Genesis 19:22, commentary and pictures

The angel commands Lot to hasten his escape to Zoar, holding back the destruction of Sodom until he reaches safety, and Zoar itself is spared for a time in mercy to give him a place of refuge. God in long forbearance withholds fiery judgment until the righteous are removed, but mercy cannot be rejected with impunity and the delayed destruction is certain upon persistent, corrupt rebellion. Lot's long dwelling in Sodom had weakened his faith, so he lingers, pleads for a nearer refuge instead of the mountains, and obeys only halfway, and his lingering makes the escape perilous and costs his wife's life when she fails to escape as directed. He had chosen Sodom for its fertile appearance and worldly advantage without regard for corrupting associations, intending to keep himself and his household free, but he signally fails and escapes barely with his own soul, rich going in and leaving with nothing but his life. The same call now urges those dwelling in sin to hasten and flee for life without delay, for present cities are becoming as Sodom in licentiousness and corruption, yet faithful Lots remain even there and must be sought and warned.

Escape Command and Setting

The command is to hasten and escape to Zoar, for nothing can be done to destroy Sodom until arrival there, so fiery destruction is held back until safety is reached. The messengers of wrath wait to pour forth their fiery blasts to consume all the inhabitants until escape is complete, and the angels protect and lead safely out and will not allow destruction to proceed beforehand. Lot had to reach Zoar before the work could begin, and the account belongs to the destruction that followed growing corruption.

Instead of fleeing to the mountains as commanded, Lot pleads for himself for a nearer, lesser escape to Zoar. His request to settle nearer than the mountains is granted, though distrusting God to keep him safe he fears evil will overtake him and he will die if he obeys fully. Long dwelling in corrupt Sodom has weakened his faith and confidence in God's justice and blunted his sensibilities so he cannot discern God's works and purposes. His pleading to bring God to his own terms warns against unbelief and half-obedience, showing that yielding unreservedly would bring salvation and victory.

Holy angels are sent on a special mission of mercy to the gates of Sodom to rescue righteous Lot from fiery doom, in all ages ministering to God's people. When he lingers in grief and reluctance they lay hold on him and lead him by the hand out of Sodom. That lingering makes the escape perilous, and the need is to respond promptly to God's warning. His wife becomes a pillar of salt when she does not escape as directed, so self-pleading and half-obedience cost his wife's life. On the very same day Lot goes out, fire and brimstone rain from heaven and destroy them all.

Zoar is spared from the destruction of the cities of the plain in mercy in answer to Lot's request to flee there rather than to the mountains, to give him a place of escape. The sparing is only temporary because its destruction has been purposed. Iniquity prevails there as in Sodom, and the cities surrounding Sodom are corrupted by the same sins as Sodom. Lot dwells there only a short time, fearing to remain lest the city be destroyed, and not long after he leaves for the mountains to live in a cave before Zoar is consumed. He later learns that the angels knew better where he should go than his chosen nearer refuge. When the delayed destruction comes it blots out the entrancing beauty of that highly favored city and its suburbs, making bleak and bare a place once made very beautiful.

Judgment and Mercy Revealed

Warnings given in mercy cannot be rejected with impunity, for mercy ceased to plead with the guilty inhabitants of Sodom and fire sent down from heaven consumed all but Lot with his wife and two daughters. The punishment of those inhabitants with fire from heaven while Lot was saved proves that obedience to all of God's law is absolutely essential to eternal life, and that transgressors are not taken straight into glory by mercy but suffer the final penalty for transgressing His law. Sodom was destroyed by bolts of fire from heaven because sin grew worse, proving God means what He says.

God holds back destructive judgment for a time because of long forbearance, even toward corruption like that of the Sodomites, and withholds fiery destruction until the righteous are removed so as to rid the earth of contaminating influence only after their escape, but the delayed judgment is certain. Judgment on those with great light who do not live up to it is delayed but certain, and professed Sabbath-keepers whose youth indulge in forward, immodest flirtation and cheap talk are fast becoming like the Sodomites and venturing upon the long forbearance of Jehovah. The end is near and the time for God to work is about come, when He will do terrible things in righteousness, exhaust His patience toward the once blessed and favored, abandon them, and leave souls destitute of the Spirit of God to reap a harvest they will not be pleased to garner unless they are converted and Christ becomes an abiding principle in the soul. On the very same day Lot went out, fire and brimstone rained from heaven and destroyed them all, the delay being to remove the righteous first. Only a few escaped Sodom's destruction despite having been warned, for the warning did not save those who failed to escape.

The ruin of the cities of the plain is linked to Sodom's abundance of idleness, which weakened the mind, debased the soul, and perverted understanding. The inhabitants were steeped in licentiousness and sexual immorality, corrupting their way before God by indulgence and wicked inventions until in body and soul they no longer discerned the difference between the pure affections given by God and destructive lusts, following the imaginations of their own corrupt minds and dishonoring God by wicked works as did those before the Flood who were to be destroyed for wickedness. Their corruption shows how wicked the world can become when people give themselves to sin, and stands as the comparison for a world marked by licentiousness, moral corruption, and sexual sin. The cities had degenerated from lightness and frivolity to debasing sins where inclination, passion, appetite, and self bore sway over reason and nearly obliterated the knowledge of God.

Their eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, and building became sin when gratification of appetite occupied thought and time at the neglect of eternal interests, abusing the body, destroying health, unbalancing the mind, and strengthening animal propensities until the sword of justice awoke against them. Sodom shows the condition a land of boasted liberty and advantages reaches when wealthy winebibbers and blasphemers give tone to public opinion and take the lead in the highest circles, with reason shut away by wine, God forgotten and dishonored, youth led into wild license, and money made a god. Its inhabitants are presented as so wicked in independent, rebellious lives that God could not allow them to continue, showing that God, though compassionate and ready to pardon, will punish those who persistently despise His grace and reject the light and advantages given to them.

Lot's Choice and Loss

Lot chose his home in Sodom without regard for its corrupting associations, looking only at outward appearance and choosing the fertile plains and beautiful country for material advantage, prosperity, and worldly wealth and honor. When he entered Sodom he fully intended to keep himself free from iniquity and to command his household after him, but he signally failed, for the corrupting influences about him affected his own faith. His children's connection with the inhabitants bound up his interest with theirs, and the result was the ruin of his children, with some perishing in the destruction and others lost to the cause.

His escape was barely the saving of his own soul after his life work was lost, for he went into Sodom rich and left with nothing. His possessions were destroyed, his married children and riches were lost, and his wife became a pillar of salt, leaving him with only escape, barely escaping while his children were ruined. Even when the soul itself is saved by fleeing in obedience, familiar habits and customs cling, and a person may find he has assimilated to them more than he was aware.

The verse warns against choosing a home for temporal advantages like a beautiful and fertile country or a flourishing city in hope of greater prosperity and worldly wealth and honor, or for greatest financial advantage, while children are surrounded by temptation, unfavorable associations, lax morality, unbelief, indifference to religious things, rebellion against parental and divine authority, and attachments to infidels and unbelievers that counteract parental influence and hinder piety and right character. In choosing a home moral and religious influences on self and family must come first, for securing worldly advantage at the expense of eternal interests ends in terrible loss and sad failure, while true wisdom may mean less worldly prosperity for children but makes sure of title to the immortal inheritance. Voluntarily placing self and family in the current of the world and in an atmosphere of worldliness and unbelief displeases God and drives holy angels from the home, and he with his children will be borne downward by it, for God will not work a miracle to change natural causes that can be controlled. Wherever duty calls, however, God will enable standing uncorrupted through watching and praying and trusting in the grace of Christ.

Safety requires being wise and discriminating about spiritual advantages, gathering correct influences around self and children, placing children where they will cultivate a love for divine things lest surrounding influences weave a spell upon the soul to perdition and children be lost to the cause of God, and settling where God's people can be an influence for good and do His work faithfully. It is best to obey God at any sacrifice, for it is better to lose every worldly advantage, even a beautiful and fertile country, than to lose Jesus or dishonor Him by careless inattention to His requirements. The account shows the need to escape a morally corrupt place and separate from its dangerous influence, to keep far away from Sodom and its depraved practices threatening purity of soul. Not to bring youth into similar worldly surroundings and not to establish institutions among similar wicked surroundings is the lesson, for to do so is like Lot taking his family into Sodom.

Present Warning and Mission

Genesis 18 and 19 stand as a preaching text that calls hearers to seek the Lord earnestly, to take a decided stand in obedience to all requirements and not merely profess belief in the truth, and to answer with heartfelt confession and earnest prayer. The command to hasten and escape is the special message now to be borne to those dwelling in sin, to flee for life, to pierce spiritual darkness and convict and convert souls. It is to be given with terrible earnestness because the Lord lives and reigns and will soon arise in majesty to shake terribly the earth.

There is to be no delay for criticism and accusation but prayer and warning for the hundreds who are waiting to escape for their lives and lay hold on the hope set before them in the gospel, with far more labor for those without God and without hope. The need is to respond promptly to God's warning, for lingering made Lot's escape perilous and his wife became a pillar of salt when she did not escape as directed. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah belongs to a history in which youth trained to love excitement, to glorify self, and to follow the imagination of evil hearts produced depravity, cruelty, violence, and crime, and the same training and the same results are now appearing again in cities and even country towns.

Present large cities are becoming as Sodom and Gomorrah, growing worse and worse, and this condition is a sign of the times to be discerned. Sodom remains the example against which a similarly corrupt and polluted world is measured, a world marked by licentiousness, moral corruption, and sexual sin. Steadily increasing sin is fast making the world as it was before the flood, and the same eating, drinking, gluttony, intemperance, and bewitched, indiscreet courtship and marriage now repeat the days of Lot. This repetition warns Christ's followers to be temperate and to seek those things which are above.

The destruction stands with the flood that saved only Noah and his sons after Adam and Eve opened the floodgates of woe, and with Nineveh whose threatened destruction was averted by repentance but later came when its people returned to idolatry and their sins reached to heaven. Sodom was destroyed for the same sin later found among the Canaanites, warning that those who have witnessed God's power can still fall into evil and face judgment. Judgment on those with great light who do not live up to it is delayed but certain through long forbearance even toward Sodom-like corruption.

This is applied to professed Sabbath-keepers whose youth indulge in forward, immodest flirtation and cheap talk, who are fast becoming like Sodomites and venturing upon divine forbearance while the end is near and the time for God to work is about to come. Unless converted and Christ becomes an abiding principle in the soul, God will do terrible things in righteousness, exhaust patience toward the once blessed and favored, abandon them, and leave souls destitute of the Spirit to reap a harvest they will not be pleased to garner. Yet the escape to Zoar shows there were faithful people living amid a city steeped in sin, and there are such Lots in every Sodom and even in great and wicked cities. God has a people panting after pure truth as the hart pants after water, so wickedness does not leave a city to be left untouched but calls for His work to be established there.