Walk in the Bible - Genesis 19

 

Genesis 19

In verse 1, we see that there are now TWO angels. Before ( in Genesis 18:2 there were three angels and we see that the Lord went on HIS way in Genesis 18:33.  That's lead some of the scholars to believe that GOD was actually one of the angels that met with Abraham, face to face! No one's really sure if it was HIM or not, but in either case, we now see that there are TWO angels going to Sodom and Gomorrah.

The angels are said to have arrived in the evening, however, some scholars actually think it was closer to sunset for a few reasons, the first being that the gates would have been closed at night to keep out bandits and secondly, the word used for evening "ereb" could mean "evening", "night" or even "sunset".  When the angels arrived, Lot was said to be "sitting in the gate" and this is absolutely correct. At that time each city had two sets of gates, an outer gate and an inner gate. The space between those two gates was pretty good sized and was a combination of the town hall, an ad-hoc court, a marketplace, a public park even a park bench!

The seats in the gates weren't for just anyone, they were for the judges of the city. Lot wasn't just a resident, he was a judge in this city. I should also mention that this section of town was, by design, away from the residential section of town. At any rate, Lot saw these people, stood up and bowed before them, in fact, he bowed just like Abraham did, with his face to the ground as you would before a king. The only thing he didn't do was run up to them. Chizkuni tells us that Lot didn't want to alert the villagers that someone had entered their city. This is supported in Verse 2 where lot asks them to "turn away" to his house, in other words, come to his house via back routes so that they wouldn't be seen. Also note that he invites them to spend the night at his house THEN wash their feet, compare that with Genesis 18:4 where Abraham offers them water to wash their feet first!

The angels turn Lot down at first and state that they're going to spend the night in the city square, but Lot insists that they stay with him (Remember, there's no hotels at this time, so unless you wanted to sleep under the stars, which was very much at your own risk, someone had to host you!). They accepted his offer and in verse 3 they show the angels eating unleavened bread, in a foreshadowing of the Passover!

In verse 4, we're shown that ALL of the people of the village showed up a Lot's door. All of the Torah scholars agree that this was done to show that there were no righteous people in the city at all, not even one. Remember, back in Genesis 18:32 Abraham got GOD to promise not to destroy the city if there were 10 righteous people in the city? The Torah is letting us know that none of them were righteous and therefore GOD wasn't breaking his word.

In verse 5 we have the men yelling out to Lot, telling him they wanted him to bring his guests out, they wanted to know them. Some translations translate the word "know" to "have relations with" or "have sex with". The word used here is "yada" which literally means "know" and yes, it can have a sexual connotation depending on how it's used.  Would these men have tried to rape the angels?  It's very likely, based on a similar incident that was described in Judges 19:22-26.

Does this mean they're gay. Not likely, rape is and was a crime of power and domination, which is just what the men of Sodom wanted to do to these angels. Further, you have to remember the culture in this time, when you were 12 you either had a bride picked out for you by your father or another family member in charge, you got married and had children because you had to, not because you wanted to. Literally, homosexual relationships didn't exist in this period of time!

Further, verse 5 literally says "ALL of the men in Sodom were at his door" and it shows them, in verse 7 promising to do worse to him than to his guests once they were done with the guests! This was no act of sexuality, this was a mob scene, just like in Judges 19:22-26. As if this weren't enough, we see LOT go outside and try to at least get the mob away from his door so that they wouldn't harm his guests, in Verses 6-7. He even offer to let them have his daughters, who hadn't known any man at that point rather than see his guests harmed.

I realize what that looks like to you or I, however, you need to remember the time and customs of this period and place. When a man hosted a guest, part of that hosting meant protecting the guests at all costs. Dr. Cyrus Hamlin, an American missionary in the near east describes just such an incident when he was hosted by a governor in a region he was traveling in. The governor handed him a piece of mutton and advised him this meant that he was pledging his safety to Dr Hamlin, by every drop of his blood, while he was in this governor's territory. This is just what Lot was doing for his guests too.

We can see in Genesis 19:9 how well that worked. They yelled at Lot and told him they'd do worse to him, then they tried to break down the door to get to the angels. The angels responded by pulling Lot back in and giving the men at the door temporary blindness. Many scholars believe it was for long enough time to make the men tired of trying to find Lot's door. Verse 15 seems to support this as Lot and the angels didn't leave until dawn the next morning.

At this point, the angels made it clear that GOD had sent them to destroy Sodom because of the outcry against it was so great. Bear in mind, the outcry had nothing to do with the men that had tried to harm the angels, the outcry had already happened. Sanhedrin 109 tells us that the citizens of Sodom found a young girl giving bread to a poor stranger, and they first tried to starve her to death by ordering the merchants at the market place to refuse to accept her coin. When that failed, they tied her to a roof, smeared her in honey and allowed her to be stung to death by bees!

This is in addition to what we already know about Sodom, that they were proud of how big their city was, about how much money they had and that they hated foreigners (per Josephus in "Antiquities" 1:194-5). That they went out of their way to keep foreigners out of their city, per the Talmud. That they had no problem at all taking advantage of any trader entering their city, that they'd take his goods either by force or cunning (again per the Talmud).

Ezekiel 16:49 tells us Sodom was haughty, had plenty of food but wouldn't help the poor and committed idolatry before GOD. Isaiah 1:10-20, specifically verse 17 tells Sodom to learn to do good, seek justice, take care of the widows and orphans, strongly implying that the weren't already doing so. Jeremiah 23:14 strongly implied that Sodom and Gomorrah were committing adultery, and encouraging wickedness in their lands. Zephaniah 2:10 states that Moab was in danger of becoming like Sodom, taunting and becoming arrogant against GOD. Wisdom 19:14-17 states that Sodom failed to welcome strangers.

Sodom wasn't a friendly town by any means, and because there were no righteous people, GOD was going to destroy it. The angels warned Lot ahead of time and even told him to take anyone he had with him, even sons-in-laws, out of town first so that they would survive. We see that Lot tried to do this in verse 14, but his sons-in-law either though he was kidding or he'd had too much to drink. Unfortunately, they didn't believe and had to be left in the city.

From the looks of verse 15, it looked like Lot finally went to sleep as the story stops from his son-in-laws and it picks up again at dawn with the angels literally telling him to get up and leave the city. Lot, according to Rashi, didn't leave right away, he ran around trying to save his property, and the angels just weren't going to allow it. Verse 16 literally tells us they grabbed Lot, his two daughters and his wife and got them outside the city. Most of the Torah scholars believe that when Lot left the city, he had the clothes on his back, his wife and his daughters and that was it.

In verse 17 Lot is told, in no uncertain terms to run for his life, don't stop until he gets to the hills and don't look back. Ramban tells us that the reason for this was that at this time it was believed that looking at any contagious disease was harmful and it could transmit the disease to you as well. Even though this might sound silly to us, if you think about it, it's not as far fetched as it sounds. As an addict, I can tell you that if I looked back at my drinking days and allowed those thoughts to dwell in my mind, I might just be tempted to have "just one drink" (which doesn't exist for me or anyone else that calls themselves an alcoholic). I would be dragged back into my disease, and this is likely what the angels were thinking when they told Lot not to look back.

Sforno says something similar, that the evil would catch up to them if they looked back, which is much like what Ramban said. Nachamanides also supports this same line of thought. Chizkuni somewhat supports this fact when he reminds us that Lot was attached to his possessions, his wife was said to be attached to her two daughters that were married to the sons-in-law Lot tried to save as well. Rabbeinu Bahya also supports this.

In verses 18-19 we see Lot literally begging the angels to not ask him to run to the hills. Radak tell us this is because Lot wasn't physically able to move that fast. He was afraid that because he wasn't able to move that fast that whatever the disaster was that was going to happen to the town, would overtake and kill him. In fact, Chizkuni tells us that brimstone and sulfur was already spreading around him. Rav Hirsch supports at least the fact that Lot didn't think he could move fast enough to escape the destruction that was going to happen

He instead, in verse 20, asks that he be allowed to flee to a nearby, small town. Rashi lets us know that because the town was small, it's sins would be few and smaller than Sodom and Gomorrah. Haamek Davar adds in that because it's a small town, it has fewer temptations, and because of this, as Rashi told us, there would be fewer sins. Rashbam also agrees with this.

The angel that Lot was speaking with allowed him to go to that city and he promised no to destroy it. Because Lot called it an "insignificant city" it's name literally became "insignificance" or "Zoar" in the Hebrew language, just as we see in verse 21. We see that Lot arrived in the town of Zoar at sunrise and that's when GOD started destroying the town of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Rashi, in fact, tells us that GOD specifically destroyed the town at that time, because the sun and the moon were in the sky together. This is because some of the inhabitants of Sodom worshiped the sun, and some worshiped the moon. That way, there would be no question in their minds that neither the sun nor the moon could protect them from GOD's wrath. This hearkens back to Genesis 1:3-5 where GOD created the sun and the moon, showing right away that he was their creator and thus, more powerful than they were. Chizkuni says the same thing as well.

Both Rashi and Siftei Chakhamim both agree that GOD first caused rain to fall upon Sodom and Gomorrah to give them a chance to repent. However, this contradicts Genesis 19:12-13 where the angels told Lot they were going to destroy the city. It's more likely that what verse 24 is talking about ("Sulfurous fire" as it's called in the Torah) is a reference to lightning. The term "brimstone" itself is an archaic term that means sulfur, especially the odor of sulfur dioxide, which is given off during lighting strikes.

Further, Radak tells us that this retribution, this brimstone from GOD made the land around the city incapable of producing anything. It killed the land. Joshua, in Deuteronomy 29:23 backs this up with his account of Sodom being a desolate land. Further, Josephus also describes Sodom and Gomorrah as being burned up by lightning in "The Jewish War", book IV, chapter 8. If this had been, say a volcanic explosion, the plants would have grown back. We have evidence of this as recently as Mount Saint Helens, where Mt. St. Helens caused desolation for 230 square miles!

That was only the first explosion. The second explosion sent ash drifting as far as 2,200 square miles away!  Despite that, life is returning to Mount Saint Helens. Even the most devastating eruption of all, Krakatoa didn't end all life, life began again in five years. So Sodom couldn't have experienced a volcanic explosion, life would have started up again in at least five years.

According to the scholars, life never returned. This would be more consistent with a lightning strike. If lightning strikes sand, it turns the sand into a type of glass, no plant can grow through that, so it would die underground. If lighting strikes a tree the right way, the tree can die immediately, as can as person.

Also, verse 25 lets us know that GOD not only destroyed the cities and the inhabitants of those cities, but he also destroyed the vegetation that was in the ground near those cities. In verse 26, we see that Lot's wife turned around and was turned into a pillar of salt. Sounds odd, right?  Why salt?

No one's really sure, but there are two pretty similar stories that might explain it. In Genesis Rabah 50:4 it says that Lot asked his wife to get some salt for his visitors. His wife wasn't happy about him entertaining angels and went to all of her neighbors and asked for salt, this alerted them that Lot had guests in his home, and this is what brought the mob to Lot's house. Both Rashi and Chizkuni give this same explanation as well.

Rabbeinu Bahya quotes the Midrash when he explains that Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt because a poor person came to her door to borrow salt and she wouldn't give them any of her salt. In either case, the punishment is given in equal measure to the crime, which foreshadows the Mosaic punishments GOD would give in Exodus 21:24-25.

Verse 27 is said (in Berachot 26) to be the first time, and thus the institution of the Shacharit, a set of prayers done in the morning, which includes a set of blessings, the Shema (the Jewish profession of Faith - Jesus refers to this in Mark 12:29) as well as a set of prayers and further blessings. Radak backs this up his writings as well. The scholars agree that verse 28 is Abraham looking to Sodom and Gomorrah to see if it still stood, or if GOD destroyed it because there wasn't even 10 righteous people in the city. He sees smoke, indicating GOD destroyed the city.

In fact, the smoke is described as smoke rising like the smoke of a kiln. The smoke from a kiln is usually pretty thick, so Abraham knew he wasn't looking at a campfire, he knew he was looking at devastation. Verse 29 lets us know beyond the shadow of a doubt that GOD did destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. In a carefully worded postscript, it lets us know that GOD saved Lot from the destruction, not because of him. It was GOD's doing and no one else's.

In verse 30, the story shifts back to Lot, where we see Lot leave Zoar and head up into the mountains where the angels had told him to go initially. All of the Torah scholars agree that Lot did this because he thought that Zoar was going to be destroyed next and wanted to get away before this happened. Genesis 19:21 literally shows the angels telling him they wouldn't destroy this town so Lot's fears were really unfounded. In either case, Lot's wife had been destroyed with Sodom, the entire valley had been destroyed except for Zoar, and Lot literally thought it was the next to go, so Lot had himself and his two daughters left. So he literally moved them up into the mountains into a cave.

With that in mind, in verse 31, we see the two daughters of Lot speaking to each other, and in their minds they totally believed that their father was the only man left in the world. Remember, they couldn't travel freely and they believed that Zoar would be destroyed as well, so there wasn't another man in the world, except their father, as far as they were concerned. Since it was important to have children (remember, there was no disability or social security in that day, you had to have children so that they could take care of you if you got too old or too sick to work) and only their father was left, they devised a plan to do this in verse 32. They literally conspired to get him drunk so they could have children through him.

We're told that's exactly what happened, the older daughter had a boy named "Moab" which literally means "from the father". This son is known as the father of the Moabites, who lived on the Eastern shore of the Jordan River.  The younger daughter also had a boy named Ben-ammi which is a gentler way of saying the same thing, it literally means "His father is a member of my family". He's considered the father of the Ammonites, who also lived on the Eastern shore of the Jordan river, though they lived north of the Moabites

 

         Though GOD cursed Sodom and Gomorrah, though he destroyed not only the town, but the land around it making it forever barren, he saved those who followed him. Abraham was within walking distance of Sodom and yet he wasn't harmed, probably heard nothing during the destruction at all. Lot remained in the same valley and likely was traumatized by seeing his town destroyed, but he and his daughters survived, not because of their wits or their cunning, or even their intelligence, but because GOD saw fit to have that happen. GOD was in control even as the destruction of Sodom was in full force.

GOD is always in control. He was just as much in control over the destruction of the city of Sodom and Gomorrah as he was Daniel 3:19-27 when Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego were thrown into an extremely hot, burning furnace that should have burned them to death, but saw them instead, leave the furnace with with not even the smell of smoke on them, must less a hair singed! He's still just as much in control today, in the midst of an epidemic that's caused us to separate from each other, physically. That's caused us to  stop normal church services and activities, literally put physical barriers between ourselves and others in the form of masks and gloves. He's not constrained by any of this. He's still with you irregardless and can sustain you and guide you through this, even if it means you have to not do something you think you should do, like Lot's daughters, they didn't have to get their father drunk to "continue the human race", if they trusted GOD like their Uncle Moses did, they wouldn't have needed to commit an act of sin.

GOD is always in control. There's no human force or process or disaster that can stop that. He's beyond everything this Earth can dish out. GOD's still here. Nothing can stop that. If you're not so sure you believe that, feel free to reach out and I'll be happy to talk to you!  Thanks for sharing this study with me, Genesis 20 is coming up soon, I'll look forward to seeing you again!