Genesis 19:5, commentary and pictures

The men of Sodom surrounded Lot's house that night and demanded that he bring out the men who had come to him so they might sexually abuse and assault them. Their demand exposed bold and defiant licentiousness and grave moral corruption, showing a city given over to impurity, lawless crime and abomination. The visitors they sought were holy angels sent in mercy to rescue righteous Lot, who protected him from the mob by striking them with blindness and led him safely away by the hand before the city was destroyed. Sodom's guilt called forth its fiery doom in brimstone rained from heaven to rid the earth of its contaminating influence, leaving its burning as a sure warning that long-delayed judgment against such sins will come unless repented of. Lot's ruin through choosing a home for outward beauty and temporal advantage without regard to moral and religious associations warns that homes and schools must be chosen for piety and right character first, for present cities steeped in the same excitement, dissipation and depravity are repeating Sodom's condition.

Demand at Lot's Door

That night the men of the city called to Lot to bring out the men who had come in to him, that they might know them, with know meaning to have sexual relations with them, to abuse and assault his male visitors. Their demand was for Lot's male guests to be brought out for corrupt sexual practices and immoral use, an assault upon strangers under his roof that laid bare the city's wickedness and great lawlessness. It belonged to a wider pattern in which defiling sins are spread to others, and as that corruption grew it brought God's judgment and destruction upon the city. It pictures an age of widespread social wickedness, the outcome feared when license replaces self-restraint and purity and the safeguards of virtue are lost. Even as the mob pressed, Lot was protected from danger, and its members were struck with blindness so that they could not find the door.

The demand exposed a vile purpose and grave moral corruption, bold and defiant licentiousness, impurity and crime. The men walked in the imaginations of their own hearts, living headstrong, independent, wicked lives as persistent, independent despisers of grace, until their wickedness was such that their lives could not be perpetuated. In mercy the God of vengeance destroyed them with a depravity so extreme that the city stands as the example of corruption behind the comparison of the world to Sodom, a city steeped in sin with Lot dwelling amid that corruption. The same guilt rests on those now on the borders of the heavenly Canaan who with all advantages and light and evidences of truth do not purify their souls by living up to them. The God who abundantly blesses, who is full of compassion and ready to pardon, to meet the returning prodigal, to humble Himself to meet fallen man and to heal the bruised and smitten, will show Himself strong to punish them.

The men surrounding Lot's house to demand his visitors show Sodom as a hotbed of iniquity, where rejecting God's commandments lets selfish indulgence grow, strengthened through poor home training. Their act was Sodomitish sin, iniquity and abomination in God's sight that defiles and pollutes the moral sense. The demand for the men in Lot's house for immoral use warns that society at large becomes a Sodom at large if the God-created distinction between male and female is discarded. God made the race male and female on a division of labor, each sex the complement of the other and unlike in body, mind and endowment. That distinction must be kept visible in dress, for an unmistakable difference in costume guards the wearer and prevents sexual evil.

Angels Rescuing Righteous Lot

The men who came to Lot that night were holy angels come to Sodom to rescue righteous Lot. They were sent on a mission of mercy to the very gates of Sodom to deliver him from its fiery doom. Their errand is one example of how holy angels in all ages minister to God's people.

The angels stood between Lot and the mob that demanded his visitors, protecting him from the danger that pressed upon him that night. They struck the assailants with blindness so that they could not find the door. They took Lot by the hand and led him safely away out of the city before its destruction fell. They came also to see how deep the corruption had become, whether its people had passed beyond hope of redemption and beyond the limits of divine forbearance.

Nature of Sodom's Wickedness

Sodom was dark with crimes of every kind and deeply corrupt in morals, a picture of extreme moral corruption and pollution. Its condition illustrates the sinful society that may be encountered, and stands as a comparison for a world marked by widespread sexual immorality, moral degradation, present moral pollution and increasing depravity. Its people corrupted their way through licentiousness, indulgence and wicked inventions, becoming so steeped in destructive lusts that they could not discern between the pure affections God gave as attributes of human nature and corrupt lust. By this they became corrupt in body and soul and as sinful as those before the flood, picturing souls dead in trespasses and sins surrounded by a poisonous atmosphere, a condition repeated in whole families today who need to be terribly alarmed.

Its defiling sins pollute both those who practice them and others, defile the temple of God, and stain the purity of the soul. They follow rejection of divine guidance onto a path of bodily defilement and degrading acts, and those who persist become unreceptive to reproof and warning and face ruin, so sensual appetite and unlawful sexual practices must be resisted. Young people should not be exposed to such practices or placed among people and in settings marked by them. They can be cherished in secret even by those whose names are on the church books, yet they are known by the Heart-searcher, and judgment long delayed against them is none the less sure and will soon fall to cut down those who continue in them.

Its forward, immodest advances that break down all barriers of reserve and true decorum show what those who profess to be Christians and Sabbath-keepers become when young women make advances to young men, flirt, exchange notes in meeting, and engage in common, cheap talk and ways. Such forwardness and lack of modesty and decent behavior is offensive to God, a mockery of the Christian name, and proof of being led and controlled by Satan. Unless moral taste is refined and Christ becomes an abiding principle in the soul, those who misapply their powers and pervert their privileges in this way are destitute of the Spirit of God, will lose their souls and never see heaven, and will face close and terrible judgments in righteousness and reap a harvest they will not be pleased to garner.

Its sins are held up as a parallel to secret vice and profligacy among children and youth in professedly Christian families. They include sexual wrongdoing by married people, and efforts centered on exposing others' sexual faults can lead to impurity rather than purity. They are also compared with defiling corrupt practices arising from indecent images and imaginings.

Causes and Judgment of Sodom

Sodom's condition grew from lack of diligent habits and from idleness, with its people untrained to diligent work. Idle holidays taught that lazy days are essential to health and happiness, training people to love excitement, to glorify themselves, and to follow the imagination of their own evil hearts. That was the same training as in the days of Noah, and now as then its result is depravity, cruelty, violence, and crime that ruins the country.

Its course degenerated from lightness and frivolity to debasing sins of corrupt passion and lustful abomination. Inclination and passion bore sway over reason, self was god, and the knowledge of the Most High was nearly obliterated through selfish indulgence. Appetite ruled mind and conscience through intemperate eating and drinking and absorption in buying, selling, planting, building, courtship and marriage, strengthening animal propensities while eternal interests were neglected. Its wickedness grew where God's commandments were rejected and where poor home training strengthened selfish indulgence.

Its guilt called forth wrath in fire and brimstone rained from heaven the same day Lot went out, a most dreadful destruction to rid the earth of the curse of its contaminating influence. Only a few escaped despite having warning, while Lot was saved from the punishment of the disobedient. Judgment upon such defiling sins that pollute those who practice them and others and defile the temple of God is long delayed but none the less sure, and will soon fall to cut down those who continue in them even if cherished in secret by those whose names are on church books but known by the Heart-searcher.

Its burning stands with the flood that saved only Noah and his sons after Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and opened the floodgates of woe, proving men have not learned that God means what He says. It stands also with Nineveh, whose threatened destruction was averted by repentance and then fulfilled after renewed idolatry, proving together that threatened judgment comes unless repented of. It therefore warns a world fast becoming as it was before the flood, where Satan's throne is set up and God's law is trampled underfoot, of the condition that will exist again in the days of the Son of Man. Its fate warns against the same crime that existed among the Canaanites, lest God's people fall into the same errors and face similar judgment. The same guilt rests on those now on the borders of the heavenly Canaan who with all advantages and light and evidences of truth do not purify their souls by living up to them, for the God who abundantly blesses, who is full of compassion and ready to pardon, to meet the returning prodigal, to humble Himself to meet fallen man and to heal the bruised and smitten, will show Himself strong to punish them, having in mercy proved Himself a God of vengeance who could not perpetuate such bold and defiant licentiousness, impurity and crime of those walking in the imaginations of their own hearts as persistent despisers of grace.

Lot's Choice and Ruin

Lot chose his dwelling by outward appearance and temporal advantage, without reference to moral and religious associations, and so entered among an irreligious and irreverent people. Though the plain around Sodom looked like the garden of Eden and God had once made that highly favored city very beautiful, that entrancing beauty did not make the place safe. 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 interests with theirs, while evil associations undermined principles approved by God.

He entered Sodom rich and wealthy, among minds filled with worldly thoughts, amusement and extravagance, and left with nothing. He was led out by an angel's hand while messengers of wrath waited to pour forth fiery blasts to consume the inhabitants and blot out the entrancing beauty, making bleak and bare the city and its suburbs. His choice ended in destruction of possessions, death of some of his children, and death of his wife. His children's characters were so shaped by Sodom that they could not distinguish good from evil or sin from righteousness, and their ruin followed. He himself was saved only so as by fire, barely saving his own soul, leaving his life-work lost as a sad failure.

Yet his presence in wicked Sodom shows that God had a servant in a corrupt city. People who stand for what is right can be found even in deeply sinful cities, for there are Lots in every Sodom. Even in wicked cities there are faithful people who long for the truth.

Cities Repeating Sodom Today

Present cities and even country towns are in the condition of Sodom and Gomorrah, steeped in sin with the poison of sin at work at the heart of society. Their pursuit of excitement, pleasure and dissipation stirs up the passions and degrades spiritual life, and their pollution repeats Sodom's depravity, cruelty, violence and crime. The demand of the men against Lot shows a people not educated to diligent habits but taught by idle holidays that lazy days are essential to health and happiness, trained to love excitement, to glorify themselves, and to follow the imagination of their own evil hearts. The same training marked the world in the days of Noah, and now as then the result is ruin to the country. In this picture Sodom stands for cities steeped in sin, while Lot stands for a person living amid that corruption.

The world's present moral pollution and increasing depravity is likened to Sodom's extreme moral corruption. That pollution is compared with the corruption of the world in Noah's day and with a world that casts aside God's law. Men and women professing godliness yet sold unto sin and practicing adultery show a lack of strict purity and open carnality, and the present world repeating that same evil becomes a second Sodom and Gomorrah.

When winebibbing blasphemers in the highest circles of society, whose god is money, give tone to public opinion and take the lead, the land of boasted liberty and advantages with its open corruption and wild license will become as Sodom.

There are Lots in every Sodom living in the midst of that corruption, and God calls for reformers to work for them. That work labors in defense of the law He established to govern the physical system, battling disease and showing the value of nature's remedies. It maintains an elevated standard in training the mind and culture of the heart, that the Great Physician may cooperate with the human helping hand in mercy and relief of suffering.

Choosing Homes and Schools

In choosing a home moral and religious influences must be considered first, for a beautiful and fertile country or a flourishing city chosen for greater prosperity surrounds children with temptation and unfavorable associations. That atmosphere of lax morality, unbelief and indifference to religious things counteracts parental influence and hinders piety and right character, with examples of rebellion against parental and divine authority ever before the youth and attachments formed with infidels and enemies of God. Lot entered Sodom to gain temporal advantage fully intending to keep himself free from iniquity and to command his household after him, but he signally failed as the corrupting influences weakened his own faith and his children's connection with the inhabitants bound up his interest with theirs.

Voluntarily placing oneself in such an atmosphere of worldliness and unbelief displeases God and drives holy angels from the home. But wherever duty calls, God will enable standing uncorrupted through watching and praying and trusting in the grace of Christ. Securing worldly wealth and honor for children at the expense of their eternal interests is a terrible loss that leaves the life-work lost and life a sad failure, with children ruined while the parent barely saves his own soul. True wisdom would give children less of worldly prosperity to make sure of title to the immortal inheritance, choosing first the influences that secure eternal safety.

Remaining among corrupt people can endanger someone who is weak in moral strength, so separation from such company may be necessary. Bringing youth into a crowded center to be trained, where they must mingle daily with worldly people of all grades high and low, repeats Lot's mistake and exposes them to corrupting influence. It is not God's design for youth to be called to such a place, but for them to be educated elsewhere away in the country. He would not be pleased to have His institutions permanently located in a community of that character, because evil associations are always detrimental to piety and devotion and principles approved by God may be undermined by unfavorable circumstances.

Lot chose his residence by looking at the outward appearance without reference to his associations, entering rich among an irreligious and irreverent people whose minds were filled with worldly thoughts, amusement and extravagance, and leaving with nothing led out by an angel's hand while messengers of wrath waited to pour forth fiery blasts to consume the inhabitants and blot out the entrancing beauty. Even though the surroundings looked like the garden of Eden and the city and its suburbs were once made very beautiful and highly favored, that appearance did not make the place safe. His going into Sodom without considering corrupting influence warns against choosing a place for its worldly advantages without regard to its moral and religious associations, and his taking his family into close association with corrupt society shows the danger of placing people in such surroundings, like sending youth to live and train among worldly people in Battle Creek. So Sodom stands as a warning against placing God's institutions amid corrupting surroundings.

The demand to bring out the visitors for sexual assault, with know meaning sexual relations, represents Sodomitish practices as depraved conduct that stains the purity of the soul. That sin describes the corrupt behavior threatening children and youth when parents fail to teach and restrain them. Young people should not be exposed to such practices or placed among people and in settings marked by them. The deeply corrupt morals and extreme licentiousness and wickedness shown that night illustrate the sinful society young people may encounter and warn how wicked the world can become.