1 The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. 

Lot was sitting in the gateway, a gathering place for the homeboys to chill and relax. They would be chillaxin. He welcomed the angels who appeared as normal dudes.

2 “My lords,” he said, “please turn aside to your servant’s house.

When Lot was staying with Abraham they had lived in tents. Now Lot had been drawn into the life of these people of Sodom. Even to being connected by marriage.

You can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning.”

 

Lot likely knew what would happen to these two if they were left alone.

“No,” they answered, “we will spend the night in the square.”

This was nothing unusual. Travelers often spent the night in the squares of other towns. You just likely wouldn't want to in the town of Sodom.

3 But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate. 

Even though Lot has been living with these wicked people for some time now, he still shows signs he has retained what he learned from Abraham. "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."(Proverbs 22:6)

4 Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. .

5 They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.”

Now we are seeing the wickedness that is causing God to destroy the city.

6 Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him 

7 and said, “No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing. 

8 Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them.

This is not the smartest thing Lot could have done. We have often been told to choose the lesser of two evils. But when we are given the choice of two sins, we shouldn't choose either. We are not to do evil thinking that good will come of out of it.

But don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”

9 “Get out of our way,” they replied. “This fellow came here as a foreigner, and now he wants to play the judge! We’ll treat you worse than them.” They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door.

10 But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door. 

11 Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door.

12 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,

13 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.”

14 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters. He said, “Hurry and get out of this place because the Lord is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.

If you are reading this and have a desire to serve the Lord, or have been walking with the Lord for a while, you have or will sometime in the future meet people just like these. You can warn them of the coming judgment, but they will think you are joking. Many that are warned of the danger of continuing in sin will think you are crazy.

15 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.”

16 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.

Unlike his sons-in-law, Lot believed the angels. But Lot hesitated. There was something holding Lot back from fully and completely obeying. And if we are honest, there are times in our lives when we don't obey as we should. And the only thing that keeps us from being destroyed as sinners is God's mercy. Like He did for Lot, God leads us out of our sin.

17 As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!”

The angels warnings to Lot are warnings to you when God brings you out of a sinful state.

"Don't look back"- Don't look back and long for the past sinful life

"Don't stop anywhere in the plain"- Don't rest or find comfort in the world. We have to live in the world, but we don't see it as our final resting place. As an old song say, "We're just passing through."

"Flee to the mountains"- Live your life, striving to reach Christ and heaven

18 But Lot said to them, “No, my lords, please! 

19 Your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die. 

20 Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it—it is very small, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared.”

21 He said to him, “Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of. 

At Lot's request, the angels spared this city. When was the last time you made a request for God to spare someone?

22 But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it.” (That is why the town was called Zoar.

23 By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. 

24 Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens. 

25 Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land. 

26 But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

27 Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the Lord. 

28 He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace.

29 So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.

Lot was a righteous man, who also made some memorable mistakes. Lot chose to live in the wicked city of Sodom. He offered his two virgin daughters to an angry mob of homosexuals. He later became drunk and impregnated his daughters. But in 2 Peter, Lot is called righteous. Could this be showing us something of our lives? Lot had lived with Abraham long enough to know something about living to please God. But here in Sodom, he struggled to live as he had been instructed by Abraham. But because of Abraham, God brought Lot out of the city and destruction. Many of us have been taught how to live pleasing to God, but sometimes it is such a struggle we fail. But because God remembers His son, and the price He paid for us, we are saved from destruction, in spite of our weakness and failure. 

30 Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave. 

31 One day the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man around here to give us children—as is the custom all over the earth. 

32 Let’s get our father to drink wine and then sleep with him and preserve our family line through our father.”

33 That night they got their father to drink wine, and the older daughter went in and slept with him. He was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.

34 The next day the older daughter said to the younger, “Last night I slept with my father. Let’s get him to drink wine again tonight, and you go in and sleep with him so we can preserve our family line through our father.” 

35 So they got their father to drink wine that night also, and the younger daughter went in and slept with him. Again he was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.

36 So both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father. 

37 The older daughter had a son, and she named him Moab; he is the father of the Moabites of today. 

38 The younger daughter also had a son, and she named him Ben-Ammi; he is the father of the Ammonites of today.