Then, when Lot had got safely into Zoar, then this ruin came; for good
men are taken away from the evil to come. Then, when the sun had risen
bright and clear, promising a fair day, then this storm arose, to show
that it was not from natural causes. Concerning this destruction
observe, 1. God was the immediate author of it. It was destruction from
the Almighty: The Lord rained--from the Lord (v. 24), that is, God from
himself, by his own immediate power, and not in the common course of
nature. Or, God the Son from God the Father; for the Father has
committed all judgment to the Son. Note, He that is the Saviour will be
the destroyer of those that reject the salvation. 2. It was a strange
punishment, Job xxxi. 3. Never was the like before nor since. Hell was
rained from heaven upon them. Fire, and brimstone, and a horrible
tempest, were the portion of their cup (Ps. xi. 6); not a flash of
lightning, which is destructive enough when God gives it commission,
but a shower of lightning. Brimstone was scattered upon their
habitation (Job xviii. 15), and then the fire soon fastened upon them.
God could have drowned them, as he did the old world; but he would show
that he has many arrows in his quiver, fire as well as water. 3. It was
a judgment that laid all waste: It overthrew the cities, and destroyed
all the inhabitants of them, the plain, and all that grew upon the
ground, v. 25. It was an utter ruin, and irreparable. That fruitful
valley remains to this day a great lake, or dead sea; it is called the
Salt Sea, Num. xxxiv. 12. Travellers say that it is about thirty miles
long and ten miles broad; it has no living creature in it; it is not
moved by the wind; the smell of it is offensive; things do not easily
sink in it. The Greeks call it Asphaltites, from a sort of pitch which
it casts up. Jordan falls into it, and is lost there. 4. It was a
punishment that answered to their sin. Burning lusts against nature
were justly punished with this preternatural burning. Those that went
after strange flesh were destroyed by strange fire, Jude 7. They
persecuted the angels with their rabble, and made Lot afraid; and now
God persecuted them with his tempest, and made them afraid with his
storm, Ps. lxxxiii. 15. 5. It was designed for a standing revelation of
the wrath of God against sin and sinners in all ages. It is,
accordingly, often referred to in the scripture, and made a pattern of
the ruin of Israel (Deut. xxix. 23), of Babylon (Isa. xiii. 19), of
Edom (Jer. xlix. 17, 18), of Moab and Ammon, Zep. ii. 9. Nay, it was
typical of the vengeance of eternal fire (Jude 7), and the ruin of all
that live ungodly (2 Pet. ii. 6), especially that despise the gospel,
Matt. x. 15. It is in allusion to this destruction that the place of
the damned is often represented by a lake that burns, as Sodom did,
with fire and brimstone. Let us learn from it, (1.) The evil of sin,
and the hurtful nature of it. Iniquity tends to ruin. (2.) The terrors
of the Lord. See what a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of
the living God!