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Context No. 3343 of 4322 · Genesis

Context · Reflection

Genesis 19:18-22: in context

18Lot said to them, “Oh, not so, my lord. 19See now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your loving kindness, which you have shown to me in saving my life. I can’t escape to the mountain, lest evil overtake me, and I die. 20See now, this city is near to flee to, and it is a little one. Oh let me escape there (isn’t it a little one?), and my soul will live.” 21He said to him, “Behold, I have granted your request concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken. 22Hurry, escape there, for I can’t do anything until you get there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.

As the angels urge Lot to flee Sodom to the safety of the hills, Lot pleads instead for a small nearby town: I cannot escape to the mountains, lest disaster overtake me; look, this city is near, and it is a little one; let me flee there, and my life will be saved. And God grants it: I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken.

It is a request born of weakness and fear, and not a particularly heroic one; Lot is bargaining even in the middle of his rescue. And yet God accommodates him. He does not scold Lot for asking for less than the full escape; he bends his mercy to Lot's frailty, sparing even an entire town for the sake of this one fearful man's plea. What is tender here is God's willingness to meet Lot in his weakness rather than demand a strength he does not have. God's grace makes room for the weak and the fearful; he adjusts his rescue to the frailty of the one he saves.

Do I believe God meets me in my weakness, bending his mercy to my frailty rather than demanding a strength I do not have?

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