Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. Tonight is study #30 of Genesis, chapter 19. We are going to read Genesis 19:20-25:

Behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one: Oh, let me escape thither, (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live. And he said unto him, See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow this city, for the which thou hast spoken. Haste thee, escape thither; for I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither. Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar. The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar. Then JEHOVAH rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from JEHOVAH out of heaven; And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.

I will stop reading there. We have been trying to understand the spiritual meaning of the city Zoar. We have been contrasting this meaning with that of some people that say “Zoar” represents fellowship groups, but the meaning is about as clear as anything can be. If this were a case of law that went to court, we would say it is an “open and shut case” regarding the fact that Zoar is a type and figure of God’s salvation. If you make it to “Zoar,” you will be delivered. You would escape the awful judgment of the falling fire and brimstone. Historically, anyone residing in the city of Zoar was delivered. They did not die when the Lord rained down fire and brimstone.

Lot said that Zoar was a city that was near to flee unto, and we know that the Bible says that God is near those of a broken and contrite spirit. Lot said, “Oh, let me escape thither.” The word “escape” is a word that is translated as “deliver.” If you look it up, it is a word that relates to salvation and being saved. Lot pointed out, “Is it not a little one?” Of course, this “little city” among those cities of the plain of Jordan represents the remnant that God saves out of mankind. When compared to the whole human race that is unsaved, the new Jerusalem or heavenly Jerusalem is only a “little city.” It is the few God has gathered together and brought into the eternal city of His kingdom.

Notice what Lot said to the two messengers (God) at the end of Genesis 19:20:

… (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live.

If you had read that in a New Testament epistle or in the Psalms, you would think it was speaking of salvation and, yet, this was Lot’s request to God. He requested to flee to the little city Zoar and his soul would live. Let us look at God’s response in Genesis 19:21:

And he said unto him, See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow this city, for the which thou hast spoken.

God accepted that request. And part of the request included the phrase, “and my soul shall live,” and God accepted that. Again, it is clearly a picture of salvation. The fact that God accepted Lot’s request and He did not overthrow the city Lot had spoken for is additional evidence that it refers to the children of God that were predestinated and chosen to become saved.

If that were not enough, it goes on to say in Genesis 19:22:

Haste thee, escape thither; for I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither. Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.

So, God could not do anything, and the context indicates that the thing God wanted to do was to destroy all the cities of the plain, but He did not because of Lot’s intercession for the littlest city among the five cities of the plain. Interestingly, there were five cities of the plain and the number “five” is the number of atonement. Atonement has to do with either Christ having atoned for the sins of His people or the people He did not die for having atoned for their own sins through their own deaths. So, all five cities will relate to the atonement, with the picture being that four cities atoned for their own sins through their own destruction and one city was spared because it pictures those that Christ made atonement for from the foundation of the world.

God spared the little city, but God could not destroy the cities marked for destruction until Lot had come thither. I have mentioned it many times, but it did not say that God could not destroy the city until Lot, his wife and his two daughters came thither. It was solely Lot that was mentioned, and that is because it says in 2Peter 2:6-7:

And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; And delivered just Lot…

Here, the word “just” does not mean “only,” but it is a synonym for “righteous.” Also, notice that God used the word “delivered,” pointing to salvation. He delivered Lot. It goes on to say in 2Peter 2:7-8:

**… vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)

In two verses, God refers to Lot being “just” and twice He refers to him being “righteous.” How was he righteous? We know the Bible tells us that by the righteousness of one, many were made righteous. It is the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lot became righteous through the salvation God granted him, so he was a righteous man. That is the reason God said, “for I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither.”

Now this does not say, “till thou be come to the mountain,” but it is referring to Lot coming thither to the little city Zoar. We must allow the Bible to declare what it is saying and not just because we want a certain conclusion, like some people have wanted Zoar to represent fellowships so they can tell everyone how wrong and sinful fellowships are because God said to go the mountain. Then they point out Lot’s wife, but Lot’s wife was not Lot. God did not say, “Haste thee, escape thither; for I cannot do any thing till thou and your wife be come thither.” She was not mentioned. God knew all along that she was not a child of God and that she would be destroyed.

People just cannot draw their own conclusions because of their own desires because they do not like the idea of fellowships. Maybe someone has insisted on this for a while and it takes humility to be humbled by the Word of God when it is correcting him. But it is the nature of a child of God to have a broken and a contrite heart and when they are corrected by the Word of God, we respond, “OK, I was wrong.” Then we make correction. It is not the nature of a child of God to resist what is so obvious in the Bible. No one can continue to hold that position in an honest way, because they are fighting against verse, after verse, after verse where God is indicating that Zoar represents a place of refuge, a place of deliverance and a place in which Lot’s righteous soul would live.

Of course, the final “nail in the coffin” of this misplaced conclusion is what it says in Genesis 19:23-24:

The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar. Then JEHOVAH rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from JEHOVAH out of heaven;

So, I must say, “Come on! Come on! It is clear as anything can be that God was waiting for all the righteous to enter in to salvation before beginning His judgment. Then he rained down fire and brimstone. Then it was May 21, 2011.” That is the picture. There was an intermediate stage when Lot came out of Sodom, which represents the churches, and until he entered into Zoar, as he was representing the whole company of the elect. That “intermediate stage” would be the Latter Rain period when the Gospel was going into all the world and God was saving the great multitude, until the very last individual whose name was written in the Lamb’s Book of Life was found and saved and brought into the “little city.” The elect had all been brought into heavenly Jerusalem.

Then what did God do? He shut the door. In our last study, we were looking at James 5:7:

Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth…

God was waiting for Lot. “Haste thee, escape thither; for I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither.” In James 5:7, God is saying that He cannot do anything while waiting for the precious fruit. God was waiting for Lot. It is the same picture. Then it goes on to say in James 5:7:

…and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.

We can tie the city Sodom to the judgment on the corporate church during the Great Tribulation. The Bible reveals that the Latter Rain fell during the second part of the Great Tribulation, during that 6,400 days from September 7, 1994 until May 21, 2011. Throughout the Latter Rain period, God waited and He could not do anything until that last righteous soul became saved. We will certainly never know who that person was in this life, and maybe not in the life to come, but it does not matter. There was one blessed individual out there in the world who (at the last strike of the clock before God’s salvation program ended) was saved by God. Then, immediately, after the Latter Rain and after the Tribulation of those days, the sun is darkened, and the moon does not give her light and the stars fall from heaven and the Son of man is revealed, coming on the clouds in judgment. It is the Lord Jesus Christ coming in judgment through the Word of God, the Bible. It is a spiritual judgment that takes all unsaved people unawares. Christ catches them, like a thief in the night, but the Bible says of the elect, “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.” God’s people were watching. We were very observant, looking to see when the great earthquake would occur. After some period of confusion, God has continued to reveal “both time and judgment.” We knew the time, but when we saw nothing physical many people went back and turned away because they did not know the judgment – they did not understand the spiritual nature of the final judgment and, therefore, it was a snare that took them.

So, what we are seeing is that Lot entering into Zoar is the same spiritual picture we see in Matthew 25. The whole parable is important, but we do not have time to read it all. Let us read Matthew 25:10:

And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came…

It is Judgment Day. It is May 21, 2011. Then it says in Matthew 25:10:

… and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.

That is how we know exactly when the door was shut because the Lord made a big point to lock in the day of May 21, 2011, with the timeline from the flood. He had said, “And yet seven days,” and then the flood would come, tying it to “seven thousand years.” Then He locked it in to the last day of the Great Tribulation, which was May 21, 2011, and He gave it the underlying Hebrew calendar date of “the seventeenth day of the second month,” the exact date (after seven days) that God shut the door of the ark. God shut Noah in.

So, this is telling us that on May 21, 2011 all the saved went in with Christ to the marriage. Historically, that is pictured by Lot going into Zoar. It is pictured by Noah and his family (eight souls) and the animals going into the ark. Then God shut the door. Lot entered Zoar and God rained down fire and brimstone from heaven. The wrath of God began. The word “rained” is the word used for “water.” It is the same word and it is the word found in Genesis 7:4:

For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.

God said, “For yet seven days,” and the rain would begin, but the door was shut after all that were to enter into the ark had done so. Then God rained water upon the world. It was very destructive water and it destroyed all the inhabitants of the earth. It destroyed everything with the breath of life outside of the ark. You see, God “rained” the water, just like the Lord “rained” fire and brimstone from heaven as soon as Lot entered into the little city Zoar.

I think we have made this point strongly enough regarding what Zoar represents. People that have been going the opposite way by denying the timeline and dates like May 21, 2011 that the Lord has locked in place; and they seem to have some kind of vested interest in their insistence. I suppose it may be that they want salvation so badly, and that would be a good thing to want salvation for their family and others, but I do not think that is the reason. They have locked onto this idea that there must be salvation in their gospel or they will not believe. They will not follow. That is characteristic of the unsaved throughout history as the ungodly love themselves and in their pride and stubbornness, they grab onto a belief that they desire to hold and they will not budge, no matter what the Bible says. They refuse to receive correction. Again, that is not the nature and character of God’s elect. God’s elect are in submission to whatever the Bible says. It is not our Gospel. We are not the determiners of how things play out and who God saves, where God saves and when God saves. It is all His business, according to His salvation program – not ours. We are just servants. We are lowly doorkeepers. If God says the door is open, that is wonderful. If God says it is shut, we say, “Very well, Lord, you do all things well.”