It has been said, ‘No one is absolutely useless; you can always be a bad example’. So it was with Lot’s wife. The Lord Jesus calls us to remember her. She reminds us to guard our hearts. It was easier to get her out of Sodom than it was to get Sodom out of her.
Lot, however, is used by Peter as a good example. He is not one who would come readily to mind as a good example of anything. But such is the grace of God. Peter knew that he, himself, deserved to have been put on the shelf after his outright denial of Christ. But his mandate after his restoration was to strengthen his brethren. What better way to hearten those ready to give up, perhaps because of failure in their lives, than by showing what happened to Lot.
Notice that Peter does not use Lot as an example of Lot’s faith. Lot had travelled the long journey from Haran with those intrepid souls who ‘went out, not knowing whither [they] went’, Heb. 11. 8. But it was in Egypt, it seems, that he was captivated by the present world. When offered first choice of all the Levant coast, he chose the Jordan rift valley near the sin cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because it looked ‘like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt …’, Gen. 13. 10. He would find it was far more like Egypt than Eden. In the end it would cost him dearly.
Peter instead uses Lot as an example of God’s faithfulness. Lot was delivered not once, but twice from the hand of the enemy. When delivered from the northern kings, Gen. 14, he moved right back into Sodom, and the next time had to be dragged reluctantly away from its impending doom.
Lot had tried to be a good influence. He sat in the gate, but the erosion of values had their effect, even in his own heart. Imagine turning your daughters over to the lust-driven citizens to preserve your guests, thinking it to be a noble act!
The man who actually had influence with Sodom was the patriarch under the oak at Mamre. Abraham almost saved the city from its doom by his intercession. Nonetheless, ‘just Lot’ is commended for being daily vexed with the filthy lifestyle of those around him, 2 Pet. 2. 7-8. One wonders if we are as grieved by conditions in our communities today.
