Genesis 19: Fire from Heaven

Summary: Lot is visited by two messengers who he invites in and cares for. The men of Sodom surround his house, and demand that the messengers be brought to them. Lot refuses. The men of Sodom are smitten with blindness. The messengers tell Lot to take his family and leave the city. Lot's sons-in-law won't listen. He escapes with his wife and two daughters. Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed by fire from heaven. Lot's wife is turned into a pillar of salt. Lot's daughters get Lot drunk. They lie with him and bear children.

Personal Reflection: Alright, this chapter is a super-awesome chapter (fire from heaven), and a really disturbing chapter (Lot's daughters). In fact, I would probably label the story of Lot's daughters as the most disturbing thing recorded in the Old Testament. So, in order to address the bigger issues first, I want to start with Lot's daughters and then move back to Sodom and Gomorrah.

Let me explain why I think the story is disturbing. First, the act itself is disturbing, but there are many other places in scripture where terrible things happen (e.g. Judah and Tamar, Amnon and Tamar), but in these verses the detail is pretty graphic in comparison to many other accounts, and you actually hear the daughter's words as they speak them. Also, these are the people who were just saved from the city of Sodom; these were, we assume, the good people. Finally, the verses don't moralize on the point; they only describe what happened, and not what God thinks about it.

I think these verses put us in a kind of trap. I assume the biblical author thought that it would be so obvious that this act was a sin that he didn't have to put that in their (I mean, duh!), but because Lot and his daughters have just been saved from Sodom, a reader may be led to think. Up until now, these people have been the good people that the Lord saved; was this act then justified because the scriptures just say that it happened, not that it was wrong?

I'm certain it was a wrong choice. Some scholars have suggested that Lot's daughters thought that they and their father were the last people on earth, but that doesn't make sense to me, since they had just been in the city of Zoar (David Guzik also points this out, and I thought it was a good catch). It's hard to believe that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah could have been making much worse choices than these, even with the portrayal of them at the door of Lot's house. Here are a couple of thoughts. First, one of the reasons that Lot was saved was for Abraham's sake (see vs. 29), and Abraham was an undeniably righteous man. I think that we would also consider Lot a righteous man, though with obvious faults. I think we can put Lot on a long list of people, who were mostly good, but just didn't have it quite all together (like Eli who didn't stop his sons from defiling the temple). He moved to Sodom and thought that he could keep it together and the city wouldn't affect him. Well, though he may have escaped mostly unscathed, his daughters, probably raised in sodom most of their lives, couldn't escape the depravity that they saw all around them. Lot's poor decisions affected those around him, and not only himself.

Sodom and Gomorrah could be seen, from one point of view, as God taking revenge on a wayward people. I think I covered this topic well enough in the my flood entries, so go check out chapters 5-7 to see what I think about God removing wickedness from the earth by miraculous means.

Finally, Sodom was a terrible place. I think Guzik's commentary on this chapter is very insightful. If I were you, I would check out the link above. But I will say one things about Guzik. I often think he speaks with more certainty than we can have about anyone. He is very judgemental of the characters we read about, and certain in his judgements, whereas I am not so certain. One thing that Guzik talks about in his commentary is homosexuals, which is a natural topic to discuss, since that was one of Sodom's most obvious sins.

Yes. I just said sins. I do believe that homosexual activities are sins, and I agree pretty much one-hundred percent with what Guzik says about homosexuality (although I do question his statistics, and haven't verified him). I do, however, have the following to say. Only God has the power to condemn. I believe deep down in my heart that there are people who are acting homosexuals who are mostly good people, just as I believe that, at heart, almost all people are mostly good, but I do not think that what they choose to do is right. I think that each of has to find the balance between hating the sin and loving the sinner.

As I write this, Proposition 8 looks like it is going to pass in California. I think this is a step forward. I know some people that struggle with homosexuality, and I love them deeply. I also believe that our government should not allow itself to become an accessory to sin by condoning it in its laws.

Deep subjects today. Feel free to comment. Less inflammatory stuff tomorrow.