LESSON IX.--FEBRUARY 27.

THE DESTRUCTION OF SODOM.--GEN. 19:15-26.

      GOLDEN TEXT.--Escape for thy life.--GEN. 19:17.
      TIME.--About B. C. 1894.
      PLACE.--Sodom and Gomorrah, in the Plain of Jordan.
      HELPFUL READINGS.--Gen. 18:23-33; Gen. 19:1-14; Luke 17:28-32; Deut. 29:22-27.
      LESSON ANALYSIS.--1. Flight for Life; 2. The Doom of Sodom and Gomorrah; 3. Looking Back.

INTRODUCTION.

      The position of the cities of the plain has been much disputed. The prevalent opinion has been that they were located south of the Dead Sea, and probably on a portion of the plain which has now been converted into a shallow portion of the lake. The Dead Sea is converted into two parts by projections of the land, which really make of it two lakes--the northern very deep, and the southern very shallow. It is held that this southern part covers the old sites of the city, and that it subsided a few feet at the time of the great catastrophe, or has been covered by the waters rising above their former level. Lieut. Conder, however, and some other weighty authorities, hold that Sodom was situated north of the lake, and point to the fact that when Abraham and Lot had their interview at Bethel, many miles northwest of the Dead Sea, "Lot lifted up his eyes" and saw the plain with its cities. The Valley of Jordan, north of the Dead Sea, is visible from Bethel, but not the south.

      The Dead Sea is 46 miles in length, and is of very uniform width, its greatest breadth being a little more than ten miles. At about one-fourth of the distance from the southern extremity, it is nearly crossed by a low peninsula from the eastern side, dividing the northern from the southern portion, and while the north and larger part is 1300 feet deep, the southern part has a depth of only 13 feet of water.

      The moral causes of the destruction of the cities of the plain are apparent; the physical causes are not so well settled. Josephus ascribes it to lightning striking the bituminous soil of the plain, penetrated with asphaltum, and setting it on fire. Others insist that the overthrow was mainly due to earthquakes and volcanic influences. Geikie says: "The Bible account is very striking and simple. 'The Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire out of heaven, and overthrew them and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.' This seems to imply a terrific storm of lightning and tempest, but we may well suppose that an earthquake added its terrors. Fire from above might kindle the layers of asphalt, with which the plain abounded, and tremblings of the earth might aid the storm-flood in overwhelming everything. There is no geological reason against regarding the shallow [66] part of the lake a result of the catastrophe; for a slight depression of the ground, such as often happens elsewhere, would at once submerge it."

      I. THE FLIGHT FOR LIFE.--15. And when the morning arose. The night had been one of excitement in Sodom, in which the utter depravity of its wicked inhabitants had been fully set forth. All the persuasion and importunity of Lot were not sufficient to prevent the men of the city from a shameless and utterly brutal crime. The outrage was not one perpetrated by a few roughs, but "the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter," compassed the house around, and sought to perpetrate the nameless and shameful crime. They were only prevented by a confusion sent upon them by divine power from even treating Lot himself worse than they had sought to treat his visitors. The whole account reveals a community so far gone in depravity as to be unfit to exist. After the wicked inhabitants were baffled, Lot was bidden to warn his sons-in-law and daughters that they might escape at once, but "he seemed as one that mocked to his sons-in-law." With the dawn of day the angels hastened Lot. His tardiness was such that the angels threatened him with the possibility of being involved in the destruction of the city. It was natural that he should cleave to his home, and be loth to leave a part of his family behind. Lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city. As Calvin says: "Not that the Lord casts the innocent rashly on the same heap with the wicked, but that the man who will not consult his own safety, and who being even warned to beware, yet exposes himself by his sloth to ruin, deserves to perish." Let it be noted that salvation is conditional--that of Lot upon escaping, that of Noah on building and entering the ark, that of the bitten Jews upon "looking at the brazen serpent," ours upon turning to and obeying Christ.

      16. While he lingered. The crisis was imminent, and he seemed almost paralyzed, hence the "men" found it needful to hurry him, his wife, and two daughters who were unmarried and dwelt under his roof, by taking them by the hand and leading them. It is possible that he "lingered" in affectionate and useless entreaties to prevail on the other members of his family to [67] escape with him from the destruction now impending. He was ready to go, but needed to be hurried.

      17. Escape for thy life. These words indicate the imminence and dreadful character of the danger. Utter destruction awaits all in the wicked city. There is no escape but in flight. The storm of destruction would sweep over the whole plain, and there would be no safety anywhere within its borders. All within its borders shall be consumed, and it was needful to flee to the mountain for refuge. Look not behind thee. To look behind implies lingering and longing to be back. They were commanded to flee from Sodom as a pest, as a very center of destruction, to flee as we would flee from a powder magazine which the fire was about to explode. Safety was before, in speed, in seeking a refuge, while danger and death were behind, in immediate prospect. There could be no lingering, and yet safety secured. Escape to the mountain. The mountains of Moab, east of the plain of the Jordan, wild, rugged, and almost unknown even to this day. The plain was doomed to destruction, and hence Lot was directed to seek a refuge among the mountain peaks. The mountain chain of Moab, east of the Jordan is one of the most striking features of Palestine.

      18, 19. Oh, not so, my Lord. We have here a demonstration that the faith of Lot was far less trusting than that of Abraham. Though God had sent his ministers to warn and rescue him, yet he still feared to follow the directions that were given him, and proposes, instead of the way pointed out, an expedient of his own--one that he was suffered to adopt, and to find out for himself his folly. He pleads that he may stop short of the mountain; it appeared wild and frowning in the distance; it was probably the lurking place of savage beasts and savage men. He did not take into account that the Divine hand that delivered him would also protect him, wherever he might go, provided he was following the way of the Lord. Besides, the mountain was at a distance, and he feared that the storm of destruction would come down before he could reach it. [68]

      20. Behold, now, this city in near to flee unto, and it is a little one. By "this city" he means Zoar, before called Bela, but now taking the name of Zoar, which means "littleness," from the plea of Lot that it was a "little one," and hence might be exempted from destruction. Though Zoar may have been involved in the wickedness of the other cities of the plain, Lot pleads that it has few inhabitants, and that the sins of such a city must be comparatively small. It was not far away and could be soon reached, and It would furnish shelter among a people who were less savage than the mountaineers. Says Calvin: "And this is verily the nature of men, that they choose to seek their safety in hell rather than in heaven, when they follow their own reason."

      21. See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also. The Lord was pleased to grant his request. The intercession of Lot caused the safety of Zoar. On more than one occasion when he had determined to execute vengeance on Israel for its perverseness, the intercessions of Moses are represented as having been in effect irresistible, so that the threatened judgment was averted.

      22. I can not do anything till thou be come thither. These heavenly messengers had, then, strict charge to insure the safety of Lot, probably on account of the prayers of Abraham more than his own deserts, and the purposes of divine judgment were necessarily delayed until he had found refuge. The very presence of good men in a place helps to keep off judgments. In Rev. 7:3 we are told that the four winds of destruction were held until God's servants were sealed.

      23. The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered Zoar. The morning was just beginning to dawn when he was led out of Sodom, and it was probably two hours after, at sunrise, that he entered Zoar. It could not have been but a few miles distant. Most writers have supposed it to be at the extreme southern part of the plain of Jordan. Gen. 13:10, indicates that it was upon the borders of the plain. As Lot entered Zoar, at sunrise, the storm of destruction swept down. [69]

      II. THE DOOM OF SODOM.--24. The Lord rained . . brimstone and fire. Not only these cities, but as we learn from Deut. 29:23, Admah and Zeboim, all the five cities of the plain except Zoar, were submerged by fire. The five cities are named in, Gen. 14:2. Bush holds that brimstone and fire is used to signify lightning. Adam Clarke holds that brimstone "is used metaphorically, to point out the utmost degree of punishment executed on the most flagitious criminals." He refers for examples to Deut. 29:23; Job 18:15; Psalm 11:6; Isa. 34:9; Ezek. 38:22. He adds: "As hell and an everlasting separation from God and the glory of his power, is the utmost punishment that can be inflicted on sinners, brimstone and fire are used metaphorically to indicate its torments." He adds further: "We may safely suppose that it was quite possible that a shower of nitrous particles may have been precipitated from the atmosphere, here, as in many other places, called heaven, which by the action of fire, or the electric fluid, would be immediately ignited, and so consume the cities. As we have already seen that the plains about Sodom and Gomorrah abounded with asphaltum or bitumen pits (slime pits in chap. 14), that what is particularly meant here in reference to the plain is the setting fire to this vast store of inflammable matter by the agency of lightning; and this, in the most natural and literal manner, accounts for the whole plain being burnt up; as that plain abounded in this bituminous substance. Thus we find that three agents were employed in the total ruin of these cities, and all the circumjacent plain: 1. Innumerable nitrous particles precipitated from the atmosphere; 2. The vast quantity of bitumen which abounded in that country, and 3. Lightning, rained from heaven in a mighty storm, which ignited the inflammable materials, and thus consumed both the cities and the plain in which they were situated." It is probable that this explanation suggests nearly the nature of the catastrophe. While the judgment was of God, natural causes were employed to effect his judgments. It cannot be doubted that some fearful visitation, terrible as that upon Herculaneum and Pompeii, destroyed this region. Outside of the Bible the traditions have survived in the other ancient writers who have alluded to this region, among them Josephus, and the Roman geographer Strabo, and the historian Tacitus.

      25. And he overthrew those cities and all the plain. This language seems to point out physical changes in the plain, possibly its depression by earthquake forces, at the time of the catastrophe, until it was overflowed by the waters of the lake. The vicinity has been, in later periods, disturbed by earthquakes. Tiberias, at the head of the valley, has been thus overthrown; in 1859 an [70] earthquake destroyed many thousands of people in the valley of Baalbec. Josephus declares that the Salt Sea sent up in many places black masses of asphaltum. After an earthquake in 1834 masses of asphaltum were loosened and thrown up from the bottom, and the same thing occurred in 1837.

      III. LOOKING BACK.--26. But his wife looked back from behind him. The whole family had been commanded not to look behind them. To do so was disobedience to God. Instead of pressing forward with a steady aim in the way that Lot was leading, she vacillated, longed to return, and finally disobeyed the command. It is implied that she paused, turned around, tarried and looked back. As all disobedience springs from a want of faith, her conduct was evidently due to unbelief and to a lingering desire for a home in Sodom. Her unbelief sealed her fate. She disobeyed and died. Her salvation was conditional upon her obedience to the word of the Lord. She became a pillar of salt. Her delay sealed her fate. The storm came down upon her while she waited. "The dashing spray of the salt sulphurous rain seems to have suffocated her and then encrusted her whole body. She is a memorable example of the indignation and wrath that overtakes the halting and the backsliding."--Murphy. Columns of salt are formed around the southern shores of the lake, which have been associated with this event. Lynch's Dead Sea expedition discovered on the east of Usdum a pillar of massive salt cylindrical in front, about 40 feet high, resting on an oval pedestal from 40 to 60 feet above the sea level. Josephus says that he saw a pillar which tradition, handed down from generation to generation, declared to be the pillar into which Lot's wife was changed. She has been pointed out by the Savior as a signal example of the peril of "looking back" after one has started on the way of life. He bids us "remember Lot's wife." The pillar of salt is nowhere else mentioned in the Bible, but "Lot's wife" stands as a pillar of warning to the disobedient, the delaying, the backsliding. See Luke 17:32. About the time Lot entered Zoar Abraham at Mamre had gone to the place where he had had the remarkable interview with the divine messenger described in the last lesson. He had full warning of the catastrophe that might happen, and, filled with anxiety, he was early at the height from whence he commanded a view of the Dead Sea and the plain. Travelers note the fact that from the summit of a hill near Hebron the Dead Sea and plain are overlooked. The sight that greeted his eyes from the mountain height was not calculated to calm his apprehension. The whole plain was buried under the smoke of the burning cities and the conflagration that consumed even the ground.

PRACTICAL AND SUGGESTIVE.

      When God gives warning that danger is at hand it is perilous to delay a [71] single moment. He says, "To-day if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts."

      LOOK NOT BEHIND THEE.--When once one has put his hand to the plow he should not look back upon the furrow. To look back is a sign of a double mind and of unbelief.

      Kitto quotes the testimony of Arentinus that in Corinthia about fifty people with their cows were destroyed by suffocating vapors of salt after the earthquake of 1348, and were by this means converted into statues or pillars of salt.

      DIVINE JUDGMENTS.--We speak in soft ways of God-"love," and as if love and justice had to be reconciled, whereas love is justice applied to different objects; just as the electric spark is different to different senses; to the ear a sound, to the tongue a sulphurous taste, to the eyes a blinding flash. So God, speaking by one apostle of his character as a whole, says, "God is love;" by another, also as a whole, "God is a consuming fire." Was not this love? Could love save Sodom? Would it have been love to let such a city go on seeding the world with iniquity? No! God is just.--H. W. Robertson.

      LOT'S WIFE.--She stands as an everlasting monument of admonition and caution to all backsliders. She ran well--she permitted Satan to hinder, she died in her provocation. While we lament her fate we may profit by her example. To begin the good way is well; to continue in the path is better; to persevere to the end is best of all. The exhortation of our blessed Lord on this subject should awaken our caution, and strongly exults our diligence.--Clarke.

      A hill is still pointed out among the many summits near Hebron, as that from which Abraham looked into the deep gulf which parts the mountains of Judea from those vast, unknown, unvisited ranges, which with their caves and wide table-lands, invited the fugitives from the plain below.

POINTS FOR TEACHERS.

      1. Note the exceeding wickedness of Sodom. The depravity shown the night before its destruction. Its cup was full. 2. Observe that God's judgments against it was founded in love, love of the race. A pest must be removed for the good of all. 3. Remark the warning to Lot and his household; an answer to prayer; a proof of God's care of his saints. 4. Note the hurry. No time for delay. Always danger in delays. Thousands lose their souls through delays. 5. Behold the awful fate of Sodom. Its own sins have kindled the fires that consume it. Sin will bring destruction. 6. Remember Lot's wife. There must be no looking back in the Christian life. When the Israelites in the wilderness longed for the leeks, onions and flesh-pots of Egypt, they were doomed to die; when Lot's wife looked back she died. We must not be of those who "draw back unto perdition." 7. Interest the class by a general description of the Dead Sea, the probable site of the cities of the plain, and the nature of the catastrophe. [72]

Source: Barton Warren Johnson. The Christian International Lesson Commentary for 1887. Des Moines, IA: