Scripture Daily

Context No. 1622 of 4322 · Genesis

Context · Reflection

Genesis 19:12-17: in context

12The men said to Lot, “Do you have anybody else here? Sons-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city, bring them out of the place: 13for we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown so great before the LORD that the LORD has sent us to destroy it.” 14Lot went out, and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters, and said, “Get up! Get out of this place, for the LORD will destroy the city!” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be joking. 15When the morning came, then the angels hurried Lot, saying, “Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the iniquity of the city.” 16But he lingered; and the men grabbed his hand, his wife’s hand, and his two daughters’ hands, the LORD being merciful to him; and they took him out, and set him outside of the city. 17It came to pass, when they had taken them out, that he said, “Escape for your life! Don’t look behind you, and don’t stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be consumed!”

The angels warn Lot that Sodom is about to be destroyed and urge him to gather his family and flee. He warns his sons-in-law, but they think he is joking. When morning comes, the angels press Lot to hurry, take his wife and daughters, and go, lest he be swept away. But Lot lingers. And then, the text says, the men grabbed his hand and his wife's and his daughters' hands, the LORD being merciful to him, and brought them out and set them outside the city, urging, flee for your life, do not look back.

Two things stand out in this urgent scene. The first is the sons-in-law who thought Lot was joking. Warned that judgment was coming, that the city would be destroyed, they treated it as a joke, unable to take the warning seriously, and so they perished. It is a picture of how the warnings of coming judgment are often received, with amused dismissal, treated as not worth taking seriously by people who cannot imagine that their comfortable world could end. The second thing is more tender: Lot lingered, and mercy dragged him out. Even Lot, who did believe the warning, hesitated, delayed, was slow to leave; and the angels, the text says, the LORD being merciful to him, seized his hand and his family's and pulled them out of the doomed city. Lot did not escape by his own decisiveness; he was half-hearted, lingering, and God's mercy took him by the hand and dragged him to safety. There is grace in that for those of us who are slow and reluctant even about our own good. We linger over what we should flee, hesitate to leave what is doomed, half-hearted about our own rescue; and God's mercy, remarkably, does not leave us to our lingering but takes us by the hand. It is a mercy that rescues even the reluctant, that will not let a hesitating soul perish for its slowness but reaches in and pulls it out. And yet the passage does not excuse the lingering; the call is still, flee, do not look back. God's mercy grabbed Lot's hand, but he was still to run and not look back at what he was leaving. Mercy rescues the reluctant; but the rescued are called to flee decisively what they have been pulled out of.

Am I slow and reluctant even about my own good, lingering over what I should flee, and can I marvel that God's mercy takes even the hesitating by the hand, while hearing the call still to flee decisively and not look back at what he has pulled me out of?

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