May the mumbling commence!
Judgment was coming on Sodom and
Gomorrah. And the family of Lot was
being given an opportunity to flee the coming wrath. Read from Peterson’s The Message:
The two men said to Lot, “Do you have any other family here? Sons, daughters – anybody in the city?
Get them out of here, and now! We’re going to
destroy this place. The outcries of victims here
to God are deafening; we’ve been sent to blast
this place into oblivion.”
Lot went out and warned the fiancés
of his daughters, “Evacuate this place; God is about to destroy this
city!” But
his daughters’ would-be husbands treated it as a
joke.
At break of day, the angels
pushed Lot to get going, “Hurry. Get your wife and two daughters out of here before it’s too late and you’re caught in the punishment of
the city.”
Lot was dragging his feet.
The men grabbed Lot’s arm, and the arms of his wife and daughters – God was
so merciful to them! – and dragged them to safety outside the city. When they had them outside, Lot was
told, “Now run for your life! Don’t look back! Don’t stop anywhere on the plain – run for the hills or you’ll
be swept away.”
But Lot protested, “No, masters, you can’t
mean it! I know that you’ve taken a
liking to me and have done me an immense favor in saving my life, but I can’t run
for the mountains – who
knows what terrible thing might happen to me in the mountains and leave me for
dead. Look
over there – that town in close enough to get to. It’s a small
town, hardly anything to it. Let me escape there and save my life – it’s a mere wide place in the
road.”
“All right, Lot. If
you insist. I’ll let you have your way. And I won’t
stamp out the town
you’ve spotted.
But hurry up. Run for it! I can’t do
anything until you get there.” That’s why the
town in called Zoar, that is, Smalltown.
The sun was high in the sky when Lot arrived at Zoar. (Genesis 19:12-23)
Now read the same passage from the
NIV translation:
The two men said to Lot, "Do you have anyone else here – sons-in-law, sons or daughters,
or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get
them out of here, because we are going to
destroy this place. The outcry to the Lord against its people
is so great that he
has sent us to destroy it."
So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters.
He said, "Hurry and
get out of this place, because the Lord
is about to destroy the city!" But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.
With the coming of dawn, the angels urged
Lot, saying, "Hurry! Take your wife and your
two daughters who are here, or you will be swept
away when the city is punished."
When he hesitated, the men grasped
his hand and the hands of his wife and of
his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them. As soon as they had
brought them out, one of them said, "Flee for your lives! Don't look back, and don't stop anywhere in
the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!"
But Lot said to them, "No,
my lords, please!
Your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have shown great
kindness to me in sparing my life. But I
can't flee to
the mountains; this disaster will overtake me,
and I'll die. Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it – it is
very small, isn't it? Then my life will be spared."
He said to him, "Very well, I will grant
this request too; I
will not overthrow the town you speak
of. But flee there quickly, because
I cannot do anything until you reach it." (That is
why the town was called Zoar.) By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the
land. (Genesis 19:12-23)
The victims’ cry has risen to the
Lord. Judgment is coming. And Lot and his family are getting rescued
from the coming wrath.
Lot’s future in-laws think it’s a
joke. Lot, himself is hesitant. I like the nuances of Peterson in this
passage. Even though Lot warned his
future in-laws, he drug his feet. The
angels had to drag him away from the city.
To leave the city and its luxuries
(which were no doubt many) was a change.
Lot was not ready for that change.
But luxury had come at a high price… at the expense of vulnerable people. Small town life would be better than the
wilderness but not as bad as the bright lights of the big city, right?
There is one part that I
contest. What did Lot fear? Was it being overtaken by the wrath on Sodom
(NIV)? Or was it the change of location
(Peterson)? I think both might be
accurate.
Maybe there is a way to blend
the two fears and get a greater picture of what was going through Lot’s
head. To go and not look back is
extremely difficult to do… even when it’s clearly the right thing to do.
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
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