CRITICAL NOTES.—
Genesis 19:12. Son-in-law, and thy sons, and thy daughters.] “The mention of the son-in-law before the sons and daughters is somewhat surprising. Lange has proposed to read thus: ‘Hast thou here any besides as son-in-law?’ (i.e., connected with thee by marriage), and then follows the mention of the members of Lot’s own family. And this would certainly be a more probable arrangement.” (Alford.)
Genesis 19:13. The cry of them is waxen great before the face of the Lord.] Heb. Is become great before Jehovah.
Genesis 19:14. Spake unto his sons-in-law.] “Some hold these to have been only betrothed to his two daughters before mentioned: and so the Vulgate renders His sons-in-law, who were about to receive his daughters. So also Josephus, and of the moderns, Kalisch, Keil, Lange, Ewald, etc. On the other hand, the LXX. keeps the past tense, and is followed by Rosenmuller, Knobel, and Delitzsch. Certainly, in Genesis 19:15, the ‘two daughters which are here’ seem to be distinguished from other daughters who were absent. On the whole, the more probable view seems that there were husbands of married daughters living in the city, whereas his two virgin daughters lived with their father at home.” (Alford.)
Genesis 19:15. When the morning arose.] The day-dawn; for the sun did not rise till Lot entered Zoar (Genesis 19:23). “The Heb. root signifies splitting or breaking, the streaks of light breaking up the eastern clouds; and it ‘arose,’ because the dawn advances from the horizon upwards.” Thy two daughters which are here. Heb. “Which are found.” Chal. “Which are found faithful with thee.” Seems to imply that some of Lot’s daughters were not thus found, and therefore perished in the destruction of the city. In the iniquity of the city. The Heb. term signifies either the iniquity or the punishment of the iniquity.
Genesis 19:16. While he lingered.] Heb. “He delayed or distracted himself.” “The original is peculiar and emphatic in its import, leading us to fear that it was not altogether a compassionate sympathy that detained his steps. The word properly implies that ‘he suffered himself to be hindered and embarrassed with distracting cares.’ ” (Bush.) The Lord being merciful unto him. Heb. “In the gentle mercy of the Lord upon him.”
Genesis 19:17. The plain.] The country round Jordan—the same word as that used in ch. Genesis 13:10. The mountain. The mountainous region of Moab, lying several miles to the east of Sodom.
Genesis 19:19. Lest some evil take me.]. Heb. “Lest the evil, or, this evil”—the threatened destruction.
Genesis 19:20. It is a little one.] Formerly known by the name of “Bela” (Genesis 14:2), now called Zoar from this circumstance. The Jerus. Targ. reads: “It is little, and its sins are little.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Genesis 19:12-22
THE DELIVERANCE OF THE RIGHTEOUS IN THE TIME OF JUDGMENT
I. God makes known to them the way of deliverance. The angels who had come for the salvation of Lot commanded him, saying, “Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters which are here, lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city” (Genesis 19:15.) He is told, further, to escape for his life, not to look behind him, but to escape to the mountain lest he be consumed (Genesis 19:17). This was God’s revealed way of deliverance. This was His purpose to save, and the manner in which that purpose was to be accomplished. But we learn from this history—
1. That God’s way of deliverance is often against our will. Lot lingered as if still unwilling to leave the city. As the Heb. word imports, he delayed, or hindered himself. He suffered many cares and anxieties of business still to hold him to this doomed spot. The angels had to lay their hands upon Lot, and his wife, and his two daughters, and deliver them from destruction, as it were, by a loving violence. The causes of this lingering and hesitation are—
(1) We forget what should be our chief care. It was life here that was at stake. House, and goods, and residence in a rich and pleasant country are of little moment when compared with the value of our lives, with a possession so close and intimate, nearer to us than anything else—ourselves. A man is not profited if he gains the whole world and loses himself. It is folly, when the greatest treasure of all is threatened, to run any risk by losing time over insignificant matters. Such conduct shows that we lack that true nobility of soul which only sets value upon the highest and best things.
(2) We are paralysed by fear. The thought that there is danger near fills us with alarm. We are like those upon whose vital power sudden fear places an arrest. Fear is one of the greatest foes of faith—a hindrance to all effective action. The man who hid his talent in the earth was moved thereto by fear, and therefore he could do nothing. It is only by looking from our danger to God and His salvation that we can be safe. We learn further:
2. That God’s way of deliverance does not destroy the necessity for our own exertion. (Genesis 19:17.) Life is at stake, and Lot has no promise of safety but in flight to the mountain. If he lingers behind, and refuses to make haste, he must be involved in the general destruction. God will not save him without some effort on his part. This is our case. Nothing less than our life is concerned. We are in danger of failing to attain to our better and nobler life, of falling into the condemnation of the wicked. There is only one way of escape—by renouncing ourselves, our trust in our own strength, our sins, and accepting fully of God’s way of salvation. We must not linger in the plain of self, or stand still in regretful contemplation of what we have renounced, but must flee to the mountain, to the rock that is higher than we are, for there alone can we rest in safety.
3. That God’s way of deliverance is only effective through His mercy. Lot and his family were brought forth and set without the city, “the Lord being merciful unto him.” (Genesis 19:16.) It was by constraining love that he was saved after all. His purpose was too weak to have accomplished his deliverance, and had he been left to himself he would have perished in the common destruction.
“E’en Lot himself could lingering stand
When vengeance was in view;
’Twas mercy plucked him by the hand
Or he had perished too.”
Besides the call of God bidding us to “escape,” and showing the way of escape, there must be a powerful influence of mercy, otherwise we shall fail of salvation.
II. God is ready to deliver others for their sakes. The household of Lot, son-in-law and sons, were offered the same mercy. Though some of them were reckless and unworthy they were allowed to share in the blessings of the household covenant. Any connection with the people of God is a privilege which may be improved into a real benefit.
1. Hence the righteous can offer salvation to the last. Lot went out and warned his sons-in-law of the coming danger and exhorted them to escape. (Genesis 19:14.) He was to them a preacher of righteousness, even when they were upon the verge of doom. The door of mercy remains open to the last, and men may find salvation though they come late. It is our duty to proclaim the mercy of God towards sinners while there is time.
2. Our efforts may be unavailing. Lot “seemed as one that mocked unto his sons-in-law.” (Genesis 19:14.) His warning had no effect upon them. They refused to receive the offered mercy. They saw no danger; all things were around them as they had been, and there were no signs that so terrible a destruction was prepared and about to fall. They regarded Lot’s words as idle tales, and they believed them not. Thus when sinners are informed of their danger, and exhorted to seek the way of safety, they do not believe that they are in any peril, and therefore despise the message.
III. In the midst of abounding corruption only the few escape. After all this warning and exhortation, only Lot, his wife, and two daughters, escaped from the destruction of Sodom; and one, even of this small number, perished by the way! So it was in the Deluge, and in all God’s great judgments on the world. There are times when the wickedness of nations grows rank, and almost universal. That wickedness shows itself in various forms. At one time, it is laxity of morals; at another, it is a prevailing unbelief and a spirit of blasphemy; or it is lawless defiance of authority; or it may be worldliness, coarse or refined. It has ever happened that only the few have escaped the contagion of the abounding iniquity. Such is the character of the world, mostly evil! The majority are found ranging themselves on the side of the kingdom of darkness. These facts, though painful, must be admitted. They teach us—
1. The tremendous power of evil. The moral infection of sin has clung to human nature with an awful tenacity. The course of time, the progress of humanity in arts, sciences, and the refinements of life, have not sufficed to wear out the strength of the poison. This power of evil is a sad and disquieting factor in our estimate of the grandeur of man.
2. They teach us to approve of God’s great judgments upon mankind. The Scriptures record the wholesale destruction of peoples and nations on account of their sin. With our compassionate feelings we sometimes think these judgments harsh, or even unjust. But we become reconciled to them, and are ready to believe that they have a sufficient cause, when we think of the enormous wickedness which has provoked them. The long-suffering of God is great; it waits, but there must be an end. If we could only know all that God knows, and see all that He sees of the wickedness of mankind, instead of being distressed at the rigour of His judgments, we should only wonder at His patience.
IV. The righteous can only be saved out of the scenes of iniquity, not in them. Lot and his family could not be saved while they remained in Sodom. As for Lot, the men “brought him forth, and set him without the city.” (Genesis 19:16.) The world is the City of Destruction, and we must separate ourselves from it or we cannot be saved. The principles of the world, its spirit, its acts, are enmity against God. We cannot separate ourselves from the outward world, either of nature or of man, but we can be unworldly as Christ was unworldly. He lived and mingled with men in the ways of social intercourse, but He had far other aims, and was sustained by higher hopes and principles. What God requires of us is that we should not partake of that spirit of life which rules in the hearts of men who are alienated from Him. If we are saved, it must be in the kingdom of light and not in the kingdom of darkness. It must be not in the Sodom which God has doomed, but in the place to which He invites us.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Genesis 19:12. Here we are to mark the mercy of the Divine proceedings. Ten righteous men would have saved the city; but there seems to have been only one. He, however, shall at all events escape; and not only so, but all that belong to him shall be delivered for his sake, or, if otherwise, it shall be their own fault. It shall not be for the want of a proffered opportunity or a faithful warning. Sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or whatever he had, are directed to be brought out of the doomed city, which was rapidly approaching the crisis of its fate. That remarkable feature of the Divine administration by which the wicked are blessed for the sake of the righteous is here most signally illustrated; for that such were the sons-in-law is evident from the contemptuous manner in which they received the warning, and the fact that they perished in the perdition of the city.—(Bush.)
There are privileges which men have from their connection with the righteous, and to which they have no proper right on the ground of personal character. The indirect advantages of the piety of the few are great. The world little knows for how many blessings it is indebted to the Church.
Genesis 19:13. God sends judgments upon wicked nations only after all admonitions and chastisements have failed.
The sins of men have a voice which assails heaven and dares its justice.
Even the good angels are God’s executioners. And the first execution they did in the world that we read of was among these filthy Sodomites. So it will be, likely, at the last day. And St. Peter seems to say as much. (2 Peter 2:9.) The Lord reserves the unjust to the day of judgment to be punished, “but chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness.” Mark that chiefly.—(Trapp.)
Genesis 19:14. Lot is found here in the character of a preacher of righteousness, and his message is an example of that kind of warning which must be given to sinners.
1. Abrupt and pointed. The case is urgent and admits of no delay. Those concerned, in this instance, were personally addressed, and the danger to which they were exposed was announced in few words. The preacher knew the danger, and men make short work of it when they feel intensely. Like the disciples in the storm, who did not venture upon a long discourse regarding the violence of the winds and the rage of the sea, but had only time to say, “Lord, save us, or we perish.” Sinners must be roused by sharp and cutting words which admit of no doubtful meaning.
2. Authoritative. Lot signified to these sinners the authority by which he spake: “For the Lord will destroy this city.” Ministers of the Gospel have authority for warning sinners of their danger.
3. Affectionate. Lot went forth at an unusual hour of the night to warn those who were bound to him by the ties of natural relationship. We may be sure that, though his language was earnest and faithful, yet his manner was loving and kind. From the deep affection of his heart he would implore them to obey his message. In such a manner must the righteous preach to sinners as to those who belong to the same family, but who are unworthy and rebellious children.
4. In the face of all discouragements. Lot’s message was received with derision, yet he warned them to the last. We must do our duty though our message may be rejected with a heartless disdain. We have delivered our souls.
Lot at once believes what the angels tell him; and he is not afraid to avow his belief. Often before he has warned the ungodly to flee from the wrath to come. Often has he testified against their wickedness; and knowing the terror of the Lord he has sought to persuade men. But who hath believed his report? All day long he has stretched forth his hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people; and as their conversation has vexed him, so his interference has only served to irritate them. Even his own relatives and acquaintances—the very men who are, or are to be, his sons-in-law, to whom his daughters are married or betrothed—are led astray with the error of the wicked. Where are they during this memorable night, when Lot is entertaining his holy guests, and the people have risen in their fury against him? Have they turned their backs on the dwelling of the righteous? Are they keeping company with sinners—if not encouraging, at least not disowning their iniquity? Well might Lot hesitate in these circumstances—however warm his natural affection, and however strong his sense of duty—and be tempted to conclude that, having enough to do at home, he need not venture on a fruitless experiment abroad. It is incurring risk in vain. For how can he expect to be believed, when he has so incredible a tale to tell.—(Candlish.)
The derision of sinners is one of the saddest griefs of the righteous. They recognise in this those signs of infatuation which go before destruction. Mocking is the last refuge of those who oppose the truth, and there is a laughter which is mad.
The lack of belief in God has the same effect upon the soul as the privation of the organs of special sense has upon the body. Therefore men can sport unawares upon the very edge of destruction.
He warns them like a prophet, and advises them like a father, but both in vain: he seems to them as if he mocked, and they do more than seem to him to mock again.—(Bp. Hall.)
The Gospel message has often been regarded as an appeal to the fears and credulities of men, but the end will show that the danger against which they are warned is a dread reality.
The derisive mirth and scorn of sinners in this world will be their sad remembrance in the world to come.
The impenitent may scoff at the warnings of the righteous, but their city in which they trusted shall surely be destroyed.
The most faithful preaching may, in many instances, fail of success. In mechanics we can calculate the whole effect of a number of forces acting in certain directions, but we cannot with the same confidence predict the effect of spiritual forces. We have to deal with that unmanageable factor, the perversity of the human will.
Sodom a type of the spiritual Babylon (Revelation 11:8). Whoever will not be borne away and crushed with the godless, he must early and cheerfully separate himself from them while he has time and leisure (Revelation 18:4).—(Lange.)
Genesis 19:15. The commendable faith and piety of Lot were still mingled with some degree of human infirmity. He was disposed to linger, and had to be hastened by the angels. It is easy, indeed, to conceive that one in his situation, though prepared, on the whole, to obey the Divine summons, should still have felt a strong repugnance to an instantaneous flight. His was a struggle like that of the endangered mariner who feels that his only chance of escaping shipwreck and saving his life is to cast all his goods overboard, and yet hesitates and lingers, and can scarcely bring himself to part with what he holds so dear. In Lot’s case, however, we may have the charity to believe it was not solely the thought of losing all his worldly substance that made him falter. It was, indeed, putting his fortitude to a severe test to know that he must forsake all, and go forth homeless and destitute, he knew not whither; and our own habitual, practical distrust of Providence enables us but too easily to enter into his feelings, and perhaps to find an apology for them on this score. It may be, also, that his heart was agonised at the thought of leaving so many relatives behind him to perish in the perdition of the city; and we may suppose that it was mainly in consequence of this strong conflict that he so deferred his flight that his deliverers were at last obliged to have recourse to that kind of violence to hasten his departure. Such, in thousands of instances, is the struggle in the minds of men when they are called to leave all and flee from the wrath to come. They do not wholly disbelieve or reject the warnings addressed to them; they are convinced that there is peril in their path, and that ere long something must be done to avoid it; an awful sound is ever and anon in their ears, urging them to expedite their flight from the devoted city; but still they linger, and still would linger to their final undoing, did not the same compulsory mercy of heaven which rescued Lot, save them also from the consequences of their destructive apathy.—(Bush.)
Such is the strength of temptation, and the infirmity even of the best, that the righteous are only saved with difficulty. Their will is too weak, and even they must fail unless constrained by the loving violence of Divine grace.
The love of God not only seeks us and warns us of our danger, but also draws us by a sweet compulsion.
Even those who are in the way of salvation must be hastened on to the place of safety by urging upon them the danger of perdition.
Are you in danger of perishing in the midst of those on whom the wrath of God lies? Are you entangled in the world’s friendship, and is the world swiftly to be judged? Is the morning almost already arisen—the morning of the judgment day? And are you still to be delivered? Is the harvest past? Is the summer ended? And are you not saved? And when you open your drowsy eyes, and listlessly catch the hasty summons to arise—will you still complain that it is too soon to be up? And will you still murmur your fond and deprecating entreaty—“Yet a little sleep, a little slumber?” Bless the Lord, if in such a crisis He has not taken you at your word, and let you alone, as you wished Him to do. He leaves you not to repose. He cuts short your half-waking and dreamy musing. He hastens you. He fairly arouses and alarms you—not dealing with you tenderly, as if He feared to give you pain, but, if need be, with unrelenting and unpitying severity, shaking you from your security, and telling you the truth. Awake! Arise! Lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city.—(Candlish.)
It was a source of spiritual danger to Lot to have gone to dwell in Sodom at all. That danger had now arrived at a critical stage, and he must do that which he ought to have done at the first—separate himself without delay from that wicked community.
Genesis 19:16. There is, indeed, scarcely any surer or more characteristic sign of the Lord’s manner of delivering the godly out of temptation than this. He uses a constraining force, and teaches them to use it. The kingdom of heaven is taken by violence. For, first, He rouses them betimes, and hastens them to depart, on pain of instant destruction. Again, when they loiter and linger, loath to leave all the world behind, He constrains, and as it were, compels them. Nor will He suffer them so much as to look back or pause; onwards, still onwards, for your lives, is His word. Thus decisive and peremptory is the Lord’s dealing with those whom He would save. Nor is it more peremptory than the case requires. For, in this sense, it is true that the righteous scarcely are saved;
1. Not without a loud and startling, as well as a timely alarm.
2. Not without a powerful hand laying hold of them, and dragging them, almost reluctant, along.
3. Not without a call to them to see to the completeness as well as to the promptitude of their escape, and a terrible warning against a single glance behind.—(Candlish.)
We can only be saved from the destruction of the wicked by a loving hand laid upon us—that love which constrains. The love of Christ softens and subdues our nature, so that we feel its gentle power and follow the direction of His will.
If we are saved, it is against our natural will. The mercy of God is, therefore, displayed in drawing us towards Himself.
Such is the infirmity of human nature that men who have principle of sufficient strength to renounce the world, are yet subject to a kind of infatuation when they seriously make that attempt. They are like the wanderer amidst the snows, who feels the fatal torpor creeping upon his frozen limbs, and is tempted to take his rest in what must prove the sleep of death. He needs some one at hand to rouse him up and urge him on to the place of safety.
We are all naturally in Sodom; if God did not hale us out, whilst we linger we should be condemned with the world. If God meets with a very good field He pulls up the weeds and lets the corn grow; if indifferent, He lets the corn and weeds grow together; if very ill, He gathers the few ears of corn and burns the weeds.—(Bishop Hall.)
The losses and afflictions of the righteous are only God’s way of laying His loving hand upon them, to the intent that they might not be condemned with the world.
The ultimate force upon which our salvation depends is the loving mercy of God. Our purpose is too weak to secure salvation, even after the promise of it has been given.
Our infirmities would be ever bringing us into danger only that the Lord has compassion upon them.
It is the duty of the godly man to remove himself from every scene which endangers the safety of his soul.
Genesis 19:17. It is impossible not to spiritualise this history, for considered in itself it has little use. Here we discern the Gospel message.
1. We must strive to escape from our danger. The safety of our souls is involved. We shall lose all if we remain in a state of nature.
2. We must not swerve from our purpose to attain the end of our striving. We may look down through despondency; we ought to look up; but whether we look down or look up we must never look back.
3. We must actually obtain our salvation. We are not safe until we have reached the mountain—until we have laid hold on Christ. There is no salvation in any other.
To look behind upon that world which we have set our hearts to forsake is:—
1. A cause of serious delay. This is the least mischief conceivable by such a course. We certainly interrupt our journey, and delay to make our salvation secure.
2. Shows a divided interest, a distracted attention. Our purpose is hereby weakened, and we cannot follow God with all our heart.
3. A sign of unbelief. It shows some lingering love towards the sins we have left. It is an interruption of the life of our faith which, should it continue, would be fatal.
There were many places about the “plain” which seemed to promise a safe shelter to Lot, but he was told not to stay therein. There are human systems of thought and belief which seem to offer shelter and repose to our souls, but there is no safety for us but in Christ.
God Himself—the Covenant angel—is the Speaker here, and such He is in His message of salvation to mankind. His command to us is, Be saved, which is also an invitation, a privilege. With the command He furnishes the strength to perform.
Salvation implies the effort to renounce ourselves—a hard work. Our Lord requires His disciple to take up His cross and follow Him. This is but a merciful severity.
But shall we say that these Divine monitors were therefore impertinently officious or needlessly severe? Assuredly the more faithful and earnest they were in the discharge of their duty, the more real benevolence they exercised; nor could they have displayed their love in any better way than by seizing hold of them to quicken their pace, and urging them by the most powerful considerations to secure their own safety. In like manner should the earnest appeals and exhortations of Christ’s ministers to the impenitent be regarded. They are really prompted by the most benevolent motives. Knowing the tenors of the Lord they endeavour to persuade men. In uttering the denunciations of heaven they may be accused as needlessly harsh or severe; but it is a most unjust imputation, for what they speak will soon be found true; and in thus discharging their duty they perform an office worthy of an angel. They believe God’s threatenings, and therefore they speak; and should they speak smooth things to their hearers, and prophesy deceits, they would prove their bitterest enemies. In this urgent matter concealment is treachery and fidelity is love. They must be an echo of the angel’s voice, and cry aloud, “Escape for your lives, look not behind you, nor tarry in all the plain.” With what altered emotions does Lot now survey that ensnaring plain which had been his great temptation! For many a day he had roved at ease with his flocks and herds over that goodly ground; but now he is to pass over it with the utmost speed, not a moment is to be lost. Fly he must for his life to the mountains beyond, for a deluge of fire is about to break forth and flow on that accursed soil! Ah, how easily can the hand of God turn our choicest worldly comforts into wormwood and gall! How easily can He rob our enjoyments of their zest, and convert our earthly Edens into a dreary waste! “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”—(Bush.)