Preamble:

The Lingerer is the one who, even though. he has all the necessary information to cause him to make haste. chooses to delay, to hesitate and show unacceptable reluctance. The word lingered is used only twice in the KJV: first in Gen 19:16 and later in Gen 43:10 when the children of Jacob were reluctant to go to Egypt to buy more food, by reason of the demand by Joseph to see his brother, Benjamin. Their lingering caused the whole family of Jacob to go hungry for a long time. We shall look at the first instance today. Lot lingered in departing from Sodom despite of all his knowledge of the times.

The lingerer is that person whose question is always - "why can’t we do so and so tomorrow?" The opposite of the lingerer always asks - "why can’t we do it now?"

Some of the consequences of lingering are i. prayerlessness, ii. lateness to church and other programmes, iii. disobedience of the word of God and consequently iv. poverty (Pro 24:33-34).

Lot lingered when the angels clearly instructed him to flee with his family to the mountains for their safety. A consideration of some facts about Lot would point to why he lingered. We shall consider in the first place who Lot was. We shall further see what he knew and what privileges he had and finally why he lingered.

He was righteous and just. Qualities that many of us who go to church every week cannot lay claim to. He was very generous, prevailing upon the "strangers" to have supper in his home. That questions the level of generosity of many of us.

What he knew:

He knew that Sodom & Gomorrah were very wicked (Gen 13:13. 2Pet 2:6-8). He knew that there was certain destruction awaiting Sodom (Gen 19:12-14). He knew that the angels were only waiting for him and his family to leave Sodom before it got destroyed. Is it not strange that despite all that he knew he still lingered? When we too behave in the way that Lot did. postponing every opportunity to witness to lost souls and exercising ourselves in spiritual matters we are the brothers and sisters of Lot.

What privileges he had.

Lot was Abraham’s nephew (Gen 11:3 1). he had every opportunity to be schooled under the mighty man of faith (Genl2: 1-4. 13:1-3); he found favour with God (Dt 2:9, 19); he had a lot of flock (Genl3:5). He did not use his privileges — Joshua did and he became the successor of Moses. In spite of all the privileges we have we behave just like Lot — lingering all the time.

Let us note in the first place that he was a man who did not have much faith (Gen 17-19). He had no influence on the people among whom he lived (Gen 19:9,14,30-

34) — he could not influence anybody to live righteously - not even his wife and children. He enjoyed easy life (Gen 19: 20-21). He was a student who did not seem to imbibe much of spiritual truth (Gen 19: 18). He was carnal (Gen 13: 10-11)— he could not even give his uncle the privilege of choosing before him — he worked completely by sight. He was not wise concerning his soul (Gen 13:12,14:12) — he first pitched his tent "towards" Sodom, the next time he was mentioned he was actually living inside Sodom. He did not consider that "evil communication corrupts good manners". Little wonder then that he lingered. A man who has all the qualities above, even though he be born again, has no option than to be the brother of Lot.

Let us consider ourselves in the light of why Lot lingered and beware lest we also lose everything (l Cor 3:15). "How long halt ye between two opinions?" (1Kg 18:21). Let us take heed and not allow the cares of the present time prevent us from doing the Lord’s business. The end is approaching very soon, the signs of the end of time are too many for us to ignore, let us not linger any more in the face of all the knowledge we have about the end of the sinner and the reward of the righteous. The end of the lingerer is loss. May the Lord grant us the grace to move ahead.