Genesis Chapter Nineteen Series

GENESIS CHAPTER NINETEEN OVERVIEW

Overall what is happening in this chapter is Lot’s deliverance from Sodom and the sins of him and his family.

Thomas Coke (1801) – Genesis 19

Lot entertains two angels, who conduct him, with his wife and two daughters, out of the city which was about to be destroyed. Brimstone and fire fall from heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot's wife becomes a pillar of salt. Lot flies from Zoar to the mountains, and has an incestuous commerce with his daughters.

Matthew Henry (1714) – Genesis 19

The contents of this chapter we have where we find that “God, turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, and delivered just Lot.” It is the history of Sodom's ruin, and Lot's rescue from that ruin. We read (in Genesis 18) of God's coming to take a view of the present state of Sodom, what its wickedness was, and what righteous persons there were in it: now here we have the result of that enquiry.

I. It was found, upon trial, that Lot was very good (Genesis 19:1-3), and it did not appear that there was any more of the same character.

II. It was found that the Sodomites were very wicked and vile (Genesis 19:4-11).

III. Special care was therefore taken for the securing of Lot and his family, in a place of safety (Genesis 19:12-23).

IV. Mercy having rejoiced therein, justice shows itself in the ruin of Sodom and the death of Lot's wife (Genesis 19:24-26), with a general repetition of the story (Genesis 19:27-29).

V. A foul sin that Lot was guilty of, in committing incest with his two daughters (Genesis 19:30, etc.).

Thomas Constable (2012) – Genesis 19

Chapters 18 and 19 "paint a vivid contrast between the respective patriarchal ancestors, Abraham and Lot, with an obvious moralistic intent.

"In the development of the story two of the themes in counterpoint with Abraham and the Promise-the theme of Lot, the righteous man without the pilgrim spirit, and of Sodom, the standing example of worldly promise, insecurity (chapter 14) and decay-are now heard out to their conclusion. By a master-stroke of narrative, Abraham, who will outlive all such time-servers, is shown standing at his place of intercession, a silent witness of the catastrophe he has striven to avert. It is a superb study of the two aspects of judgment: the cataclysmic, as the cities disappear in brimstone and fire, and the gradual, as Lot and his family reach the last stages of disintegration, breaking up in the very hands of their rescuers.”

"Lot's move from a tent pitched near Sodom to a permanent residence in the city showed his willingness to exist with unbridled wickedness."

KEY VERSE

Genesis 19:26 But his wife, from behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

KEY EVENT

The destruction of Sodom.

KEY THOUGHT

God will judge those who live in wickedness.

KEY CROSS-REFERENCE

2 Peter 2:6-9 “…and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter; and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds), then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment…”

KEY QUOTE

“The holy angels are ministers of God’s wrath for the destruction of sinners, as well as of his mercy for the preservation and deliverance of his people.”

Matthew Henry