Day 7. Genesis 19-21

Genesis 19-21

Genesis 19

¹And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground;

In Genesis 18:2 there were three men, now there's only two. One of them, the one who was god, left.

²And he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant's house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your ways. And they said, Nay; but we will abide in the street all night.

The angels didn't go to Sodom to find ten righteous people. They went to go get raped. They wanted to destroy the people in the plains. It's like a guy who goes to a bar, wanting to get into a fight. They provoke someone into hitting them, and then manage to justify their actions by saying "he hit me first". It reminds me of the tv show Bait Car. Apparently police can't catch criminals when they actually commit crimes, instead they can only catch them when they are entrapped.

"The individual who's arrested in a bait car did not have intent to commit crime until law enforcement created the opportunity. It's like having a great-looking undercover female police officer on the corner, [dressed as a prostitute] who's hoping to solicit an inquiry. They're creating crime. There may not have been any intent until he saw the attractive police woman, until the cops lured him into the trap.

The people who lived in Sodom weren't planning on raping any angels. It wasn't until the angels showed up that they thought it would be fun. Then, the angels say they want to stay in the streets. They went there with the intent of soliciting. Sodom was set up.

⁴But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter:

⁵And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.

Know, as in the same way that Adam KNEW Eve.

⁶And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him,

⁷And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly.

Lot tries to calm down the crowd of people who wanted to KNOW the angels. But they weren't calming down. He came up with a compromise.

⁸Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof.

Lot, being a good father, and a righteous man, offers up his daughters to the crowd. Saying, don't bother these angels, please, rape my two virgin daughters.

The angels pulled lot back, and then blinded the gathered mob.

¹²And the men said unto Lot, Hast thou here any besides? son in law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place:

¹³For 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.

Hast thou here any besides? Does Lot have any more family?

¹⁴And Lot went out, and spake unto his sons in law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place; for the LORD will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons in law.

Wait, what? Lot had two virgin daughters, who were married. What kind of a crappy marriage did those guys have? Especially in a town that is known for it's sex. Lot had two married virgin daughters. No wonder the crowd didn't want those daughters, they probably knew all about them.

Why would Lot, (the only righteous man in Sodom) allow his daughters to marry non-righteous people? What happened to all of Lots workers? Remember, Abraham and Lot separated because their men were getting into fights. All of a sudden, all of Lot's men are gone. Additionally, they weren't righteous. Perhaps they all died when the four kings from the Babylon area attacked.

¹⁵And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city.

Lot's wife is never named. Lot, his wife, and two daughters are four people. Lot's daughters were married; I find it hard to believe a righteous man, with two righteous daughters and a righteous wife would allow his daughters to marry non-righteous people. That would make 6 people in town who were righteous. There would only have to be four others in town to avert the catastrophe. Apparently, they weren't there.

¹⁷And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.

Don't look back.

Instead of going directly to the mountain, Lot asked if he could just go to Zoar (also known as Bela). The angels agreed. Lot goes to Zoar.

²⁴Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven;

²⁵And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.

The cities that were destroyed were: Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim. God didn't destroy Zoar.

Here's the timeline:

Lot, wife, and two daughters leave town (verse 20)
Lot enters Zoar (verse 23)
The cities are destroyed (verse 24)
Lot's wife looks back and becomes a pillar of salt (verse 26)

According to verse 23, the angels weren't going to destroy the cities until Lot was safely in the other city. Now, in verse 26, it seems like Lot and his family were on the run, as the destruction was raining down. Then, Lot's wife becomes a pillar of salt.

Lot's Wife is a pillar of halite on Mount Sodom in Israel. For thousands of years, this pillar has been claimed to be Lot's wife. (Halite is rock salt).

³⁰And Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zoar: and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters.

Lot was in the town of Zoar. He knew that it wasn't destroyed. However, he was afraid to stay there because he figured the townspeople would blame him for the destruction of the other cities. As though he was a bad omen, or a curse.

So, he went and lived in a cave, with his daughters.

³¹And the firstborn said unto the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth:

³²Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father.

The daughters then plan to get Lot drunk, then have sex with him, and get pregnant. Verse 31 makes it seem like the daughters think that there are no other people left on the earth. "There is not a man in the earth"; except they were just in the town of Zoar, and left because they feared for their safety. They knew there were other people in the world.

³³And they made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose.

The next night the other daughter did the same thing.

Now, we are supposed to believe that the girls were virgins when this happened. They had been married, they lived in a town known for it's sexual depravity, they got their dad passed out/black out drunk, then were able to give him an erection that lasted long enough to ejaculate and get the girls pregnant, and we are supposed to believe that they figured out how to do this the day after the cities were destroyed. That part of the story makes absolutely no sense.

³⁶Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father.

³⁷And the first born bare a son, and called his name Moab: the same is the father of the Moabites unto this day.

³⁸And the younger, she also bare a son, and called his name Benammi: the same is the father of the children of Ammon unto this day.

The older daughter was the mother of Moab, the younger was the mother of Benammi. We'll hear about the Moabites a lot.

Oh, I left this out...

²⁷And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the LORD:

²⁸And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.

Abraham looked at the cities, but he didn't turn into a pillar of salt.

Genesis 20

¹And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar.

Abraham was on the move again.

²And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.

Abimelech did what pharaoh did, he took Sarah. Wasn't she like 90 at this point? She already had reached menopause. She much have been one of the hottest old ladies ever.

³But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man's wife.

⁴But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, LORD, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation?

God goes to Abimelech in a dream, and says he's going to kill him for taking Sarah.

There must have been absolutely no communication at all during this point in history. Abimelech doesn't seem to know who Abraham is. Abraham is the guy who beat Hammurabi with 318 people. Abraham is the guy who went to Egypt and managed to cause plagues there. Abraham is the guy who has 300+ servants. Abraham is the guy who is the uncle of the only man to survive the destruction of the cities of the plain. Abimelech doesn't know who he is. How is that possible?

⁶And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her.

⁷Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine.

I love verse seven. It's so poetic. There's so much "th" in it. Therefore, the, thee, thou, thou, thou, that, thou, thou, that, thine. I'd like to hear a preacher with a lisp read Genesis 20:7.

⁹Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said unto him, What hast thou done unto us? and what have I offended thee, that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? thou hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be done.

Maybe Abraham was trying to get rid of Sarah. He'd been with her for at least 60 years. She's been nagging about not getting pregnant, she then nagged about him knocking up her handmaiden, she didn't like the way he treats his son; I'll be Abraham was happy to have some peace while she was staying with Abimelech.

¹¹And Abraham said, Because I thought, Surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will slay me for my wife's sake.

¹²And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.

Abraham didn't fully lie, Sarah is his half sister. Abraham then tells the story that he likes to have her tell people she's his sister and not his wife because people would kill him if she's his wife.

¹⁴And Abimelech took sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and womenservants, and gave them unto Abraham, and restored him Sarah his wife.

Once again, Abraham was given gifts to take Sarah away from a king.

¹⁷So Abraham prayed unto God: and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maidservants; and they bare children.

¹⁸For the LORD had fast closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah Abraham's wife.

How long were Abraham and Sarah separated? Long enough for the people to realize that they weren't getting pregnant anymore. That's at least several months. Abraham must have enjoyed the peace of not having her around.

Genesis 21

God visits Sarah.

²For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.

Then Sarah had Isaac. On the 8th day, Abraham circumcised him. Abraham was 100.

⁹And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking.

¹⁰Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.

Sarah was rather bitchy. Remember, it was her idea in the first place to have Abraham knock up Hagar. So, Sarah tells Abraham to kick out his other wife.

¹²And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.

God said don't worry about Ishmael, let them go, Isaac will be the one that I will have my people come through.

¹⁴And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away: and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.

Abraham the righteous man, who was given 1000 pieces of silver (Gen 20:16) and sheep, oxen, menservants, womenservents and other things from king Abimelech; Abraham, who led 318 men into a battle and defeated the people who attacked the cities of the plain; Abraham, who was rich beyond belief... sent his firstborn son and that child's mother into the wilderness with some bread and a bottle of water.

This is the man who, pretty much, is the father of the Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

¹⁵And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs.

They ran out of water, so Hagar put Ishmael under a bush to die.

God called to her:

¹⁹And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink.

Because of that water, they lived.

²⁰And God was with the lad; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer.

²¹And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran: and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt.

Ishmael would have been at least 14 when he was sent away.

Many people believe that Hagar was one of the daughters of whatever Pharaoh was around when Abraham and Sarah went to Egypt. Jewish tradition holds that she was given to Sarah by the pharaoh as a slave. What father gives up his daughter as a slave? It's the same morals listed as will allow a father to send his son away in the wilderness to die.

Abimelech and Abraham then get into a dispute over a well. Abraham sent Abimelech seven sheep to settle the dispute of the well.

This was done at Beersheba. Be'er is the Hebrew word for "well"; Sheva means either "seven" or "oath". So this story at the end of Genesis 21 tells why the area of Beersheba is named Beersheba.

Points to ponder:

1. Why did the angels go to Sodom?
2. Angel rape may be a crime, but it's not that angels don't like sex, remember in Genesis 6:4, they like to be with pretty women. Why did angels stop coming down and having sex with girls?
3. Did Sodom really deserve to be destroyed?
4. Are Abraham's morals worthy of being followed?