He seemed as one that mocked unto his sons-in-law
Danger despised
I. LET US ATTEND TO THE EXHORTATION ADDRESSED BY LOT TO HIS SONS-IN-LAW. THERE IS A CLOSE PARALLEL BETWEEN THEIR SITUATION AND OUR OWN.
1. We are living, like them, amongst wicked men.
2. We are exposed, like them, to Divine judgment.
3. We are plied, like them, with overtures of mercy.
II. LET US ATTEND TO THE MANNER IN WHICH THE SONS-IN-LAW OF LOT RECEIVED HIS EXHORTATION. THERE IS A CLOSE PARALLEL BETWEEN THEIR CONDUCT AND THAT OF MANY OF OURSELVES.
1. Like them, we reject as mockery the demonstration of our danger.
2. Like them, we reject as mockery the offer of a method of escape.
3. Like them, we reject as mockery all earnestness in pressing on our attention the means of deliverance.
III. LET US ATTEND TO THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE MANNER IN WHICH THE SONS-IN-LAW OF LOT RECEIVED HIS EXHORTATION. THERE IS A CLOSE PARALLEL BETWEEN THEIR DOOM AND OURS IF WE DIE IN A STATE OF UNBELIEF. Here we may appeal--
1. To the declarations of the Almighty.
2. To the facts of history. The old world. The cities of the plain.
3. To the dictates of reason.
4. To the attributes of God. His truth and holiness. (G. Brooks.)
Lot’s message to his sons-in-law: an illustration of the preacher’s message to the ungodly world
The context strikes several things forcibly on our attention.
1. The incongruity between the material and moral departments of existence in this world. In Sodom we find natural beauty and harmony in conjunction with moral deformity and discord.
2. The amazing power which prayer has with the Governor of the Genesis 18:23-33).
3. The existence of a moral government in connection with the conduct of man.
4. The deep interest of angelic intelligences in human history.
I. LOT’S MESSAGE TO HIS SONS-IN-LAW WAS ALARMING IN ITS NATURE. “The Lord will destroy the city.”
1. Their peril was great.
2. Their peril was the result of sin.
3. Their peril was just at hand.
4. Their peril at this moment was unavoidable.
II. HIS MESSAGE TO HIS SONS-IN-LAW WAS FOUNDED ON THE DIVINE AUTHORITY.
1. The danger of which the gospel preacher warns the unconverted is not a dream of his own; it is a fact of Divine revelation.
2. The proclamation of this danger to the unconverted is not optional on the preacher’s part; he is bound by heaven to do it
III. His MESSAGE TO HIS SONS-IN-LAW WAS SCEPTICALLY RECEIVED.
1. The appearance of things remaining unchanged. “Since the fathers fell asleep,” &c.
2. The force of old associations.
3. A false trust in the mercy of God. (Homilist.)
Disregard of religion and its consequences
Lot’s sons-in-law were probably void of faith and of the fear of God, minding only the things of this world, and resolved not to leave the possessions and conveniences which they enjoyed in that wicked country. And if so, they might easily frame to themselves objections to their father’s counsel, and a plea for their own conduct. But they learned, when it was too late, that his advice was sober and true.
I. NOTHING IS MORE IMPORTANT AND SERIOUS, AS NOTHING IS MORE CERTAIN, THAN ARE THE TRUTHS WHICH RELIGION PRESENTS TO OUR CONSIDERATION.
II. And yet, secondly, THERE ARE MANY WHO TREAT RELIGION WITH DISDAIN AND DISREGARD. In worldly affairs persons are seen to act usually with attention and earnestness; they made a due use of their reason, and consider what they are about. Thus they act, not only in things of great consequence, relating to their life, their health, their liberty, their fortunes, their family, their honour and credit, but even in slighter matters, to obtain a small profit, or to escape a small inconvenience. Nothing is neglected, nothing is put off to an uncertain day; instruction is attentively received and put in execution. But as to religion, there is not this zeal and activity; it is not carefully weighed, scarcely can it obtain a fair hearing; favourable opportunities are neglected, opportunities which slip away, and are never to be recalled, and everything that should be done is left undone.
III. Let us consider, thirdly, WHENCE PROCEEDS THIS STRANGE INDIFFERENCE AND NEGLECT. It proceeds in a great measure from want of faith, which is an evil more common than is imagined. Some men there are who have received good natural abilities, which they employ to bad purposes. Of these talents God giveth them the use, and the devil teacheth them the application. They argue themselves out of their religion, and then apply themselves to debauch the minds of others, and to treat serious and sacred things with levity, licentiousness, and ridicule. Pernicious books and corrupt conversation spread the contagious disease. (J. Jortin, D. D.)
On the guilt and the consequences of despising the Divine threatenings
I. Let us, in the first place, ATTEND TO THE EXHORTATION ADDRESSED BY LOT TO HIS SONS-IN-LAW. “Up; get you out of this place: for the Lord will destroy this city.” Consider what was the situation of these men. They dwelt in a city subject to the dominion of sin. They dwelt in a city which, in consequence of its sinfulness, deserved immediate destruction; in a city which, when time and opportunity abundantly sufficient for trial and repentance had been afforded, was devoted to immediate destruction. The Divine mercy still extended to them one respite, one opportunity, one warning more. Such, then, is your situation. Such is the situation of every one who hears the sound of the gospel. Contagion surrounds you; destruction lies before you. You are defiled, miserable, and helpless. Yet still there is a call of mercy; still there is a way to escape. The God whom you have offended places deliverance within your reach. The Son of God becomes man, and gives His life to purchase your salvation.
II. Consider, in the next place, THE MANNER IN WHICH THE SONS-IN-LAW OF LOT RECEIVED HIS AWFUL ADMONITION. He seemed unto them as one that mocked. Their conduct discloses to us their character. They had evidently set their hearts on the worldly advantages which, in their apprehension, attended the place where they resided; and they made little account of its wickedness. In many respects the conduct of a large portion of the world bears at this day a close resemblance to that of the sons-in-laws of Lot, and arises from the same principles. When the great doctrines of the gospel are proposed as comprehending and disclosing the appointed method of salvation; what numbers disregard or despise them! When the holy commandments of God are explained and enforced as indispensably and in every particular binding upon every man, what numbers withhold their assent from the strictness of such interpretations of the Scriptures! When the terrors of the world to come are displayed, when the wrath and vengeance of God are revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, what numbers refuse to credit the tremendous truth! The minister of the gospel seemeth unto them as one that mocketh.
III. Consider, in the third place, THE CONSEQUENCES OF TREATING AS AN IDLE TALE, AS THE WORDS OF ONE THAT MOCKETH, THE DECLARATIONS OF ALMIGHTY GOD. They brought ruin upon themselves and their posterity. (T. Gisborne, D. D.)
Lessons
1. Good fathers make haste in midst of dangers to keep their children from destruction, being fore-warned of God’s judgments.
2. Gracious parents are earnest with children to press on counsels for their good and safety.
3. Near relations in the flesh, though wicked, yet are dear unto gracious souls to save them.
4. Faith concerning God’s judgments revealed will put gracious hearts upon hastening others out of them.
5. Places of habitation when they be places of vengeance, as well as of sin, must be abhorred and forsaken by God’s saints.
6. Cities though ever so strong and stately cannot secure sinners from ruin. It and they shall perish.
7. Jehovah is the author of destruction upon places of wickedness, who cannot be resisted.
8. God sends messengers of salvation sometimes to the vilest of men, to Lot’s sons, &c.
9. God, His messengers, and His messages of vengeance, are all but scorns and derisions to wicked men.
10. Secure scorning of destruction from God is the immediate forerunner of it, as here. (G. Hughes, B. D.)
The last night in Sodom
If you had been in Sodom on that solemn, awful evening you would never have suspected it. There was nothing outwardly to show that terrible scenes were at hand, even at the door. No weird omens were observed that night; no strange sounds disturbed the superstitious. No fiery sword was seen hanging over the city, in token that the sword of the Almighty’s wrath was at last unsheathed. No signs appeared in the sun as he sank peacefully to rest. The cattle came lowing home from the fields, and the sheep-dogs barked, and the voices of children at play were heard. And then darkness fell; and the chirping of a myriad insects rose on the stillness of the Eastern night; and the stars looked down upon the quiet scene; and the moon shone, for the last time, on the great doomed city. But within Lot’s dwelling a solemn conference was being held, and Lot’s heart was heavy and disturbed. Full of sadness was he for the heedless, unrepenting people; full of anxiety for those dear to him in that place. And then he hurried out in the darkness to warn his relatives, and to urge on them immediate flight; and they--how true to life it all is!--laughed at him! They treated the matter as a fine joke, and the more earnest his entreaties, the more boisterous grew their mirth. And so the night wore on, and then the day began to break, and the angels hurried, nay, forced Lot out of the city. But with the morning light the scoffer waxed bolder still. “What of thy coward fears of the night, O righteous Lot?” he mockingly begins, but the words die away on his lips. Ah! what means this strange, unearthly gloom--this lurid, awful flame, in which earth and heaven seem joined in one? What this terrible sense of suffocation--this scorching, choking downpour? The lightning plays, and the thunder rolls--shock upon shock is felt--shriek rises upon shriek--confusion, horror, uproar! Woe! woe! woe!. .. A few hours later, and a silence still more awful. .. And the sun, as he rides high in the heavens, looks down upon a smoking mass of desolation--“And the smoke of the city went up as the smoke of a furnace!” (J. B. C. Murphy, B. A.)
Warnings disregarded by sinners
What a chance (which never came again) the sons of Lot missed that evening! But do you know what they said? They said he was an alarmist! “The old man is in his dotage,” laughed one,” and some one has been frightening him.” “Never heed him,” cried another, “he is ever thus, croaking about the wickedness of the place, and telling us we are all going to be destroyed. He has been saying it for years--and nothing has ever happened yet!” Ah, that’s just where it is! “Nothing has ever happened yet!” And so, when the preacher warns the open sinner of his danger, and urges him to escape from his sin--to escape for his life--he is laughed at, and he is called an alarmist. But every one who has ever tried to press home a truth that has been unwelcome--to warn people of a danger that they would rather believe to be impossible--has been called an Alarmist. Noah was an “Alarmist.” Lot was an “Alarmist.” The prophets who foretold the destruction of Jerusalem were “Alarmists,” and many a one who foresaw and foretold the Indian Mutiny of 1857 was called an “Alarmist.” And so, at the risk of being called an “Alarmist” I would take up and echo this cry. Art thou living in a Sodom of wilful sin--a Sodom of uncleanness, or drunkenness, or not?--then “Escape for thy life!” (J. B. C. Murphy, B. A.)
As one that mocked
Look at Lot going through the streets of Sodom at midnight to warn his sons of the approaching destruction of the city, only to be reviled and mocked by them. Mr. Moody once said that he remembered being in an American city a few years ago, and there came unto the after-meeting an old grey-headed man, who for years had been wandering from God. In early life that old man had walked with God, and had found fellowship with Him; but for a number of years past he had been wandering in the darkness and agony of sin. He (Mr. Moody) said to him, “God is very merciful, and He will forgive you,” and gave him a number of passages of Scripture, and sat up with him until midnight. About that hour the light broke in upon the old man, and the Lord restored to him the joy of his salvation, and the old man went on his way rejoicing. The next night the old man came into the meeting looking the very picture of despair; he did not think he had ever seen a sadder countenance, and he asked him what his trouble was. The old man replied that he had spent the most wretched day of his life. His family had grown up and lived in that city. He had that day wandered from house to house, and had not seen a child who did not mock him. The old man added that he now realized what he had done; he had taken his children into the world, and could not get them out again.