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Artwork for Smoke Rose Like a Furnace

Genesis 18:16-19:29

Smoke Rose Like a Furnace

Lyrics · Genesis

Smoke Rose Like a Furnace

Genesis 18:16-19:29

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Smoke Rose Like a Furnace

Genesis 18:16-19:29

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About this song

About this song

This song belongs to the Genesis collection. 8 recordings are available to play here, with the complete lyrics below.

Bible book
Genesis
Collection
Genesis
[Verse 1] The cry of the cities climbed into heaven, Violence ripened where pleasure was given. Abraham stood while the judgment drew near: "Shall not the Judge of all earth judge clear?" Fifty, then forty, then ten righteous souls; Mercy was sought while the darkness took hold. [Warning Refrain] Do not look back when the fire comes down, Do not love ruin more than the road out of town. Morning is breaking, the mountain is nigh; Run from the valley beneath the red sky. [Verse 2] Angels came evening to Sodom's closed gate; Lot brought them inward before it grew late. The street turned violent, the doorway went blind; Hands pulled Lot backward from fury outside. Dawn found him lingering, mercy took hold, Leading his household before fire rolled. [Break] Sulphur and flame on the cities below, Salt in the place where one heart would not go. [Final Refrain] Smoke rose like a furnace, black over the plain; The green valley vanished beneath burning rain. Abraham watched from the place he had prayed; God remembered him when Lot was conveyed. Do not look back when deliverance calls; Mercy leads forward while judgment falls.

Named in this songAbrahamSodomLot

About the passage

Genesis 18: A promised birth and an appeal for a city

Genesis 18 begins with speed around a meal and ends with patience inside an argument. Abraham runs to feed unexpected visitors, Sarah laughs behind a tent door at a promise she cannot imagine her body fulfilling, and the LORD repeats the appointed time rather than softening the claim. The scene then looks toward Sodom. Abraham's calling to teach justice is placed beside the report of a city's grave wrongdoing, and he moves from host to petitioner. His question, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?", does not deny Sodom's guilt. It presses the distinction between righteous and wicked and asks whether the presence of a few might preserve many. The numbers fall from fifty to ten, yet the concern never changes. Genesis closes without explaining why Abraham stops, leaving the next chapter to test the conditions against the city itself.

Study Genesis 18 in depth

Genesis 19: A city exposed and a household brought out

Genesis 19 brings the discussion about Sodom inside the city and lets conduct answer what numbers alone could not. Lot welcomes the arriving angels, but the house is soon surrounded by men demanding sexual violence against the guests. Lot's own response exposes another failure when he offers his daughters, and the supposed visitors must rescue the host. Warning then meets disbelief and delay. Lot lingers until the angels take the family by the hand, while a smaller refuge is granted at Zoar. Destruction follows, Lot's wife looks back, and Abraham sees only smoke from the place where he had interceded. Genesis explicitly links Lot's rescue with God's remembrance of Abraham. Yet escape is not a clean ending. The family moves into a cave, and the chapter closes with incest, pregnancy, and the ancestry of Moab and Ammon. Rescue from a corrupt city does not erase damage within the household.

Study Genesis 19 in depth