Cities of the Plain Destroyed

"The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar. Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord 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. But his [Lot's] wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord: and he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah , and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace. And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in the which Lot dwelt. And Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zoar; and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters." (Genesis 19:23-30)

So, sometime shortly after sunrise one morning, sudden destruction fell upon the cities of the plain: "brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven." We can speculate that it might have been a volcano erupting. If it had been a volcano, for example, the cloud of smoke could have been a cloud of ash, such as is seen with the eruption of large volcanoes today. But we could be wrong about a volcano, because whatever it was that happened…it came "from the Lord out of heaven." And the destruction was so great that anything that "grew upon the ground" no longer did.

Nothing growing is consistent with what scientists or archaeologists exploring the area in modern times have found. Apparently the southern end of the Dead Sea is much shallower than the northern end, indicating that there is something buried there (such as cities and their inhabitants.) And it is the DEAD Sea after all…nothing grows in it, it is all salt, just like the Great Salt Lake in Utah, only I think the salt density might be even heavier in the Dead Sea. Tourists love to try out the theory that you can't sink in the Dead Sea, the salt keeps you afloat. I don't hear that happening so much in the Great Salt Lake which leads me to think that the Dead Sea has a higher concentration of salt.

Then there is Lot's wife who, because of her disobedience in heeding the words of the Lord, becomes a pillar of salt. Reminds me of the bodies of humans and animals who were entombed in volcanic ash in the town of Pompeii, Italy; a very wicked town in its day.

All of which leads us to believe that the Dead Sea became the Dead Sea after this event, being filled with salt which must have been a chemical reaction of the fire and brimstone sent from the Lord.

It is interesting that Lot begged to go to Zoar, which by the way, caused that city to be spared as it was slated to be destroyed because of its great wickedness; and then Lot is suddenly fleeing from Zoar into the mountains (the same ones he earlier feared going into) only now he is no longer as afraid of what might happen in the mountains, as it cannot compare to the evil he must have witnessed in Zoar. We are not told how long he remained in Zoar before fleeing into the mountains, but it might have been rather quickly.

And it is confirmed for us that the reason Lot was spared was because of Abraham's intercession on his behalf; for "God remembered Abraham," meaning He remembered Abraham's pleading for the righteous in Sodom. Such is the power of intercessory prayer with a loving merciful and gracious God.

Tomorrow, we'll see what the future holds for Lot and his two daughters, the only survivors from Sodom.