When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground.
Remind you of anybody? Whatever else he’s been doing, at least Lot still plays the part of a good host, as Abraham did.
“No,” they answered, “we will spend the night in the square.” But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house.
He insisted strongly. He put effort into serving them. He didn’t wait for them to beg for a place to sleep. In fact, he offered his house first, and then when they declined, he refused to take no for an answer. This wasn’t a passive service, but an active one. He went out of his way to serve these travelers who at first didn’t want his help at all.
…all the men from every part of the city…surrounded the house.
All the men. Not even 10 righteous. Uh-oh…
“No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing. Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”
Don’t do this. Well that’s good. He’s trying to talk them out of it.
Here, have my daughters. Whoa now. Something seems a little off with that plan, right?
So what’s going on here? What is this guy thinking? Well as far as I can tell, he’s just resorting to drastic measures because he put himself in a bad situation. He has a responsibility to protect his guests, but he can’t because of the circumstances he got himself into. If he wasn’t living in the city, then his guests would be perfectly safe, and everything would be fine. Since he has chosen to surround himself with sin, though, he has no means to actually protect his visitors, or even his own family.
But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door.
Lot is still trying to reason with the mob, and find some way out, but there’s nothing else he can do. The angels are watching out for him, and recognize that he can’t do anything else here, and he needs to back up and worry about saving himself.
So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law…But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.
He tries one more time, but even these men that are the closest to his family refuse to listen. They are too caught up in their sinful lives to listen to anyone else, to heed advice or warnings.
“Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere…”
Nothing left to do except get away.
Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the LORD. He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land…
Abraham pleaded with God for mercy on behalf of any righteous men that might be found in the city, and then he went on with his life. He didn’t just camp out and watch to see if God was going to smite them or not, although a certain Jonah fellow might try that approach later…
…there is no man around here to lie with us, as is the custom all over the earth.
Well if you thought Lot trying to hand his daughters off to a mob was awkward, buckle up cause this story is about to go to a whole new level. But how does this crazy messed up thing start? Because of ‘custom.’ Living in Sodom, Lot’s daughters have been brought up with a very worldly education, and they respect the customs of the land, namely their hometown of Sodom. This, of course, isn’t exactly the place you want your children growing up in, and again we see some extreme consequences from Lot’s choice to surround himself and his family with sin, however pure he may have tried to live. Anyways, with his life in shambles, Lot has apparently given up even trying to remain righteous, and allows himself to get completely wasted multiple nights in a row, to the extent that he doesn’t even realize what his daughters are doing to him. And then they both have sons to carry on the family line. Good luck explaining that to the kids…
No comments:
Post a Comment