Genesis 19:3, commentary and pictures

Lot urgently pressed the two travelers to turn aside into his house rather than remain exposed in the street, and they accepted his shelter and ate the feast of unleavened bread he prepared for them. They were holy angels sent on a mission of mercy to rescue righteous Lot, who protected him from the mob and led him safely out with his household before fiery judgment fell. His urgent kindness was no accident but the habit of religion learned in Abraham's household, shown to strangers who seemed only ordinary men. His presence in that corrupt and licentious city shows the danger of choosing a home for outward prosperity without first weighing its moral and religious influence, for its associations weakened his faith and ruined his children though he himself was barely saved. Sodom had passed the limits of divine forbearance and was consumed by fire from heaven, warning that persistent corruption ends in judgment and that temporal gain secured at the cost of eternal interests is a terrible loss.

Lot's Pressing Hospitality

Lot pressed the travelers greatly and persisted until they accepted, turning aside to enter his house because he would not leave them exposed to the danger of the streets of Sodom. His welcome was urgent despite that danger, for his hospitality was part of his care for travelers in peril. He made them a feast and baked unleavened bread, and they ate, the visitors appearing as men and accepting hospitality in a human home. The meal itself belongs to the wider account in which Sodom’s inhabitants chose corrupt lives despite mercy and persistent rejection of grace ends in punishment.

His hospitality was a habitual part of his religion, learned from Abraham. Life in Abraham’s household had formed in him Abraham’s courteous spirit, which he showed by welcoming and feeding visitors who appeared to be ordinary men. He did not know they were heavenly messengers, and his courteous welcome amid Sodom’s abuse of strangers illustrates how ordinary acts of kindness can bring blessing while neglecting them can bring harm.

The strangers he sheltered were holy angels sent on a mission of mercy to rescue righteous Lot from Sodom’s fiery doom. This rescue is one instance of how holy angels in all ages have ministered to God’s people. They protected Lot from the mob and struck its members with blindness when they could not find his door. They then protected him and led him safely out with his household from the doomed city.

Sodom's Corruption and Judgment

Sodom and Gomorrah were marked by evil and depravity, by corrupt and polluted morals, by great moral corruption and pollution, and by extreme licentiousness and wickedness like the world in Noah's days. Its inhabitants were dead in trespasses and sins in a poisonous atmosphere, corrupting their way before God and steeped in licentiousness through indulgence and wicked inventions until they did not discern the difference between the pure affections God gave as attributes of human nature and destructive lusts. By this they became as sinful in body and soul as those before the flood, a condition in which whole families today need to be terribly alarmed.

The cities of the plain degenerated from lightness and frivolity to debasing sins, with inclination and passion bearing sway over reason, self as their god, and the knowledge of the Most High nearly obliterated through selfish indulgence of corrupt passions. Sinful gratification of appetite in eating and drinking abuses the body, destroys health, unbalances the mind, and strengthens animal propensities, and when men allow it to occupy thoughts and time at the neglect of eternal interests it awakens the sword of justice to rid the earth of their contaminating influence. Its history shows sexual forwardness, flirtation, common talk, and breaking down of reserve and true decorum, with young women making advances and young men and women seeking each other's society to break barriers of modesty, which is perversity of character, mockery of the Christian name, and control by Satan that leaves souls destitute of the Spirit, misapplies powers, perverts privileges, and will cause loss of souls unless the moral taste is refined and Christ becomes an abiding principle. Sodom shows what society becomes when the God-given distinction between man and woman is discarded, for God created the race male and female on the principle of division of labor with each sex the complement of the other in body, mind, and heart, and a universal distinction in dress guards virtue, restrains corruption, and prevents society from becoming a Sodom.

Its story shows want of strict purity, carnal living, being sold unto sin, and practicing adultery among men and women professing godliness, so that when the same impurity and adultery are revealed the present world becomes a second Sodom and Gomorrah. Sodom represents the condition of wild license, wine drinking, blasphemy, and contempt for the Son of God that comes when winebibbers and blasphemers give tone to public opinion and take the lead in the highest circles where money is god. Its corruption grew as its inhabitants taught others forbidden practices until the city became notorious for its sins, serving as a warning of what society can become when restraint and purity are lost and corrupt teaching encourages people to follow impulse, and providing a comparison for the licentiousness and moral degradation of the world in the last days.

Its corruption had become so deep that it had passed the limits of divine forbearance and called for judgment, its inhabitants being punished for disobedience while Lot was saved, the city being consumed by bolts of fire from heaven for the same crime found among the Canaanites. Its destruction proves that sin grew worse after Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and after the flood, that men have not learned that God means what He says, and stands with the flood and with Nineveh's threatened and later destruction as proof that increasing sin brings divine judgment. It warns that persistent rejection of grace despite God's mercy ends in punishment for a world fast becoming as it was before the flood.

Choosing Home by Influence

Lot settled in Sodom after choosing a home for its worldly, temporal, and natural advantages, for outward appearance and greater prosperity, rather than considering its morals and religion, its associations, and the character of the people and the influence of the surroundings. He looked at outward appearance and chose his residence without reference to his associations. God would have the moral and religious influences surrounding a family first considered in choosing a home.

He entered fully intending to keep himself free from iniquity and to command his household after him, but he signally failed. The corrupting influences about him affected his own faith, and his children's connection with the inhabitants bound up his interest in a measure with theirs. His children were surrounded by temptation and associations unfavorable to piety and right character, an atmosphere of lax morality, unbelief, indifference to religious things, rebellion against parental and divine authority, and attachments for infidels and unbelievers that cast their lot with the enemies of God and counteracted parental influence. With that result his children were ruined and he barely saved his own soul.

He entered Sodom wealthy and rich but was led out with nothing by an angel's hand as the city faced destruction. 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 suburbs, making bleak and bare a place God had once made very beautiful. The account warns against choosing a place to live without considering the influence of its surroundings. Temporal advantages in choosing a home must not come before the moral and religious influences surrounding a family.

Voluntarily placing oneself in an atmosphere of worldliness and unbelief displeases God and drives holy angels from the home. Securing worldly wealth and honor for children at the expense of their eternal interests is a terrible loss, leaving children ruined and the parent barely saving his own soul, with the life-work lost and the life a sad failure, whereas true wisdom would accept less worldly prosperity to make sure of title to the immortal inheritance. Wherever duty calls, God will enable those who watch and pray, trusting in the grace of Christ, to stand uncorrupted.

Sodom is a place of dangerous moral atmosphere and associations, especially to one weak in moral power with unsubdued appetite and passions, whom God cannot prosper and bless if they remain. His voice calls them to flee from Sodom as from danger and to separate entirely, giving another chance to repent, confess and forsake sins, and overcome by aroused will power relying wholly on the strength of Jesus. God would have none of His people choose like Lot. He would not be pleased to have His institutions permanently located in a community of that character, however great its apparent advantages, because evil associations are always detrimental to piety and devotion and principles approved by God may be undermined by unfavorable circumstances, so Lot's presence in the city warns against establishing God's institutions in wicked surroundings.

Remnant Rescue and Present Application

Even in deeply sinful cities there can be people like Lot who stand apart from surrounding corruption and remain uncorrupted amid moral pollution, so faithful people may be found even where wickedness prevails. The account of Lot living in Sodom shows a righteous man dwelling in a city marked by wickedness, and serves as the example of such faithfulness in a deeply corrupt place. God had Lot in Sodom, and the same is true of New York: though it is a great and wicked city, God has a people there who pant after pure truth as the hart pants after the water brooks.

The setting in Sodom warns against exposing young people to depraved places and associations shaped by worldly influences. They are to guard what they see and hear and keep as far from Sodom as possible to protect their purity. Lot's taking his family into Sodom, where they were associated with worldly people of all grades, high and low, shows the danger of placing youth among worldly influences. Calling the most promising young men and young women to Battle Creek to take the nurses' course and care for the large number of guests at the Sanitarium is like Lot's act and is not God's design, and for their interest they are to be educated in some other place, with the college removed to some place in the country.

Within the message of Genesis 18-19, the verse calls professed believers in the truth to seek the Lord most earnestly and take a more decided stand for the Lord. It calls them to obey all of God's requirements rather than believing only in profession. That earnest seeking brings heartfelt confession of sin and softened and subdued hearts through the Spirit making the word effectual.