Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

LOT’S LAST DAYS 19: 1-38
I
struction (cf. 2 Pet. 3:lO; 13). Hence Luke 17:33,
“Whosoever shall seek to gain his life shall lose it, but
whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.”
M. Henry (CWB, 36) : “With what a gracious violence
Lot was brought out of Sodom, v. 16. It seems he did
not make as much haste as the case required. It might have
been fatal to him if the angels had not. laid hold of his
band, aizd brought him forth, and saved him with fear
(Jude 23). The salvation of the most righteous men must
be attributed to God’s mercy, not to their own merit,
We are saved by grace. With what a gracious vehemence
he was urged to make the best of his way, when he was
brought fortb (v. 17). He must not hanker after Sodom:
Look izot behiiid thee. He must not loiter by the way:
Stay iiot in, all the plain. He must not take up short: of the
place of refuge appointed him: Escape to the mountaiii,.
Such as these are the commands given to those who through
grace are delivered out of a sinful state. (1) Return not
to sin and Satan, for that is looking back to Sodom. (2)
Rest not in self and the world, for that is staying in the
plain. And (3) Reach towards Christ and heaven, for
1
I
that is escaping to the mountain, short of which we must
not take up.”
“Let us, then, seek to pursue a path of holy separation
from the world. Let us, while standing outside its entire
range, be found cherishing the hope of the Master’s return.
May its well-watered plains have no charms for our hearts.
May its honors, its distinctions, and its riches be all surveyed
by us in the light of the coming glory of Christ.
May we be enabled, like the holy patriarch Abraham, to
get up into the presence of the Lord, and, from that
elevated ground, look forth upon the scene of widespread
ruin and desolation-to see it all, by faith’s anticipative
glance, a smoking ruin. Such will it be. ‘The earth also,
and the things that are therein, shall be burned up” (NBG,
209). (Cf, Heb. 12:29; 10:27-3 1).
3 79