Poor Lot tried in vain to make his visitors welcome. He was utterly powerless to change things in his home, much as he would have liked to have done so. The men of Sodom knew that Lot was not accustomed to that kind of company, and they came to see who the men were. How different from the peacefulness of Abraham’s tent! Nor did the Sodomites usually find Lot’s door shut against them. It was usually open to them, and they did not like being kept out. Lot was willing to pay an awful price to have peace in his home. Yes, he was willing to give his daughters to be companions of those wicked men, but the angels intervened and hindered, causing blindness to fall upon those about the door. It is a sad, sad story which should be a warning to all our young readers. It is but a fresh proof of the truth of God’s Word which says, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Galatians 6:7). Lot was reaping just what he had sown when he pitched his tent toward Sodom.
A Good Testimony Before the World
The angels then delivered their message to Lot and his family. They gave Lot the privilege of inviting his sons, his sons-in-law, and his daughters to find a place of safety outside of Sodom. He then went to their homes to tell them, but he seemed as one that mocked. There was no power in his words, because he didn’t live it before them. You will find, dear boys and girls, that if you want others to listen when you speak to them about Christ, you will have to act like a Christian before them. Your friends won’t take your message seriously unless you do. No, Lot’s sons-in-law and his married daughters would not leave Sodom. They perished in it, and it was Lot who had brought them there — how solemn!
Even Lot himself, with his wife, and two daughters who were still at home, were slow to get out of the doomed city. The angels had to pull them out! They evidently did not like to think of losing all they had gathered together there, but leave it they must. Everything was going to be destroyed, just as all the boasted treasures and vanities of this present world are going to be burned up very soon. Let us take warning from this and not try to build our hopes here. We will have to leave it all someday, and only what has been done according to the will of God will abide, and nothing else. If the one who reads these lines is unsaved, you will not only lose all you have gathered together in this world, but you will lose your own soul too. Oh, will you not come to the Saviour this very moment, accepting His work on Calvary as that which can put away all your sins? COME NOW.
Obedience
Lot requested that he might go to Zoar for refuge. He still wanted to live in a “city” instead of in a tent like Abraham, and so his desire was granted, but surely sorrow followed him there too. If we are insistent in going after the things of the world, even in a small way (for Zoar was a little city), we may get our desire, but how can the Lord bless such decisions?
Our salvation depends only upon simple faith in the precious blood of Christ, but our happiness depends on obedience. So here, the angels told Lot they could not do anything until he was safely out of Sodom, but his choice of Zoar brought him plenty of sorrow.
Further Meditation
1. Why were Lot’s words of safety without power to his family?
2. The Bible uses the expression “world” in several different ways. This chapter refers to one of them. John 3:16 refers to a second way of talking about the world. Acts 17:24 gives a third way of referring to the world. Can you distinguish between each of these ways of talking about the world?
3. A more difficult-to-read but highly valuable booklet for your study of the “world” in Scripture is What Is the World and What Is Its End? by J. N. Darby.