Genesis 19:24 - Meaning and Application

Then, after Lot had safely reached Zoar, this destruction came. The righteous are often taken away from the evil that is about to come. When the sun had risen bright and clear and seemed to promise a pleasant day, this sudden storm began, showing that it did not come from natural causes.

About this destruction, notice, first, God was the direct author of it. It was destruction from the Almighty. “The Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord” (Genesis 19:24). That means God himself acted by his own direct power, not through the usual course of nature. Or, if we take it another way, God the Son acted from God the Father, since the Father has given all judgment to the Son. The one who saves will also destroy those who reject his salvation.

Second, it was a strange punishment (Job 31:3). Never was anything like it before or since. It was as if hell itself rained down from heaven on them. Fire, brimstone, and a terrible storm were their portion (Psalm 11:6). It was not just a flash of lightning, destructive enough when God commands it, but a whole shower of lightning. Brimstone was scattered over their land (Job 18:15), and then the fire quickly took hold. God could have drowned them, as he did the old world, but he wanted to show that he has many weapons, fire as well as water.

Third, it was a judgment that left everything in ruins. It overthrew the cities and destroyed all the people in them, along with the plain and everything that grew there (Genesis 19:25). It was total ruin, and it could not be repaired. That fruitful valley still remains a great lake, or dead sea, to this day. It is called the Salt Sea (Numbers 34:12). Travelers say it is about thirty miles long and ten miles wide. No living creature is in it, the wind does not stir it much, its smell is unpleasant, and things do not sink in it easily. The Greeks call it Asphaltites because of a kind of pitch it gives off. The Jordan River flows into it and is lost there.

Fourth, the punishment matched their sin. Burning lusts against nature were rightly punished with this unnatural burning. Those who went after strange flesh were destroyed by strange fire (Jude 1:7). They attacked the angels with their mob and made Lot afraid, and now God attacked them with his storm and made them afraid with his judgment (Psalm 83:15).

Fifth, it was meant to stand as a lasting warning of God’s anger against sin and sinners in every age. Scripture often points back to it, and uses it as a model of judgment on Israel (Deuteronomy 29:23), Babylon (Isaiah 13:19), Edom (Jeremiah 49:18), and Moab and Ammon (Zephaniah 2:9). It also pointed ahead to the punishment of eternal fire (Jude 1:7), and to the ruin of all who live ungodly lives (2 Peter 2:6), especially those who reject the gospel (Matthew 10:15). That is why the place of the damned is often pictured as a lake burning with fire and brimstone, like Sodom.

Let us learn from this the evil of sin and how destructive it is. Sin tends toward ruin. Let us also learn the fear of the Lord. See how terrible it is to fall into the hands of the living God.