A Daily Genesis

Genesis 19:17-26

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[B][COLOR=#ff0000]†.[/COLOR] Gen 19:17 . .When they had brought them outside, one said: Flee for your life! Do not look behind you, nor stop anywhere in The Plain; flee to the hills, lest you be swept away.[/B]

The messengers won't be going along. They're to stay behind to supervise the holocaust.

Up till now, it appeared that God intended to destroy only Sodom. But now His complete plan is unveiled. The whole plain was doomed-- all five cities of the Siddim confederation, and all of their agriculture to boot --including the livestock and all the wildlife and all the pets; plus the children, and all the adults. A total civil, cultural, environmental, and economic, melt-down.

Compare that to Rev 18:2-24 where it appears that the global economy is left a complete collapse just as rapidly as the twin towers of the World Trade Center were brought down.

[B][COLOR=#ff0000]†.[/COLOR] Gen 19:18 . . But Lot said to them: Oh not so, my Lord![/B]

The word Lot used for "Lord" is [I]'Adonay[/I] (ad-o-noy') which is a proper name of God only; in comparison to the word [I]'adown[/I] (aw-done'); which is a lesser-ranking lord than Yhvh. When the men first arrived in Sodom, Lot addressed them as 'adown because he wasn't aware as yet that they were of Divine origin.

It's significant that the men didn't scold Lot for calling them 'Adonay. So then, speaking with those messengers was all the same as speaking with God, and that, it seems, is exactly how Lot now perceived them.

Lot was a righteous man (2Pet 2:8) but lacked commitment. He never really grew in grace and the knowledge of God. Abraham's nephew was no more spiritually mature at this point than when he left his mentor and relocated to the Jordan Valley.

God instructed Abraham to walk before Him and to be perfect (Gen 17:1). But when Lot moved out, he apparently never really took up a walk with God; but instead found a home for his family among impious pagans; who would certainly discourage Lot from getting too serious about his religion.

"Do not be misled; bad company corrupts good character." (1Cor 15:33)

[B][COLOR=#ff0000]†.[/COLOR] Gen 19:19 . .You have been so gracious to your servant, and have already shown me so much kindness in order to save my life; but I cannot flee to the hills, lest the disaster overtake me and I die.[/B]

Listen to this man! He calls himself "your servant" yet resists his master's wishes. Next, he expresses gratitude for the successful rescue, yet implies his rescuer doesn't know what He's doing by sending him into the hills. Why on earth would God send Lot to the hills if the disaster was headed that way too? Lot isn't being rational and objective; no, he's being emotional and reactive; which people under stress usually are.
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[/COLOR][B][COLOR=#ff0000]†. [/COLOR]Gen 19:20 . . Look, that town there is near enough to flee to; it is such a little place! Let me flee there-- it is such a little place --and let my life be spared.[/B]

Lot surely must have known that town was just as wicked as Sodom but he still wanted to live there anyway as if his future was any more secure in that town than the one he was just leaving. And why he thought a "little place" was a good place to live is a mystery. But then such is the human mind. Little country towns seem more cozy and wholesome than the big city to some of us. But all towns are populated with human beings; and human beings are human everywhere.

[B][COLOR=#ff0000]†.[/COLOR] Gen 19:21-22 . . He replied: Very well, I will grant you this favor too, and I will not annihilate the town of which you have spoken. Hurry, flee there, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there. Hence the town came to be called Zoar.[/B]

Zoar is from [I]Tso' ar[/I] (tso'ar) which means little. So maybe we could nick-name it Smallville?

[B][COLOR=#ff0000]†.[/COLOR] Gen 19:23-25 . . As the sun rose upon the earth and Lot entered Zoar, the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah sulfurous fire from the Lord out of heaven. He annihilated those cities and the entire Plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities and the vegetation of the ground.[/B]

What a sight that must have been. The people in Smallville probably thought the world was coming to an end! Fiery hail fell out of nowhere. Everything all around them ignited and went up in flame and heat with a suffocating, smelly pall filling the whole valley like a nuclear winter. Talk about scorched earth!

Jude 1:7 says the fire that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah was an "eternal" variety of fire. The Greek word is [I]aionios[/I] (ahee-o'-nee-os) which means unending; viz: perpetual.

Opponents contend that if the fire really was unending that it would still be out there. But it's far more likely that "eternal" refers not to the fire's characteristics; rather, to its source-- the smoldering impoundment depicted at Isa 66:22-24 and Rev 20:10-11.

[B][COLOR=#ff0000]†.[/COLOR] Gen 19:26 . . Lot's wife looked back, and she thereupon turned into a pillar of salt.[/B]

If the chronology of the text is strict, then Lot's wife turned into salt after their arrival in Zoar rather than along the way.

I can just imagine the look of fear that came over people in town when they saw her like that. She didn't die in the conflagration, but she died just the same.

Her "looking back" was obviously more than just a curious gaze. Lot's wife was no doubt thinking of returning; and hoping against hope that enough of Sodom would survive the incendiary attack so they could search the ruins for their daughters' remains. It's sad when the only way to stop some people from doing something contrary to God's wishes is to strike them with a disability and/or take their life. (cf. 1Cor 11:26-30)

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Updated 03-19-2016 at 01:04 PM by WebersHome

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