Genesis 19:12-29 - Do Not Look Back!

Genesis 19:12-29

Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed (Matt. 11:23, 24; Luke 17:28–32)

12 Then the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Son-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city—take them out of this place! 13 For we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the LORD, and the LORD has sent us to destroy it.”

14 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters, and said, “Get up, get out of this place; for the LORD will destroy this city!” But to his sons-in-law he seemed to be joking.

15 When the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, “Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city.” 16 And while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. 17 So it came to pass, when they had brought them outside, that he said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed.”

18 Then Lot said to them, “Please, no, my lords! 19 Indeed now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have increased your mercy which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountains, lest some evil overtake me and I die. 20 See now, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one; please let me escape there (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live.”

21 And he said to him, “See, I have favored you concerning this thing also, in that I will not overthrow this city for which you have spoken. 22 Hurry, escape there. For I cannot do anything until you arrive there.”

Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.

23 The sun had risen upon the earth when Lot entered Zoar. 24 Then the LORD rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the LORD out of the heavens. 25 So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.

26 But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

27 And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the LORD. 28 Then he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain; and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land which went up like the smoke of a furnace. 29 And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot had dwelt.

The warning to Lot and his wife with their two daughters was simple, “do not look back,” as they were delivered from the judgment and destruction of God’s wrath on the sin of the Sodomites and their neighboring unrepentant citizens of Gomorrah.  The cry of the righteous echoed up to heaven’s throne and the LORD sent the angels to execute judgment on these places but offered to spare the righteous Lot and his family after finding not even ten righteous people in these cities to answer Abraham’s plea for mercy.  Instead, God saved his nephew and family from our of the abominations of that place and did not spare the rest who refused to flee sin and follow Him.  Such is the continuing call of the gospel throughout the ages from the Garden of Eden until Christ’s return for the final judgment on sin and deliverance for those He has called out and who have followed by repentance and faith in God’s work of deliverance.  Unfortunately for Lot’s son-in-laws, those laughed at the impending righteous judgment of God (Romans 2:4-5) and were left behind.  In the morning, the angels told Lot and his remaining family to immediately flee from the wrath to come (1 Thessalonians 1:10, Revelation 6:17) as it will be at the termination of all time.  They hesitated and so the LORD gave his messengers the command to drag them out of harm’s way by His mercy deliver them to escape the fire and brimstone (Genesis 19:24) to come.  They were set down outside the kill zone of judgment and told to escape for their lives.  They were commanded not to remain in the plain where destruction was imminent and told “do not look back!”  Lot and his family did not escape to higher ground as the angels told them, but begged for mercy and grace with a thankful heart to go to a nearby town instead.  He feared danger in the mountains and asked for leave to go to the town of Zoar instead.  That city was spared from destruction and they were given leave to go there instead.  God in Christ has pulled us out of the fire (1 Corinthians 3:15, Jude 1:23) and given us a place to go in His mercy as well to escape our just sentencing of this corrupted world of our sin because we have repented and trusted in Him and His work to deliver us.  When the fire rained down with brimstone as if Hell came to earth, Lot’s wife famously looked back when she was warned to flee sin and not return to where she had been.  That cost her life as she was turned into a pillar of salt.  Luke 17:31-33 tells us that we are not to be like her and look back to the life of sin we once lived in, nor to try to save ourselves in our own power, but to trust God’s deliverance in His Son and in nothing or nobody else, especially ourselves and our efforts.  We must lose everything we have relied on to be delivered from judgment or face the eternal consequences.  In about 200 AD, Clement of  Alexandria wrote “For God looks closely at the actual inner purpose, as when Lot’s wife was the only one to turn of her own free will toward the wickedness of the world. He left her insensible, giving her the likeness of a pillar of salt and leaving her without the power of forward movement, a statue, yet not one without a useful message but one intended to season and salt the person capable of spiritual perception.”  May we follow Christ to be salt to the earth to turn others to repentance and faith, not turning back to become a useless statue of hardened salt unable to season the world.  We are to run to the Deliverer and follow Him, keeping our eyes on Him and not back on the sin we once lived in. He rescued us even when we were still sinners (Romans 5:8) as Lot was also considered righteous (2 Peter 2:7-8) by faith.  Do not look back!