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. Genesis 19:20

Lot has just been delivered from the total destruction of sin city (Sodom).

(Bunny trail) What a picture of our salvation, and also (unfortunately) of many Christians. Lot is living in a lost and sin filled world, fully content to allow the alcohol, legalized gambling, homosexual marriage, just so long as his boat isn’t rocked. His mantra? “Hey. I’m a good person, I don’t do those things, I go to church, Hey…I’m a BAPTIST!”. Then a missionary shows up at his door and he begins to realize the sin he is in, and God brings him out of that sin and leads him to a mountaintop retreat. But Lot is not content with the direction he is being led. He can’t entirely leave his sin behind (back on topic).

I find it interesting that the words “is it not a little one” are in parentheses as if added as an afterthought. Isn’t that how sin is? Okay, Lord! I won’t be part of that big sin anymore, but surely this little one over here won’t hurt anything. “Is it not a little one?” Just one beer? Just one website? Just one lottery ticket? Isn’t that how sin always starts? How many of you know of anyone who upon taking their first drink said I’m going to be an alcoholic! No, the typical statement made is, “I can handle it”. After all, is it not a little one?

As the spiritual head of his household his attitude was well received by his family. He already left several of his children behind to the total destruction of sin, and now he turns away from the righteous path set before him to backslide a little: just a little one. Before he knows it his wife emulates his backsliding and turns back too. Except she turns just a little more, and she is turned into a pillar of salt, but if the salt has lost his savour…. Sin has now cost Lot another family member.

Lot and his daughters arrive in their new sin city of Zoar, but he soon realizes that in his saved condition he is not comfortable living in this sin. He begins to fear for his life and decides he had best take the road less travelled and heads for the mountains of God. But his backsliding has left its seed of corruption in the hearts of his daughters, and they sin against their father and his God. From this spring the nations of Moab and Ammon and all the trouble that they brought against the nation Israel.

This is how sin always begins: with a little one. Satan would be a fool to try to overcome a strongly held biblical/moral standard in one stroke. He is content to chip away one peace at a time. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?

Just a little one. We see in the story of Lot that just a little sin by one or a few can (and often does) snowball into an avalanche of sin. If you doubt that, just look at the moral state of our nation.