Lot was a man who lived several hundred years after the great flood, in a city near the Jordon River. That valley was well watered and beautiful, so no doubt the city was pleasant. But the people had become as wicked as the people before the flood.
Lot believed God, but had chosen to live in the wicked city to be near good lands for his cattle (Genesis 13:10, 1310And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. (Genesis 13:10)
13But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. (Genesis 13:13)). God saw the awful evil of the people and knew the city must be destroyed. He seems not to have given a long warning, like as was given to the people before the flood. But the night before, two angels came and told Lot to bring all his family out of the city, because God had sent them to destroy it.
Lot told his sons-in-law, but they did not believe him, and took it as “mocking” or what would now be called, “a joke.” Even Lot did not hurry to leave, and the angels had to lead him and his wife and two daughters outside the city, and told them to flee to a safe place.
God did not destroy the city by water, but by fire, and it was known by all the people of the countries near as a terrible disaster. Moses and several of the prophets wrote of it, and the ruin and ashes left were a warning against evil deeds (Deuteronomy 29:2323And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath: (Deuteronomy 29:23); Amos 4:1111I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. (Amos 4:11)).
Jesus spoke of this several times to people; here His words are: “As it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded. But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.”
The plans of those people for houses and business did not change or stop the judgment of God. Several other wicked places near also were destroyed, there was no escape. Brimstone is sulphur, or like it, and its fumes suffocate people.
Our Just, Not Angry, God
It is written that God “does not afflict willingly,” and to send punishment is His “strange work,” not natural or pleasing to Him, as His to show mercy. He does so only when people know His words and refuse Him, (Lamentations 3:3333For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men. (Lamentations 3:33); Isaiah 28:2121For the Lord shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act. (Isaiah 28:21); Joshua 10:8-148And the Lord said unto Joshua, Fear them not: for I have delivered them into thine hand; there shall not a man of them stand before thee. 9Joshua therefore came unto them suddenly, and went up from Gilgal all night. 10And the Lord discomfited them before Israel, and slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them along the way that goeth up to Beth-horon, and smote them to Azekah, and unto Makkedah. 11And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, and were in the going down to Beth-horon, that the Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah, and they died: they were more which died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword. 12Then spake Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. 13And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day. 14And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the Lord fought for Israel. (Joshua 10:8‑14)).
But when people will not repent of sin, they become worse and worse and lead their children and others with them, as all the people from every part of Sodom, both young and old followed the leaders in wickedness (Genesis 19:44But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: (Genesis 19:4)).
Some now think people would not be as wicked as in those days, but the Lord Jesus knew the future time, as He did the past, and He said, “Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.”
He, the Son of Man, has not been seen on earth for many, many years, but He is to be “revealed,” or seen. People will then be doing things as they please, some sleeping, some working, and those who have not believed God will be taken in judgment. There will be no mistake even in two so close as in the same bed, one will be taken, (Luke 17:3434I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. (Luke 17:34)), the other left alive for Christ’s peaceful reign on the earth for 1,000 years which is yet to come.
Further Meditation
1. What is brimstone?
2. Today people like to think of themselves as more sophisticated, intelligent, knowledgeable, and progressive than the men of Lot’s day. In what ways are we very similar in moral character to the men and women of that day?
3. A solemn but necessary booklet on the history of Sodom and its parallels with our day can be found in The Last Night of Sodom and of Christendom by C. E. Lunden.