Don't Look Back

Genesis 19. The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, after visiting Abraham, and saw Lot sitting in the city’s gateway. Lot insisted they stay the night at his place. They were about to go to bed when men surrounded the house. They hollered to Lot, saying, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.” Very blunt, guys. Lot went outside and stood in front of his closed front door. He said, “No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing. I have two virgin daughters. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like to them. But don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”

Someone once asked me, if God is so good, why did Lot offer his daughters to be raped. I barely suppressed an eye roll at the gap in logic there. We should remember that there is a difference between what the Bible records and what it approves. Lot’s actions were not always good or approved by God. Lot shouldn’t have moved back to this evil city in the first place. Lot was also some sort of official in Sodom, since he was sitting near the gate. He’d built a life in this degenerate place that persisted in sin even when it was delivered by Abraham, saw his example, and its king saw Melchizedek. Lot probably shouldn’t even be in this area. When Abraham first heard God’s voice, he should have left Lot with the rest of his family, since God said to leave his family behind. Lot has only caused trouble for Abraham ever since. Then he raised his children in a community that perverted them. These guys, although better behaved than their neighbors, aren’t perfect and have free will to disobey God.

 We should also remember that the social norms of history are different than ours. Lot hasn’t grown up listening to Gloria Steinem or modern church pastors. In that society, it was extremely dishonorable to let your guests come to harm or get raped. Even though we, thousands of years later, think it’s more important to prevent violence to women than to guests, Lot’s sacrifice of his children was good in his eyes. You can see these different priorities in Lot’s explanation that his guests came under the “protection of his roof.” Lot was doing the “good thing” for the norms of his time, making a sacrifice that likely hurt him. Lot thought sacrificing his daughters was a lesser evil. Women had low social standing in ancient cities, and Lot was not immune from his culture’s influence. Later, the Bible gets more progressive with women in the New Testament (telling their husbands to be willing to die for them), but right now, God’s voice is meeting his people in their society, where they are, and tugging them a few steps forward, not a whole mile.

There’s a debate about whether this chapter condemns homosexual relationships. The “strange flesh” the rapists were after could have been angelic flesh, not specifically gay flesh. Angels are kind of neuter, right? They are called “men” in this chapter, but the main sin in this scene was trying to violently hurt God’s messengers. The would-be rapists in this chapter don’t exactly pair with long-term, monogamous, and willing homosexual relationships. Ezekiel also points out that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed because they were greedy, having much and not sharing with their neighbors, and they were arrogant. They also did “detestable things” and were sexually immoral/perverse. You know, like rapists. But this chapter is interpreted as condemning homosexuality, so that’s why the legal word for anal sex is “sodomy.” My point here is, if you believe the Bible is against homosexuality, this isn’t going to be your strongest passage from which to draw during an argument (that would absolutely be the Leviticus verse). It can be debated. As far as that controversy goes, I'm going to stand on the fence for the purposes this blog and present both sides. I think that will be most interesting and will enable me to write some points you might not have heard before, whether you agree or not. But that will come later. Leviticus is the place, not Sodom.

Back to the crowd. They started trying to break in. The angels finally decide to use their angel powers, striking the men with blindness so they couldn’t find the door. The angels told Lot to get all his people and leave, because they were going to destroy Sodom. “The outcry to the Lord against its people is so great that he sent us to destroy it.” Once again, this city was destroyed mainly because there was injustice and the suffering of innocents. That was God’s main beef, and that’s what’s most serious. While we sit in judgment of gays, thinking we’re not Sodom, remember that we can get pretty greedy and cause suffering, as a nation. I love the U.S., but it’s true.

Lot went to the guys promised to his daughters in marriage and said, “Get out, because God’s going to take this place down.” They thought he was joking, so they were not saved. Dawn was coming and the angels could see Lot’s hesitation. Lot was still attached to this evil place and the success he had built there. This is a miserable place to be. Lot was too comfortable with the world to live for God, but he had too much righteousness/knowledge of God to really enjoy worldly pleasures fully and blindly. I can really relate to that. I think this is descriptive of a lot of Christians. They are too deep to shrug off signs of God everywhere, but they have too much wealth and opportunity to dive right into living for God completely.

So the angels took Lot’s hand and the hands of his wife and daughters and led them out of the city. Then the Lord rained burning sulfur on S and G. Lot’s wife looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt. Lot and his daughters settled in the mountains where he lived in a cave with his daughters. Now we find out that they were the worst daughters ever. How is it that they were virgins?!! They were total pervs. True daughters of Sodom. They said, “We have no men to give us kids, so let’s get our dad drunk and sleep with him.” Apparently, they had wine in this cave. They are pretty much destitute, but they’ve managed to bring along some booze, which really shows their priorities.

They got Lot so drunk that he passed out and didn’t even notice when they slept with him. They did it on different nights too. How is this possible? How can you be THAT drunk and be able to...you know...get it up? I'm no expert, but is it possible that this is Lot's version of the story? "Oh yeah. They got me drunk. I wasn't even awake for it." Is it possible that he was willing? I believe in the Bible's accuracy, but...is it possible that this part got warped? Maybe it really did happen that way though. Anyway, they became pregnant. The older daughter had a son, Moab, the father of the Moabites. The younger daughter had a son named Ben-Ammi, who became the father of the Ammonites. These people are Israel’s future enemies.

Goodbye foreskin; Abraham's visitors

Genesis 17 is all about circumcision. When Abram was 99, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty. Walk before me faithfully and be blameless.” Blameless’ literal meaning is “whole.” God continues, “Then I will make my covenant between us and greatly increase your numbers/make you fruitful/bring kings from your line/make you the father of many nations.” This sounds a lot like what God has been saying for decades. We know that God is making Abram into a great man of faith and that takes years. When Abram saw God, he was probably thinking, “Great. Son time.” But no. It’s member-alteration time, Abram. Enjoy. Maybe you are thinking, “God already signed a covenant with Abram and said he’d do this. Why are we reading another chapter about this same freaking contract?” This time the covenant isn’t just with Abram, but with all of his descendants as well. It is an everlasting covenant to be their God and to give the land of Canaan to the Jewish people.

The Jewish end of the covenant is to have every man circumcised when they are eight days old. I love this detail, because children don’t form an important blood-clotting vitamin, K, until the 5th-7thday of life,   making day eight the earliest safe day for surgery. Between days two and five, there would be dangerous bleeding. Thousands of years ago, God and the Bible knew that this was the right day. It’s a small detail, but it blows my mind. Then God renamed Abram and Sarai. They were now to be called Abraham and Sarah. Abram meant “father of many” and Abraham means “father of many nations.” Sarai meant “my lady” or “my princess,” but Sarah means “a princess of many.” God is into name changes and into bringing the people who get the new names far enough that they will one day be worthy of them. In Revelation 2:17, it’s implied that all of us will be renamed by God. (“ I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it.”) Mine will obviously be “Batman.” And I’m trusting in God to make me cool enough to deserve it, haha.

Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!” God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son who you will call Isaac, and he is going to get all the stuff I’ve been talking about.” Isaac means “laughter,” which is appropriate for both the joy he will bring and all the laughing Sarai, Abram, and likely their neighbors did over God’s promise. Sense of humor? God? God says, “As for Ishmael, I have heard you and I will bless him too, making him fruitful. He will be the father of twelve rulers and I will make him into a great nation.” That’s right. The Arabic peoples were blessed by God because of Abraham, just like the Jewish people. God has enough blessings to go around.

Abraham took 13-year-old Ishmael and all the men in his household and circumcised them all that same day. Abraham was circumcised as well. This was a sign of trust, since none of these men could fight while they healed. Abraham trusted that no attack would come while he was fulfilling the covenant. As an aside, God has been appearing to Abraham, but the Bible says no one can see God and live, and other people in the Bible nearly get their faces burned off seeing just a little of him. Possibilities for Abraham’s having God appear to him are a) God was hiding behind some kind of angel, using him as a proxy (“the angel of the Lord”) or b) this was Jesus, taking on a temporary human appearance. Surely this would only be a controversial debate to Mormons, so I don’t really care which it is. It was God and that’s that.

   

As for circumcision, notice that Abraham wasn’t shocked at this statement. He didn’t ask, “What’s this? How is it done?” This implies that other ancient peoples had done this thing. It was a known thing, possibly for hygiene. But God wanted it as a sign. It’s cutting away flesh, showing that Abraham would no longer trust in flesh, but in the unseen. As for as the current circumcision debate, I don’t think it matters. Christians can do it or not do it. Socially, in America, it’s probably better to do it. Plus, it’s easier to clean (not speaking from personal experience). It certainly isn’t abuse and is up to the parents of the child. People should leave people alone and let them do what they want.

  

 In Genesis 18, we have the three visitors. One of these is God. The Bible says, “The Lord appeared again to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day.” Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. Abraham showed them great hospitality. He hurried to the tent and told Sarah to bake the trio some bread. Is this the earliest instance of a man telling his wife, “make me a sandwich”? Abraham also had meat prepared from a calf. There was no fast food back then. These guys were chilling for a while. When they were finally eating, one of the men said, “About this time next year, Sarah will have a son.”

Sarah was dropping eaves and laughed to herself, thinking, “After I am worn out and Abraham is old, will I now have this pleasure?” She was crudely saying both “Yeah right, like that will ever happen” and “too little, too late.” Then the Lord, who obviously heard Sarah’s thought, said, “Is anything too hard for the Lord? I’ll see you next year.” Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, “I didn’t laugh!” But God is all, “Um, actually you did.”

Before the three men left, they looked down at Sodom. Two of the men went toward Sodom and one stayed. The two men were likely the angels that presided over Sodom’s destruction and the third man was the Lord. The Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.” This is interesting. Doesn’t God already know how bad it is without going down, sending angels, and checking it out? Abraham pleaded for Sodom saying, “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?” No. God doesn’t do that. Abraham says, “What if there are fifty righteous people in the city?...Far be it from you to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” The Lord said, “If I find 50 good guys, I’ll spare Sodom for their sake.” 

Abraham said, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, what if there are 45? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?” God agrees. Abraham then proceeds to barter God down to ten. Now, if you haven’t already done so, is the time to listen to Tim Keller’s “Real Friendship and the PleadingPriest.” But I think the best thing about this story is that God didn’t get mad during the debate and compassionate intercession. God allows questioning, bargaining, and challenge.

Ishmael

This post is less of the usual Biblical dissecting and more me whining about not getting any. But it's my blog and I will whine if I want to. You would whine too, if it happened to you. In Genesis 16, despite the contract, Abram decides to take matters into his own hands. This is really frustrating considering how powerful the last chapter was. When we want things in life, we sometimes feel like we have to get off our duffs and make it happen so that we can get those experiences and move forward, even if our methods of advancing the result are technically wrong. I knew a guy who cheated on a big law test, because he felt like he needed to become a lawyer. He was a Christian and felt like he needed to just “get there” so he could fight for God and justice.

Similarly (at least in my mind), romantic problems abound for Christians these days who are trying to reconcile a love for God with seemingly impracticable rules for sex. They need it now and can’t wait. Some girls will go ahead and sleep with a guy or move in with him, because they know that “they are going to get married eventually anyway” or they need to keep the guy. It’s a means to a happy ending with Prince Charming, eventually, after the messy middle. Recently, a Christian friend asked me if he should sleep with a girl who is completely into him and would probably be a perfect first experience. They’ve been dating for almost a year. I replied that sex is for giving your whole self to another person, and that goal is damaged if you use sex for something other than what it was designed for, blahblahblah.

However, I sympathized. Back in the Bible, you only had to wait until you were like 14. COME ON. You have to close something off in yourself (or at least refrain from awakening it) and avoid dating certain people you are attracted to in order to wait a long time. It IS possible that I will be an old cat lady if I won’t follow the natural relationship progression of modern days. What if I get too old? What if I can’t just “turn it on” right after my wedding? Churches expect us to do/discuss nothing and then do everything. The whole world expects you have sex, at least when you are in a monogamous dating relationship. What if the guy I fall in love with is a Christian and he…you know…can’t perform when the time comes? What if the reason he was able to wait had less to do with trusting God and more to do with there being something wrong with him? Is there something wrong with me since I’ve been able to do it for so long? If I’m able to wait, will I end up judgmental in my old days, self-righteously looking down on those who didn’t? These are real concerns, even though I intellectually know that it's probably going to turn out alright.

I know some people who waited and it turned out fine. But those people are rare. These days, I feel like the only one left. The people who always told me to wait or looked down on me for not being a perfect Miss Christian stopped waiting. My mom said, “Doesn’t it feel like when everyone says, ‘Let’s moon the camera for the picture and then you’re the only one who does it?’” Yes, Mom, it does. I’m the only one left with my white butt hanging in the air, people laughing. And I didn’t even have those purity rings in high school! It’s possible that sex before marriage could be a positive experience for lots of people, leading to better things and intimacy. A way to make love, marriage, family, and friendship happen. It’s possible that this Christian guy should sleep with this girl, that it will all turn out alright, and he will have an experience he won’t regret. Or it could lead to common complications, heartbreak, heart-hardening, drama, and strife. It could be a form of taking control that isn’t yours. Either way, he may still learn something and grow where I will stay stagnant.

Life moves pretty fast (thank you, Ferris) and you see everyone around you getting things you want. You see yourself growing older. It’s tough, and I’ve had to turn away some really great guys in order to do this. But this world doesn’t get to move me, you know? I’ve decided who I am and I know what I’m doing, and I will pick obeying God over having someone. I’m only going to do something with my soul and body if I know with 100% certainty that it is right for me. In the end, I’m called to singleness, I have to believe that my life is still going to be exciting, full of intimacy and friendship and passion and purpose, and worth living. (Here’s where my dad, who says he sometimes READS THIS BLOG breathes a sigh of relief.) We have the benefit of getting to look at Abram and Sarai’s mistakes.

Sarai had an Egyptian maid named Hagar, so Sarai said, “Build a family through her, for I am not a Fertile Myrtle.” Sarai wasn’t there for the contract signing. She didn’t really get it, so she came up with this plan. Abram agreed to it and took the second wife. What followed was dramaaaaaaaa. It was just more complication. Hagar conceived and started lording it over Sarai. Hagar “began to despise her mistress.” It must have rubbed Hagar the right way that she was a successful woman, according to the requirements of the time, yet Sarai still had power over her. Socially, the child would be considered Sarai and Abram’s, not Hagar and Abram’s, and that had to bother Hagar too. Sarai got mad at Abram, blaming him. Abram told Sarai to do whatever she wanted to Hagar, since Hagar was her slave. Sarai mistreated Hagar, and Hagar ran away.

An angel of the Lord found Hagar near a desert spring and told her to go back to Sarai and submit to her. The angel said that Hagar’s baby, Ishmael, would be a “wild donkey of a man,” with his hand against everyone and everyone else’s hand against him. He would live in hostility toward all his brothers. I’m sure this just thrilled Hagar. She responded nicely though. She named the Lord, saying, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” God has many names, and this is a particularly nice one: “The God who sees.” When Hagar bore Ishmael, Abram was 86. It is believed that Ishmael was the father of the Arabic peoples. That’s right. Abram caused the middle eastern conflicts by not being able to wait.