Genesis 19:23-29

The destruction of the Cities of the Plain

v. 23. The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar. Whether it was mere weariness after a night without rest, or whether the unexampled terror of the impending destruction prevented Lot's hurrying, at any rate, the sun had already risen over the earth when Lot reached Zoar, the city of refuge.

v. 24. Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven. The Lord, that is, the Son of God on earth, who had charge of this sentence of wrath, caused fire and brimstone to rain upon the doomed cities from the Lord out of heaven. This is no poetic description of a severe electrical storm, but the narrative of an actual event, of a cataclysm brought upon the sinful cities by a special act of God's avenging justice.

v. 25. And He overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. It was a total destruction of the people with their cities and all their property, 2 Peter 2:6-Judges :. And not only were all things above the ground consumed, together with all vegetation, but the very ground, which contained many asphalt pits and naphtha deposits, was burned out. It seems also that the Sea of the Plain sank together with the surrounding country, forming, with its extension, what is now known as the Dead Sea. To this day that entire country is a picture of utter desolation, with hardly a trace of animal or vegetable life. Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim, are an example of warning to the godless of all times. If they will not heed the Lord's call to repentance, they will find themselves engulfed on the last day in a cataclysm which will be a thousand fold greater than that of the vale of Siddim, casting them into everlasting destruction.

v. 26. But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. In the case of Lot's wife female curiosity and the longing for her home in Sodom caused her to lag behind him and finally to look back. This was against the plain command of the Lord, and so His punishment was immediate: she became, she was turned into, a pillar of salt. Cf Luke 17:31-Jonah :. He that has escaped the dangers of this world should not permit himself to be turned back to its vanity.

v. 27. And Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord. His anxiety concerning the fate of Lot and of the five cities would not permit him to rest, so he hurried to the place where he had interceded with the Lord on the day before, whence one had a distant view of the former beautiful valley.

v. 28. And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace. He had the evidence of his eyes that the Lord had not even found ten righteous people in the cities.

v. 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 the which Lot dwelt. So it was due not only to his own righteousness, but especially to the intercessory prayer of Abraham that Lot was saved in the midst of the utter destruction which consumed the cities of the valley where he had made his home. Christians must never grow weary in sending their supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks to the Throne of Mercy, 1 Timothy 2:1.