II.
Part Two
Ge 19:1 And at nightfall the two angels came to Sodom; and Lot was seated at the way into the town: and when he saw them he got up and came before them, falling down on his face to the earth.
2 And he said, My masters, come now into your servant's house and take your rest there for the night, and let your feet be washed; and early in the morning you may go on your way. And they said, Not so, but we will take our night's rest in the street.
3 But he made his request more strongly, so they went with him into his house; and he got food ready for them, and made unleavened bread, of which they took.
4 But before they had gone to bed, the men of the town, all the men of Sodom, came round the house, young and old, from every part of the town;
5 And crying out to Lot, they said, Where are the men who came to your house this night? Send them out to us, so that we may take our pleasure with them.
6 And Lot went out to them in the doorway, shutting the door after him.
7 And he said, My brothers, do not this evil.
8 See now, I have two unmarried daughters; I will send them out to you so that you may do to them whatever seems good to you: only do nothing to these men, for this is why they have come under the shade of my roof.
9 And they said, Give way there. This one man, they said, came here from a strange country, and will he now be our judge? now we will do worse to you than to them; and pushing violently against Lot, they came near to get the door broken in.
10 But the men put out their hands and took Lot into the house to them, shutting the door again.
11 But the men who were outside the door they made blind, all of them, small and great, so that they were tired out with looking for the door.
12 Then the men said to Lot, Are there any others of your family here? sons-in-law or sons or daughters, take them all out of this place;
13 For we are about to send destruction on this place, because a great outcry against them has come to the ears of the Lord; and the Lord has sent us to put an end to the town.
14 And Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were married to his daughters, Come, let us go out of this place, for the Lord is about to send destruction on the town. But his sons-in-law did not take him seriously.
15 And when morning came, the angels did all in their power to make Lot go, saying, Get up quickly and take your wife and your two daughters who are here, and go, for fear that you come to destruction in the punishment of the town.
16 But while he was waiting, the men took him and his wife and his daughters by the hand, for the Lord had mercy on them, and put them outside the town.
17 And when they had put them out, he said, Go for your life, without looking back or waiting in the lowland; go quickly to the mountain or you will come to destruction.
18 And Lot said to them, Not so, O my Lord;
19 See now, your servant has had grace in your eyes and great is your mercy in keeping my life from destruction, but I am not able to get as far as the mountain before evil overtakes me and death;
20 This town, now, is near, and it is a little one: O, let me go there (is it not a little one?) so that my life may be safe.
21 And he said, See, I have given you your request in this one thing more: I will not send destruction on this town.
22 Go there quickly, for I am not able to do anything till you have come there. For this reason, the town was named Zoar.
23 The sun was up when Lot came to Zoar.
24 Then the Lord sent fire and flaming smoke raining down from heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah.
25 And he sent destruction on those towns, with all the lowland and all the people of those towns and every green thing in the land.
26 But Lot's wife, looking back, became a pillar of salt.
27 And Abraham got up early in the morning and went to the place where he had been talking with the Lord:
28 And looking in the direction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the lowland, he saw the smoke of the land going up like the smoke of an oven.
29 So it came about that when God sent destruction on the towns of the lowland, he kept his word to Abraham, and sent Lot safely away when he put an end to the towns where he was living.
30 Then Lot went up out of Zoar to the mountain, and was living there with his two daughters, for fear kept him from living in Zoar: and he and his daughters made their living-place in a hole in the rock.
31 And the older daughter said to her sister, Our father is old, and there is no man to be a husband to us in the natural way:
32 Come, let us give our father much wine, and we will go into his bed, so that we may have offspring by our father,
33 And that night they made their father take much wine; and the older daughter went into his bed; and he had no knowledge of when she went in or when she went away.
34 And on the day after, the older daughter said to the younger, Last night I was with my father; let us make him take much wine this night again, and do you go to him, so that we may have offspring by our father.
35 And that night again they made their father take much wine; and the younger daughter went into his bed; and he had no knowledge of when she went in or when she went away.
36 And so the two daughters of Lot were with child by their father.
37 And the older daughter had a son, and she gave him the name Moab: he is the father of the Moabites to this day.
38 And the younger had a son and gave him the name Ben-ammi: from him come the children of Ammon to this day.
(BBE)
We begin with the clear revelation that God was one of the three talking with Abe because we have that statement: Ge 19:1 And at nightfall the two angels came to Sodom.
Spurgeon:
Genesis 19:2
Bad as his neighbors were, Lot had not forgotten to be hospitable. Grace does not flourish in bad companionship, but still it lives.
Lot has existed with the sin and violence around him, knows the evil of the city and insists on the visitors stay with him for their protection. He is not yet aware they are angels, so unlike his uncle who knew immediately. Lot is fearful for them. he has seen other strangers and what became of them in the city.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown:
1. there came two angels--most probably two of those that had been with Abraham, commissioned to execute the divine judgment against Sodom.
Lot sat in the gate of Sodom--In Eastern cities it is the market, the seat of justice, of social intercourse and amusement, especially a favorite lounge in the evenings, the arched roof affording a pleasant shade.
Matt Poole with summary and opening:
GENESIS CHAPTER 19
Two angels come to Sodom, Ge 19:1. Lot invites them in; they at first refuse, Ge 19:2. They enter; he entertains them, and they eat, Ge 19:3. The men of Sodom demand to know them, Ge 19:4,5. Lot dissuades them, Ge 19:6,7; offers his daughters; urges reason, Ge 19:8. They are obstinate; threaten, and press to break the door, Ge 19:9. The angels pull Lot in, and shut to the door, Ge 19:10; and smite the men with blindness, Ge 19:11. Advise Lot to depart with his kindred, Ge 19:12. The reason, Ge 19:13. Lot speaks to his sons-in-law; they deride him, Ge 19:14. The angels lay hold on Lot, his wife, and two daughters, and carry them out, Ge 19:16; command them not to look back, Ge 19:17. Lot requests to stay in Zoar; it is granted, with a command to hasten, because till they are gone the Lord can do nothing, Ge 19:18-23. God rains brimstone and fire upon Sodom, Ge 19:24,25. Lot's wife looking back becomes a pillar of salt, Ge 19:26. Abraham looks towards Sodom, Ge 19:27,28. God kind to Lot for Abraham's sake, Ge 19:29. Lot and his two daughters remove to the mountain, Ge 19:30. Lot's daughters contrive for an issue, Ge 19:31,32. They make their father drunk, lie with him, Ge 19:33-35; and are with child, Ge 19:36. Moab and Ben-ammi, the two sons, born thereby, Ge 19:37,38.
Ver. 1. And there came two angels, even those two which departed from Abraham, Ge 18:22, and now were come to Lot,
At even of the same day on which they departed from Abraham.
In the gate of Sodom, where he sat either to observe the administration or corruption of justice there; for the seats of judicature were in the gates: or rather to wait for strangers, to whom he might exercise kindness and hospitality.
In all these we see elements of adding things to the text which we all tend to do when we analyze. I include a number here so we can see the angles that exist in the story of the angels.
Patrick-Lowth-Whitby-Lowman the other law firm commentary:
Genesis 19:1
Two angels There were three at the first Ge 18:2, but the chief of them was gone; having dispatched his message to Abraham; unto whom he was peculiarly sent (see Ge 18:2).
At even; They had been with Abraham in the heat of the day; and were now come to the gates of Sodom.
Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: The Hebrew doctors will have it that he was made a judge in this city; and the prime judge of all: for they adventure to name five (in Bereschith Rabba), and say Lot was the president of the court, which sat in the gate of the city. But this is only a fancy of theirs: he rather sat in the gate of this city, as Abraham did at his tent door; to invite strangers to his house (according to the hospitality of those days), which was the greater charity, because he knew the city to be so wicked, that (if we may believe the Hebrew doctors) they not only denied them all assistance, but abused them, and were cruel to them (see Gemara Sanhedrim, cap. 11, and Pirke Eliezer, cap. 15), for which last, they quote those words of Ezekiel Ge 22:24, “they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.” Which are spoken of Israel, whom Eze 16:49 he had compared with Sodom: one of whose sins, he says, was, want of compassion to “the poor and needy.”
Rose up to meet them, &c. Just as Abraham did; whose civility he imitates, as well as his charity. For the bowing himself so lowly was a token of the great honor he paid them: who had the appearance of great and noble persons. And therefore he calls them lords in the next verse.
Thomas Hawies:
Verses 4-5: They who came to see, were soon convinced of the wickedness of Sodom. Observe,
1. The universal corruption, old and young form every quarter. Note, That must needs be a wicked place, where the old set the example, and are ringleaders in iniquity.
2. Their crime. The most monstrous and unnatural; shocking to think of, and infamous to mention; yet they dared avow it, and add imprudence to their vile affections. Note, 1. No sin in the sight of God is more abominable than unnatural lusts. 2. When men have lost shame, they are on the brink of ruin.
Proceeding on to Lot's attempt to "save" the angels from the British Family Bible:
Genesis 19:8
Behold now, I have two daughters &c. If we may not do any evil, to procure a positive good, certainly much less may we do one evil, to avoid or prevent another. Lot should have resolved, rather to suffer any evil, than to do any. He should rather have adventured his own life, and theirs too, in protecting the chastity of his daughters, and the safety of his guests; than have offered the exposal of his daughter to the lusts of the Sodomites, though it were to redeem his guests from the abuse of fouler and more abominable filthiness. There is no perplexity, no necessity, no obligation, no expediency, which should either enforce or persuade us to any sin. The resolution, "Let us do evil, that good may come," is pronounced by an Apostle to be worthy of condemnation. Bp. Sanderson.
Then Lot experiences the results of attempting to stop a single-minded mob of sinners. And the angels rescue him! He is different; he doesn't understand their ways. The alien is among them and stopping them from their sin. The obvious fact: Lot does understand their evil intent and has been trying to live out a more correct life in their midst. He has been an example of a person witnessing to their sin. he has failed in witness since he offered his own children to their desires instead of standing firm. Lot tried to compromise, his life whirled in battle with who he was and the surrounding he chose. He left the righteousness of Abe but it stayed with him. Abraham's influence
How often are our own decisions influenced by the bad choices we make in compromise with the evil around us for the sake of living in peace? How often do we keep our mouths shut to whatever happens because of our greed, our lust, our fear? Lot kept the hospitality of the city by himself. No one else offered the strangers a place to eat or sleep. then he tried to save them with the sacrifice of his family.
Notice how giving everything to the zealot, lost in desires for some evil, got him nothing? How the strangers, had they been merely human, would have died and Lot and his family as well. Nothing will satisfy the obsessed accept what they want NOW. Nothing of the consequences. Nothing of the pain to others.
Keep in mind that rape is a crime of violence and control. While sex is involved, it really amounts to a profound depth of punishment meant to belittle and express tje power of the rapist. The angels were seen as aliens even as Lot, but lot had the protection of the king since Abe still lurked out there with his personal army. The angels had not such protection. This was meant to be a gang rape to establish those men as the leaders of their gang and to establish their might over anyone who wandered in and might one day threaten their power.
Now the angels reveal themselves.
Matt Henry:
Ver. 12.
We have here the preparation for Lot's deliverance.
I. Notice is given him of the approach of Sodom's ruin: We will destroy this place, Ge 19:13. Note, The holy angels are ministers of God's wrath for the destruction of sinners, as well as of his mercy for the preservation and deliverance of his people. In this sense, the good angels become evil angels, Ps 78:49.
II. He is directed to give notice to his friends and relations, that they, if they would, might be saved with him (Ge 19:12):
"Hast thou here any besides, that thou art concerned for? If thou hast, go tell them what is coming."
Now this implies,
1. The command of a great duty, which was to do all he could for the salvation of those about him, to snatch them as brands out of the fire. Note, Those who through grace are themselves delivered out of a sinful state should do what they can for the deliverance of others, especially their relations.
2. The offer of great favour. They do not ask whether he knew any righteous ones in the city fit to be spared: no, they knew there were none; but they ask what relations he had there, that, whether righteous or unrighteous, they might be saved with him. Note, Bad people often fare the better in this world for the sake of their good relations. It is good being akin to a godly man.
III. He applies himself accordingly to his sons-in-law, Ge 19:14. Observe,
1. The fair warning that Lot gave them: Up, get you out of this place. The manner of expression is startling and quickening. It was no time to trifle when the destruction was just at the door. They had not forty days to repent in, as the Ninevites had. Now or never they must make their escape. At midnight this cry was made. Such as this is our call to the unconverted, to turn and live.
2. The slight they put upon this warning: He seemed to them as one that mocked. They thought, perhaps, that the assault which the Sodomites had just now made upon his house had disturbed his head, and put him into such a fright that he knew not what he said; or they thought that he was not in earnest with them. Those who lived a merry life, and made a jest of everything, made a jest of this warning, and so they perished in the overthrow. Thus many who are warned of the misery and danger they are in by sin make a light matter of it, and think their ministers do but jest with them; such will perish with their blood upon their own heads.
The in-laws were born there. They knew it was their city and this was the way they lived. The daughters bore no children by them. They regarded their father-in-law with contempt likely because he didn't indulge in their corrupted lives of the use of women and men alike for their sexual satisfaction. Notice the in-laws were not at the house. They were off carousing and doing what they felt like. Not loyal to the daughters. not loyal to their father-in-law but likely enjoying the fruits of his labor to buy their sins.
If they had listened...If they had been with Lot on the flight from Sodom...If they heard the call of God in their hearts...
Instead they were in Sodom.
Hawies again:
Verses 23-25: Bright was the sun which rose upon devoted Sodom. Safe in their foolish confidence, Lot’s flight afforded matter of fresh ridicule, and now they can welcome the returning day. But see when sinners are in the height of their security, how destruction overtakes them. The sun is covered, the storm arises, the lightning’s glare, the heavens are on fire, the flames descend, the smoking cities send up their dying cries. Too late to call for mercy, it is the time of judgment. Mark the end of sinner’s vain confidence.
Learn, 1. If judgments are on the earth, it is the Lord’s work. The Lord Jesus is not only the Savior of those who believe him, like Lot; but he is the judge and destroyer of those, who like Sodom, reject his salvation. 2. They who go after strange flesh, may expect to be punished with strange judgments. 3. What a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Fools now make a mock of sin, but they will find it a bitter thing, when they shall feel, with Sodom, the vengeance of eternal fire, Jude 1:25.
Not five righteous men in Sodom. Some more liberal commentators suggest it wasn't the treat of sexual assault that got Sodom blasted but their lack of hospitality. I would suggest this was merely the final straw. God already was going to destroy the city and it had decades of other sins against it which God made clear in his talk with Abraham. Abe interceded, Lot interceded. Sin and desire overcame any idea of the Sodomite giving up their way of life.
29 So it came about that when God sent destruction on the towns of the lowland, he kept his word to Abraham, and sent Lot safely away when he put an end to the towns where he was living.
30 Then Lot went up out of Zoar to the mountain, and was living there with his two daughters, for fear kept him from living in Zoar: and he and his daughters made their living-place in a hole in the rock.
Lot continued his pattern. He didn't listen to God again. Lot followed his fear and anxiety, thinking he might be blamed for the twin cities being atomized. The Lord saved a city for him to go to. He went there but his goods were lost. He would have stumbled about with nothing and with daughters to support. God would have blessed him somehow but it required of him that he have Abraham's faith, living into a place with not protection, with God giving him what he needed.
He may have been righteous but he put his faith in what he saw and held. The king of Sodom may have held him captive for the king's own reaosns, but Lot held himself captive to his Fallen Flesh.
Keep in mind, he lost his wife. She didn't listen. She became a pillar of salt, changed by God's power by the force of whatever was released. He now had nothing and no one to share his life.
How many times do we look back at the things lost? I know an older woman who can't forget her times in the church she attended and helped found 40 years ago. She will go on and on about how perfect it was and what a wonderful pace it was and, meanwhile, her children will tell me of various abuses suffered at the hands of the pastor, of the adulteries of some of the elders. How the church policies were basically "We don't drink or chew and we don't go with girls who do." The church has long since ceased to exist. But she still looks back and has become frozen in time, a pillar of moving salt, locked into her vision of all the things gone even as Lot's wife must have been frozen by her longing for the things lost, perhaps for her family lost there as well.
But Abe was still there off in the distance, his intercession blessed. He became a kind of Christ pleading for god's mercy on sinners that Abe loved and God's intervention in their survival. Like every human being in the planet, a sinner can abandon his old life and run to Him. Lot could have gone back to Abe. He could have returned to his "father" who was waiting to greet him. He would have had no conflict with the men and Abe would surely have welcomed him. Instead, he goes into the hills, perhaps held by his own shame or fear he won't be forgiven. I once talked with the unsaved parents of a church elder and they said they couldn't come to church "because the roof would fall in." I told them it didn't fall in on me and invited them. As near as I can tell, they died without ever coming in.
So, like so many of us at one time or another in our lives, shame, poverty, pride, keep Lot in a cave, away from everyone, hiding, We can do that even in a crowd, even with our families, hid in a cave, our american joke about the "man cave." We watch our TV and dream of being the QB or the pitcher and finding life and we can stay ion that cave and spend the rest of our lives in athat cave be be comforted by the false security.
But the real problem is that we drag our children into the cave with us. they end up being satisfied with the football game, the hot dogs, the dreams founded in virtual reality or in the false hopes of soap operas, romance novels, James Bond's guns and dames. the illusions of life.
And Lot's daughters were drawn in as well.
Tom Hawies:
Genesis 19:31 Ge 19:31
Verses 31-38: How little safety is there for us from sin in any place? He, who was kept in Sodom, is overcome in a cave. We have here,
1. His daughters’ wicked contrivance. They had, it is to be feared, been too much tinctured with Sodom’s sin, and were eye-witnesses of its punishment: now the old sore breaks out again; what they could not effect when their father was sober, they endeavor to bring about by drunkenness, and thus one crime is aggravated by another. Note, (1.) When a woman’s heart is set on wickedness, it will go hard, but she succeeds. (2.) No judgments can restrain those, whom divine grace doth not change. (3.) Solitude is so far from being a cure to lewdness that it there usually prevails: to fly away from these evil imaginations into company, is their readiest cure.
2. Lot’s shameful and scandalous fall. Lord, what is man, if left to himself! Drunk and incestuous, and thus repeatedly too: let us read it with horror. Note, (1.) No man this side of heaven is safe from presumptuous sins, or above praying to be kept from them. 2. Drunkenness hath no end of evil; then every crime, without horror or shame, is easily committed. (3.) Let nearest relatives beware: the freedoms of their relation may degenerate into the foulest indulgences.
3. The fruit of this incestuous commerce. Two sons, Moab and Ammon; the two nations also, a perpetual memorial of Lot’s shame. Note, though prosperity may seem to attend the most unnatural sin, the end will be misery and shame.
Please note that the daughters could nt really have thught the world was over unless perhaps Lot himself told them Zoar was going to be destroyed to get them to leave THAT city with him. He must have lied to them to get their cooperation and now he faced the consequences. If Abe wouldn't take him before, surey he could not tae him now.
People get lost in sin, try to redeem ourselves, follow God, then turn back to the same old sin. They listen for redemption, have not lived correctly after and so no one listens when they have the true story that lives will be lost if people don't turn from sin. They crush the message of salvation then turn from their own salvation back to the deoths of sin, deeper than before. It is as if they cannot accept that God loves them because they know how bad they are.
Please don't believe that. Please don't follow Lot's bad example.
Fallen Flesh, no matter how fallen is never beyond redemption.
Part Two
Ge 19:1 And at nightfall the two angels came to Sodom; and Lot was seated at the way into the town: and when he saw them he got up and came before them, falling down on his face to the earth.
2 And he said, My masters, come now into your servant's house and take your rest there for the night, and let your feet be washed; and early in the morning you may go on your way. And they said, Not so, but we will take our night's rest in the street.
3 But he made his request more strongly, so they went with him into his house; and he got food ready for them, and made unleavened bread, of which they took.
4 But before they had gone to bed, the men of the town, all the men of Sodom, came round the house, young and old, from every part of the town;
5 And crying out to Lot, they said, Where are the men who came to your house this night? Send them out to us, so that we may take our pleasure with them.
6 And Lot went out to them in the doorway, shutting the door after him.
7 And he said, My brothers, do not this evil.
8 See now, I have two unmarried daughters; I will send them out to you so that you may do to them whatever seems good to you: only do nothing to these men, for this is why they have come under the shade of my roof.
9 And they said, Give way there. This one man, they said, came here from a strange country, and will he now be our judge? now we will do worse to you than to them; and pushing violently against Lot, they came near to get the door broken in.
10 But the men put out their hands and took Lot into the house to them, shutting the door again.
11 But the men who were outside the door they made blind, all of them, small and great, so that they were tired out with looking for the door.
12 Then the men said to Lot, Are there any others of your family here? sons-in-law or sons or daughters, take them all out of this place;
13 For we are about to send destruction on this place, because a great outcry against them has come to the ears of the Lord; and the Lord has sent us to put an end to the town.
14 And Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were married to his daughters, Come, let us go out of this place, for the Lord is about to send destruction on the town. But his sons-in-law did not take him seriously.
15 And when morning came, the angels did all in their power to make Lot go, saying, Get up quickly and take your wife and your two daughters who are here, and go, for fear that you come to destruction in the punishment of the town.
16 But while he was waiting, the men took him and his wife and his daughters by the hand, for the Lord had mercy on them, and put them outside the town.
17 And when they had put them out, he said, Go for your life, without looking back or waiting in the lowland; go quickly to the mountain or you will come to destruction.
18 And Lot said to them, Not so, O my Lord;
19 See now, your servant has had grace in your eyes and great is your mercy in keeping my life from destruction, but I am not able to get as far as the mountain before evil overtakes me and death;
20 This town, now, is near, and it is a little one: O, let me go there (is it not a little one?) so that my life may be safe.
21 And he said, See, I have given you your request in this one thing more: I will not send destruction on this town.
22 Go there quickly, for I am not able to do anything till you have come there. For this reason, the town was named Zoar.
23 The sun was up when Lot came to Zoar.
24 Then the Lord sent fire and flaming smoke raining down from heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah.
25 And he sent destruction on those towns, with all the lowland and all the people of those towns and every green thing in the land.
26 But Lot's wife, looking back, became a pillar of salt.
27 And Abraham got up early in the morning and went to the place where he had been talking with the Lord:
28 And looking in the direction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the lowland, he saw the smoke of the land going up like the smoke of an oven.
29 So it came about that when God sent destruction on the towns of the lowland, he kept his word to Abraham, and sent Lot safely away when he put an end to the towns where he was living.
30 Then Lot went up out of Zoar to the mountain, and was living there with his two daughters, for fear kept him from living in Zoar: and he and his daughters made their living-place in a hole in the rock.
31 And the older daughter said to her sister, Our father is old, and there is no man to be a husband to us in the natural way:
32 Come, let us give our father much wine, and we will go into his bed, so that we may have offspring by our father,
33 And that night they made their father take much wine; and the older daughter went into his bed; and he had no knowledge of when she went in or when she went away.
34 And on the day after, the older daughter said to the younger, Last night I was with my father; let us make him take much wine this night again, and do you go to him, so that we may have offspring by our father.
35 And that night again they made their father take much wine; and the younger daughter went into his bed; and he had no knowledge of when she went in or when she went away.
36 And so the two daughters of Lot were with child by their father.
37 And the older daughter had a son, and she gave him the name Moab: he is the father of the Moabites to this day.
38 And the younger had a son and gave him the name Ben-ammi: from him come the children of Ammon to this day.
(BBE)
We begin with the clear revelation that God was one of the three talking with Abe because we have that statement: Ge 19:1 And at nightfall the two angels came to Sodom.
Spurgeon:
Genesis 19:2
Bad as his neighbors were, Lot had not forgotten to be hospitable. Grace does not flourish in bad companionship, but still it lives.
Lot has existed with the sin and violence around him, knows the evil of the city and insists on the visitors stay with him for their protection. He is not yet aware they are angels, so unlike his uncle who knew immediately. Lot is fearful for them. he has seen other strangers and what became of them in the city.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown:
1. there came two angels--most probably two of those that had been with Abraham, commissioned to execute the divine judgment against Sodom.
Lot sat in the gate of Sodom--In Eastern cities it is the market, the seat of justice, of social intercourse and amusement, especially a favorite lounge in the evenings, the arched roof affording a pleasant shade.
Matt Poole with summary and opening:
GENESIS CHAPTER 19
Two angels come to Sodom, Ge 19:1. Lot invites them in; they at first refuse, Ge 19:2. They enter; he entertains them, and they eat, Ge 19:3. The men of Sodom demand to know them, Ge 19:4,5. Lot dissuades them, Ge 19:6,7; offers his daughters; urges reason, Ge 19:8. They are obstinate; threaten, and press to break the door, Ge 19:9. The angels pull Lot in, and shut to the door, Ge 19:10; and smite the men with blindness, Ge 19:11. Advise Lot to depart with his kindred, Ge 19:12. The reason, Ge 19:13. Lot speaks to his sons-in-law; they deride him, Ge 19:14. The angels lay hold on Lot, his wife, and two daughters, and carry them out, Ge 19:16; command them not to look back, Ge 19:17. Lot requests to stay in Zoar; it is granted, with a command to hasten, because till they are gone the Lord can do nothing, Ge 19:18-23. God rains brimstone and fire upon Sodom, Ge 19:24,25. Lot's wife looking back becomes a pillar of salt, Ge 19:26. Abraham looks towards Sodom, Ge 19:27,28. God kind to Lot for Abraham's sake, Ge 19:29. Lot and his two daughters remove to the mountain, Ge 19:30. Lot's daughters contrive for an issue, Ge 19:31,32. They make their father drunk, lie with him, Ge 19:33-35; and are with child, Ge 19:36. Moab and Ben-ammi, the two sons, born thereby, Ge 19:37,38.
Ver. 1. And there came two angels, even those two which departed from Abraham, Ge 18:22, and now were come to Lot,
At even of the same day on which they departed from Abraham.
In the gate of Sodom, where he sat either to observe the administration or corruption of justice there; for the seats of judicature were in the gates: or rather to wait for strangers, to whom he might exercise kindness and hospitality.
In all these we see elements of adding things to the text which we all tend to do when we analyze. I include a number here so we can see the angles that exist in the story of the angels.
Patrick-Lowth-Whitby-Lowman the other law firm commentary:
Genesis 19:1
Two angels There were three at the first Ge 18:2, but the chief of them was gone; having dispatched his message to Abraham; unto whom he was peculiarly sent (see Ge 18:2).
At even; They had been with Abraham in the heat of the day; and were now come to the gates of Sodom.
Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: The Hebrew doctors will have it that he was made a judge in this city; and the prime judge of all: for they adventure to name five (in Bereschith Rabba), and say Lot was the president of the court, which sat in the gate of the city. But this is only a fancy of theirs: he rather sat in the gate of this city, as Abraham did at his tent door; to invite strangers to his house (according to the hospitality of those days), which was the greater charity, because he knew the city to be so wicked, that (if we may believe the Hebrew doctors) they not only denied them all assistance, but abused them, and were cruel to them (see Gemara Sanhedrim, cap. 11, and Pirke Eliezer, cap. 15), for which last, they quote those words of Ezekiel Ge 22:24, “they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.” Which are spoken of Israel, whom Eze 16:49 he had compared with Sodom: one of whose sins, he says, was, want of compassion to “the poor and needy.”
Rose up to meet them, &c. Just as Abraham did; whose civility he imitates, as well as his charity. For the bowing himself so lowly was a token of the great honor he paid them: who had the appearance of great and noble persons. And therefore he calls them lords in the next verse.
Thomas Hawies:
Verses 4-5: They who came to see, were soon convinced of the wickedness of Sodom. Observe,
1. The universal corruption, old and young form every quarter. Note, That must needs be a wicked place, where the old set the example, and are ringleaders in iniquity.
2. Their crime. The most monstrous and unnatural; shocking to think of, and infamous to mention; yet they dared avow it, and add imprudence to their vile affections. Note, 1. No sin in the sight of God is more abominable than unnatural lusts. 2. When men have lost shame, they are on the brink of ruin.
Proceeding on to Lot's attempt to "save" the angels from the British Family Bible:
Genesis 19:8
Behold now, I have two daughters &c. If we may not do any evil, to procure a positive good, certainly much less may we do one evil, to avoid or prevent another. Lot should have resolved, rather to suffer any evil, than to do any. He should rather have adventured his own life, and theirs too, in protecting the chastity of his daughters, and the safety of his guests; than have offered the exposal of his daughter to the lusts of the Sodomites, though it were to redeem his guests from the abuse of fouler and more abominable filthiness. There is no perplexity, no necessity, no obligation, no expediency, which should either enforce or persuade us to any sin. The resolution, "Let us do evil, that good may come," is pronounced by an Apostle to be worthy of condemnation. Bp. Sanderson.
Then Lot experiences the results of attempting to stop a single-minded mob of sinners. And the angels rescue him! He is different; he doesn't understand their ways. The alien is among them and stopping them from their sin. The obvious fact: Lot does understand their evil intent and has been trying to live out a more correct life in their midst. He has been an example of a person witnessing to their sin. he has failed in witness since he offered his own children to their desires instead of standing firm. Lot tried to compromise, his life whirled in battle with who he was and the surrounding he chose. He left the righteousness of Abe but it stayed with him. Abraham's influence
How often are our own decisions influenced by the bad choices we make in compromise with the evil around us for the sake of living in peace? How often do we keep our mouths shut to whatever happens because of our greed, our lust, our fear? Lot kept the hospitality of the city by himself. No one else offered the strangers a place to eat or sleep. then he tried to save them with the sacrifice of his family.
Notice how giving everything to the zealot, lost in desires for some evil, got him nothing? How the strangers, had they been merely human, would have died and Lot and his family as well. Nothing will satisfy the obsessed accept what they want NOW. Nothing of the consequences. Nothing of the pain to others.
Keep in mind that rape is a crime of violence and control. While sex is involved, it really amounts to a profound depth of punishment meant to belittle and express tje power of the rapist. The angels were seen as aliens even as Lot, but lot had the protection of the king since Abe still lurked out there with his personal army. The angels had not such protection. This was meant to be a gang rape to establish those men as the leaders of their gang and to establish their might over anyone who wandered in and might one day threaten their power.
Now the angels reveal themselves.
Matt Henry:
Ver. 12.
We have here the preparation for Lot's deliverance.
I. Notice is given him of the approach of Sodom's ruin: We will destroy this place, Ge 19:13. Note, The holy angels are ministers of God's wrath for the destruction of sinners, as well as of his mercy for the preservation and deliverance of his people. In this sense, the good angels become evil angels, Ps 78:49.
II. He is directed to give notice to his friends and relations, that they, if they would, might be saved with him (Ge 19:12):
"Hast thou here any besides, that thou art concerned for? If thou hast, go tell them what is coming."
Now this implies,
1. The command of a great duty, which was to do all he could for the salvation of those about him, to snatch them as brands out of the fire. Note, Those who through grace are themselves delivered out of a sinful state should do what they can for the deliverance of others, especially their relations.
2. The offer of great favour. They do not ask whether he knew any righteous ones in the city fit to be spared: no, they knew there were none; but they ask what relations he had there, that, whether righteous or unrighteous, they might be saved with him. Note, Bad people often fare the better in this world for the sake of their good relations. It is good being akin to a godly man.
III. He applies himself accordingly to his sons-in-law, Ge 19:14. Observe,
1. The fair warning that Lot gave them: Up, get you out of this place. The manner of expression is startling and quickening. It was no time to trifle when the destruction was just at the door. They had not forty days to repent in, as the Ninevites had. Now or never they must make their escape. At midnight this cry was made. Such as this is our call to the unconverted, to turn and live.
2. The slight they put upon this warning: He seemed to them as one that mocked. They thought, perhaps, that the assault which the Sodomites had just now made upon his house had disturbed his head, and put him into such a fright that he knew not what he said; or they thought that he was not in earnest with them. Those who lived a merry life, and made a jest of everything, made a jest of this warning, and so they perished in the overthrow. Thus many who are warned of the misery and danger they are in by sin make a light matter of it, and think their ministers do but jest with them; such will perish with their blood upon their own heads.
The in-laws were born there. They knew it was their city and this was the way they lived. The daughters bore no children by them. They regarded their father-in-law with contempt likely because he didn't indulge in their corrupted lives of the use of women and men alike for their sexual satisfaction. Notice the in-laws were not at the house. They were off carousing and doing what they felt like. Not loyal to the daughters. not loyal to their father-in-law but likely enjoying the fruits of his labor to buy their sins.
If they had listened...If they had been with Lot on the flight from Sodom...If they heard the call of God in their hearts...
Instead they were in Sodom.
Hawies again:
Verses 23-25: Bright was the sun which rose upon devoted Sodom. Safe in their foolish confidence, Lot’s flight afforded matter of fresh ridicule, and now they can welcome the returning day. But see when sinners are in the height of their security, how destruction overtakes them. The sun is covered, the storm arises, the lightning’s glare, the heavens are on fire, the flames descend, the smoking cities send up their dying cries. Too late to call for mercy, it is the time of judgment. Mark the end of sinner’s vain confidence.
Learn, 1. If judgments are on the earth, it is the Lord’s work. The Lord Jesus is not only the Savior of those who believe him, like Lot; but he is the judge and destroyer of those, who like Sodom, reject his salvation. 2. They who go after strange flesh, may expect to be punished with strange judgments. 3. What a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Fools now make a mock of sin, but they will find it a bitter thing, when they shall feel, with Sodom, the vengeance of eternal fire, Jude 1:25.
Not five righteous men in Sodom. Some more liberal commentators suggest it wasn't the treat of sexual assault that got Sodom blasted but their lack of hospitality. I would suggest this was merely the final straw. God already was going to destroy the city and it had decades of other sins against it which God made clear in his talk with Abraham. Abe interceded, Lot interceded. Sin and desire overcame any idea of the Sodomite giving up their way of life.
29 So it came about that when God sent destruction on the towns of the lowland, he kept his word to Abraham, and sent Lot safely away when he put an end to the towns where he was living.
30 Then Lot went up out of Zoar to the mountain, and was living there with his two daughters, for fear kept him from living in Zoar: and he and his daughters made their living-place in a hole in the rock.
Lot continued his pattern. He didn't listen to God again. Lot followed his fear and anxiety, thinking he might be blamed for the twin cities being atomized. The Lord saved a city for him to go to. He went there but his goods were lost. He would have stumbled about with nothing and with daughters to support. God would have blessed him somehow but it required of him that he have Abraham's faith, living into a place with not protection, with God giving him what he needed.
He may have been righteous but he put his faith in what he saw and held. The king of Sodom may have held him captive for the king's own reaosns, but Lot held himself captive to his Fallen Flesh.
Keep in mind, he lost his wife. She didn't listen. She became a pillar of salt, changed by God's power by the force of whatever was released. He now had nothing and no one to share his life.
How many times do we look back at the things lost? I know an older woman who can't forget her times in the church she attended and helped found 40 years ago. She will go on and on about how perfect it was and what a wonderful pace it was and, meanwhile, her children will tell me of various abuses suffered at the hands of the pastor, of the adulteries of some of the elders. How the church policies were basically "We don't drink or chew and we don't go with girls who do." The church has long since ceased to exist. But she still looks back and has become frozen in time, a pillar of moving salt, locked into her vision of all the things gone even as Lot's wife must have been frozen by her longing for the things lost, perhaps for her family lost there as well.
But Abe was still there off in the distance, his intercession blessed. He became a kind of Christ pleading for god's mercy on sinners that Abe loved and God's intervention in their survival. Like every human being in the planet, a sinner can abandon his old life and run to Him. Lot could have gone back to Abe. He could have returned to his "father" who was waiting to greet him. He would have had no conflict with the men and Abe would surely have welcomed him. Instead, he goes into the hills, perhaps held by his own shame or fear he won't be forgiven. I once talked with the unsaved parents of a church elder and they said they couldn't come to church "because the roof would fall in." I told them it didn't fall in on me and invited them. As near as I can tell, they died without ever coming in.
So, like so many of us at one time or another in our lives, shame, poverty, pride, keep Lot in a cave, away from everyone, hiding, We can do that even in a crowd, even with our families, hid in a cave, our american joke about the "man cave." We watch our TV and dream of being the QB or the pitcher and finding life and we can stay ion that cave and spend the rest of our lives in athat cave be be comforted by the false security.
But the real problem is that we drag our children into the cave with us. they end up being satisfied with the football game, the hot dogs, the dreams founded in virtual reality or in the false hopes of soap operas, romance novels, James Bond's guns and dames. the illusions of life.
And Lot's daughters were drawn in as well.
Tom Hawies:
Genesis 19:31 Ge 19:31
Verses 31-38: How little safety is there for us from sin in any place? He, who was kept in Sodom, is overcome in a cave. We have here,
1. His daughters’ wicked contrivance. They had, it is to be feared, been too much tinctured with Sodom’s sin, and were eye-witnesses of its punishment: now the old sore breaks out again; what they could not effect when their father was sober, they endeavor to bring about by drunkenness, and thus one crime is aggravated by another. Note, (1.) When a woman’s heart is set on wickedness, it will go hard, but she succeeds. (2.) No judgments can restrain those, whom divine grace doth not change. (3.) Solitude is so far from being a cure to lewdness that it there usually prevails: to fly away from these evil imaginations into company, is their readiest cure.
2. Lot’s shameful and scandalous fall. Lord, what is man, if left to himself! Drunk and incestuous, and thus repeatedly too: let us read it with horror. Note, (1.) No man this side of heaven is safe from presumptuous sins, or above praying to be kept from them. 2. Drunkenness hath no end of evil; then every crime, without horror or shame, is easily committed. (3.) Let nearest relatives beware: the freedoms of their relation may degenerate into the foulest indulgences.
3. The fruit of this incestuous commerce. Two sons, Moab and Ammon; the two nations also, a perpetual memorial of Lot’s shame. Note, though prosperity may seem to attend the most unnatural sin, the end will be misery and shame.
Please note that the daughters could nt really have thught the world was over unless perhaps Lot himself told them Zoar was going to be destroyed to get them to leave THAT city with him. He must have lied to them to get their cooperation and now he faced the consequences. If Abe wouldn't take him before, surey he could not tae him now.
People get lost in sin, try to redeem ourselves, follow God, then turn back to the same old sin. They listen for redemption, have not lived correctly after and so no one listens when they have the true story that lives will be lost if people don't turn from sin. They crush the message of salvation then turn from their own salvation back to the deoths of sin, deeper than before. It is as if they cannot accept that God loves them because they know how bad they are.
Please don't believe that. Please don't follow Lot's bad example.
Fallen Flesh, no matter how fallen is never beyond redemption.
No comments:
Post a Comment