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. 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.” (Gen 19,19-20)

Scripture gives Lot credit for his righteousness (2 Peter 2:7). Let us ask a provocative question: is it not possible that, from an external perspective, he was morally superior even to Abraham? It is not entirely impossible. Why? Because with other people we perceive above all their falls - and so, while we know much about Abraham's, we actually know nothing about Lot in this respect. We don't read that he lied out of fear, preferring to leave his wife in someone else's harem, or fathered children with his maidservant. But beware - even he would have had reason to do so, for he had no son, no heir! He stayed, however, with his two daughters, and their prospective bridegrooms must have considered themselves fortunate at the thought of the size of the farm that would be theirs once.

Lot may not have committed so many blunders in his life, but that is also due to the fact that he did not undertake so many things, take so many risks, try to go further. A decorated horse, who only stays in the stable all the time, seems more plausible and safer than one who throws out his hooves and falls, sometimes quite wildly. The former doesn't make mistakes, but he's not going anywhere. He hardly falls, but learns nothing. He's been stagnant all his life.

Lot was a moral man, a believer, but he didn't know God personally. What better evidence can there be for this claim than to observe his conversation with God? We have already said that we do not discuss with a rescuer who is coming out of a burning house, but we listen to his instructions. But Lot talks back to God as a little child - to the God who came to save him, and Lot knows well with whom he is dealing. And yet he thinks he knows how things ought to be. He wants to go back to the city, not the mountain. His thinking remains along the same tracks in which he has spent his whole life. He doesn't want change, no matter what. Although he is supernaturally brought out of the city of destruction, he doesn't believe that God understands his path and knows what is best for him.

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.” Then Lot said to them, “Please, no, my lords! (Gen 19,17-18)

"Escape to the mountains". In interpreting a particular story in Scripture, it is good to be somewhat sober so as not to interpret pragmatic passages too figuratively, but in this case it suggests directly to say that when God saves a person, brings him out of his old existence, He lifts him up. What a contrast with Lot's choice of long ago - he chose for his life the lowlands of Sodom, where destruction would eventually await him. God now urges him to go out, and he is to go - up to the mountain. Mountains have always been the meeting place with God - for Moses, the prophets, Jesus and the apostles. Only under very specific conditions has God sent a man down to meet him - as a sign, with the valley symbolizing the trial or humiliation.

Man must find his high places and learn to stay on them in order to be able to stand against the pressures of this world and triumph. God therefore teaches us to walk in higher ways, "The Lord God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer’s feet, And He will make me walk on my high hills. (Hab. 3:19)"...and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way." 1 Kor 12:31)

Lot, however, is not accustomed to heights; the idea terrifies him. Having lived in a vibrant city for the last few years, always among people, he and his wife would clearly prefer Sodom and life there to the discomfort of the heights. The loneliness, the eerie silence - Lot was not used to seeking God and spending time in communion with Him. The high places are not at all something he is drawn to, where he wants to be. And again, as he did all those years ago, he believes he can choose his own path, and his choice will be better than God's. How could this all end?

Then Lot said to them, “Please, no, my lords! 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. (Gen 19,18-19)

It seems incredible, but Lot is really serious, really bargaining with God! Let us recall again that Lot had no idea of the situation he was in, did not understand anything, not even himself, and therefore could not save a single member of his family. And now, when God sends His messengers to him with the intention of saving him, and they tell him what to do and where to go - Lot argues with Him that this is wrong, and it would be better to go elsewhere. As if it weren't obvious that God has good intentions for him - only Lot doesn't like those very much, his own opinion seems better tohim. How often in life we witness that the one who cannot see on the contrary thinks he can see much further than others...

In Lot's case, it is not the result of excitement or fatigue. On the contrary, in extreme situations, when life is at stake, many people come out of their lethargy and act very decisively. But Lot seems to remain all the time in a kind of lethargy  How is this possible?

It is necessary to realize that what we are today is not determined by the present moment, but is the result of a long process of the past. Back then, often in difficult situations, our character was formed by having to make certain choices, to overcome discomfort, to grow. Two people can be in the same situations - and yet, one grows because he faces them, the other does not, because he runs away from them, avoids every discomfort. The first has become internally stronger in them, the other has remained unchanged.

Lot was with Abram for a long time. However, he did not choose the Abram´s way, the higher one, and so he remained without inner change. Because he was prosperous in his business and basically everything he stood for in life was working out, he did not have to work on himself. Now the time of crisis had come, and the truth about him was revealed. Lot is now reaping the fruits of his past, and it turns out that he doesn't have a lot of them.

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." Then Lot said to them, “Please, no, my lords"! (Gen 19,17-18)

If a politician or a stranger on the street were to say this cautionary phrase to us, we might first wonder if he or she was up to something nefarious. If a friend or a philosopher said the same thing to us, we would probably be tempted to discuss: and why? Are you not wrong? Is it really that serious? Do I really have to do this, and without any further ado?

But if we are told the same thing by a fireman or a paramedic pulling us out of a burning house, we probably won't discuss with him. In that moment, when life is at stake, there is no second-guessing, no questioning, no asking follow-up questions - at that point, it's all about carrying out the order as quickly as possible, and everyone understands that.

Sodom was not yet burning when God told Lot. But it was already near, so near that it was necessary to act immediately and come out quickly to be saved. After all, what future did Sodom hold for Lot after the events of the previous night? Waiting for the blinded mob or their relatives to take revenge on him or for his daughters to be raped?

And here we are at the heart of Lot's problem, as we described last time: now, when he needs to obey and act, he begins to bargain with God instead. For Lot has not learned to obey God in his entire life of faith thus far. He has not put his mind under the rule of God, he has not gained respect for His wisdom, he has not felt that it surpasses him, so he assumes that God's words can be corrected in some way. God was real to him, but not as the sovereign Lord of his life, perhaps more like someone whose opinions are worthy of serious reflection from time to time. Lot did not understand the urgency of the time, that now was not really a time for discussion - into which he ventures at a wholly inappropriate moment. "Not so, please, Lord." Though a believer, Lot was not ready to be saved, and were it not for Abraham's prayer and the coercion of the messengers, it is certain that he would have perished in Sodom.

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.” 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. (Gen 19,15-16)

The messengers told Lot in no uncertain terms that they were coming from the Lord and that the city would be utterly destroyed. Lot knew full well that he was not dealing with strange men preaching nonsense. He knew this for a fact, and not just because of what they said themselves. (In that case they could still have been just a kind of hustlers). But that they weren't must have been clear to him, at least from the moment he witnessed them blinding the crowd that had converged on his house. From that moment on, he could be one hundred percent certain that he was in the center of God's action, that these men had been sent to him by God to save him and his loved ones. It's a strange feeling when a man realizes that his story becomes the story of God Himself, that God has His eyes on him right now, perhaps hitherto nameless and neglected.

Lot had that feeling, and yet - he was unable to walk away. "But he hesitated." How is this possible? Did he doubt whether what the messengers announced would happen? Surely he was utterly bewildered in such a situation. But this confusion came primarily from the fact that he was not inwardly in tune with God. We have already shown that he had no idea how God thought of him and Sodom, how He viewed things. He did not know because he did not have a living inner contact with God, and so he took what the messengers told him as external information. The kind of information that we ponder whether it is correct or not, that we consider. We may accept it, we may reject it, because it is alien in content to what we have within us. It is similar to the gospel reaching a person who does not know God. At the beginning it is a message from outside, it is unfamiliar to him, it surprises him, perhaps it humbles him. He has not yet heard it, he has not yet thought about it in this way, it does not yet correspond to the way he himself thinks inwardly. This is the normal state of every fallen being. But it's not normal if it remains so even years later.

Someone said that Lot is the only one in the whole Bible who was saved against his will. Here again, it should be added that this insistence of God towards him was only and only due to Abraham's intercessory prayer. The messengers used "mild coercion" when they took him by the hand and led him out. But if we were talking about salvation against one's will, it would apply more to his wife and daughters; with him, it was more a chronic inability to make a decision different from those around him, because after all, he trusted the messengers (otherwise he wouldn't have gone to warn his sons-in-law). God always and without exception honors the will of man. We can decide whether and to what extent we will submit to Him, and if we want to leave, He does not hinder us from doing so (Jn 6:67). In fact, God usually respects our will far more than we respect it in others or even in ourselves.

If we can get something from this story, it is how important it is that God's mindset resonates within us. Then it will not be necessary to use any violence toward us regarding accepting God's way. For as we will see in the later fates of Lot's family, those who listen to God more or less as a kind of outside information but do not know His heart wander in confusion and the outcome is destruction.

 

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. (Gen 19,14)

We have said that Lot believed in the right God, but he had no living contact with Him and therefore lacked spiritual sensitivity. He had no idea how God felt about what was going on around him, what the state of the world was like; he knew, of course, that it was very bad, he sensed the growing violence in the streets of the city, but all because it was affecting him personally, not because of any sensitivity to what God was thinking. Abraham, on the other hand, knew this without being personally involved. Because of his living contact with God and through revelation from God, he knew things that remained hidden from Lot.

The reaction of Lot's family to the arrival of the messengers is an apt illustration of how man perceives God. At the very least, the believing Lot was aware of the moral ruin of Sodom and, humanly speaking, was not comfortable in it (cf. 2 Pet. 2:7-8). It did not move him to action, but he at least honored God's messengers and was inclined to do what they said. That, after all, was his problem. He was permanently inclined to do something without doing it: inclined to reconcile with Abraham, inclined to obey God wholeheartedly, inclined to break definitively with Sodom. He was not able to do something about it himself, and was unable even to make up his mind to leave. But at least he listened to what the messengers were telling him and, as the classic would say, he seriously considered it.

But his sons-in-law, apparently native Sodomites with no faith in his God, took seriously nothing; when Lot recounted to them his appalling situation and the words of the messengers, they were unaware of any danger. They were completely deaf to their warning and laughed at it.

It sometimes happens to a man that he does not understand his situation and the times. He commits various mistakes, arising from a wrong estimate of things; all our lives we learn a certain caution about our own judgment. But as far as the ability to perceive heavenly things is concerned, this obviously corresponds to the deep communion one cultivates with God. If he lacks it, he will also be deaf and blind to the message from above. And he will often find it quite ridiculous.

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! (Gen 19,12)

Abraham prayed for at least ten righteous men to save Sodom from destruction. It was certain that there were not even that many members of Lot's extended family, or Sodom would have been saved. No, that will not happen, and yet - how remarkable that the messengers have in mind not only Lot himself, but also his relatives, precisely and only because they are his relatives.

It is clear from the history of Scripture that God does indeed want to save not only the individual, but also his family, his tribe, his nation. After all, from the descendants of Abraham a tribe will later be formed and then the promised nation. In ancient times, God also saved not only Noah, but also his family, although one of his sons eventually brought a curse upon himself. And yet to him, as now to Lot's children and future sons-in-law, a hand was extended in the moment of crisis to save them. This is the meaning of the offer that comes through the individual to his family: Lot alone could not save his children and sons-in-law without their will. They could still choose for good or evil, to stay or go. But through one member of the family the hand of grace was extended to the others. Lot thus became the instrument of God's offer, and his loved ones were reached with a message that was enough to receive. What the daughters did, but the sons-in-law did not.

"Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you." (Mk 5,19)

...and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice. So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. (1 Ki 19,12-13)

When we read the strong, forceful words delivered to God's people by prophets in past ages, we are tempted to think that they were men who had no trouble speaking harshly to others. As if we could see their face of stone, their nerves of steel, their raised, threatening fist, and their words of warning, fire and brimstone. And around the crowd of those who would bow to their words or be crushed by them.

But this is only man's idea of the men and women of God. In reality, these were people who, in order to be able to perceive the voice of God, were taught inner meekness and sensitivity. How can we be sure of this? It is because the Holy Spirit is sensitive by nature and can easily be chased away, and those who wish to maintain fellowship with Him must adapt themselves to Him. Of course, first of all, they must choose the way of holiness and a willingness to walk in the way of the Lamb. But something more is needed for a living communion with the Holy Spirit, if he is not to be just somewhere in a corner of our lives. "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit" (Eph. 4:30) says the Scripture, to the Ephesian believers who at that moment had already been walking the path of discipleship for several years. Do not grieve Him - how? "Let all hardness, wrath, anger, clamor be put away from you..." (Eph 4:31) 

The coexistence of two people implies a willingness to adapt to how the other perceives and experiences things. If the Holy Spirit is grieved, he withdraws and does not speak. Those who want to experience His work must be prepared to conform to His nature. He will therefore call our attention to every hard, unplowed fallow of our hearts.