The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha
Ver. I, 2. The two angels who left Abraham cbmmuninowith Jehovah, went on their way till they came to Sodom. Arriving at the city in the evening, the first person whom they saw appears to have been Lot, who was sitting alone, it should seem, at the gate of the city. They had found Abraham also sitting alone; but it M’as at his ou’u tent door. Lot, whose house was in the city, had probably no place where he could be out of the hearing of those whose con-
* Clmp. xii. 6, versation vexed his righteous soul: he therefore took a walk in the evening, and sat down without the city gate, where he might spend an hour in retirement Seeing two strangers coming up to him, he behaved in much the same courteous and hospitable manner as Abraham had done. Bowing himself with his face towards the ground,’ he said, “Behold now, my lords; turn in I pray you, into your servant’s house, and tarry all night, and wah your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your ways.” This was lovely; and the contrast between this and the conduct of his neighbours, shews, what was suggested in the former chapter, the genuine fruits of true religion. What is said to be the customary hospitality of the age and country, was far from being practised by the other inhabitants of Sodom. But though Lot had given them so kind an invitation, they seem determined not to accept of it — “Nay, (said they) but we will abide in the street all night.” This might be either for the purpose of being eye-witnesses of the conduct of the citizens, or to express their abhorrence of the general character oi’ the city; as when the prophet of Judah was sent to Lethel, he was forbidden either “to eat bread, or drink water in that place.”*
1 Kings xiii. S — 17.
G g 2,
Ver. 3. After being “greatly pressed” by Lot, however, they yielded to his importunity, and entered into bis house; where he made them a feast, as Abraham bad done, and they did eat.
Ver. 4, 5. But while things were going on well with respect to Lot, the baseness of bis neighbours soon betrayed itself. A little before bed-time, they beset the house; not for the purpose of robbing, or insulting them in any of the ordinary ways of brutal outrage — this had been bad enough, especially to strangers — but to perpetrate a species of crime too shocking and detestable to be named; a species of crime which indeed has no name given it in the scriptures, but what is borrowed from this infamous place.
Jer. 6 — 9. The conduct of Lot in going out and expostulating with them, was in several respects praise-worthy. His “shutting the door after him,” expressed hom delicately he felt for bis guests, though at present he does not appear to have considered them in any other light than strangers. It was saying in effect, * Let not their cars be offended with M’hat passes abroad: whatever is “scurrilous, obscene, or abusive, let me bear it, but not them.’ His gentle and respectful manner of treating this worst of mobs, is also worthy of notice. He could not respect them on the score of character; but he would try and do so as being still his fellow-creatures, and near neighbours. As such he calls them “brethren,” no doubt hoping, by such conciliating language, to dissuade them from their “wicked” purpose. But when to turn off their attention to his guests, he proposed the bringing out of his daughters to them, he appears to have gone too far. It is not for us to go into a less evil in hope of preventing a greater; but rather to consent to no evil. It might be owing to the perturbation of his mind; but probably, if he had not lived in Sodom till his mind was almost famiharised to obscenity, he M’ould not have made such a proposal. Nor had it any good effect. He only got himself more abused for it; and even his gentle remonstrance was perversely construed into obtrusive forwardness, and setting himself up for a judge, who was merely ‘’a sojourner” amongst them. Persuasion has no force with men who are under the dominion of their lusts. So now their resentment burns against him, and they will be revenged on him. They will not be contented now with bavins: the men brought out, but will go in unto them, and break the door open to effect their purpose.
Vej 10, 11. Such an attempt, and such a perseverance in it must have been proof sufficient
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to the heavenly messengers that the cry of Sodom had not exceeded the truth. Putting forth their hands therefore, they pulled Lot into the house to them, shut to the door, and smote the people without with blindness. The power and indignation displayed in these acts would convince him that. they were no common strangers; and one would have thought, might have struck them with awe, and caused them to desist from their horrid purpose: but they are infatuated. Though supernaturally smitten with blindness, they must still “weary themselves to find the door.” Such daring presumption, in the face of heaven, must have filled up the measure of their crimes, and rendered them ripe for destruction.
Ve? 12, 13. Things are now hastening to their awful crisis: but mark the mercy of divine proceedings. Ten righteous men would have saved the city; but there seems to have been only one. Well, not only shall that one escape, but all that belong to him shall be delivered for his sake; or if otherwise, it shall be their own fault. “Sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or m hat’ ever he had,” are directed to be brought out of this place: for, said they, opening their commission, and as it Mere reading it to Lot, “we will destroy this place, because the cry of llicni is waxen great before the face of Jehovah, and Jehovah hath sent us to destroy it.”
Ver. 14. Giving fall credit to the divine threatening, and deeply impressed with it, Lot went forth to warn his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters. We do not read till now that Lot had a family. It looks as if he had taken his wife from Sodom, soon after having parted from Abraham; and as he must have been there about twenty years, he had daughters, some of whom were married, and two remained with him single. No mention is made of his married daughters being alive at this time; but by the manner in which the others are spoken of in verse 15, “thy two daughters which are fre,” it is probable they were elsewhere; viz. along with their husbands, and perished with them in the overthrow. The warning given to his sons-in-law was abrupt and pointed: “Up, get ye out of this place; for Jehovah will destroy this city! But he seemed to them as one that mocked,” or who was in jest. He believed, and therefore spake: but they disbelieved, and therefore made light of it. A striking example this of the ordinary effect of truth upon the minds’ of unbelievers.
Ver. 15, 16. All this had taken place in one night. Early in the morning. Lot is hastened away from the devoted spot. And as his sons-in-law, and it seems their wives with them, would not hear, he is commanded to leave them; and without farther delay, to take his wife, and his two daughters who were with him, lest he should be consumed in the overthrow of the city. The threatening part of this language would probably not have been addressed to him, had he not discovered a reluctance to depart. I hope it was not his worldly substance that clave to him, much less any attachment to that wicked city; but rather that it was his daughters and their husbands who could not be persuaded to accompany him, that occasioned this strong conflict. It was on this account, I suppose, that he is said to have “lingered;” and his deliverers were at last obliged to lay hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters, and (Jehovah being merciful unto him) by force, in a manner, to set them without the city. Such has been the struggle in many uiinds, when called to leave all, and flee from the wrath to come; and such the mercy of God towards thepi.
Ver. 17. Having been so f:ir saved, almost in spite of himself, he is now solemnly charged to “escape for his life, not so much as to look behind him, nor stay in all the plain; but to escape to the mountain, lest he should be. consumed.” This was continuing to be mercifully
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severe; and such are our Lord’s commands which require us to deny self, take up the cross, and follow him. It was better for Lol to be thus warned off the ground, than to have been consumed upon it: and we had better cut off a right hand, or pluck out a right eye, than be cast into hell.
Ver. 18 — 22. Lot was certainly a righteous man; but in times of trial his graces do not appear to the best advantage. He is directed to flee to the mountain, and he had better have been there all his days than where he was; but he pleads hard to live in a city, and hopes he may be excused in this desire, seeing it was “a little one.” Had he properly confided in God, he would have gone to the mountain without hesitation: but his faith is weak, and his fears prevail, that if he go thither, “some evil will take him, and he shall die.” This his imbecility, however, is graciously passed over; his request is granted, and the city spared for his sake. Nor was this all. The angel kindly hastens his escape to this city, (formerly called Bela, but from hence Zoar, that is, little) for that “he could do nothing till he should have come thither.” All this was merciful, very merciful; and proves not only that the Lord knoweth how to deliver the H h
234 DESTRUCTIOX OF SODOM. [DiS. ^7.
godly out of temptation, but also that their blood is precious in his sight.
Ver. 23 — 25. By the time that Lot entered into Zoar, the sun uas risen upon the earth. It promised perhaps to be a fine day; and the inhabitants of Sodom, after their night’s revel, would be going forth to do as at other times. But lo, on a sudden, floods of fire and brimstone from the Lord out of heaven descend upon this and the neighbouring city of Gomorrha, utterly consuming them, and all their inhabitants! Some have supposed this tremendous judgment to have been effected by a volcanic eruption in the neighbourhood, the lava of which, first ascending high into the atmosphere, and then descending upon the devoted cities, destroyed them. — 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.
Ver. 26. The Lord delivered just Lot; and his whole family, as we have seen, had much mercy shewn them for his sake. But favour may be shewn to the wicked, yet M-ill they not learn righteousness. Some refuse to go with him, and those that did go, proved to him a grief and a snare. His M’ife is said to have “looked back from behind him,” duriwg their journey, and was instantly struck dead, and remained upon the spot a petrified monument of divine vengeance. It may be thought a hard fate for a mere glance of the eye: but that glance, no doubt, was expressive of unbelief, and a lingering desire to return. Probably she was of much the same mind as her sons-in-law, and attributed the whole to the resentment of the strangers, whom her husband was weak enough to believe. It is certain that her example is held up by our Lord as a M’arning against turning back, which intimates that such was the meaning of her look.
Ver. 27 — 29. Abraham having made intercession, though the issue of it gave him but little hope of success, yet is anxious to see what will be the end of these things. Unable it seems to rest in his bed, he arose early the next morning, and went to the place where he had stood i)efore the Lord. From having a view of the plain, he beheld, and lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace. He had not mentioned Lot by name in his mtercession, though doubtless it had respect to him; and the Lord so far hearkened to his prayer as to deliver that good man in answer to it. Lot could not pray for himself, for he was not aware of his danger till it came in a manner upon him. What
a mercy it is to have an Intercessor who knows H h 2 all the evils which are coming upon us, and piayeth for us that our faith fail not! But to return to Lot —
Vt7 30. On leaving Sodom he was very earnest to have Zoar granted him for a refuge, and to be excused from going to dwell in the mountain: yet now all on a sudden he went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and that for the very reason he had given for a contrary choice. Then he feared some evil would take him, if he went to the mountain; now he “fears to dwell in Zoar.” It is well to know that the way of man is not in himself, and that it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. Our wisdom is to refer all to God, and to follow whereevcr his word and providence lead the way. But why did not Lot return to Abraham? There was no occasion now for strife about their herds; for he had lost all, and but just escaped with his life, “’s’hatcver was the reason, he does not appear to have made a good choice. Had he gone to the mountain when directed, he might have hoped for preserving mercy: but going of his own accord, and from a motive of sinful distrust, evil in reality overtakes him. His daughters, who seemi to have contracted such habits in Sodom as would prepare them for any thing, however unnatural draw him into intemperance and
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incest, and thus cover his old a2;e with infamy. The offspring of this iUicit intercourse were the fathers of two great, but heathen, nations; viz. the Moabites, and the children of Ammon.
The dishonourable end of this good man shews that we are never out of danger while we are upon earth. He whose righteous soul M’as grieved with the filthy conversation of the wicked, while in a city, is drawn into the same kind of evils himself, when dwelling in a cave! His whole history also, from the time of his leaving Abraham, furnishes an affecting lesson to the heads of families in the choice of habitations for themselves or their children. If worldly accommodations be preferred to religious advantages, “we have nothing good, but every thing evil to expect. M’^e may, or we may not lose our substance as he did; but, what is of far greater consequence, our families may be expected to become mere heathens, and our own minds contaminated with the examples which are continually before our eyes. Such was the harvest which Lot reaped from his well-watered plain; and such are the fruits very commonly seen in those who follow his example!