Praying for the Neighbors - Genesis 19:10-38

Bible Study Lesson for October 7

Introduction:

This week’s passage is like a series of episodes, which are connected by the events that are happening, but more than anything they are the resolutions of various questions that have arisen in the story. It is hard to find one through-line, which is appropriate to a story about what happens when a society falls apart. In the discussion that follows, I will explore how the episodes in this story tie up loose ends from the last couple of chapters.

10-14- The Sentence is Passed

Last week we discussed the sins of Sodom. God had sent two angels to determine if Sodom’s wickedness toward the vulnerable was as bad as the reports that God had received. In verse 10, the angels move to protect Lot, the only man in the city who would protect them. Lot was a foreigner, which put him and his family into a pretty vulnerable position. As we mentioned last week, in offering his daughters to the crowd, Lot reveals himself to be a tremendously flawed character. But there is a through-line to this story involving Lot’s virgin daughters that we should follow.

After the angels blind the crowd, they inform him of the city’s impending doom, and they encourage him to get any of his people that he can out of the city. It is at this point that we learn that Lot’s daughters are engaged. Lot goes to their fiancés and commands them to go with him, but the men do not take him seriously. The story doesn’t dwell on the sons-in-law or their decision, but it reveals the extent to which Lot is entangled in the city of Sodom that his sons-in-law do not take God’s warning seriously. It seems that they were unaware of or unconcerned by the wickedness of the people of the city. We can wonder if they were also present in the crowd, which was said to include “all the men of the city” (v. 4). Whatever their guilt, God’s angels were willing to spare his sons-in-law as an extension of their mercy toward Lot, but the sons-in-law fail to accept this mercy for themselves. So Lot goes home to await the angels’ next command.

15-23- Fleeing Sodom

Lot and his wife and daughters flee the city of Sodom. In these verses we see a connection to Abraham’s bargaining with God in the last chapter. As they are fleeing, Lot negotiates for the safety of a small settlement between Sodom and the hills. The angels agree to spare the town and the story explains its name, Zoar, which means small. Once again, we learn the power of intercession in asking for mercy for people who might otherwise be condemned. Neither Abraham nor Lot asked so much that God denied their requests. We are left to wonder what would happen if they had asked for more. A lesson to learn here is that God’s people ought to intercede on behalf of those we believe to be condemned, not exalt in their suffering or judgment.

24-29 The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah

The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is legendary, even to this day. When we encounter the worst natural calamities, such as hurricanes, earthquakes, or volcanic eruptions, we say that they are “biblical” in proportion. This is one of the stories we have in mind. Likewise, Lot’s wife has become a cautionary tale. She has become a metaphor for indecision because she looks back and is turned into a pillar of salt.

In Luke 17:32, Jesus invokes Lot’s wife in telling his disciples not to waver in the coming times of trial. The angels had warned Lot and his family not to look back or stop on the way. We can imagine the fear and the sense of loss Lot’s wife had in leaving her life behind. I find myself pitying her rather than condemning her. A moment of uncertainty results in her death. Indecision in following the command of God is a treacherous problem to have.

Finally, Abraham goes out to see the result of God’s judgment on Sodom. We can imagine Abraham wondering what the results of his bargaining with God was. As he approaches the place where he had met with God, he can see the smoke and destruction of the cities. He now knows that there were not ten righteous in the city. The jump to Abraham’s perspective lends the story an almost cinematic quality and signifies that we are transitioning again. We wonder what will come next. But first we must tie up some loose ends with Lot’s story.

30-38 The Ancestry of Enemies

The conclusion to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah is probably the most famous instance of incest in Scripture. Commentators often point out that the people of Israel would have an ideological reason for preserving this story. The Ammonites and the Moabites were among the greatest rivals Israel had to possession of the Holy Land. On the one hand this story emphasizes how closely related the people of Israel are to their neighbors. On the other hand, the origin of these nations in incest would have been a mark of shame on them. In Hebrew, the names of Moab and Ammon reflect this origin. Moab means “seed of my father” and Ammon comes from Ben-Ammi: “son of my people.” In their own languages, these names have different meanings.

Another piece of the story that stands out to me is the perpetual victimization of these women in this chapter. Recall that in verse 8 Lot offered his daughters to the men of the city. In verse 14-15 we learn that they were engaged to be married to apparently unrighteous men who do not take seriously the wickedness of the city. This does not excuse their activity at the end of the chapter, but I think a sympathetic reading helps to make sense of what they are trying to do.

One of my Old Testament professors made the argument that perhaps the daughters of Lot are so traumatized that they believe the destruction of their home to be another calamity on par with Noah’s flood. They do seem to think that Lot is the “last man on earth” (verse 31). We can see in history how people who erroneously think the world is ending make all sorts of questionable or even reprehensible decisions. One need look no farther than the end-times cults of the past century to see how an overly-apocalyptic imagination can result in all kinds of abuse and moral compromise.

Conclusion

Lot’s story has come to a close. He will not appear as a character in the story of Genesis again. His story ends in disgrace, as he drunkenly fathers children with his daughters who he earlier endangered. Later in the Old Testament, God will command Israel to refrain from taking land from Moab and Ammon out of respect for their ancestor Lot (Deuteronomy 2:9, 2:19). The kinship of Israel with their neighbors becomes the chief way we learn one of God’s visions for the people of God. We are to exist not against the world, but within the world. 

How we relate to our neighbors and kin are important. Remember that this story of destruction begins with a prayer for mercy, as Abraham pleads for the lives of the people of Sodom. Lot begs for  the safety of the city Zoar. These men do not condemn their neighbors. Instead, they look around and see people who need mercy, just like them. They allow God to be judge and themselves to simply intercede for their fellow humans. This is what the people of God are to do. This is what we are to do. Pray for one another. Leave the judging up to God.