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I. THE FORBEARANCE OF GOD. This is seen —

1. In the patience of God with the Sodomites, in sparing them so long.

2. In the willingness to save these wicked cities for even ten righteous persons.

3. In the question (ver. 12).

4. In the loving compulsion by which Lot and his family were urged to escape.

5. In the condescension manifested in granting Lot's request.

6. Such forbearance is very noticeable in view of the terrible doom with which it was connected.

II. THE PERVERSITY OF MAN. This is seen —

1. In the continued hardness of the Sodomites.

2. In the mocking unbelief of Lot's sons-in-law.

3. In the hesitancy of both Lot and his family to leave the doomed city.

4. In Lot's lack of faith in God's power to keep him in the mountain as well as in Zoar.

III. THE CONDITION OF SALVATION. The answers to the following questions will reveal it:

1. Why were not Lot's sons-in-law saved from the doom of Sodom?

2. Why was not Lot's wife caught in the destruction of Sodom?

3. How did Lot and his daughters ultimately escape the fate of the Sodomites?Lessons:

1. Lot, in the choice of Sodom for a residence, furnishes an example of the folly of worldly wisdom.

2. Lot's sons-in-law furnish an example of the inevitable doom that awaits all who scorn the warnings of God's messengers.

3. Lot's wife is an example of the inevitable fate of those who outwardly, but reluctantly, conform to the requirements of the gospel, but whose heart is in the world.

4. The destruction of Sodom is an illustration of the doom that awaits this world and every impenitent soul.

5. The urgency to flee to the Divine refuge is graphically portrayed in the impassioned words of the angels (ver. 17).

(D. C. Hughes, M. A.)

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KJV: And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the LORD being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city.

WEB: But he lingered; and the men grabbed his hand, his wife's hand, and his two daughters' hands, Yahweh being merciful to him; and they took him out, and set him outside of the city.