Abraham by Charles R. Swindoll

Author:Charles R. Swindoll
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: RELIGION / Christian Life / General
ISBN: 9781496400437
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Published: 2014-07-16T04:00:00+00:00

Judgment Day

The predawn hours brought with them an opportunity for Lot to escape with his life and to save his family. Animated with a sense of urgency, the angels rousted the household from sleep. “‘Hurry,’ they said to Lot. ‘Take your wife and your two daughters who are here. Get out right now, or you will be swept away in the destruction of the city!’” (Genesis 19:15). But Lot hesitated. The Hebrew term here means “linger, delay, wait.”

The narrator doesn’t tell us Lot’s reason for delaying. There’s no hint of a death wish, so all we can say for certain is that Lot didn’t take the threat of destruction all that seriously. Imagine someone coming to your home and saying, “An earthquake will strike in three minutes, at which time this whole area will be destroyed. I know it to be a fact, so get as far away as you can.” You wouldn’t hesitate if you trusted the messenger and believed the message.

When Lot continued to delay, the angels had to drag him and his family to the edge of the city. When the angels urged them to escape into the mountains, he expressed a curious fear. “‘Oh no, my lord!’ Lot begged. ‘You have been so gracious to me and saved my life, and you have shown such great kindness. But I cannot go to the mountains. Disaster would catch up to me there, and I would soon die’” (Genesis 19:18-19).

I have a difficult time understanding this man. The message is clear: “Soon—very soon—this place will be reduced to pools of bubbling sulfur. Get out.” If God ever outlines an escape route with a specific place to run, I’m running to where He commands! What’s the point in arguing with omniscience?

Furthermore, Lot’s logic is confusing. His objection (“I cannot go to the mountains. Disaster would catch up to me there, and I would soon die”) can be interpreted one of two ways. First, he appears to argue that he could not physically outrun the destruction. “Catch up to me” comes from a Hebrew verb that means “stick to, cleave, join.” By this interpretation, he feared the disaster would cling to him before he could get away. Lot then asked permission to run to a small town nearby. Earlier he’d dragged his feet, so this sudden interest in a quick getaway doesn’t make sense. Also, if he was worried about being able to get far enough away, he would not have chosen a town nearby.

A second more likely explanation is that Lot was reluctant to leave the comfort of city life for a less genteel outdoor existence. He had become so entrenched in the affluence and comfort of his home in Sodom that he hesitated to leave it, even with God’s fearsome wrath looming overhead. When forced out of his home and dragged to the edge of the city, he begged for permission to take refuge not in the hills but in a nearby village on the southern edge of the valley.

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