Genesis 19:17

Escape for thy life. The One with whom Abraham had interceded the day before now joins the angels, outside the city walls, and adds imperative urgency to their warning. The need for Christ Himself to join the angels in their appeal to Lot suggests that he and his wife were even yet hesitant about leaving everything behind. Could the destruction not be postponed until they should have opportunity to remove their possessions? Given time, they might even persuade others to accompany them. Why such haste? But Christ appears and commands, “Escape for the life” (PP 160; cf. chs. 18:21, 32; 19:22).

Look not behind thee. Inasmuch as there was barely time enough to escape the fire so soon to descend, further delay could not be permitted. If Lot’s request for time had been granted, he would have found it increasingly difficult to part with the accumulated fortune of a lifetime as the days went on. He might even have decided to remain. His only safety lay in an immediate and complete break with those things that bound his heart to Sodom. So it is with us today.

Escape to the mountain. The plain, which had once been so attractive for its beauty and fertility, had become the most dangerous place on earth, and must be abandoned.

How fateful had been Lot’s decision to make this region his place of abode (see ch. 13:11)! He was not to find refuge in the hills (see Ps. 121:1). Here, among the rocks and clefts of the mountains, he would be safe from the lake of fire into which the fair plain was soon to be transformed.