Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

19~1-38 GENESIS
judgment (though tempered with mercy where possible)
on a population given over wholly to iniquity, one in which
Lot’s wife perished because of her unwillingness to break
with her environment, cannot reasonably be put in the
same category with these folk tales which reflect only
human passion, pride, jealousy and revenge. Leupold (EG,
565): “Because the command not to look around is met
with in heathen legends . . . that fact does not yet make
every command of that sort in Israelitish history a part of
a legendary account. We ourselves may on occasion bid
another to look around without being on our part involved
in some legendary transaction.”
Recapitulation, v. 29. The interesting fact in this
statement is the change in the name of God from Jehovah
to Elobim. The total destruction of the hotbeds of in-
iquity-the Cities of the Plain-was a display of Divine
Powers which causes men to fear the Sovereign of the
universe; therefore “Elohim” and not “Yahweh.” (Cf.
Gen. 28:17, Heb. 10:31, 12:29, etc.). The destruction of
the cities of the plain was not at this moment viewed by
the writer as an event related to the Abrahamic covenant
and intercession, but as a sublime vindication of Divine
(Absolute) Justice. Nor should the fact be overlooked
that in this transaction “God remembered Abraham,” that
is, Lot was not delivered simply for his own sake, but
primarily for Abraham’s sake. “The blessings that go forth
from one true-hearted servant of God are incalculable,”
Cf. Jas. 5:16-18.
The Import of the Account of the Catastrophe that
befell the Cities of the Plaiia is clearly indicated by the
repeated references to it throughout both the Old and New
Testaments, as a warning against incurring the wrath of
the Almighty (Deut. 29:22-23; Isa. 13:19; Jer. 49:18,
50:40; Lam. 4:6; Amos 4:ll; Luke 17:32; 2 Pet. 2:6,
Jude 7). Cf. J. A. Motyer (NBD, 1003) : “The story of
Sodom does not merely warn, but provides a theologically
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