I have felt the need lately to go back and look at the story of Lot. The man who was Abraham's nephew and will forever be known for living in Sodom. This is a familiar story, but I want to look at the whole study and see what the Bible really says about it. As we head into this story, we do so knowing that Lot was a Righteous man as recorded in 2 Peter 2.
We first hear of Lot in Genesis 11 in the genealogy of Shem who was the son of Noah (The man who is linked to an ark (boat) and the flood). We get down to Terah who was the Father of Abram and Haran. Haran was the father of Lot. Then Haran dies, and Terah takes his son Abram, Abram's wife - Sarai (who was also his half-sister), and his grandson Lot and they head out to Canaan. While they had reached a place called Charan (Most translation say Haran which is confusing since this is also the name of Abram's dead brother). while they were there, Terah dies. That leaves Abram, Sarai, and Lot. Then The Lord tells Abram to go to the land of Canaan and they all go.
Now when a famine comes upon the land, they escape to the land of Egypt. While there They tell Pharaoh that Sarai is Abram's sister and not his wife and Pharoah takes Sarai to be his wife. God then starts causes bad things to happen and Pharaoh discovers that Abram and Sarai are actually married and he kicks the whole bunch out of Egypt. Lot was a part of all of this. So they left Egypt and head for the wilderness of the Negeb.
At that time, both Abram and Lot were successful ranchers who had both stock and herds of animals and the land there could not support both men's livestock and fighting would break out because of that. So Abram gets together with Lot and they decide to go different ways as way for them to maintain their relationship with each other. And so Lot decides to go to the Eden-like setting of the Jordan Valley where the city kingdoms of Sodom and Gomorrah existed. and Abram heads further into the land of Canaan.
While Lot was living in that land, a war broke out and a number of kings invaded and made war with Sodom, Gomorrah and the region and won the war. They also captured Lot and Lots possessions and went on their way. When this news reached Abram, Abram raised an army and went after these kings and won the victory and took back everything that this kings had took including Lot and Lot's possessions. Abram then headed back to meet up with the king of Sodom and there he also met the priest king of Salem named Melchizedek. Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of all the spoils of victory and then he returned everything to the king of Sodom minus the offerings to Melchizedek and also a part to the men who helped Abram.
At this point we skip forward a few chapters and we find that Abram is now Abraham and Sarai is now Sarah. Abraham has a son named Ishmael with Sarah's handmaid - Hagar. Also the ritual of circumcision has begun.
Abraham is resting during the heat of the day when 3 men appear before him. Now these men must have had an otherworldly appearance. I say that by Abraham's reaction and in a few verses we see a similar reaction from Lot. Now it is revealed that one of these men was the Lord Jehovah and the other two were angels. Here we see among other things the reveal that Sodom, Gomorrah and the whole region would be destroyed. Abraham then intercedes for Sodom and The Lord tells Abraham that if there are 10 righteous men in the city, the city would be spared.
So what was the people in this region doing that was so evil? The verses that I've been suminizing have already said that they were guilty of living for sensual pleasure. Ezekiel 16:49-50 tells us that their sin was that they had arrogance, abundant food, prosperous ease of living, did not aid the poor and needy, did abominations (sexual sins from having sex with anyone who is not your spouse, (including other family members) same sex relationships, and bestiality - Jude also hints at them doing bestiality). But now let's get back to the story. These two angels approach the city gates of Sodom and that is where Lot is at. It is interesting that since the rescue of the people of Sodom by Abraham (Lot's Uncle) that he now sits at the city gates which is a place of influence and honor. Lot has a similar reaction to Abraham when he sees these otherworldly people and talks them into coming to his house, getting their feet washed, eating and spending the night. The Angels agree to this and after they have finished eating, all the men of the city had gathered outside of Lot's house. These men had gathered to gangrape these angels. Now, many people teach that this was a homosexual act, but it wasn't. Homosexuality is congenial, and this was not. this was forced. This style of rape is about destroying a person, with their penis as their weapon. Lot offers to sacrifice his two youngest daughters to save the otherworldly men. The response of the mob shows us that Lot was trying to use his influence for good, when they cry out against Lot saying that he came that he came there as a guest and now has become a judge over them. So the mob decide to do to Lot what they wanted to do to the strangers plus more. The otherworldly men or angels pull Lot inside and tell him to gather his kin. Lot goes to his two son in laws but they treat Lot like he was like Don Quixote. The angels then tells Lot to take his wife and two remaining daughters and leave the city. They then pretty much have to take them by the hand and drag them out of the city and tell them to leave the area and to not look back. Lot's wife does look back and becomes a pillar of salt. Sodom and Gomorrah and the whole region was destroyed by fire and sulfur raining down on the region, but Lot had interceded for the town of Zoar and at first went there and then he went on further into a cave where his daughters thought that they were the last ones standing. They get their father drunk and have sex with him and bear him sons. I included this because when God delivered Israel out of Egypt later on, He tells them to leave the incestuous descendants of Lot alone and let them dwell in the land.
It is important that we as Christians get this story right, because God uses this story as how it will be in the end times and how God can and will deliver His people out of destruction.
