Lot's Escape from Sodom

Lot’s Escape from Sodom After three men Abraham and Sarah with news of a child who would be called Isaac, two of the men, who were messengers from God, went on to visit the city of Sodom. They arrived to find Lot sitting with the rulers at the gate of the city.  Lot had at first pitched his tent near Sodom, but then he moved into the city and he also became a leader in the city. Lot was not in a good place, and his life was an awfully bad testimony because to live in the city of Sodom, Lot had to give other people freedom to live in rebellion to God and keep quiet about it. The two men who were messengers from God greeted Lot very kindly and Lot greeted them as friends. The men were going to spend the night sleeping in the city street, but Lot insisted that for their own safety they should come into his house for the night. They finally agreed to spend the night with Lot in his home.   Then there was a knock at the door. Lot and his guests could hear people talking and shouting in the street. The men and teenage boys of the city were all gathered outside Lot's house. These wicked ungodly men of Sodom wanted Lot to send his guests out to them so they may abuse them. Lot said "no". In return, the men of Sodom shouted nasty things to Lot about coming as a stranger to live in their city to rule with them. Their voices got louder and louder and the banging on the door made it rattle and shake. The wicked men were ready to burst into Lot's home.   The visiting men helped Lot. Lot must have gone out putting his own life at risk trying to stop these evil men of Sodom from harming his guests. The visiting men pulled Lot inside. They shut the door and then they smote the men outside Lot's house with blindness. Everyone lost their eyesight and they had to feel their way around and they couldn't find his door anymore.  So Lot was safe, his wife was safe and his two daughters were also safe.   Then the men told Lot that they were sent by God to destroy the city of Sodom, because the stink of it sins offended God. Remember how sins are like toilet water thrown into God's face. That's how God felt about Sodom. So, it was to be judged by God and totally burnt up by a terrible rain of fire and brimstone. Lot was told to warn his family and get right out of the city immediately. He went to speak unto his sons-in-law, who were married to his two daughters. They just laughed at Lot and said there is no danger here. We're fine. Let us alone.   In the morning, before the sun appeared in the sky, Lot tried to get his wife and two daughters ready to flee. They messed around and held back as if there was no real danger. But while they lingered the two visiting men grabbed them and dragged them out of the city. They were warned to flee to the mountain to save their lives from the terrible fiery judgment that was about to fall on the city of Sodom. Even then Lot did not realize how close and how powerful that judgment would be.  He pleaded to go to the little town of Zoar, which was close by.   Then, that same morning when the sun began to shine stronger in its morning light, it happened. The Bible says, "The Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven" (Genesis 19:24).   Fireballs fell on those cities. They were fuelled by brimstone that gave off sulfuric gases. Such was the fury of the fire, that people were gone, houses were gone and the land was scorched so badly that nothing could grow again. The green valley became a furnace. The Bible says that "Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the LORD: And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and behold, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace."   The area is now well known as the dead Sea. Nothing grows there to this day, even after the passing of 2000 years. There are still sulfur mountains and pillars of salt that kill off anything that tries to grow. Fish cannot live in the salty waters of the Dead Sea.   Speaking of salt, did you know that Lot's wife made a terrible decision. While Lot was fleeing from this fiery judgment, his wife looked backward toward Sodom and she "became a pillar of salt." Somehow she was judged for her inner love for that wicked city. The Lord Jesus spoke about that day. He said, "Remember Lot's wife."  The Lord used the fate of Lot’s wife to warn us not to love this world more than our souls. Jesus said that as it was in the days of Lot, so it will be when He returns. Then at the coming again of the Lord Jesus, the world will be destroyed by a worldwide fire that will burn up everything.   Some people mock the idea that God will judge the world. They laugh and joke about it as if it will never happen.  Well, the Lord Jesus preached about it and warned people to remember Lot's wife, for she was destroyed in the judgment that fell upon Sodom because her heart was in it. It's not enough to know that judgment is coming. You must turn your back on the sins of this world and turn with all your heart to the Lord Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. To be saved you must repent of the lusts and sins of this world and hate them with a holy hatred. You must hate every sin that God hates. Heaven only opens to those who use the key of repentance. You cannot be saved without repentance. Sin robs you of peace with God. But when you turn away from sin and trust in the saving power of the Lord Jesus God will shower you with His peace. Only then can you know His salvation. Thankfully, you can be saved. The Lord Jesus calls you and will pardon all your sins. He takes no delight in judging sinners. Over and over again, the Lord taught that He came into the world, not to condemn, but to save sinners. We know this is true, for the Lord Jesus suffered for sinners on the cross. He took their punishment in his own body on that tree. God poured out the terrible fires of His wrath on His Son that we might be set free from the sins that drag us down to hell. Like those men who visited Lot and dragged him out of Sodom, the Lord Jesus will draw you away from the sins of this world to save you. He will set you on the way to heaven. Then you will never know the wrath of God in hell. The gospel promise is, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).

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