But he hesitated. Because of the Lord’s compassion for him, the men grabbed his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hands of his two daughters. They brought him out and left him outside the city. (Genesis 19:16)
In Genesis 19 we see that God sends two angels into the city to inform Lot of the coming destruction (Gen. 19:13), saying that “the LORD has sent us to destroy it.” The Lord planned to punish Sodom for their sin. The Angels then urge Lot, “Up! Take your wife and two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.” You would think that Lot would get up and go right away but in fact he does not. Instead it says that, “he lingered.”
Lot lingered. Rather than run away from destruction, Lot delays. I’m not sure why. It could be because he had status in the city, indicated by him sitting at the city gate (Gen. 19:1). Maybe he enjoyed the uninhibited lifestyle of the city. Whatever it is Lot lingers rather than obeys. That is often our response when God calls us to turn away from sin. Rather than turn away from sin completely we linger, entertaining sinful desires, and many times succumbing to sin and its effects. When left to ourselves we are no better than Lot. But Lot is spared from destruction, but not out of anything that he did.
The rest of verse 16 says, “So the men seized him… by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.” This is the good news of the gospel. When we were dead in sins Christ died for us and freed us from that sin. 1 Peter 1:3 says it this way, “According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” Become a Christian or being born again is not something that we do. Like Lot we would stay in our sin if we had a choice. But thankfully, our God is too merciful to let us linger in sin. Like Lot, God will seize us, snatching us from the jaws of sin and death, and bring us into a life of hope in Jesus.