Are you lingering in the face of judgment?

“As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, ‘Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.’ But he lingered.” – Genesis 19.15-16

In this text, Lot, who was the nephew of Abraham, was visited by two angels in the city of Sodom where he lived. The angels were there to destroy the city, because “the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord” and “the outcry against its people [had] become great before the Lord.” (Gen. 13.1; 19:13)

Lot was urged by the angels to leave with his wife and daughters so they would not be destroyed with the city. This wasn’t a recommendation, or a warning about some far-off future event; this was a life and death warning that required immediate action.

But Lot lingered; he hesitated. The implication is that there was a reluctance to leave. Why? The text doesn’t say.  Lot knew the condition of the city; he knew that its inhabitants were wicked.  These wicked men showed up at Lot’s door, demanding that he turn his visitors over to them for sex, and when Lot refused, they threatened to do worse to him.

Even while living in the midst of unspeakable wickedness, and even with an angelic warning of imminent judgment, Lot hesitated.

Lot remained hesitant even after the two angels dragged him and his family out of the city. When they instructed him to keep going into the hills, Lot countered with a request to go instead to a nearby city – also marked for destruction – because it was more convenient than going all the way to the hills.

Here’s the question; are you lingering in the face of judgment? Have you heard the gospel message, that all have sinned, and that the wages of sin is death? Have you heard that Christ paid the penalty for sin through His death on the cross, and that repentance and faith in Christ is the only way to escape God’s judgment for sin? Have you heard these things and yet linger in the face of judgment?

Why do you linger?  Like Lot, you know God exists; evidence of the world’s wickedness is all around you.  Yet you hesitate when it comes to responding to the gospel.

Why do you hesitate? Are you waiting until you are older, when it is more traditionally acceptable to join a church, or are you waiting until you get your life together? Tomorrow is not promised to you.  Here is what you can be sure of:  each and every one of us will go “the way of all the earth” – that is, we will die. Each of us will stand before the Lord to be judged, and it will be too late to then become a follower of Christ.

Why do you hesitate?  Have you become so comfortable in your surroundings that you are now reluctant to leave – despite the wickedness around you?

Why do you hesitate?  Don’t you know that if you remain where you are, you will also be swept away when the time for judgment comes?

Learn the lesson of Lot. When the gospel message comes to you, remember the exhortation of the angels:  “Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.” (Gen. 19.17)

God is calling you out; God is calling you to follow him to a place of safety.

It’s time to leave.

The time is now.