Commentary - Genesis 19:29

Bird's-eye view

Genesis 19:29 serves as the theological summary statement for the entire narrative of Sodom's destruction and Lot's escape. It explicitly states the ultimate reason for Lot's deliverance, and it has very little to do with Lot himself. The rescue was not a reward for Lot's wavering and compromised righteousness. Rather, it was a direct result of God's covenant faithfulness to Abraham. This single verse is a beautiful capsule of the doctrine of mediation. God, in executing righteous judgment upon the wicked cities, acted in grace toward Lot for the sake of another, namely Abraham. It is a foundational Old Testament picture of how God saves His people: not on the basis of their own merit, but on the basis of their relationship to a covenant head, whose intercession God honors.

In short, Lot was not saved because he was Lot; he was saved because he was Abraham's nephew. The fire fell, the cities were overthrown, but in the midst of that fiery wrath, God's covenant memory was the instrument of salvation. This sets a pattern that finds its ultimate fulfillment in the gospel, where God saves us from the final judgment not because He remembers us, but because He remembers His Son, Jesus Christ.

Outline

Context In Genesis

This verse acts as a concluding summary following the dramatic events of Genesis 19. The chapter details the visit of the two angels to Sodom, the depraved mob's assault on Lot's house, the angels striking the men blind, and their urgent command for Lot and his family to flee. We see Lot's hesitation, his wife's fatal look back, and the cataclysmic destruction of Sodom, Gomorrah, and the other cities of the valley. The immediate context is one of terrifying and absolute judgment. However, this verse pulls the camera back and connects this event to the preceding chapter, Genesis 18, where Abraham stood before the Lord and interceded passionately for the righteous in Sodom. This verse is the divine answer to the question, "Why was Lot spared?" The answer is not found in chapter 19, but in chapter 18. It is God's response to Abraham's plea.

Key Issues

For the Sake of Another

The entire Christian faith rests on the principle of one man acting for the sake of another. We call this mediation, or substitution, or federal headship. Adam acted, and we all fell. Christ acted, and all who are in Him are made alive. This is the logic of the covenant. And here, in the smoldering plains of the Jordan Valley, we have one of the clearest Old Testament illustrations of this foundational truth. Lot is a mess. He offered his daughters to a mob, he lingered in a city ripe for judgment, and he was, as Peter tells us, a righteous man vexed in his soul, but he was clearly not firing on all cylinders. If his salvation depended on his own quick-wittedness or sterling character, he would have been incinerated with the rest. But his salvation did not depend on him. It depended on his kinsman, Abraham, and God's promise to Abraham. This verse is the divine commentary on the event, telling us to look away from Lot and to look toward Abraham, the intercessor, to understand why the man was saved.

Verse by Verse Commentary

29 Thus it happened, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, that God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.

The verse begins by anchoring the event in God's sovereign action. When God destroyed the cities... This was not a geological anomaly or a freak meteor shower. This was a deliberate, holy, and violent act of judgment from the throne of the universe. The text is unambiguous about the agent. God did it. And in the very same breath, the text tells us of God's simultaneous act of mercy. The same God who poured out the fire is the one who provided the escape.

The central clause is the key to everything: that God remembered Abraham. In Scripture, when God "remembers," it does not mean that something had slipped His mind and He was just now recalling it. For God to remember is to act upon a pre-existing commitment or promise. It is a covenantal action verb. God remembered His covenant with Noah, and the floodwaters receded (Gen 8:1). God remembered Rachel, and He opened her womb (Gen 30:22). Here, God remembered Abraham, which means He acted consistently with His character and His promises to Abraham. He had just reaffirmed His covenant with Abraham in chapter 18, and Abraham had just stood in the gap as an intercessor. God's deliverance of Lot was His faithful response.

Because God remembered Abraham, He sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow. Notice the verb. God sent him out. Lot did not heroically save himself. The angels had to practically drag him and his family out of the city (Gen 19:16). He was passive in his own rescue. He was cargo, a package delivered out of the fire solely because of the grace of God, a grace that was credited to Abraham's account. Lot was a beneficiary of a grace that was aimed at another. This is the gospel. We are not saved because God looks at us and is impressed. We are saved because God looks at His Son, and for His sake, He sends us out from the midst of the overthrow that our sins deserve.

The verse ends by reiterating the context, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot lived. This repetition emphasizes the greatness of the salvation. It was a salvation out of total destruction. It was not a near miss; it was a miraculous extraction. Lot was living in the blast zone. He had pitched his tent toward Sodom, and eventually moved right in. He was enmeshed in the culture and compromised by it. Yet, because of his federal connection to the man of faith, he was pulled from the flames. This is a picture of the church in the world. We live in the cities of the plain, but we are saved from their judgment because God remembers our elder brother, Jesus.

Application

The application of this verse is straightforward and strikes at the very root of our pride. Your salvation has nothing to do with you. You were not saved because you were smarter, or wiser, or more righteous than your neighbors who are perishing. You were saved for the sake of another. You are Lot.

We are all prone to a kind of spiritual scorekeeping, thinking that God owes us something because we have managed to keep our noses relatively clean. We look at our lives and think we are a cut above the Sodomites, and so of course God would save us. But this verse obliterates that kind of thinking. Lot was saved for Abraham's sake. We are saved for Jesus' sake. Period. Our righteousness is a borrowed righteousness. Our deliverance is a mediated deliverance. Our hope rests entirely outside of ourselves, in the person and work of our great Intercessor, who ever lives to make intercession for us.

This truth should produce two things in us. First, profound humility. We are all brands plucked from the burning, saved not by our strength but by a grace that was secured by another. Second, it should produce boundless gratitude and worship. Our worship is not directed to ourselves for our wise choice to follow God, but to the Father who, for the sake of His Son, remembered us in our lost estate and sent us out from the midst of the overthrow.