Luke 17:28-30

THE DAYS OF LOT

Luke 17:28-30. “Likewise it was thus in the days of Lot. They were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building; and on the day Lot went out from Sodom, fire and brimstone rained from heaven, and destroyed them all. According to these things shall it be in the day the Son of man is revealed.” Among the cities which dotted the Salt Sea round and round in the beautiful Vale of Siddim, indescribably fertile, and “well watered as the garden of the Lord,” encompassed by the mountains of Simeon, Judah, and Benjamin on the west, and those of Moab on the east, the largest and most prominent were Sodom and Gomorrah. We not only have Lot's testimony as to the fertility, irrigation, and prosperity of this country, but (Genesis 14) we find four great kings coming from Babylon, Nineveh, Persia, and Mesopotamia to invade this country, conquer it, and carry away the spoils. Hence it must have been very important. At present that whole region is desolate and barren, without an inhabitant, unless the wandering Arab should there pitch his tent. It is now a desert for the want of water, whereas the Bible assures us that in the days of its prosperity it was “well watered.” The soil is now very rich, and would be exceedingly productive if the rains fell on it. It is by all authorities admitted that the very site of Sodom and Gomorrah is now under the waters of the Dead Sea, so called because no fish can live in its waters, which doubtless abounded with valuable fish before the retribution of the Almighty fell on it, destroying the cities with fire and brimstone, withering and blighting all the surrounding country, so that death reigns without a rival, and the sea is significantly denominated “Dead.” The ruins of cities are found all around on the coast of that sea, while all authorities locate Sodom and Gomorrah within the territory now occupied by the sea. Just as Lot and his family were delivered from the awful doom of Sodom and Gomorrah, so will the saints be delivered when the Lord cometh. Jesus here says, with reference to both Noah and Lot, that they illustrate the state of things calamities on the wicked and deliverance to the righteous when the Son of man is revealed.