Genesis 19

Remember Lot's Wife

It was Jesus who used the episode of the destruction of Sodom to drive home a powerful evangelistic message in his own preaching. In Luke 17 he is forewarning his listeners that the Gospel demands of them that they be prepared for the coming of the Son of Man, who would be rejected and despised, but who will finally return in triumph and for judgement. He asks them in this connection to 'Remember Lot's wife' (Luke 17:32).

The meaning of this is rooted in Genesis 19, where God judges Sodom and Gomorrah for their wickedness. There is salvation offered to Lot, and he escapes, but his wife looks back and is turned into salt. His daughter, who does not wish the family line to be wiped out, has a sexual relationship with him, and thus Genesis 19 explains the origins of the Moabites, a people who were to trouble Israel for many, many generations.

God's judgement falls upon the cities of the plain because of their sin and wickedness. There are few more powerful and potent chapters in the Bible than this one. Perhaps we can see three things here about the Bible's teaching on sin.

Sin Abounded

Sodom is a wicked place. God can tolerate it no longer. There is a limit to his patience and his longsuffering. Thus far, but no further. God's claims have been ridiculed and his law flouted. There is no fear of God before the eyes of the people.

It is interesting that this chapter presents Lot as a respected resident of Sodom. Previously, we had seen him pitch his tent toward the place; now he is in it, as a citizen of this evil and wicked locality. We cannot trifle with sin. Our threshold for resistance of sin is often very low. The pull of Sodom was clearly too much for Lot, who now finds himself steeped in the ways, and in the religion, of Sodom and Gomorrah. We must be careful that we pitch our tent in the right direction, with our backs, and not our faces, towards sin.

The symptoms of sin's disease were seen particularly in two areas. The first was in the area of sexual immorality. Sodom has given its name to a particular kind of sexual deviation. The streets of Sodom were full of this sin. Lot's visitors - 'two angels' according to verse 1, were obviously attractive in appearance and form, and the men of Sodom wished to know them carnally (v5). Even Lot is prepared to give them his daughters instead. A judgement of blindness was sent upon the men, thirsty to satisfy their godless, carnal desires.

There was no fear of God before their eyes. And in our society we have become anaesthetised against the very sins for which Sodom was destroyed. We laugh at things that used to make us blush. Instead of extolling the virtue of God's marriage ethic in the Bible, we now view that as only one option - and not necessarily the best option. Quick divorce, life partnerships, homosexuality - all of these are paraded as being natural and desirable. Yet they are condemned by God. Their appearance on our streets and on our televisions is symptomatic of the power and grip of sin that abounds in human life still.

There was also something else. When Lot conveyed the message of the angels to his family, urging them to escape God's wrath, 'to his sons-in-law he seemed to be joking'! Here he was with the most important and most urgent message of all, yet all they could was laugh, thinking that he was laughing too. The moment we treat religion lightly, and the truth of the Bible lightly, is the moment we fail to take sin and its consequences seriously. How much we need to recover the fear of God which is the beginning of wisdom.

Grace Did Much More Abound

But, as always, the message of divine judgement is interwoven with a message of covenant faithfulness and love. Lot is part of the household of Abraham, part of the church. And to the people of God has been committed the message of the Gospel which offers hope, life and salvation.

God provided an escape - 'out of this place'! was the message of v12. To stay in Sodom was to be judged and lost. But there was an 'out', an exit, a possibility of escape. So it is with the Gospel. To remain as we are is to be under the condemnation and power of sin. But Jesus says 'I am the door'. There is a way of escape, to something safe, to something better.

God effected the escape - while Lot lingered, grace did not linger. The angels took hold of Lot's hand, and took him out. Why? The Bible says - because the Lord was merciful to him (v16). It is of God's mercy that Lot was not consumed (cf. Lamentations 3:22). Grace did the work that only grace can do, ensuring that Lot becomes an heir of blessing and of covenant lovingkindness.

God made good his promise - v29: he remembered Abraham, and cast Lot out of the midst of the overthrow. The reason for Lot's salvation was in God's covenant commitment. What he promised he now performed. The Gospel does what it promises because of the covenant work of Jesus, our Mediator, who died that we might live, and who lives that we might be saved.

But let us never forget Lot's wife. She looked back. She had the same opportunites, the same privileges, the same Gospel as her husband, but her heart never left Sodom, even if her feet took her outside the city. She was drawn to look back. She contravened God's express command, and showed that she had more in what was behind her than in what God promised to give to his people. Lot, in the grip of grace, was saved. His wife, in the grip of sin, was lost.

What about us?