Genesis 19:12-22
The men said to Lot, “Do you have anybody else here? Sons-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whoever you have in the city, bring them out of the place: for we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before Yahweh that Yahweh has sent us to destroy it.”
Lot went out, and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters, and said, “Get up! Get out of this place, for Yahweh will destroy the city.”
But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be joking. When the morning came, then the angels hurried Lot, saying, “Get up! Take your wife, and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the iniquity of the city.” 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. It came to pass, when they had taken them out, that he said, “Escape for your life! Don’t look behind you, and don’t stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be consumed!”
Lot said to them, “Oh, not so, my lord. See now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your loving kindness, which you have shown to me in saving my life. I can’t escape to the mountain, lest evil overtake me, and I die. See now, this city is near to flee to, and it is a little one. Oh let me escape there (isn’t it a little one?), and my soul will live.”
He said to him, “Behold, I have granted your request concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken. Hurry, escape there, for I can’t do anything until you get there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.
Now we know that there weren’t even ten righteous people left in Sodom. The Bible does tell us, though, that there was one righteous man in Sodom.
2 Peter 2:7-8 :
and delivered righteous Lot, who was very distressed by the lustful life of the wicked (for that righteous man dwelling among them, was tormented in his righteous soul from day to day with seeing and hearing lawless deeds)
In this light, Lot represents a Christian who is being tormented by the world around him but refuses to part with it. In this record, we can read how God treats a tormented soul. The angels told Lot to get his relatives and leave immediately, but “he lingered.” He had to face incredible loss in one moment and began to act irrationally about his own safety. His own wife didn’t believe and didn’t want to go either as we find out next.
God was the one who did all of the work to save Lot. He literally dragged Lot and his family out of the city.
Lot thought God was wrong about going to the mountains. He was still unwilling to allow God to have control of his life. God allowed Lot permission to go to Zoar, but it was completely irrational to utter the words: “Oh, not so, my lord.” Either God is our master and we say “yes” to Him or we are not allowing Him to be our master. It is good that Lot recognized God’s mercy in dragging him out of the city just as it is good for a Christian to recognize that God saves from Hell, but Lot was obviously still living like Sodom.
As Christians, we can expect that God will save us from Hell because we believe in Jesus. Even when we are not acting righteously, God lives up to His word. It doesn’t go well for a believer who doesn’t give up the world, however. Christians who refuse to allow the Holy Spirit to guide their day-to-day lives will find themselves in Sodom, being tormented as they tolerate the evil that will eventually destroy everything they’ve earned.