Lot did not want to leave Sodom. He was by no means alone. It seems none of his family was moved by Lot’s invitation to avoid destruction, not even his intended sons-in-law (19:14). (In)Famously, his wife — although she fled with Lot and their daughters — looked back to Sodom contrary to their rescuer’s instructions (19:17, 26) such was her longing for the place of destruction.
In this setting, the brief comment on the action is all the more telling. The Lord’s messengers physically dragged Lot and his family from the city, setting them on the path to preservation, in which act, the narrator tells us (19:16):
…the LORD [was] being merciful to him…
It must have seemed very far from “mercy” at the time. All Lot’s fondest hopes and dreams were wrapped up in the place that put him in the path of destruction. His insistence on fleeing to another city rather than the “hills” as instructed (vv. 17-21) indicates his inability to let go of his misplaced affections and desires.
I can’t think of many parallels in the Bible to being saved against one’s wishes. The man by the pool of Bethesda is, I think, the only instance of Jesus taking the initative to heal in the gospel accounts, and the exchange with the man suggests he wasn’t especially in tune with what Jesus had done for him, or what it meant for the rest of his life (John 5:1-17). Similarly, when Paul warns the Corinthian church about abuses at the Lord’s Supper, he tells them that these abuses account for the deaths of some as judgment by the Lord — but judgment that saved them from being “condemned along with the world” (1 Corinthians 11:30-32).
In the light of Lot’s experience, and its limited echoes in Scripture, one can’t fail to reflect on this and pose the question: what cherished hopes and dreams in my life prevent me from cooperating with God’s saving work in my life? Thank God for mercy which rescues us from our own foolishness.
