And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh. --Jude 22, 23
My grandparents had a house up the hill from the Blanco River, about 50 miles north of San Antonio and 50 miles west of Austin. You could see a dam in the river from their back yard. The dam was not very wide (maybe 12 inches), and went across to the other side, maybe thirty feet long. If I was careful, I could walk to the other side of the river without falling in (it always seemed to me like walking a tightrope, one foot in front of the other). My father, who loved to fish, would often take his fishing rod down to the river whenever we visited.
There was a time when our extended family was all there together, including my cousins and their kids, who were all about my age. My cousins on my dad's side were much older than I was; I was only five years old at the time. The adults of the group gave us kids a stern warning not to run along the slippery riverbank. If I was caught running, I would get a spanking. As the day went on, my father went upriver to fish, and the other adults were sitting in lawn chairs shooting the breeze. I forgot the stern warning my father had given me, and I began to run and laugh with the other kids my age.
Sure enough, I slipped and fell in. Water engulfed me, and I immediately began sinking toward the bottom. I remember opening my eyes, seeing some large fish-shaped shadows and thinking that my dad should have brought his fishing gear here instead of leaving the group. Above the surface of the water, things were getting a bit chaotic. My mother was standing on the bank screaming my name. My oldest cousin, thinking fast, ran to the dam and was able to balance beam to the middle of the river. She could see that the current was bringing me toward her, and she reached into the water, grabbed me by the belt, and pulled me to safety.
There was a lot of rejoicing after that. Since I was only five, I did not fully appreciate the danger of drowning or the peril presented by the slippery river bank. Even after I fell in, I was not particularly scared. Even so, when I was sent back to the house to dry off and to get out of the wet clothes, my dad arrived and gave me a spanking for disobeying him.
There are times in the Bible where God directly intervened in the lives of certain people, "snatching them from the fire". In the case of Abraham's nephew Lot, we see where God's grace extended to him by literally grabbing Lot by the hand and dragging him out of his house to avoid the coming destruction.
Lot was a wealthy man, with many servants tending his flocks and herds. When he and Abraham parted ways because the land could not sustain them both, Lot looked toward Sodom and found it appealing. Genesis 13:10 says, "And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of [Sodom]." He went from looking toward Sodom to pitching his tent toward Sodom (Genesis 13:12). By chapter 14, Lot was "dwelling in Sodom" (14:12).
Sodom was not a great place. In fact, it was a wicked city. God told Abraham that there was a great outcry in heaven against Sodom and Gomorrah, because their sin was very grave. He went on to tell Abraham, "I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know." (Genesis 18:21). Sensing some wiggle room, Abraham starts to intercede for the city. Knowing that Lot and his family lived there, he started bargaining with God. He asks if God would show mercy to them if he found as few as 50 godly people there? How about 45? Maybe just 40? Abraham kept going, and God kept giving assurances. He would show mercy if only 30 righteous folks were found, then 20, then just 10.
When the angels arrived in the city, they found Lot sitting at the city gate. In ancient near-eastern culture, this signified that Lot was an elder, a man with some authority in the city. He may have been the only dissenting vote when the elders of the city planned their erotic festivals. He may have been the sole elder accusing the men of the city of sexual crimes, if they were ever brought to the council for their sinful activities. We do know that Lot knew enough about his neighbors to warn the angels, who appeared to be men traveling from afar, that it was dangerous to consider spending the night in the streets.
Lot showed them hospitality, taking them to his home and preparing a feast for them.
But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house. And they called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them." Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him, and said, "I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly." (Genesis 19:4-7)
Three quick points here. First, Lot was the only righteous man found there. "All the people to the last man" demanded to debase the strangers in Lot's house. Second, this meant that God's bargain with Abraham was null and void, because 10 good men could not be found in the whole city. Third, despite Lot's virtuous nature, he attempted to compromise with them. Notice that he called them brothers. In verse 8 he proposes that, should any of them feel strongly that they simply could not refrain from sensual pleasure, at least find a female to have relations with (giving his two virgin daughters as an example). It appears that Lot was trying to classify varying levels of sin: instead of engaging in same-sex lust, at least lust in a heterosexual fashion; instead of accosting a total stranger, at least have relations with someone local, someone you know. As ridiculous as that may sound to us today, he may have been trying to talk them out of their sinful ways by encouraging them to engage in a more socially acceptable sin. The problem with compromising situations is they invariably lead to more socially acceptable sins. The problem with socially acceptable sins is that they lead to more egregious sins, and these men had already passed the point of no return. This is why God wanted to destroy them. They were irredeemable.
Lot was no saint, as we see here and will see more later on, but God would count him as righteous. 2 Peter 2:7-8 says, "He (God) rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard)."
The angels sent by God rescued Lot three different ways. In verse 9, the men turn on Lot. "This fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them." The men of Sodom would have killed Lot, but the angels (probably using supernatural force) opened the door and physically pulled Lot inside the house. That was the first rescue. The men surrounding the house would have surely torn the house down, brick by brick, in their rage. The angels struck all of the men blind (this time I'm sure it was supernatural force.) This was the second rescue. The men were still trying to tear the house down, but they couldn't see, so the Scripture says they wore themselves out groping at the door.
The third rescue came at dawn the next day.
As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, "Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city." But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they set him outside the city. And as they brought them out, one said, "Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away." --Genesis 19:15-17
It is interesting that God sent two angels disguised as men to rescue Lot and his family, where one would have certainly had the power and the authority to complete the task. I believe the reason is that God knew Lot would linger, and that his wife would yearn for their former life. He knew that Lot would need to be dragged out of town, kicking and screaming. As Spurgeon pointed out, "Lot and his wife, and the two daughters—well, that was four—the angels had only four hands, so they did all that they could—there was a hand for each. You notice the text expressly says, they took hold of the hand of Lot, and the hand of his wife, and the hand of his two daughters. There were no more persons, and no more helping hands, so that there was just enough instrumentality, but there was not a hand to spare.”
Had efforts been made to save more people? Yes. Verse 14 says, "So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, 'Up! Get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city.' But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting." God extended a message of mercy to these two men, the ones betrothed to marry Lot's daughters, and it was rejected. Even after these men were among those who had demanded that Lot send out his house-guests so they could "know" them. Even after the sons-in-law were struck blind, and wore themselves out groping for the door--even then, they laughed at the message of redemption offered by Lot.
Psalm 34:22 says, "The Lord redeems the life of his servants; none of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned." Romans 8:33-35 says, "Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died--more than that, who was raised--who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?"
But if that offer of redemption is rejected, then woe to those who rejected it.
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if He did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes He condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if He rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); the the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passions and despise authority. --2 Peter 2:4-10a
Jude 5-7 says, "Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, He has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day--just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire." God will have mercy on whom He has mercy, but if we reject Him and prefer to dwell in darkness, then we will get what we deserve.
I don't know why God chose to save Lot. Maybe it was because Abraham prayed for him. Maybe it was because Lot sought God, despite his circumstances and surroundings. Lot lingered, because he knew that his home and all his possessions would be burned up. God showed mercy, as the angels' final admonition was to "escape there quickly, for I can do nothing till you arrive there" (verse 22). 1 Corinthians 3:15 says, "If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire."
When I disobeyed my father by running on the slippery banks of a river after he had told me not to, I deserved punishment. When I slipped into the river and sank like a stone, I deserved death. It was by God's mercy that he sent my cousin to pull me out by the seat of my pants, and I am fortunate that I only got a spanking out of it. If by God's mercy you have escaped death, please don't be like Lot's sons-in-law and laugh in the face of God. God doesn't expect perfection, but we cannot ignore His command to repent. It is not His will that any should perish. There will surely come a time when God's mercy runs out, and you will either get mercy or you will get what you deserve.
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