Sodom was a city where Lot, Abraham’s nephew, was living. God sent two angels to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah that had become corrupt. At Lot’s earnest request, the angels stayed in his house and delivered the news of salvation.
“Do you have anyone else here—sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here. God sent us here to destroy this place. This city will be destroyed soon.”
Lot hurriedly delivered this message to his daughters and his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters. However, his sons-in-law thought he was joking and did not move an inch. With the coming of the dawn, the angels urged Lot. “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, and get out of this city.”
When he hesitated, the angels grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters, and led them safely out of the city. “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains.” However, there was no time to climb up the mountains.
“I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me. Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Allow us to flee to it.” The angels granted Lot’s request. The town was called Zoar that means “small.”
By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. Burning sulfur rained down on Sodom and Gomorrah from out of the heavens, and all the people living in the cities were overthrown. Lot’s wife looked back, and became a pillar of salt.
Even in a day, we are faced with countless moments of choice, whether big or small. On trivial things, we can easily come to a decision without much thought, but if it is something very important that could decide the direction of our life or if it is a matter of life and death, we must be careful in what we decide on.
What we conceive in our mind on normal days is important to make a careful choice even in an urgent situation. If we follow the will of God on normal days and regard salvation as important, we will not consider the message of salvation as a joke or make a foolish choice and look back, ignoring the warning of the angels.
Let us examine ourselves to see if we regard the message of salvation God delivers to us as a joke, or if we keep looking back in front of the way to salvation. According to what we think and do, the result will be totally different.