Genesis 19:20, commentary and pictures

Lot in terror and confusion pleaded to be allowed to flee to the little city nearby instead of to the mountain as commanded, fearing some evil would overtake him and he would die if he obeyed. The city was Bela, afterward called Zoar, only a few miles from Sodom, itself corrupt and doomed yet spared at his plea with assurance it would not be overthrown. His self-pleading showed faith dimmed and weakened by long living amid unbelief, so that even with heaven's messenger beside him he could not trust himself wholly to God but tried to plan for himself and bring God to his own terms. The sparing of Zoar and the rescue of Lot reveal how great God's mercy is toward His erring creatures in delivering the righteous from fiery doom, yet when warning is rejected mercy ceases to plead and judgment falls. His course stands as a warning that choosing a home for outward advantage and worldly prosperity exposes the soul and children to corrupting associations, so moral and religious influences must come first and true escape requires entire separation from evil, repentance, and obedience to all God's requirements.

Lot's Plea For Zoar

Lot pleaded in confusion and terror to flee to a nearby little city instead of to the mountain as commanded, fearing some evil would overtake him and he would die, and asking that his soul might live. His plea showed distrust and weak faith and reluctance to trust wholly in divine direction, endeavoring to plan for himself and to bring deliverance to his own terms rather than yielding himself unreservedly to do as required. The city he named was Bela, afterward called Zoar, only a few miles from Sodom. Zoar was like Sodom corrupt and doomed to destruction, yet at his plea it was spared, with assurance that it would not be overthrown.

The verse belongs to the rescue in which angels came to deliver righteous Lot from fiery destruction and led him safely out. But Lot lingered and delayed when he should have left promptly, so the angels had to hurry him and his family away. His lingering put his family in danger.

The escape was barely made with loss of everything, for Lot left with nothing as judgment was about to fall, led away while his possessions and riches were lost. His warned sons-in-law and daughters rejected the warning and perished in Sodom's destruction. His wife became a pillar of salt, so he himself escaped with his life and only a few escaped despite warning.

Lot dwelt in Zoar only a short time because iniquity prevailed there as in Sodom and he feared to remain lest it be destroyed. So he left for the mountains and lived in a cave, stripped of all for which he had exposed his family to the influences of a wicked city, and Zoar was afterward consumed as purposed. The curse of Sodom followed him even there, for evil association had so interwoven moral corruption with his daughters that they could not distinguish between good and evil. Their sinful conduct produced his only posterity, the Moabites and Ammonites, vile idolatrous rebels against God and bitter enemies of His people.

Weakened Faith And Disobedience

Long dwelling in that wicked city in the midst of unbelief had dimmed Lot's faith and weakened his confidence in the Lord. His sensibilities were blunted so that he could not discern God's works and purposes. He was left unable to trust himself in God's hands to do His bidding, distrusting God and refusing full obedience when told to flee to the mountains from corrupt Sodom appointed to utter destruction. His plea to escape to nearby Zoar, a small city, rather than flee as commanded showed weak faith and reluctance to trust God's direction.

Even with the Prince of heaven by his side he pleaded in confusion and terror for his own life, fearing some evil would overtake him and he would die, as though God who had manifested such care and love for him would not still preserve him. Instead of trusting himself wholly to the divine Messenger and giving his will and life into the Lord's hands without doubt or question, yielding himself unreservedly, he endeavored like so many others to plan for himself. He lingered, was reluctant, pleaded for himself, tried to bring God to his own terms, and excused himself from doing as required, urging his escape to the little city as but a small request that his soul might live.

This continual self-pleading unbelief delayed the escape and cost him the life of his wife. It stands as a warning to all who wish to live godly lives to separate themselves from influences calculated to lead them away from God. For God means what He says and will compass the salvation of those who yield to Him.

Divine Mercy In Rescue

The plea to escape to the little city near at hand instead of to the mountain as commanded was made in confusion and terror, from fear that some evil would overtake him and he would die, asking only this small thing that his soul might live. Long dwelling in that wicked city in the midst of unbelief had dimmed his faith, so that even with the Prince of heaven by his side he pleaded for his own life as though God, who had shown such care and love for him, would not still preserve him. Instead of trusting himself wholly to the divine Messenger and giving will and life into the Lord's hands without doubt or question, he endeavored to plan for himself and to bring God to his own terms. The city he named was Bela, afterward called Zoar, only a few miles from Sodom and like it corrupt and doomed to destruction, yet at his plea it was spared with the assurance that it would not be overthrown, showing how great is God's mercy toward His erring creatures. The sending of angels to lead him safely out before the fiery doom fell belongs to that same mercy in delivering the righteous from destruction.

God in mercy warned the guilty, but when the warning was rejected mercy ceased to plead. Then He withdrew His Spirit and left them to perish, and all but Lot with his wife and two daughters were consumed by fire sent down from heaven. No one can reject God's warnings with impunity, for deliverance depends on how His message is treated.

The destruction shows God in mercy acting as a God of vengeance, strong to punish persistent, independent despisers of His grace who walk in the imaginations of their own corrupt hearts in headstrong lives of impurity and crime which He cannot perpetuate. Yet He abundantly blesses and is full of compassion and ready to pardon, going forth to meet the returning sinner, humbling Himself to meet man in his fallen condition and healing the bruised and smitten. Those now on the very borders of the heavenly Canaan, with all advantages and light and evidences of truth shining upon them, stand in the same guilt as Sodom and the world before the Flood if they do not purify their souls by living up to those advantages.

Sodom's Corruption And Judgment

The inhabitants had corrupted their way before God and become as sinful as those before the Flood, spreading corrupt practices by teaching them to others until their sins became intolerable and called for destruction with its beauty blotted out. They walked in the imaginations of their own corrupt hearts and minds in headstrong independent lives of impurity and crime that could not be perpetuated. They dishonored God by wicked inventions, became corrupt in body and soul and hated their Maker, and were so steeped in licentiousness that they did not discern pure God-given affections from destructive lusts indulged by wicked inventions, and they were destroyed because of their wicked works. Whole families today are in the same need of alarming, corrupting their way and becoming like the world before the Flood and the inhabitants of Sodom.

The ruin of the cities of the plain was caused by pride, fullness of bread, abundance of idleness, and failure to strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. Idleness brings terrible results, enfeebling the mind, debasing the soul, and perverting the understanding. Their conduct degenerated from lightness and frivolity to debasing sins that called forth wrath in most dreadful destruction 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 the knowledge of the Most High was nearly obliterated through selfish indulgence of corrupt passions. The eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, and building of those days show appetite bearing sway over mind and conscience, with gratification of appetite occupying thought and time at neglect of eternal interests, abuse of the body, destruction of health, unbalanced mind, and strengthened animal propensities that awaken the sword of justice, and stand as a warning for the days of the Son of Man when followers will be temperate and seek things above.

That society shows the corrupt condition into which society at large falls when the God-given distinction between man and woman is discarded. A universal and unmistakable distinction in costume prevents becoming a Sodom at large, because the garments act as a guard going with the wearer and a perpetual restraining monitor over virtue, while casting aside that distinction evidences guilty intent and betrays the virtue of both sexes. The world marked out for comparison is marked by sexual corruption and moral degradation, by licentiousness requiring unchecked desire and moral unwatchfulness to be warned against, and by cities presented as polluted examples of corrupt society. Sodom and Gomorrah were places without strict purity, marked by carnal living, being sold unto sin, and practicing adultery by men and women professing godliness, and the present world has become like a second Sodom and Gomorrah by repeating those same evils. A land of liberty and advantages reaches a degraded condition when winebibbers and blasphemers whose god is money give tone to public opinion and lead society, for indulgence in wine and intoxicating drink beclouds reason, destroys self-control, leads to forgetfulness of God and contempt for the Son of God and to every excess of wild license, until nothing is held sacred.

Sodom was destroyed by fire and bolts from heaven that consumed the inhabitants and blotted out the entrancing beauty of that highly favored city and its suburbs, making bleak and bare a place once made very beautiful. In mercy the guilty were warned, but when the warning was rejected mercy ceased to plead, the Spirit was withdrawn, and the guilty were left to perish, so that all but Lot with his wife and two daughters were consumed by fire sent down from heaven. Only a few escaped despite receiving warning, and deliverance depends on how the message is treated, for men cannot reject warnings with impunity. The destruction proves that God means what He says and stands in a continuous history of sin increasing since Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and lost Eden, since the world before the Flood grew so wicked that God destroyed it by water saving only Noah and his sons, and since Nineveh was threatened and then spared and later destroyed, showing that unrepented sin brings certain divine judgment.

Sodom serves as a warning of what the world may become when people are taught that they may live as they please and are not accountable for their actions. Its destruction was for the same kind of wickedness later found among the Canaanites, making its judgment a warning against communion with evil spirits and the corruption that follows. Behavior described as becoming like the Sodomites is offensive to God and faces His judgments.

Choosing Home And Influence

Lot chose his home by outward appearance and natural advantage, without weighing the moral and religious character of its associations. He looked more to beautiful and fertile country, to a flourishing city, and to greater prosperity, worldly wealth and honor than to the influences that would surround himself and his family. He went into Sodom rich, and when judgment was about to fall he was led out by an angel's hand with nothing, having lost everything he had. His flight to save his own soul alive belongs to that choice of a place for its apparent advantages and to the warning of his daughters and sons-in-law who rejected the warning and perished.

He entered Sodom fully intending to keep himself free from iniquity and to command his household after him, but he signally failed. The corrupting influences around him weakened his own faith, and his children's connection with the people of Sodom bound up his interests with theirs, so his children were ruined. Choosing a home for temporal advantage and worldly prosperity rather than for moral and religious influence thus exposes children to temptation, evil associations, lax morality, unbelief, indifference to religious things, and rebellion against parental and divine authority. Such associations with infidels, unbelievers, and enemies of God counteract parental influence and hinder piety, right character, and Christian character.

Voluntarily placing self and family where worldly influences surround them bears parents and children downward to perdition, for God will not work a miracle to change natural causes that can be controlled. It displeases God and drives holy angels from the home. A beautiful and fertile country and every worldly advantage are worthless if surrounding influences weave a spell upon the soul, if familiar habits and customs cling and assimilate unawares, and if children are lost to the cause of God for want of a place to cultivate love for divine things. Securing worldly wealth and honor at the expense of eternal interests is a terrible loss, ending in ruined children, a barely saved soul, lost life-work, and a sad failure of life.

In choosing a home moral and religious influences must come first, with wise and discriminating choice of spiritual advantages and gathering of correct influences about self and children. There must be no needless exposure to influences unfavorable to Christian character, but obedience to God at any sacrifice rather than losing Jesus or dishonoring Him by careless inattention to His requirements. Where duty calls into trying positions, watchfulness, prayer, and trust in the grace of Christ will enable one to stand uncorrupted. True wisdom accepts less worldly prosperity in order to make sure of title to the immortal inheritance.

The same choice warns against establishing a religious institution in a wicked city, teaching that God's people and institutions should leave such surroundings and be placed elsewhere. Taking the family into worldly Sodom is like calling youth to Battle Creek and placing them among people of every class and social standing, where worldly influence endangers them. The escape from Sodom applies as a lesson to keep young people away from places and associations marked by corrupt practices, to guard their senses and preserve their purity.

Warning And Present Application

Genesis 18 and 19 call for seeking the Lord most earnestly and taking a more decided stand. The call is to be not merely professed believers in the truth but obedient to all of God's requirements. That obedience leads to confession, to softened and subdued hearts, and to earnest prayer.

God commands flight from a place of moral danger as from Sodom. True escape requires repentance, confession and forsaking of sin, and entire separation from corrupting associates. It requires arousing the will in reliance wholly on the strength of Jesus to become an overcomer. Carrying unsubdued appetite and passions along in flight prevents God from prospering and blessing, and returning to make a home in such a place without Lot's integrity exposes one weak in moral power to a dangerous moral atmosphere and corrupting association, though Lot himself lived in Sodom yet stood uncorrupted amid its moral pollution. Obedience to all God's law is absolutely essential to eternal life, transgression brings final penalty, salvation depends on ceasing to transgress and keeping the law, the wicked were not winged straight into glory, and no one may presume on mercy to sin as much as they dare or follow afar off near the verge of perdition, as shown where the Sodomites were punished by fire from heaven for disobedience and Lot was saved.

Even in a great and wicked city God has His own people. As He had Lot in Sodom, He has people in a wicked city who pant after pure truth as the hart pants after the water brooks, and that city is ready to be worked with the power of God carrying the truth to them. Lot escaping Sodom is the example of a faithful person found amid a deeply corrupt city, showing that such people are present in cities steeped in sin. Even cities steeped in sin have people like Lot who can be rescued, since Lot asked to flee to a nearby small city so that he might live. Even deeply sinful cities have people like Lot living among them. Even in such morally corrupt cities there are Lots, and reformers are called to defend God's law.

Large cities in the last days become as Sodom and Gomorrah while the world grows worse and worse. Lot escaping from Sodom to a little city near to flee unto bears that meaning for the last days. God's people must therefore seek the counsel of God and discern the signs of the times. They must not blind the people by making large plants and settling in cities such as Melbourne. The story warns those now on the very borders of the heavenly Canaan, with all advantages and light and evidences of truth shining upon them, that if they do not purify their souls by living up to those advantages they stand in the same guilt as Sodom and the world before the Flood, whose inhabitants walked in the imaginations of their own hearts in headstrong independent wicked lives of impurity and crime that God could not perpetuate.