# 06 2023 Dev. Gen.19:2. Punishment and Grace! Read all of chapter nineteen first. We invite you into God’s space, to read His Word, to think on and interact with. This is God’s story. Do you believe that this is also our story, in our time? All passages are taken from The NIV.
Gen.19:2 “My lords,’ he said, ‘please turn aside to your servant’s house. You can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning.”’
Gen.19 is the chapter describing the visit of two of God’s angels to Sodom and Gomorrah, the destruction of the cities and what happens to Lot and family.
Vs.1-3 Lot practices the hospitality that Abraham practiced. One thing becomes clear, it is unlikely many strangers came into this city. Perhaps Lot wanted to spare these two strangers, knowing the people he lived with. By the time they had finished the meal I suspect Lot saw these man as very special visitors.
Vs.4-5 Before long all the city’s men, both young and old, gathered at Lot’s door and demanded he produce these two strangers. Lot lived here in this city as well, but Lot was not involved in homosexual behavior, he was burdened by the evil of the place and 2 Pet. 2:7 calls Lot, “a righteous man.” However, Lot did nothing to separate himself from this place.
Vs.6-8 Lot confronted them, “do not do this wicked thing, he offers them his two virgin daughters instead. In our time, this confrontation is disputed, calling it a possible spy situation and they simply wanted to interview the men. And the Idea of offering his two daughter was simply assurance that these men are legitimate guests, not spies. However, this is not what the text says.
Vs.9-11 There is nothing more unsettling to people who justify a commonly practiced activity, by calling it; “this wicked thing.” Today, the wrath of the government and of many people is upon you to suggest such as this. The crowd threatened Lot to the point that the angels pull him inside and strike the crowd blind.
Vs.12-26 From this point on, the angels want Lot and family out of the city, Lot finds his two future son’s-in-law but they do not believe him. Finally, the angels take the four of them by the hand and literarily pull them out of the city. “Flee to the the mountains and do not look back.” But Lot pleads to go to a small village instead, Zoar and in His mercy God grants this as well. But as God’s punishment is rained down on Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot’s wife looked back, was she only looking or was her heart back to her comfortable life? She disobeyed, the angels had warned them not to look back. Some commentators today suggest that she actually went back, we don’t see that here, she longed for the comfortable life she had and it cost her. Is she lost? Based on God’s grace, we don’t think so.
Vs.27-29 Abraham, went to see if the cities were destroyed, and indeed they were. The author, Moses put in an editorial note: “God remembered Abraham, and He brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived. The point is made that even in punishment there is grace.
Vs.30-38 Lot, to his peril left the village of Zoar and fled to the mountains to live in a cave. Was Zoar as evil as Sodom? Were they traumatized? Perhaps both. The daughters colluded together to get pregnant by their father, completely reprehensible, but God allowed it and they both became pregnant. They both had sons, they named them Moab, and Ben-Ammi. See footnotes for the meaning of their names. They became nations that for the most part opposed the Israelites. The one redeeming factor is the story of Naomi and Ruth. Ruth, a Moabite, is in the line of Jesus Christ. God’s grace abounds. Amen!
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