general but plain definite confession, and to be cleansed and restored in truth in the inward parts rather than wearing counterfeit garments of righteousness or treating warnings as little or nothing. Time is too short to let warnings go unheeded, and unless there is thorough reformation and turning to the Lord He will turn His face away, and those who refuse will perish and fall into the hands of the living God. Spiritual change requires prompt steps of obedience rather than passive waiting, turning without delay from a wrong and harmful course to safety in obedience and salvation, with wholehearted surrender to God and reliance on His strength.

Escape for life means fleeing without delay what endangers the soul, as from danger with no staying and no return. For one addressed it means resisting appetite and passions through daily self-denial, a hard struggle that is the only hope of eternal life. It means fleeing a morally polluted place and its associations, for carrying unsubdued appetite and passions along prevents prospering and blessing, while one weak in moral power is endangered by remaining in such a moral atmosphere even though Lot stood uncorrupted amid it. It still calls for arousing the will in reliance on the strength of Jesus to confess and forsake sin and to separate entirely from corrupting company. Applied to youth it means guarding what they see and hear and keeping them as far as possible from depraved people, harmful places, and associations that threaten purity. Those already corrupted by solitary vice must flee out of Sodom before sundown lest they be consumed, and lifting up its glowing horrors and consequences gives a strong reason to flee at once, while the same instruction confirms in virtue as many as are still uncorrupted and keeps those ignorant of the act from forming any habit in view of such awful hazard.

Saving the soul like Lot fleeing Sodom means getting out of the current of the world instead of expecting a miracle to change natural causes that can be controlled, because staying in that current bears parents and children downward to perdition. It means being wise and discriminating about spiritual advantages and gathering correct influences around self and children so they cultivate love for divine things, rather than staying for beautiful and fertile country or any worldly advantage while surrounding influences weave a spell upon the soul. Familiar habits and customs can cling and assimilate a person more than is realized, which is a risk that cannot be afforded, so it is better to lose every worldly advantage than to lose Jesus or dishonor Him by careless inattention to His requirements, and best to obey God at any sacrifice. Choosing a home for temporal advantages, beautiful country, fertile land, flourishing cities, worldly wealth and honor exposes the family to lax morality, unbelief, indifference to religious things, rebellion against parental and divine authority, 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. Moral and religious influences must come first, and true wisdom accepts less worldly prosperity to make sure of the immortal inheritance, though wherever duty calls the watchful and prayerful who trust in the grace of Christ are enabled to stand uncorrupted even in trying positions.

Final Judgment and Last Warning

The same warning given to Lot to flee to the mountain without looking behind or lingering in the plain is the warning given in the days of Noah and to the disciples before the destruction of Jerusalem, and it is given again in the last days to a people dreaming of prosperity and peace. It demands immediate escape from doomed cities and from transgression, refusing to trust voices that say there is no cause for alarm, that warnings are idle tales, and that multitudes crying peace and safety are right while heaven declares swift destruction upon the transgressor. Those who riot in pleasure, remain careless and at ease, and deride the fears and warnings of the messenger perish in flames that very night, for the door of mercy is forever closed to the wicked and careless who scoffed, and God will not always be mocked nor long be trifled with but overwhelms the great mass who reject mercy in swift and irretrievable ruin on the cruel day of the Lord that lays the land desolate and destroys sinners out of it. The only safety is to flee without delay to the refuge provided, making the most of the opportunity to escape without tarrying to secure possessions, in decided separation from prevailing iniquity to save life.

The bottles of wrath cannot be poured out to destroy the wicked and their works until all of God's people have been judged and the cases of the living as well as the dead are decided. Even after the saints are sealed with the seal of the living God, the elect still have individual trials and personal afflictions. Yet the furnace is closely watched by an eye that will not suffer the gold to be consumed, for they bear the indelible mark of God with His own name written there, shut in by the Lord as God's property and possession with the destination inscribed God, New Jerusalem.

Sodom stands with the flood that saved only Noah and his sons and with Nineveh, at first threatened then averted then fulfilled, as proof that divine warnings of judgment are certain. Men cannot reject God's warnings without punishment, for mercy at last ceased to plead with the guilty inhabitants who rejected the warning sent in mercy, and all but Lot with his wife and two daughters were consumed by fire and bolts of fire from heaven because sin kept steadily increasing and men had not learned that God means what He says. Salvation depends on how His message is treated, and the same pattern holds in Noah's day, in Christ's day, and in the last days when God withdraws His Spirit and leaves those who reject His word to deception and destruction. Those who heed dwell in the secret place of the Most High and abide under the shadow of the Almighty with His truth as shield and buckler, receiving long life and salvation.

Sodom serves as a warning of what the world may become when corrupt teaching leaves no safeguard for virtue. It shows a people trained to love excitement, to glorify themselves, and to follow the imagination of their own evil hearts, producing idleness, depravity, cruelty, violence, and crime and bringing destruction. Its corruption was sexual and moral pollution, extreme licentiousness and want of strict purity, forward immodest breakdown of reserve between young men and women, wine-drinking and money as god, rejection of God's law, and communion with evil spirits, whose corrupt conduct and steadily increasing wickedness brought judgment. Its attractive appearance did not make it safe company, and its entrancing beauty was blotted out in ruin.

Modern cities are becoming like Sodom and Gomorrah and like the world in the days of Noah, with youth educated after the same order and the same result following. Popular amusements and excess draw into dissipation and weaken spiritual life. This growing likeness, with the world growing worse and worse, is a sign of the times that must be discerned and not hidden, showing judgment is near when cities become as Sodom and Gomorrah. Therefore God's people must get out for their lives and not remain, moving only with God's counsel.

Gospel Call to Escape

The command to flee for life is the special message now to be borne to those dwelling in sin, to pierce spiritual darkness and convict and convert souls. It is a warning to hundreds waiting to escape for their lives and lay hold on the hope set before them in the gospel. It must be given with terrible earnestness, with prayer, and with God's words and plans put above human words and plans. There is not a moment to spend in criticism and accusation. The reason is that the Lord lives and reigns and will soon arise in majesty to shake terribly the earth, and Christ will come suddenly with no time then to prepare.

The hurrying of Lot out of Sodom pictures the escape of precious souls from doomed churches before destruction. Servants of God endowed with power from on high, with faces lighted up and shining with holy consecration, go forth doing their work and proclaiming the message from heaven. Souls scattered through the religious bodies answer the call. Those who come out are fitted up and strengthened by excellent glory falling upon them in rich abundance to prepare them to endure the hour of temptation. They are known as those that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

Escape for life means turning without delay from a wrong and harmful course to safety in obedience to God and salvation through Christ. It is urgent: do not stop or turn back, but flee to safety at once or be destroyed. Spiritual change requires prompt steps of obedience rather than passive waiting. It calls for wholehearted surrender to God and reliance on His strength.

Homes, Cities and Company

Escape for life warns against choosing a home for temporal advantage, beautiful and fertile country, flourishing cities, worldly wealth and honor, while exposing the family to lax morality, unbelief, indifference to religious things, rebellion against parental and divine authority, and attachments to infidels and enemies of God that counteract parental influence and hinder piety and right character. In choosing a home moral and religious influences must come first, and families must not voluntarily place themselves in worldliness and unbelief that displeases God and drives holy angels from the home, for true wisdom accepts less worldly prosperity to make sure of the immortal inheritance. Saving the soul as Lot did means getting out of the current of the world instead of expecting God to work a miracle to change natural causes that can be controlled, because staying in that current bears parents and children downward to perdition. It requires being wise and discriminating about spiritual advantages and gathering correct influences around self and children so they cultivate love for divine things, recognizing that familiar habits and customs cling and assimilate more than is realized, so it is better to lose every worldly advantage than to lose Jesus or dishonor Him, and best to obey God at any sacrifice. Lot could have spared his family many evils by making his home away from wicked and polluted Sodom, and his running to save his life was the end of choosing the fertile plains for material advantage, a choice that cost him his wife, his married children and his riches, showing that greatest financial advantage must not be first, unlike Abraham who went where God sent him to be an influence for good. Bringing a family into a corrupt place illustrates the peril of placing youth among worldly influences, and sending young people to Battle Creek to associate with worldly people is of the same danger as taking a family into Sodom among corrupting surroundings.

Lot entered Sodom intending to keep himself free from iniquity and to command his household, going in rich after choosing his residence by outward appearance without reference to his associations. The corrupting influences weakened his faith and his children's ties to the people of Sodom bound up his interests with theirs, ending in loss in which he left with his bare life and nothing, led out by an angel's hand while messengers of wrath waited, with his children ruined, his life-work lost and his life a sad failure. That judgment blotted out the entrancing beauty of that highly favored city and its suburbs, making bleak and bare a place God had once made very beautiful. God would have none choose like Lot, and would not be pleased to have His work permanently located in a wealthy, worldly, irreligious community whose molding influence undermines piety and devotion and hedges up success, so His people and institutions should avoid harmful surroundings when choosing where to establish themselves.

The call to flee is a warning to leave city surroundings where integrity and purity are hard to preserve and to do work outside the cities with religious interests made first, leaving the cities for different surroundings rather than remaining in danger for convenience. Moves should be made only with God's counsel rather than building large business plants in cities such as Melbourne. Yet even cities steeped in sin hold Lots who can serve God, for as Sodom held Lot so New York holds people who pant after the pure truth like the hart panting after the water brooks, and their thirst makes the city ready to be worked with the power of God. There are Lots in every Sodom, people in deeply sinful and morally corrupt cities who belong to God and thirst for pure truth.