Genesis 19:2, commentary and pictures

Lot in corrupt Sodom urges two travelers who appear as ordinary men to turn into his house for the night for shelter and rest before going on their way early. They first answer that they will stay in the street all night, concealing their knowledge of the danger and testing whether his welcome is sincere until he prevails on them to enter. They are holy angels on a mission of mercy to rescue righteous Lot from imminent fiery judgment. His courteous, persistent hospitality, learned with Abraham and made part of his religion, both protects strangers in danger and opens the way for angels to protect and lead him and his household out of Sodom. His choice to dwell for worldly advantage where moral influences corrupt his household, barely escaping with his own soul, warns to put moral and religious influences first in choosing a home and to keep children as far as possible from corrupting surroundings.

Lot's Courteous Invitation

Lot welcomed two visitors who came to him as men, urging them to turn in to his servant's house to tarry all night, wash their feet, and rise up early to go on their ways. He pressed them with courtesy not to spend the night in the street of Sodom, a place of grave corruption, but to accept lodging and the care due to travelers in his home. His welcome was a habitual, courteous hospitality that sheltered strangers and homeless people in danger, even at risk of harm to himself and his household, and it helped protect the travelers from the danger they faced. In this he exemplified the duty to welcome and care for strangers, a lesson known but failed by the priest and Levite.

The visitors at first refused, answering that they would abide in the street all night, and that refusal both tested whether Lot was sincere and concealed that they knew the danger from the city's inhabitants. Lot persisted in his urging until they accepted his hospitality and turned in with him.

Lot did not know they were heavenly messengers, for angels come as ordinary travelers and accept hospitality in a human home. That courteous spirit and habitual hospitality had been shaped by living with Abraham and was part of his religion.

Sodom's Corruption and Judgment

Lot was living in Sodom when he gave the invitation, a corrupt city whose inhabitants had passed the limits of divine forbearance so that judgment was imminent. The setting is one of depraved practices, from which young people are to be kept as far as possible. It was a wicked city where living among corrupt people is dangerous, especially for one weak in moral power, so that separation from such associations may be necessary, yet where Lot stood as an example of standing uncorrupted amid moral pollution. Even in a place so steeped in sin, his presence shows that righteous persons can be found in a deeply sinful society.

Its inhabitants were corrupt in body and soul, steeped in licentiousness, following the imaginations of corrupt minds and dishonoring God by wicked inventions. By indulging destructive lusts they corrupted their way until they could no longer discern between the pure affections given in human nature and destructive lust, becoming as sinful as those before the Flood and ripe for destruction because of their wicked works. They walked in the imaginations of their own hearts in bold and defiant licentiousness, impurity and crime, with headstrong, independent wickedness like the antediluvian world, and those who with all light and advantage do not purify their souls by living up to it share their guilt. The account warns against the lust and licentiousness that made its people corrupt and exceedingly wicked.

Its sins included idleness, pride, abundance of provision, and neglect of the poor, and its destruction came as the consequence of those sins. They included carnality, want of strict purity, and adultery, even among men and women professing godliness and sold unto sin. The cities were made corrupt and polluted by casting aside God's law, like the world in Noah's time. The land was corrupted by wine, blasphemy, and wild license when wealthy winebibbers and blasphemers in the highest circles give tone to public opinion, a condition of open contempt for God that any favored land of liberty will repeat if money is its god.

Its corrupt practices spread as its inhabitants taught them to others, until the city's sins brought destruction upon it. The history stands as a warning of the moral corruption that follows when self-restraint and purity are lost and people are taught that they may live as they please. It shows what cities and even country towns become when holidays teach idleness and youth are not trained to diligent habits. That training to love excitement, to glorify self, and to follow the imagination of evil hearts produces in this age the same depravity, cruelty, violence, and crime 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 by fire and brimstone to rid the earth of the curse of their contaminating influence. In Sodom 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. The eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, and building of the days of Lot show appetite bearing sway over mind and conscience, with gratification of appetite occupying thought and time to the neglect of eternal interests, abuse of the body, destruction of health, unbalanced mind, and strengthened animal propensities that awaken the sword of justice. The same infatuation now seen in gluttony, wine-bibbing, liquor-drinking, and bewitched, indiscreet courtship and marriage without consulting God, covering lustful abomination under the marriage vow, repeats the sin for which God will punish and calls Christians to be temperate and seek things above.

A universal and unmistakable distinction in the costume of man and woman is a preventive police against becoming a Sodom at large, more efficacious than laws, courts, and officers. The garments themselves act as a guard and perpetual restraining monitor going where the wearer goes, stopping where she stops, and abiding with her. Discarding that distinction invites the Sodom condition, evidences guilty intent, and is traitorous to the virtue of both sexes.

Sodom was destroyed by messengers of wrath pouring forth fiery blasts to consume all 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. It was destroyed by bolts of fire from heaven, showing that God means what He says about sin. That destruction stands in a line of judgments after Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and opened the floodgates of woe: the Flood that saved only Noah and his sons, then Sodom, then Nineveh whose threatened destruction was averted by repentance and later came when sin reached to heaven, warning a world fast becoming as it was before the Flood.

In mercy God proved Himself a God of vengeance by the harshest punishment that alone could stop the advance of impurity and crime, and He will show Himself strong to punish persistent, independent despisers of His grace. This was even though He abundantly blesses, is full of compassion, ready to pardon and heal the bruised and smitten, and goes forth to meet the returning sinner, for their wickedness was such that He could not perpetuate their lives. Sodom was destroyed for the same kind of abominations found among the Canaanites.

Only a few were saved from its destruction though they had been warned, illustrating that the majority may reject warning and that safety does not come from following the crowd. Its inhabitants were punished for disobedience while Lot was saved, as evidence that God does not save people by excusing their disobedience. His sons-in-law perished after mocking his faith and rejecting his warning when he had to flee the city he had chosen for natural and worldly advantages.

The account serves as a comparison for modern cities marked by widespread indulgence and moral corruption. The present world becomes a second Sodom and Gomorrah by practicing the same evils of carnality, want of strict purity, and adultery. Like the world in Noah's time, Sodom and Gomorrah are examples of a society made corrupt and polluted by casting aside God's law.

Angels Protect and Deliver

The two who came to the gates of Sodom were holy angels on a mission of mercy to the children of God, sent to rescue righteous Lot from its fiery doom. Their coming shows that heavenly angels are sent to protect and deliver God's people. Lot's cultivated courtesy in welcoming them helped preserve him when the wicked people threatened the visitors, for God's angels protected him from the mob.

The protection Lot offered the strangers was returned, for the angels protected him and led him and his household safely out from the midst of Sodom. What they did for him belongs to a wider care, for in all ages angels are near to Christ's faithful followers. The armies of heaven are encamped about all who love God to deliver them, and from dangers seen and unseen believers are preserved through the interposition of angels.

The whole family of heaven is interested in the family below, with messengers from the throne of God attending their steps day by day. That care will only be fully known in the light of eternity when the providences of God are seen. Their appearing as ordinary travelers and accepting hospitality in a human home is an example of celestial beings taking an active part in human affairs.

Hospitality Toward Strangers

Lot's welcoming of the two angels, who appeared as men, into his home for the night exemplifies the duty to welcome and care for strangers. In urging them to turn in and tarry all night he showed the care due to travelers arriving in the city. It is a lesson the priest and the Levite knew but failed to put into practice.

His courteous hospitality helped protect the visitors from the danger they faced in Sodom's street. His hospitality was part of protecting people in danger and caring for the homeless, for he risked harm to himself and his household to shelter them. The strangers were angels, and the protection Lot offered them was returned when they led him and his household safely out of Sodom. Kindness to strangers can bring blessing, while shutting a door against a stranger can mean shutting out God's messenger.

Home Choice and Faithfulness

Lot chose to live in and near Sodom by looking at outward appearance and natural and worldly advantages without reference to associations, morals, and religion. He went into Sodom rich and left with nothing, led out by an angel's hand before destruction fell. When Sodom was destroyed he lost his possessions and escaped only under an angel's guidance, while 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. His eventual ruin illustrates the danger of choosing a home for worldly advantage while disregarding its moral and religious influences, a choice that can expose children to corrupting associations and threaten the family's spiritual welfare.

He fully intended to keep himself free from iniquity and to command his household after him, but he signally failed. The corrupting influences about him weakened his own faith, and his children's connection with the inhabitants of Sodom bound up his interest with theirs, with ruin to his children and barely saving his own soul. Choosing a home for temporal advantage, a beautiful and fertile country or a flourishing city in hope of greater prosperity and worldly wealth and honor, while neglecting moral and religious influences, surrounds children with temptation, unfavorable associations, and an atmosphere of lax morality and unbelief and indifference to religious things that counteracts parental influence. It keeps examples of rebellion against parental and divine authority ever before the youth, and leads to attachments for infidels and unbelievers and casting in the lot with the enemies of God. Lot's history shows this danger, for he had to flee and his sons-in-law perished after mocking his faith and rejecting his warning.

In choosing a home the moral and religious influences surrounding the family must be considered first of all. Families should seek God's guidance in choosing where to live, training children, and directing their work, and avoid worldly gain that leads toward Sodom's attractions. Young people are to be kept as far from Sodom and corrupting surroundings as possible, and the warning applies against bringing the family into Sodom and placing young people among worldly influences of every kind. Even God's institutions are not to be placed amid wicked surroundings, for establishing an institution on Hill Street would be like Lot going into Sodom. Where duty calls God will enable standing uncorrupted through watching and praying and trusting in the grace of Christ, as Lot stood uncorrupted amid moral pollution. But voluntarily placing the home in an atmosphere of worldliness and unbelief displeases God and drives holy angels from the home, and living among corrupt people can be dangerous, especially for one weak in moral power, so that separation from such associations may be necessary.

Securing worldly advantage at the expense of eternal interests is a terrible loss that makes the life work lost and a sad failure, while true wisdom may give children less of worldly prosperity but makes sure of title to the immortal inheritance. Even in cities steeped in sin and moral corruption there are people like Lot, proving God has His own people even in a great and wicked city. As God had Lot in Sodom, He has a people in New York who thirst for pure truth as the hart pants for water, and New York is ready to be worked with God's power carrying the truth there. Reformers are called to stand for God's law governing the physical life, to help relieve suffering, and to uphold God's laws and cultivate the mind and heart. Standing within Genesis 18-19, the verse calls readers to seek the Lord most earnestly and to take a more decided stand for the Lord by being not only professed believers in the truth but obedient to all of God's requirements, bringing heartfelt confession and softened and subdued hearts under the Spirit of the Lord.