MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Genesis 19:27-29
THE RIGHTEOUS MAN’S RETROSPECT OF GOD’S GREAT JUDGMENTS
The judgment which had long been threatened had now come. The righteous vengeance of God had overtaken the guilty inhabitants of these cities, and Abraham witnessed the scene of desolation when all was over (Genesis 19:28). The feelings which rose within him at that awful sight are those which must fill the heart of every saint when he is permitted to behold God’s great judgments upon sinful men.
I. He regards them with solemn emotion. How terrible was the sight which met the eye of Abraham, when he rose early in the morning and looked towards Sodom! (Genesis 19:27-28). The once fertile and smiling plains were converted into one vast furnace. The cities and their populations were involved in a ruin so complete that not a trace remained. The night before beheld them full of strong life and thoughtless dissipation; the day looked upon a scene of desolation, wherein all life had perished in the sharp agony of the fiery flood. Abraham could not regard without emotion so utter a destruction, and especially as he had taken such an interest in his people as to use all his power with God to save them from the threatened doom. He contemplated this terrible sight—
1. With profound awe. He had waited anxiously for the result of his pleading with God for these sinners. He may have indulged a hope that the Lord would relent at the last—that His pity would prevail, or dispose Him to find a remedy. Now he discovers that his prayers have not availed to stay judgment. This swiftness and certainty of the Divine retribution must have filled his soul with awe.
2. With some pain to personal feelings. Abraham was a tender and benevolent man, and he could not have witnessed the sight of so many human beings hurried into swift destruction without some shock to his better feelings. It is not always easy for a good man to sympathise with God in His terrible judgments upon sinners. Appearances, in the divine government, are often against our notions of justice. It is with difficulty that we can attain to that unquestioning loyalty which meekly submits, and acknowledges the righteousness of all God’s ways. It is said, by way of reproach, that the saints, satisfied and comfortable in their own security, look down with indifference upon the fate of sinners, and even enjoy their bliss the more by the sense of contrast. But, in fact, the real tendency of their hearts is otherwise. They bring themselves with difficulty to adore the unsearchable judgments of God. They naturally recoil from the spectacle of multitudes overwhelmed by pain and calamity. Abraham must, at this moment, have felt some yearnings of tenderness towards those who perished in this wholesale destruction. But if a man trusts wholly in God, such a sight must dissipate much false pity and false hope. The sure judgments of God will overtake the wicked, notwithstanding all our pity and hope.
II. He is satisfied with the righteousness of God as seen in them. Through all his history, since he was first called to a life of faith and obedience, Abraham was the friend of God, in His confidence, and yielding himself entirely to Him. He had the deep conviction that the Judge of all the earth would do right. The eye of his faith was still on God, and he was content. He knew that God would be clear when He is judged. All good men will, at length, feel satisfaction that the right is done.
III. He has some compensations in regard to them. There was some element of consolation for Abraham. The whole case was not so bad as it might have been. Some were delivered. The intercession of Abraham had availed, though not so far as he had once hoped. Lot and his family were saved by his prayers, and not for their own righteousness. “God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow.” All depended upon the power of this one righteous life. So we are saved, not for any good thing in ourselves, but by the intercession of Christ who is the elect of God. Christ prays for us when we forget to pray for ourselves, or, at best, do so but languidly. He rescues us when we are but half alive to our danger.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Genesis 19:27. Even when we have poured out our full souls in prayer for others, we may well be anxious regarding the result.
Here, again, Abraham comes into view in the narrative. It was daybreak when Lot came to Zoar. And about the same time Abraham, who was in Mamre, near Hebron, went to the place where he had interceded with the Covenant angel for Sodom. This point, as we observed on the spot, commands a view of that region from the heights of Hebron.—(Jacobus.)
The history returns continually to Abraham to show us how God’s purpose of redemption through the Messiah was moving on towards accomplishment.
Abraham rose early the next morning, full of anxiety, and turned his eyes towards Sodom and Gomorrah, now only one molten sea of fire. He contemplated the melancholy scene before him, and felt with how fearful and solemn a gaze he should look upon the miseries and punishments of those who do not fear God. It was then Abraham began secretly to understand the mystery of God’s will and dealings with man; it was then the agonising suspicion of God’s justice, with which he had wrestled, found its solution. Lot was saved, the righteous were not destroyed with the wicked. The strange mystery of this hard, cruel, unintelligible world became plain; and the voice of his inmost heart told him, “All is right.” This, then, explains these two magnificent contradictions, which, taken separately, are unintelligible, but which together form the basis of our faith. “God is love,” but “our God is a consuming fire.”—(Robertson.)
Genesis 19:28. It is not unlikely that frequent flashes of fire were intermixed with the clouds of smoke that rolled up from the scene of the devastation. The view must have been awful beyond description, and from its terrific features is no doubt made the Scriptural type of hell, which, in allusion to the fate of Sodom, is called “the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone.” (Comp. also Deuteronomy 29:23; Isaiah 13:19; Jeremiah 49:18; Jude 1:7; 2 Peter 2:6.) The destruction of the spiritual Sodom (Revelation 18:19) is moreover evidently described, especially where the bewailing spectators are represented as standing afar off and gazing at the smoke of her burning; a circumstance, doubtless, drawn from Abraham here standing at a distance and witnessing the doom of the devoted cities.—(Bush.)
Those may perish for whom many prayers have been offered.
Nothing else was now to be seen of that fair and fruitful plain. Sic transit gloria mundi. When we most greedily grasp earthly things we embrace nothing but smoke, which brings tears from our eyes, and soon vanisheth into nothing.—(Trapp.)
Genesis 19:29. God bears the prayers of His people long in memory, though He may not answer them according to the extent or to the way of their desire.
One righteous man may be delivered by the intercessions of another. God helps us through human mediators in order that we might learn to trust in the Great Mediation.
God makes haste to relieve the anxieties of His servants. When Abraham saw the smoke of the country as the smoke of a furnace, it seemed that all was lost. But he is soon comforted by finding that some dear to him are safe.
The righteous are only saved by the much-prevailing power of the Great Intercessor.
This rescue is attributed to Elohim, and not to “Jehovah,” the Covenant God, because Lot was severed from His guidance and care on his separation from Abraham. The fact, however, is repeated here for the purpose of connecting it with an event in the life of Lot of great significance to the future history of Abraham’s seed.—(Keil and Delitzsch.)
The Eternal is here designated by the name Elohim, the Everlasting, because in the war of elements in which the cities were overwhelmed, the eternal potencies of His nature were signally displayed.—(Murphy.)
It is delightful to know that the world, sunk and fallen as it is, is not a neglected province of God’s dominions, that it is not abandoned of its Author, and left, like a sea-weed, to float at random over the dark and shoreless ocean of uncertainty and doubt. The Christian knows no such Deity as Chance and Fate. He knows that events occur in a manner too regular for the agency of chance, but in a manner not stated and regular enough to have blind Fatality for their Author. He knows that the very notion of Providence implies design, and in Divine Providence design must extend to everything. We must either exclude God’s Providence from having a share in the government of the world, or we must believe that His superintending agency extends to all events of human life. We may be sure that God governs the world in a way worthy of Him, and extends His care to all His creatures, and to all their actions. Hence the deliverance of individuals is not a lucky escape—a thing merely happening, which might have been otherwise. When the first-born of Egypt were destroyed the first-born of Israel were spared. When Jericho was levelled to the ground Rahab was delivered from the ruin. When God destroyed the cities of the plain, He saved Lot because He remembered Abraham. This man was saved by God’s set purpose and design. This text shows us—
I. The terrors of God’s justice towards the world of the ungodly. Two of the Apostles regard the fact here related as an example of the conduct of the Divine government towards sinners in every age—as a kind of type and pattern of God’s displeasure against sin and the certainty of its punishment. (Jude 1:7; 2 Peter 2:6-9.) We are not to consider it merely as an historical incident in which we have no more interest than we have in the destruction of Carthage; but we are to regard it as designed to teach us the certain overthrow of all evil, and the wretched doom of the impenitent. The destruction of the Cities of the Plain is illustrative of the certain perdition of ungodly men. This was a judgment immediately inflicted by the hand of God, though natural agencies were employed. Fuller says, “If so it were, God’s hand was in it, directing and timing its operations, no less than if it were accomplished without the interference of any second cause.” This history illustrates the awful condition of those who have God for an enemy. His enemies are always in His power. The universe is His prison. Flight or escape must be alike impossible when His patience can hold out no longer, and He sends forth the summons for destruction. “There is no darkness or shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.” In vain they boast of their riches, their grandeur, their long exemption from punishment. Nothing can defend them when the hour of judgment arrives. God can arm every element against them; the fire shall burn the cities of the plain, the waters shall drown the men of the old world, the air shall breed pestilence, the earth shall tremble and rend asunder beneath their feet, the heavens shall send forth the dreadful thunders and bolts of fire, and the stars in their courses shall fight against Sisera. “Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord.” And, “if these things be done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry?” If these sparks of vengeance reach us here in the day of mercy, what must be the punishment prepared for the ungodly!
II. The triumph of God’s mercy towards the children of His love. St. Peter quotes the deliverance of Lot as an example of God’s ability to save the righteous, as well as of His determination to punish the wicked. God “delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked” (2 Peter 2:7). This example is quoted to show that “the Lord knoweth how to deliver the ungodly out of temptation.” God’s regard towards the righteous man is also seen in His remembering Abraham. He remembered the intercession of that holy man, and knew that though Lot was not mentioned by name he was still the object of his earnest solicitude. Lot could not pray for himself, because he did not know of the approach of the calamity; but Abraham prayed for him, and that prayer availed much. How much more shall the intercession of Christ prevail for the subjects of His grace. “If any man sin, we have an Advocate,” etc. (1 John 2:1). God allows mediation to prevail with Him. Thus Job was heard when he prayed for his friends, Moses when he made intercession for Israel, that they might not be blotted out of the book of life. Lot owed his preservation to God’s regard for Abraham. As Lot’s family was preserved for Lot’s sake, so Lot himself was preserved for Abraham’s sake. And in a far higher sense, a lost world is recovered and redeemed for Christ’s sake. The history of Lot’s escape illustrates our deliverance by the power of Divine grace, the whole of which must be ascribed entirely to God. He originates the plan of salvation. It was not Lot who sought the angels, but the angels who sought him. And “by grace ye are saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.” Mercy framed the scheme of deliverance, revealed the Refuge hoped for, implanted the principle of grace in the heart: and mercy maintains the vigour of that principle in spite of all the opposition of earth and hell. God’s mercy gives the pardon, and the way to find it, and the hand to receive it, and the eye to search it, and the heart to desire it. In this instance, as in many more, God was found of them who sought Him not. He sent His angel to warn him of the unsuspected danger, to reveal the appointed place of refuge, to arouse him to immediate activity and solicitude. Also we learn that God overcomes the hindrances and obstacles to salvation which arise in our minds. The angels hastened Lot, and lingering nature requires the hand of special grace to save it from destruction. Even in the best men, how many obstacles are there to their own salvation! How much must be overcome before grace has it all its own way!—our pride, our indolence, our worldliness, our unbelief, our self-sufficiency, our tendency to procrastination and delay. God has various means of bringing men to Himself, of rousing them from their sloth, and of directing them in the path of safety and of life. Sickness, pain, disappointments, sorrows, losses, death, the bereavements of friends, the accidents of life,—what are these but so many voices saying, “Up, get ye out of this place?” What are they but so many angel hands laying hold on the lingerer, and setting him in the path of salvation? Let sinners consider that while they are lingering, time is hastening, eternity is advancing, judgment is approaching, evil habits are growing stronger, and the chances of rescue from danger are diminishing day by day. But when once we submit to God—to His plan of deliverance, He will surely bring us to the rest and the refuge which He has prepared for us. In the day of calamity He will remember us for good.
THE FOLLY OF SEEKING OUR OWN CHOICE.—Genesis 19:30
Lot was bidden to go to the mountain, but requested that he might be allowed to seek refuge in Zoar. In his request he was graciously indulged—allowed to make the experiment which was to convince him of his folly in choosing for himself. We only land ourselves in greater difficulties when we act according to the suggestions of our own human wisdom in opposition to the Divine will. Of such conduct we observe,—
I. The root of it is unbelief. Lot could not trust God fully, and therefore the infinite charity of God stooped to his infirmity. Perfect faith takes God at His word without questioning or hesitation, without clipping His commands to our own notions of duty, or resolving to venture less than He requires. We must trust in God with our whole heart, and lean not to our own understanding. Our faith falls short in so far as we seek to modify the commands of duty by our own wilfulness. Imperfect obedience has its bitter root in unbelief. In the instance of Lot, we see the sad consequences of this timid and imperfect faith. Here we trace the source of the inconsistency and vacillation of his character. Our walk in the path of life and obedience is only steady and sure in proportion as our faith is clear and strong.
II. We are made bitterly to repent of it. “He feared to dwell in Zoar.” He was afraid that the destruction would overtake him even there. That spirit of unbelief which renders our obedience imperfect brings dread. We take alarm, for conscience tells us we have left some ground for fear. We have not been perfectly honest and open with God, and we justly expect that we shall smart for it. That perfect love alone which fully confides can cast out all fear. A dreadful penalty is visited upon unbelief when it leads to the total loss of faith, when a man is reduced to that state in which he can believe nothing. To commence following God’s command, and then to impair our obedience by our own foolish will, leads in the end to doubt and uncertainty—to that sense of insecurity in which we feel that nothing is sure and safe.
III. We may be compelled to accept God’s way at last. Lot finds refuge, at length, in the mountain, where he had been ordered to go at first. A merciful Providence brought him up to the full measures of his duty. He finds, in the end, that it is best to fall in with God’s plan. By a painful discipline we are often brought round to God’s way, and made to feel that what He chooses is best.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSE
The sight of a sea of waters accumulating in the vale, and gradually approaching the very borders of Zoar, was not a little calculated to inspire terror. How could he know where it would stop? at what point the Most High would say. “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further.” If this were the real cause of his flight, his betaking himself to the mountain would be a very natural step. But the history shows that the rash counsels which good men adopt under the dictation of fleshly wisdom or passion are never attended with prosperous issues. They may appear to succeed in the outset, and their authors may for a time bless themselves in a fond conceit of the happiest results, but eventually the truth of the Divine declaration will be experienced, “Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of Me.” (Isaiah 31:1.) But why did not Lot return to Abraham? Perhaps the most probable supposition is, that he was too proud to do this. He left him prosperous; but he must return, if he return at all, poor and degraded, and an outcast. This was too severe a trial for his spirit as a man, and he had rather incur new dangers than submit to it. Whatever were his reasons, he seems to have made a bad choice, and “forsaken his own mercies.”—(Bush.)