Gen 19

1 The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. 2 “My lords,” he said, “please turn aside to your servant's house. You can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning.” “No,” they answered, “we will spend the night in the square.” 3 But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate.

4 Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. 5 They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.” 6 Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him 7 and said, “No, my friends. Don't do this wicked thing. 8 Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don't do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”

9 “Get out of our way,” they replied. “This fellow came here as a foreigner, and now he wants to play the judge! We'll treat you worse than them.” They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door. 10 But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door. 11 Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door.

12 The two men said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here—sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here, 13 because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the LORD against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it.”

14 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters. He said, “Hurry and get out of this place, because the LORD is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.

15 With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.” 16 When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the LORD was merciful to them. 17 As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don't look back, and don't stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!”

18 But Lot said to them, “No, my lords, please! 19 Your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can't flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I'll die. 20 Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it—it is very small, isn't it? Then my life will be spared.”

21 He said to him, “Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of. 22 But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it.” (That is why the town was called Zoar. )

23 By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. 24 Then the LORD rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the LORD out of the heavens. 25 Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land. 26 But Lot's wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

27 Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the LORD. 28 He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace. 29 So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.

30 Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave.

31 One day the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man around here to give us children—as is the custom all over the earth. 32 Let's get our father to drink wine and then sleep with him and preserve our family line through our father.” 33 That night they got their father to drink wine, and the older daughter went in and slept with him. He was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up. 34 The next day the older daughter said to the younger, “Last night I slept with my father. Let's get him to drink wine again tonight, and you go in and sleep with him so we can preserve our family line through our father.” 35 So they got their father to drink wine that night also, and the younger daughter went in and slept with him. Again he was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up. 36 So both of Lot's daughters became pregnant by their father.

37 The older daughter had a son, and she named him Moab ; he is the father of the Moabites of today. 38 The younger daughter also had a son, and she named him Ben-Ammi ; he is the father of the Ammonites of today.

SS35:  No Turning Back

Genesis 19

Not sure where Jesus went, but the two angels go out to Sodom. They find Lot siting by the gate. Why is Lot sitting there? Not sure. Maybe he knows the city is sinful and is just sitting on the edge because he knows he should not be there. Maybe he is looking for visitors to protect them. Maybe he was waiting on someone.  Maybe there is another reason.  But he does try to stop the three from going into the city.  

The men told him that they planned to sleep out in the center of town.  Lot insisted they not and brings them home for dinner.  He makes flat bread (yeast in the OT represents sin).  He ends up protecting the men from being gang raped.  It says every man in the city came to the house for that purpose.  Looks like there are not 10 good men in the city after all.  

Lot offers his virgin daughters to the crowd to stop them from doing such an evil thing.  In my mind, that would not have done anything to solve the problem and I think less of Lot for making the offer.  The crowd persists and Lot is hauled back into the house.   The men then make the crowd go blind so that they cannot find the door.  God does not need our protection.  

The men tell Lot to get out of Sodom because they are going to destroy it.  Lot goes out to get his future son in laws.  Ok, gross – they must have been in the crowd outside.  I would leave their sorry butts rather than bring the issues with me.  The guys just laughed it off anyway.  

Lot is told to head for the mountains, but he is afraid of the mountains and asks to go to a nearby city.   In the process, he saves another little city that would have been destroyed.  By the time he reaches the city, God has rained down sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah.  Lot's wife looks back and becoms a pillar of salt.  Lot did not want to leave the area either – probably not a good sign.  

Meanwhile, Abraham went back to the place where he had met the Lord.  

So, Lot chose to live in Sodom because it was a fertile area and he was benefiting financially. He chose to put prosperity over Godliness and it cost him everything. He made compromises that did not glorify God. We see an example of this when he offers his virgin daughters to the men outside his door. His wife and daughters were also corrupted by living in the sinful place. His wife cannot leave without a longing to return that killed her. The daughters end up (later) having sex with their father when he is drunk. Corruption destroyed the entire family and the legacy that came from Lot.

There is much talk these days over the meaning of these verses.  This is more than a reprimand on “hospitality” – that is just dumb, but it is also more than homosexuality.   Both are certainly present.  The fact that the daughters were virgins is surprising – I guess the men there were only attacking the men.  I wonder if Lot was attacked when he arrived.  How sexually corrupted was this community to attack and attempt to sodomize people just for entering the city?  People were crying out to God about the corruption – so it was probably the norm there.  

Bottom Line: Take sin in your community seriously as God judges communities. Take God seriously because He is God.  

This sparked a thought about a new testament reference to Lot. Luke 17:

26 “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 27 People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. 28 “It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. 29 But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.

30 “It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. 31 On that day no one who is on the housetop, with possessions inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. 32 Remember Lot's wife! 33 Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it.

I will be honest here.  I wish the men went into the city and asked the men to repent.  I wish they had repented.  I think God already knew that was a waste of time.  He did what he did for Lot and for Abraham.

Lot was afraid to stay in Zoar and ended up going to the mountains after all.   I wonder why he did not return to Abraham for help.  I bet he was embarrassed.  I wonder why Abraham did not send people looking for Lot.  Maybe he thought Lot died in the city.  Instead of living with loving family, Lot and his daughters lived in a cave.  The daughter took the perversion of Sodom with them and turned to that instead of God for children.  They had sex with their dad when he was drunk and had sons by him.  This was the beginning of Moabites and Ammonites, who we will see again later.  Such a sad story and a warning about allowing the culture to influence you away from what is right.