Sodom: Wrath or Grace Part 4

By the time it took the two angels/travelers to enter the city of Sodom, find lot and sit down to have a meal the entire populace knew they were there. It didn’t seem to take long before everyone in the city knew that there were strangers in town. These wicked and rebellious people – young and old alike! – gathered at the doorway to Lot’s house in order to sexually molest the two strangers. There are, in fact, several cities around the globe these days which have this same kind of rebellious and evil people. You know the places I’m referring to, I’m sure. People say things like, “you want to avoid that part of town” and things like that. However, something much more sinister was at work within these people, and much more perverse than that.

Gen 19:4-11

Now before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter, surrounded the house. And they called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them carnally.” So Lot went out to them through the doorway, shut the door behind him, and said, “Please, my brethren, do not do so wickedly! See now, I have two daughters who have not known a man; please, let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you wish; only do nothing to these men, since this is the reason they have come under the shadow of my roof.” And they said, “Stand back!” Then they said, “This one came in to stay here, and he keeps acting as a judge; now we will deal worse with you than with them.” So they pressed hard against the man Lot, and came near to break down the door. But the men reached out their hands and pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. And they struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they became weary trying to find the door.

They gathered together with the specific intent of committing rampant sexual abuse against these two complete strangers. You should note the this all happened within a few hours of the strangers’ arrival! It’s as if the Sodomites were actively looking for new and perverse ways to satisfy their aberrant sexual desires. Remember it was the whole town which had gathered together over the time it took for the angels to go into Lot’s house and have a meal.

Dozens, or perhaps even hundreds, of potential rapists desired to wantonly assault and abuse themselves against innocent travelers. The whole town had turned out for the event, both young and old. The passage also gives the impression that there may have been certain women in the city which might have been involved in this debauchery as well. Whether women were or were not involved is not as important as is understanding the motivation which drove the crowd toward their perverse plan of action. Think of prison rapes to help get things in perspective.

The Sodomites rejected Lot’s pleas to listen to reason and, failing that, refused to listed to his alternative to their gang rape (which was a hideous alternative to be sure, but discussing that aspect goes beyond the scope of this book). In response to his attempts to reason with them these degenerates threatened Lot with a fate even worse than the one they had planned for the strangers. How it could get worse than what they wanted to do to the travelers is something I wouldn’t want to dwell on. And even after they were miraculously blinded, they still persisted in trying to carry out their evil desires, to the point that “they became weary trying to find the door.”

The attitude of lustful desire – at whatever the cost – that these people displayed shows us the deep level of depravity into which they had descended. They were beyond any reason. They were beyond any reconciliation. They were beyond any hope of repentance. The simple fact is that they didn’t want to change. They were too far down the road of perdition to turn back.

Gen 19:12-14

Then the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Son-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city — take them out of this place! For we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.” So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters, and said, “Get up, get out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city!” But to his sons-in-law he seemed to be joking.

This is yet another instance where those who practiced godliness would have been spared the terrible destruction which was soon to arrive. That deliverance wasn’t only limited to Lot or his immediate family, either. The angels had asked him to speak to family “and whomever you have in the city” as a way for them to be warned to flee. Instead of being open to God’s wisdom in heeding the warning, it apparently fell on deaf ears.

Gen 15-22

When the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, “Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city.” And while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. So it came to pass, when they had brought them outside, that he said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed.” Then Lot said to them, “Please, no, my lords! Indeed now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have increased your mercy which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountains, lest some evil overtake me and I die. See now, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one; please let me escape there (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live.” And he said to him, “See, I have favored you concerning this thing also, in that I will not overthrow this city for which you have spoken. Hurry, escape there. For I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.

The fact that Lot was still hesitant about leaving Sodom is evident because he “lingered” in his preparations. So much so that the angels had to take them all by the hands and lead them outside the city! And yet even that was not enough for Lot. Instead of following instructions (again), he begged to be allowed to travel to one of the lesser cities as a place of refuge. It is interesting to note that the particular city he went to was also part of the region that should have been consumed with Sodom. This is yet one more example of how God shows the mitigating influence Christians have in the countries we dwell in. Just as Lot’s prayer and presence was enough to spare the city of Zoar, so our prayer and presence is often enough to delay God’s judgment against the willful sin of Man.

Gen 19:23-29

The sun had risen upon the earth when Lot entered Zoar. Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the Lord out of the heavens. So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord. Then he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain; and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land which went up like the smoke of a furnace. And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot had dwelt.

This is Part Four of a multi-part series. Keep an eye out for the next installment!