Divine Urgency and the Peril of Hesitation
Genesis 19:15–17 (NASB95)
15When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.” 16But he hesitated. So the men seized his hand and the hand of his wife and the hands of his two daughters, for the compassion of the Lord was upon him; and they brought him out, and put him outside the city. 17When they had brought them outside, one said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you, and do not stay anywhere in the valley; escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away.”
As dawn broke over Sodom, the angels urged Lot to take his family and flee. The warning was clear. Destruction was coming. Yet Lot hesitated. He could not let go of his possessions or his life in Sodom despite the wickedness and harm to the innocent that were occurring in that city. The text shows a man paralyzed by fear and doubt. As we will see, Lot either doubted God could keep him safe or he could not let go of his current way of life as he left everything behind. His hesitation revealed a lack of faith and obedience. The angels had to seize him and his family by the hand and lead them out. Lot’s spiritual condition had been weakened by years of compromise.
Now, lets drive home the lesson that Genesis is trying to teach us. What is happening in these last few chapters is that Lot is being compared to Abraham. Think about it:
God tells Abraham to leave his land, and Abraham departs. God tells Lot to leave his city, but he repeatedly hesitates.
God instructs Abraham to obey, and he does so even when he doesn’t understand. Conversely, God tells Lot to obey, and Lot struggles with this.
Abraham is known in the Bible for walking by faith, while Lot walks by sight.
Do you see the lesson? What does a person who truly believes in God look like – Abraham or Lot? Real faith affects who we are. It affects our beliefs, our actions, and our decisions.
Lot’s sons-in-law did not escape. They could not accept the reality of God’s coming judgment. Sodom’s culture shaped their hearts and minds. They laughed off the warning and stayed behind. Their acceptance of Sodom’s ways made it impossible for them to believe that judgment would come. This cost them their lives. The story warns us that compromise with the world’s values leads to spiritual blindness and eventual destruction. The church cannot afford to accept or excuse what God calls us to leave behind.
The urgency of the angels is striking. Six times, they had to urge, command, and even physically move Lot and his family to safety. The repeated commands of get up, take your family, flee, do not look back show that God’s call to obedience is not something to delay or debate. The angels’ persistence highlights the seriousness of God’s warnings and the danger of spiritual hesitation and compromise.
What is the lesson for us today? Spiritual acceptance and compromise are common in our culture today. However, like Abraham and Lot, all Christians are called to leave behind their former lives and the ways of the world. Recall what Christ says, “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.” (Luke 14:26, 27) Genesis helps us understand what Jesus is saying in Luke.
So here is the lesson. All of us have been asked to leave something behind. What do you need to leave behind? But more importantly, will you be an Abraham or will you be a Lot?