The Goodness of God in Spite of Us

“But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city” (Genesis 19:16 ESV).

There are some characters in the Bible that I just don’t understand. Abraham’s nephew, Lot, is one of them. Lot had made a name for himself in Sodom. He accumulated both wealth and prestige sufficient to hold a position of honor at the city gate. He had a wife whom he spoiled with the treasures of a culture rich in inventions and beauty from its location in the fertile plains north of the Dead Sea. He had two daughters, both of whom he betrothed to influential men of the city, further securing his leadership.

Lot understood that his city was corrupt, especially in light of the word of Yᵊhōvâ ( יְהֹוָה), whose holiness could not look at such rebellion and sin. Something in his relationship with Abraham stuck, even though it had been years since Lot chose for himself the best land, leaving his uncle with the wilder lands 35 miles to the west. Even then, Lot demonstrated that he was a man of weak morals, more interested in position than God’s blessing.

Lot knew enough to recognize angelic strangers as they came into town. He must have had some residual fear of the Lord in him, because he insisted that the visitors stay in his home, away from…