Genesis 19

There are moments in the history of salvation when the normal rhythms of life after the fall are suspended, and we are granted a glimpse of what Judgment Day will be like. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is one of those moments.

If the Lord had found only ten righteous people in Sodom, ten people calling upon the Name of the Lord and yielding themselves to the gracious work of God's Spirit, then God would have spared the entire region. God is the one who raises up nations, and He is the one who takes them down. The time had come for these cities to be destroyed. But the Lord knows how to rescue the few righteous people who live in that place.

The Lord's team came to Sodom as if they were strangers passing through who were looking for the hospitality that would have been an appropriate expression of common mercy to those who were far from home. Lot attempts to extend that mercy, prevailing upon his guests to stay in his home. But the men of the city seek to abuse the guests, rather than care for them, and they take offense at Lot's strange efforts to protect his guests, as if his pleading is an intolerable insult to their own freedom and dignity. They say, “This fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them.” They were ready to heap violent abuse upon Lot as a punishment for his reproof of their wicked actions.

The Lord came to visit this place through these heavenly ambassadors. They have seen what they came to see, and now they will do two things: First, they will get the few in the community of the righteous out of the pathway of the judgment of heaven soon coming upon the earth. Second, they will destroy this place with fire.

As a beginning step, the aggressors at the door are struck with blindness, and Lot, his wife, and his daughters are given some brief moments to make an escape. These daughters have men whom they would have married, but those two boys are not able to understand the seriousness of the moment. They will die with the city when it is destroyed.

Next, the small band who would survive set off to safety, too slowly for their own good. The angels seem to have to drag them away from their undue attachment to a place that has come under God's judicial curse. Lot's wife looks longingly back on the place that her husband chose years ago, and she faces immediate destruction. She ignored the express warning of the Lord, and became a signpost to all in every generation who would love this world without a due regard for the fear of God.

Lot is a physically weak man after his years in this place, and he pleads and receives a closer safe destination, taking refuge in the small city of Zoar. This little oasis will be saved because of Lot's weakness.

With Lot and his daughters safe in Zoar, the “Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven.” The beautiful plain was destroyed. Lot's life in Sodom was over. Even his wife was gone.

Abraham looked over the land of judgment and saw the devastation of what had happened: “The smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.” (The Lord would one day speak of Abraham being able to see events transpiring in hell. Note Luke 16:19-31. One day the judgment smoke of God will rise forever over a place of eternal torment. Will Abraham and others in heaven be able to see?)

God remembered Abraham and his pleading. Sodom was not saved forever, but God sent Lot out and delivered him from certain death.

What followed in Zoar was an abomination. Lot's daughters panicked, and they worked out their quest for a future in their own way. The result was the beginning of two peoples, the Moabites and the Ammonites.

We will follow the story of these peoples throughout the history of the Old Testament. They will be enemies of the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but there is much more to that story which will be told in its place. For now we see the beginning of two peoples in fear and immorality. This is reported by God, and it is part of His inscrutable providence, but it is against His Law. It is a great example of a very bad heritage that is used by God for His own perfect purposes.

Lot's treatment of his daughters and their treatment of him are not recorded in the Scriptures for our imitation or for our general moral instruction. They are on the pages of the Bible because they really happened and because they are relevant. They testify again to the problem of the human heart, which is very depraved. Christ took sin this base upon Himself for the sake of the elect.

What is required now is for us to turn away from the beauty of the cities of the plain, to turn away from the gross immorality of man, and to look to our Redeemer, a descendant of Lot through King David and Ruth, David's ancestor, from Moab. All of the Davidic kings came through the lineage of these repulsive events.

The Lord knows about the ugliness of sin. But He also knows about the power of redemption. He can bring good things to pass out of a very messy world. He can touch the unclean and make it clean. A judgment is surely coming upon the earth, but God has provided us a Zoar in the cross of Christ. Flee to Him and live. He can take away your disgrace.