January 1997
Genesis Chapters 18 and 19
Last time we examined the first part of the 18th chapter of Genesis where the Lord visited Abraham through the form of three angels at Abraham's tent door. During that visit God detailed His promise of a son for Abraham and Sarah and that through that son Abraham would become the father of a chosen people.
Beginning at the 16th verse of chapter 18, Abraham learns of the fate of the plain city of Sodom and nearby city of Gomorrah. Abraham's nephew, Lot, previously had chosen Sodom as a home. In Genesis 13:10-13 we earlier learned that Lot had chosen Sodom as his home and that the people of Sodom were "wicked and sinners."
In the next few verses it becomes clear Abraham is in a favored position with God because God reveals His plans to His chosen leader, and provides warning through Abraham of the pending doom of Sodom. We are told that the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah are great and "very grievous."
Two of the angels head off toward Sodom, but the angel of the Lord remains with Abraham and discusses the upcoming fate of Sodom. Abraham begins to question the Lord as to whether any "righteous" people in Sodom will be destroyed as the Lord deals with the wicked people of the city.
Abraham asks a series of questions of the Lord in verses 23-33 of chapter 18 of Genesis in an effort to determine the Lord's intent as to any righteous people mixed in with the unrighteous in the city of Sodom. Abraham first asks if the Lord will spare Sodom if there are "fifty righteous within the city". The Lord responded He would spare Sodom for the sake of fifty righteous found there. Abraham then asks follow-up questions, lowering the number of righteous people found in Sodom to forty, thirty, twenty and then ten. The Lord responds He would spare the city if ten righteous are found.
Beginning at the 19th chapter we learn the two angels who headed for Sodom arrive at Lot's house at the evening. The two angels indicate they will sleep in the street, but Lot insisted they spend the night in his home where he cares for them and feeds them. Gen. 19:1-2.
The wickedness of Sodom is revealed in the actions of men of the city who come to Lot's house to inquire of the two men who have just arrived. Lot knows of the wicked intent of the men of Sodom and refuses to allow the men to see his visitors. The men of Sodom pressed Lot and threatened to break down his door to get at Lot's visitors. In an attempt to save his visitors, Lot at one point even offered his unmarried daughters living at home to the men of Sodom to spare the angels.
At verse 10, the angels pull Lot back into his own home and they blinded the men of Sodom who were trying to get to them. It was then that the two angels in the form of Lot's visitors warned Lot to save his family from what was about to happen to the city of Sodom. They advised Lot to get his family out of the city because "we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the Lord; and the Lord hath sent us to destroy it." Gen. 19:13. Lot tried to warn his sons-in-laws who lived outside his home, of the pending doom of the city, but was mocked.
By morning the doom of Sodom was at hand, and the angels insisted Lot take his wife and two unmarried daughters living with him and immediately leave the city. Gen. 19:15-16.
The angels then warned Lot and his family: "Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed." Gen. 19:17.
Lot was allowed to escape to the small city of Zoar before the destruction began of Sodom and Gomorrah. Beginning with verse 24, we learn of the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah.
"Fire and brimstone" rained upon the two cities and all the citizens therein perished. This reference to "fire and brimstone" destruction of the cities is where the commonly-used phrase originated. We might liken it what we know as a volcanic explosion, or a meteorite shower of gigantic proportions which consumed a large geographic area including the two cities of the plain.
We learn in verse 26 a lesson of the Bible. Although advised by the angels not to "look back" at the cities' destruction during their escape, Lot's wife did look back and was turned into a "pillar of salt." (See Luke 17:21-33).
We learn that Abraham, dwelling in the land of Canaan, looked toward the plain and witnessed the great fire as he saw the "smoke of the country" in the direction of Sodom and Gomorrah looked like "the smoke of a furnace."
In the closing verse of the 19th chapter of Genesis, we learn of the genealogy of Lot following the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (including Lot's married daughters and sons-in-law) and the loss of his wife.
Lot escaped into the mountains with his two unmarried daughters. His two daughters, fearing loss of future husbands and loss of their father's seed, agreed to trick Lot into fathering children by them. They each got Lot to become drunk and, without his knowledge, committed incest with him in order to each bear Lot a son.
From their incestuous relationships resulted the birth of Moab, who became the father of the Moabites generation of people, and in the birth of Ben-ammi who became the father of the people of Ammon.