Part of the angels’ mission was to rescue Lot. This devotional reading looks at how the angels got Lot and his family out of Sodom.
Nuggets
- We can be certain that the righteous will be saved.
- Lot had a hard decision to make — and it took him a bit to make it.
- Angels love humans.
- Jehovah wants us to choose Him, not the world.
- Lot was told to start over again in the mountains.
- Lot asked to go to the small town of Zoar instead of the mountains.
- Jehovah did not start the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah until after Lot and His family had arrived where they were going.
The night before Jehovah’s judgment on Sodom, Gomorrah, and the other cities of the plains was chaotic. The angels’ mission was unveiled.
Dawn has broken. Now it was time to actually complete the plan.
Let's Put It into Context
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Devotions in the Abraham the Patriarch series
Leave the City
“At dawn the next morning the angels became insistent. ‘Hurry,’ they said to Lot. ‘Take your wife and your two daughters who are here. Get out right now, or you will be swept away in the destruction of the city!’" (Gen. 19: 15 NLT)
We can be certain that the righteous will be saved.
Have you ever started on a road trip early in the morning? I remember when I was in high school, Mom, Dad, Aunt Bert, and I went to Kansas to visit relation. We left at 5:30 in the morning.
Dad was hurrying the womenfolk along. We had a long drive ahead of us, and daylight – even though it was still dark at that point – was burning.
Look at what verse 15 says in the Hebrew. “And when the shachar [dawn, daybreak] came, then the malachim [angels] urged Lot, saying, Arise, take thy isha [wife], and thy two banot [daughters], which are here or thou be swept away in the avon [sin, iniquity] halr [the city]” (Gen. 19: 15 OJB).
The angels were trying to push Lot along, also. There was good reason.
If Lot and family didn’t leave the city, they would be swept away in the sin of the city.
Yes, the cities were going to be destroyed. That was for one reason, and one reason only. Sin.
Lot, Mrs. Lot, and the two daughters had a decision to make. Were they going to obey Jehovah or disobey Him?
If they obeyed, they would live. If they disobeyed, they would die.
Was this just a physical death or a spiritual death also?
Well, that would be up to Jehovah, wouldn’t it?
The Pull of Sin
When Lot still hesitated, the angels seized his hand and the hands of his wife and two daughters and rushed them to safety outside the city, for the Lord was merciful. When they were safely out of the city, one of the angels ordered, ‘Run for your lives! And don’t look back or stop anywhere in the valley! Escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away!’” (Gen. 19: 16-17 NLT)
Lot Hesitated
Lot had a hard decision to make — and it took him a bit to make it.
Abraham stopped at ten righteous people. But while Jehovah didn’t save the city, He started out saving four people.
But Lot was dragging his feet at the last minute. As Lot did, we can get immune to sin because we are in the world. We focus on worldly attractions and domestic ties instead of focusing on God.
Spurgeon made a good point. When Lot hesitated when told to get out of Dodge, he was telling the sons-in-law that what he said was imminent really wasn’t. How could Lot convince them he believed destruction was coming when he hesitated?
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Ooo, baby. Humans would tend to say that Lot was giving the future sons-in-law more time to come to him.
But does Jehovah want us to wait to be obedient to Him?
But still, knowing Lot, he didn’t seem to be a courageous man. He already wasn’t liked He was thought of as a second-class citizen.
This – in Lot’s mind – may exacerbate the situation. When Lot’s God destroyed the cities, how would those remaining alive (such as in Mamre, Beer-sheba, etc.) look at Lot being the sole survivor with his daughters?
Lot had a house. Did he own other property in the city? Was that the loss he was mourning?
Were the daughters mourning the loss of the future husbands? Were they grieving for neighbors and friends?
So, the angels grabbed everyone’s hands and pulled them along. “If you are not going to move, I am going to move you.”
Gray made a statement I kind of bristled at. He wrote, “Strange that men need to be coerced into acceptance of a great deliverance.”
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At first I thought this applied to salvation. Coercion flies against free will.
But this isn’t taking about that. Luckily, Spurgeon explained it.
Think about it. We talked about Lot being in the world instead of it. Truth be told, many disciples today would lose that test.
Layer on top of that our track record at being obedient. We lose the race time and again.
That is especially true for the 100-yard dash. We aren’t quick getting out of the starting block. Where we might eventually be obedient, many times it takes us a while before God can talk us into doing what He wants us to do.
That’s true for a lot of spiritual things. The things we have to be talked into are butting bricks on our Sanctification Road
Spurgeon gave us a list of why that is.
- Weak flesh
- Lack of perseverance
- More focus on worldly activities than spiritual activities
- Too much leisure time
Resource
The pull of the world can be great, and we can have trouble enduring. We focus too much on worldly things — especially leisure time — and give into temptation.
The wonder is that God will give us warning about impending judgment. So will He give warning to us.
God will always rescue His children, even if it is against our will.
Angels Seized Hands
Angels love humans.
No, I am not talking the romantic kind of love that we talked about in Genesis 6. But look at how they interact with humans in God’s Word.
When we see angels coming to see humans in the past, they were usually in a protective and guiding role. They would bring messages of love and support from Jehovah to us.
That doesn’t even deal with the thought that each of us has a guardian angels.
Spurgeon summed up their role. He wrote, “Observe, also, that as those angels set us an example in using all their power, so they also encourage us to perseverance, for they ceased not to exhort till they had brought Lot out of danger.”
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In Elaine-speak, angels will encourage us to listen to and obey God and endure to the end.
Now, don’t be biting on the angels, thinking they should have been more polite. What were they supposed to say. “Oh, Lot. We know this has been your home for several years, but we really want you to think about leaving. I know that will be hard, but you need to think about what is the best for you.”
They dealt with Lot’s inability to just make a quit cut with the worldview, but they did get the job done. And right now, the job is rescuing Lot.
Don’t Look Back or Stop
Jehovah wants us to choose Him, not the world.
I can see several reasons why the angels told the family not to look back. They didn’t need to see friends/neighbors/acquaintances/fellow townsmen dying a hideous death.
But mostly, I think Jehovah wanted them to make a clean break from the world. They had to show discipline and self-control.
Oh, the escape was going to be rough on the family. If they listened to the angels, they would have accepted the urgency with which they had to get out of Sodom.
Each step would probably have been agonizing. Not just because of the terrain, but they had to have been feeling great sorrow and loss.
Did you ever think about why God didn’t want the family looking back? I always figured it was a test of obedience.
Hilprecht had a different idea. He wrote, “To witness with human and profane eyes God’s holy acts was regarded as fatal to the beholder. We find this fact as it existed among the old Hebrews expressed in many passages of the Old Testament.”
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Think about the smoke about Mount Sinai. “On the morning of the third day, thunder roared and lightning flashed, and a dense cloud came down on the mountain. There was a long, loud blast from a ram’s horn, and all the people trembled. Moses led them out from the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. All of Mount Sinai was covered with smoke because the Lord had descended on it in the form of fire. The smoke billowed into the sky like smoke from a brick kiln, and the whole mountain shook violently. As the blast of the ram’s horn grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God thundered his reply. The Lord came down on the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses climbed the mountain” (Ex. 19: 16-20 NLT).
Flee to the Mountains
Lot was told to start over again in the mountains.
Hardy told us why it was important for Lot to head for the mountains. He wrote, “God warns us to flee from the low-level life of sin to the mountain of purity and peace.”
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Hardy equated this with the desire to keep our pet sin. God doesn’t want us to do that. He wants us to repent of all sin.
But the problem with little sins is that they either grow into or set the way for bigger sins.
The way they work is like boiling a frog in water. At first, you just have him in a pot of nice, cool water. Then you gradually increase the heat. By the time the water gets to boiling, the poor frog is acclimated to it — and it’s too late.
If God wants to be the God of the little things as well as God of the big things, He is going to be concerned about little sins — especially little, pet sins.
Part of the reason little sins are so harmful is they are, in actuality, indulgences. We don’t necessarily need them — but we sure do want them. We may even think we are entitled to them.
Negotiating New Living Arrangements
“‘Oh no, my lord!’ Lot begged. ‘You have been so gracious to me and saved my life, and you have shown such great kindness. But I cannot go to the mountains. Disaster would catch up to me there, and I would soon die. See, there is a small village nearby. Please let me go there instead; don’t you see how small it is? Then my life will be saved.’ ‘All right,’ the angel said, ‘I will grant your request. I will not destroy the little village” (Gen. 19: 18- 21 NLT)
Lot asked to go to the small town of Zoar instead of the mountains.
The angels who rescued Lot and his family told them where they should go next. Lot had the nerve to say, “No, I don’t want to go there. Can we go here instead?”
Seriously???? They just saved their lives. And he don’t want to do what they were told????????
Did Lot think God couldn’t protect them in the mountains? Or was he just being selfish?
Well, Dods made a good point. Lot didn’t ask God to save the city. He just went to see the sons-in-law as told.
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It is so interesting that Lot didn’t want to move to the mountains. He would rather move to a small town.
Wouldn’t the destruction of the large cities give Lot pause when thinking about why it happened? Wouldn’t he have seen the connection to sin?
What Zoar had going for it was that it was small. It was probably a half-day’s journey from Sodom.
But later, Lot and his daughters finally do make it to the mountains (Gen. 19: 30).
At this point, Lot still didn’t want to give up the sinful atmosphere of a city. Gray verified this. He wrote, “Even then Lot did not wish to go as far as he could from destruction, but to remain as near as possible.”
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Still, God saved Lot, even as imperfect as he was.
Escape
“But hurry! Escape to it, for I can do nothing until you arrive there.’ (This explains why that village was known as Zoar, which means ‘little place.’) Lot reached the village just as the sun was rising over the horizon” (Gen. 19: 22- 23 NLT)
Jehovah did not start the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah until after Lot and His family had arrived where they were going.
We know Lot and his family were not really wanting to leave the city of Sodom.
- “When Lot still hesitated, the angels seized his hand and the hands of his wife and two daughters and rushed them to safety outside the city, for the Lord was merciful” (Gen. 19: 16 NLT)
- “But Lot’s wife looked back as she was following behind him, and she turned into a pillar of salt” (Gen. 19: 26 NLT).
We can’t be pulled by the lure of this world. We have to keep our focus on God.
Making the Connections #1
There is hope for us, isn’t there? If Lot can be forgiven and called a righteous man, so can we be forgiven and called righteous by Jehovah.
Ryle told us why. He wrote, “… let us remember that a true Christian may have many a blemish, many a defect, many an infirmity, and yet be a true Christian nevertheless. We do not despise gold because it is mixed with much dross. We must not undervalue grace because it is accompanied by much corruption.”
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Remember, not perfect. Honest enough to ask forgiveness.
There is a great song by CeCe Winans. It is called Come Jesus Come. My favorite line is
He’ll come for the weak And the strong just the same.
Remember, faith of a mustard seed
Related Links
CeCe Winans featuring Cody Johnson
Making the Connections #2
Look at what Grout said. He wrote, “Judgment is a work He does not love. His will is that none should perish. But the cup of Sodom was now overflowing; nor was there any longer hope of its repentance.”
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No, Jehovah didn’t want to destroy the cities. He wanted them to repent.
Jehovah will go to great means to get us on the Sanctification Road. But judgment is a real thing.
Yeah, Lot might have been shaking in his worship of Jehovah, but there was something real in it.
Making the Connections #3
The angels were giving Lot and his family the opportunity to run for their lives.
Yeah, Jehovah was calling Lot into the unknown. But we have to remember that is what faith is all about. “Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see” (Heb. 11: 1 NLT).
Lot had to make a decision. He had to genuinely decide to follow Jehovah or go home. And home would mean death and destruction.
How Do We Apply This?
- Determine why you are lingering.
- Remember time is growing short.
- Remember the uncertainty of life.
- Don’t look for small work for Jehovah.
- Hate the devil and don’t tempt him to come to us.
- Keep up the battle, don’t long for peace.
- Understand when Jehovah’s long-suffering quits, judgment will immediately follow.
- Recognize that those who are given Jehovah’s mercy will not perish.
- Pay attention to smaller things so they don’t take let small sins in.
- Be afraid of little sins.
Resources
Father God. You specifically sent Your messengers, Your angels, to Sodom to rescue Lot and his family. Lord, You come to rescue us. Thank You. Help us to listen to Your directions and obey. Amen.
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