04.06.2009 :: Genesis 19

Anglican Cycle of Prayer:
Psalm: 122 Num. 23: 21-30
Oke-Ogun - (Province of Ibadan, Nigeria) The Rt Rev'd Solomon Amusan

Reading:
Genesis 19

Thoughts:
The first section of this chapter is called The Depravity of Sodom. Lot has two guests in his home, and the evil men of the city come to his home to "pay their respects." They want to "know" the visitors, which of course is Biblical code for sexual intercourse. One must assume here that this would be unwanted contact. Lot, not wanting to surrender his guests to these boors, offers his daughters in their stead. Lucky girls, they are spurned in favour of the male visitors. In fact, the Sodomites are about to deal even more harshly with Lot himself when the visitors pull him inside and bar the door. He is new to the city himself, having only lived there for several years by this time, so of course he is next on the list!

Following this lovely little episode, the men get Lot and his family out of the city. They are warned not to look back at Sodom. They are to simply leave behind everything they had known and start over. Lot's wife can't handle it; she looks back and is turned to a pillar of salt. They must leave her behind, as well.

And so God destroys the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Lot settles in the hills, and his daughters get scared that they will never marry, so they get their father drunk and have sons by their own father. Perhaps the family didn't really "deserve" to be saved, after all. Then again, it was a practical solution to a seeming problem the girls faced. Their sons were Moab and Ben-ammi, the ancestors of the Moabites and the Ammonites.

Isaac has a lot of relatives to deal with in the future, doesn't he? Moab and Ben-ammi are cousins; Ishmael is his brother. I guess we will see how things develop over time.

I've read a lot about how the story of the escape from Sodom is similar to our own salvation. We are told to get out of sin, to leave it behind, and not to look back. The difference is that we can ask forgiveness if we do look back. No pillars of salt are we! (Salt comes in after a different fashion in one of the Gospels. No worries, we'll find it eventually!)