The ruined City

   Lot was a man whose life strongly resembled the characteristics of
the city he lived in. Sodom was not known for being a strong city. In
fact, one time the men of Sodom tried to get away with not paying
tribute to their master. It wasn't long before invaders came,
scattering the weak men of Sodom and taking away anything they wanted
in the city. When God sent Abraham to the rescue it is interesting to
note that the only thing the king of Sodom cared about was that Abraham
return any hostages to him. This reveals that the devil was keenly
interested in keeping a hold of all the people who lived in sin in
Sodom. The people of Sodom never thought about how they were injuring
each other in this life and in the next by the way they lived.

   It was the same with the way Lot looked at his family. He didn't
teach them the ways of God that he had learned while traveling with
Abraham. He felt that the power of sin in the city was too strong to be
able to hope to make a dent in it. So it was that Lot and his wife
clung to Sodom as an alcoholic clings to his bottle, too weak to
delight in it and too afraid to leave it.

   Lot was to weak to defend himself against the situation that he had
gotten himself into. He could not think of a solution to his problems,
and so he watched his family becoming drawn into the lifestyle of Sodom
without a complaint. His sense of right and wrong became twisted. He
had no defense against temptation except to try to call one evil better
than another evil.

   When God sent his angels to destroy Sodom there was nothing that
could defend the city. In the same way, God knew that Lot was so weak
that the only way to rescue Lot was to have his angels do for him what
he couldn't do for himself. The angels sent Lot and his family outside
the city and kept him safe from the fiery destruction, but there was
nothing anyone could do to stop the spiritual destruction that Lot had
allowed in his own life.

   Taken from Genesis 14, 18, 19