But the men put forth their hand, and pulled Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door
The eve of judgment to sinners
I. THEIR WICKEDNESS IS UNABATED.
1. It extends to all classes of the community.
2. It includes the most shameful lusts.
3. It opposes the righteous to the last.
II. THEY EXPOSE THEMSELVES TO INFLICTIONS WHICH FORESHADOW FUTURE JUDGMENTS. Blindness-moral as well as physical.
III. THEIR CONDUCT OFTEN BECOMES A SOURCE OF DANGEROUS PERPLEXITY TO THE RIGHTEOUS (see Genesis 19:5; Genesis 19:8). Lot was prepared to violate one duty in order to maintain another. Let a man do right, and put his trust in God. (T. H. Leale.)
Shamelessness of sinners
Their shameless speech to have the men brought out that they might know them, very notably discovereth unto us the impudency that sin effecteth in time, when it once getteth rule. Surely it taketh all modesty, and shame, and honesty away, and proveth the saying to be most true: Consuctudo peccandi tollit sensum peccati. The custom of sin taketh away all sense and feeling of sin. At the beginning men shame to have it known what they do, though they fear not to do it, and they will use all cloaks and covers that possible they can to hide their wickedness. But at last they grow bold and, impudent, as these men did, even to say what care we. And why? Certainly because this is the course of sin in God’s judgment, that it shall benumb and harden the heart wherein it is suffered, and so sear up the conscience, and conceit in time, that there shall be no shame left, but such a thick vizard pulled over the face, that it can blush at nothing, either to say it or do it. Behold these brazen-brewed wretches here, who, after long use of sin (no doubt at first more secret), are now come to require these men openly and to tell the cause, that they might know them without all shame or spark of shame, in, and at so horrible abomination. Marvel not then any more, that the adulterer blusheth not, the drunkard shameth not, nor the blaspheming swearer hideth not his face. You see the reason; custom to do evil in that kind hath utterly bereaved him of feeling and shame as it did these Sodomites. A heavy and fearful case for God’s plague is even at the door of such people, as you see it was here for these Sodomites. It was well said of him that said it, if God take from a man his bodily eye that he cannot see, or his bodily ear that he cannot hear, every man seeth the judgment and perceiveth the loss; but when God in wrath taketh away the inward eye and ear of the mind and heart, that what sin soever he committeth, he neither seeth, nor heareth, nor feeleth, no man thinketh this a plague, or any rod of God. But O fearful plague! etc. (Bishop Babington.)
Mild speech to pacify
In Lot’s going out to them, shutting the door after him, and calling them brethren, we may note a godly discretion and wisdom in dealing to pacify outrageous beasts. Fire quencheth not fire, but milder and softer speeches many times, and most times appeaseth disorder, though here it could not, for the strength of sin that had so mightily possessed them. To brute beasts are overcome with fair speeches, and become tame; a soft answer breaketh anger, when a cutting tongue stirreth up wrath. Full of grace is that man and woman that can be mild and sweet to effect goodness. (Bishop Babington.)
Blindness.
1. Physical. They lost the power of distinct vision.
2. Mental. They were the subjects of illusions. The imagination was diseased, so that they were deceived by false appearances. They acted as distracted persons.
3. Moral. They madly persisted in their designs, though an act of Providence had rendered it impossible of accomplishment.
Judgment at hand
The Scriptural signs that the judgment is near are:--
1. That God abandons men or communities to out-breaking and presumptuous sins.
2. That warnings and chastisements fail to produce their effect, and especially when the person grows harder under them.
3. That God removes the good from any community--so, before the flood, so before the destruction of Jerusalem.
4. The deep, undisturbed security of those over whom it is suspended. (Gosman.)
God’s time to strike
Many a one is hardened by the good word of God, and, instead of receiving the counsel, rages at the messenger; when men are grown to that pass, that they are no whir better by afflictions, and worse with admonitions, God finds it time to strike. (Bishop Hall.)