Lingering Lot (Genesis 19)

Lingering Lot 

Sodom was about to be destroyed and Lot was still inside the city with his family. 

But the angels told him to go, even after his sons in law thought he was joking:


[Gen 19:12-15 NKJV] 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."


At this point Lot should have been determined to leave. He had no time to lose. The way the angels spoke to him, especially in the last sentence, shows urgency. Lot had a real danger of being consumed with the city if he lingered.

So, what did he do?


[Gen 19:16-17 NKJV] 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."


The urgency and danger was clear. And yet he lingered. In another translation it says he ‘hesitated’. 

This somewhat shows the character of Lot. Earlier we saw he probably didn’t take his faith as seriously as he should have in Sodom. This is evidence.

He was warned by angels who had done miracles right before him and yet he lingered. He didn’t take the words of the angel as seriously as he should have. 

What, then, made him hesitate? 

The situation can make this a bit clearer. Lot has shown a clear tendency to care about riches and possessions. When Abraham gave him the decision to choose the land in which he would live, he did not care about his uncle’s wellbeing that much nor did he think twice about the people he would have to associate with, but instead he immediately chose the rich land where Sodom was. 

If he had to leave Sodom, he basically had to leave a big part of his life. Besides, his own sons in law thought he was joking. Could he just leave them here?

And his character is visibly quite weak. Earlier he almost gave up his own daughters to be raped by the Sodomites as a kind of trade for the strangers he had in his home and he spoke quite softly.

This weak character that was bound to earthly possessions and relations could definitely make him linger in this situation and take what the angels said less seriously. No wonder his sons in law thought he was joking! It is easy to look back at this and think Lot was being stupid. But while the judgment has not yet come and if someone has the same kind of character it is very easy to ignore such warnings. Don’t we have countless examples of similar people today who despise God’s warnings?

If we do not want to fall into the same spirit of Lot we should take care that God and His word and commandments are far above any earthly possession or relation. There should not be hesitance of what we would choose. There should be no stalling.

But Lot’s psychology was very bound to these things and it had made him quite weak. These situations require boldness and action.


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