Holly Bible - KJV with Concise Commentaries by Z Selam - HTML preview
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(2.) He must therefore mind his business with the utmost care and diligence. He must not hanker after Sodom: Look not behind thee. He must not loiter by the way: Stay not in the plain; for it would all be made one dead sea. He must not take up short of the place of refuge appointed him: Escape to the mountain. Such as these are the commands given to those who through grace are delivered out of a sinful state.
[1.] Return not to sin and Satan, for that is looking back to Sodom.
[2.] Rest not in self and the world, for that is staying in the plain. And,
[3.] Reach towards Christ and heaven, for that is escaping to the mountain, short of which we must not take up.
18 And Lot said unto them, Oh, not so, my Lord:
What a strange want of faith and fortitude, as if He who had interfered for his rescue would not have protected Lot in the mountain solitude.
The fixing of a place of refuge for him. The mountain was first appointed for him to flee to, but,
1. He begged for a city of refuge, one of the five that lay together, called Bela, Ge 14:2, 19:18-20. It was Lot's weakness to think a city of his own choosing safer than the mountain of God's appointing. And he argued against himself when he pleaded, Thou hast magnified thy mercy in saving my life, and I cannot escape to the mountain; for could not be that plucked him out of Sodom, when he lingered, carry him safely to the mountain, though he began to tire? Could not be that saved him from greater evils save him from the less? He insists much in his petition upon the smallness of the place: It is a little one, it is not? Therefore, it was to be hoped, not as bad as the rest. This gave a new name to the place; it was called Zoar, a little one. Intercessions for little ones are worthy to be remembered.