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.