The mob outside Lot's house is moving in on him and planning to break down the door. The two angels intervene now. "But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door. Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, so that they could not find the door." (Genesis 19:10-11)
This isn't the only time in the Bible when the Lord will strike someone blind in order to prevent them from doing harm. In 2 Kings 6, Elisha the prophet will pray for the Lord to strike a group of Aramean soldiers blind when they surround the city of Dothan to kill him. The Lord answered his prayer and Elisha was able to escape. In Acts 9, when Saul of Tarsus was headed to Damascus with permission to arrest any Christians he found there, the Lord struck him blind on the way and Saul was converted and later became the Apostle Paul. In Acts 13 the Lord struck a false prophet and sorcerer named Elymas blind because he tried to prevent Barnabas and Paul from preaching the gospel to a Roman proconsul who very much wanted to hear it. In all these cases the blindness was a temporary condition. I don't know whether the blindness of the men of Sodom would have been temporary or permanent, since the destruction of the city takes place so soon afterwards.
Time is growing very short, so the two angels speak urgently with Lot about the need for him and his family to flee the city. "The two men said to Lot, 'Do you have anyone else here---sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here, because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the Lord against its people is so great that He has sent us to destroy it.'" (Genesis 19:12-14) They can see that Lot has a wife and two daughters in the house, but they don't know whether he has other children who have already married and moved out. The Lord hasn't provided them with this information because it's not something they need to know for the task they were sent to perform.
"So Lot went and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters." (Genesis 19:14) Engagements were legal contracts in those days, almost as binding as marriage. It was typical for a man to refer to those who were engaged to his daughters as his sons-in-law even though the marriage ceremony had not yet taken place. We need to stop and think for a minute about just how deeply Lot has integrated into the society of Sodom. It is acceptable to him for his daughters to marry pagan unbelievers. He has not sought to arrange better marriages for them, but is fine with having sons-in-law from a city as wicked as Sodom. Because he has not found godly men for his daughters to marry, these two young men laugh off what he has to say about the coming disaster. "He said, 'Hurry and get out of this place, because the Lord is going to destroy the city!' But his sons-in-law thought he was joking." (Genesis 19:14b) I tend to think these two young men are not part of the blinded mob outside the house. If they were, maybe they'd have taken the warning more seriously, so I picture them lounging in their homes when Lot comes calling. When they hear what he has to say, they laugh and flap their hands dismissively at him and say, "Oh man, get out of here with that crazy story! Do you think we were born yesterday? Haha, of all the practical jokes you could have pulled, this was the dumbest." Lot has never set a godly enough example for these men that they can believe he would receive a message from the Lord. They think he's pranking them and they refuse to go with him. Lot has to give up on them and go home.
The disaster is going to strike at daybreak, so as the sky begins to lighten, the two angels tell Lot to get out before it's too late. "With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, 'Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.'" (Genesis 19:15)
"When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them." (Genesis 19:16) Lot doesn't really want to go. It may be that he doesn't fully believe what they're saying. Or it may be that he's reluctant to leave all his accumulated wealth behind and leave Sodom with nothing. It could be it's hard for him to place all his trust in the Lord after living a worldly life of compromise for so long. The Bible doesn't explain his motive for hesitating, but it tells us that "the Lord was merciful to them". How many times has the Lord been merciful to us in our weakness? Sometimes we know He's telling us to do a particular thing but we're so scared that it's hard for us to take the first step. We believe and we don't believe at the same time. We have faith but it wavers in the face of the enormous task before us. In those situations, the Lord so often pulls us forward when we can't find the strength to take that step on our own. The two angels have to physically pull Lot and his family out of the city.
I think the Lord has mercy on Lot for two reasons. One, because in his heart he does actually believe in the Lord. He has fallen far from where he once was, but he has not denied the Lord or worshiped false gods. And two, I think the Lord has mercy on this family because of Abraham, who is living close to the Lord and who has interceded with the Lord on their behalf. So don't stop interceding for those you love. This may be the very reason the Lord rescues them someday from danger.
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