“Living Amongst Moral Complexities”

Genesis 19:1-10

 

As we read through the book of Genesis we are utilizing the Literary Design for Genesis to guide our understanding of what is happening. We started anew with the design in chapter 18 with Yahweh and humans at the tent, on the hill top, eating together. This picture takes us back to Eden, where God would hang out with humans and all was good. 

 

The next section in chapter 18 we had an intercession. Yahweh had heard the cries of lament against the city of Sodom and was going down to check things out. Abraham was allowed to hear the conversation of what Yahweh was thinking and he confronted God with what he thought God should do. At one point in Abraham’s pressing God for mercy Abraham actually asked Yahweh not to get angry, verse 30, 

“May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?”

 

It never says that Yahweh was angry. Abraham just thinks God might get angry because he was pestering Him so. This scene should bring us back to another story, after the Eden story, when someone was arguing with God about what he thought was right and what was fair and there was anger involved. Remember the story of Cain, when he laments that God was being unfair? It certainly looked like God had chosen his brother Abel over him and Cain was ticked off. He was actually the first angry character in the Bible. We haven’t had anger mentioned since then. This is a very clever usage of the Cain and Abel story. Abraham assumes God will get angry because he was trying to tell God what was just and what was not just. 

 

With this outcry rising up to God, the next thing we should be expecting in our literary design is for God to single out a remnant or provide a shelter, some sort of rescuing from some sort of flood. 

 

Here it comes.

 

The two messengers that were hanging out with Yahweh and Abraham on the hilltop went down to Sodom, and it was evening. Let’s take note of the time. There will be time markers dropped along the way. It just so happened that as the messengers entered the city, Lot was sitting at the gate. Notice what Lot does when he sees them. Lot rose up to meet them, bowed his face to the ground and said, verse 2,  

 

“My lords, 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.”

The messengers respond with, “Oh, no, no, no, that’s fine, we don’t want to put you out. We will stay the night in the town center. It’s fine. We will sleep on a bench.” Remember, the messengers had come to check out the city, not check out Lot’s home.

 

Notice, Lot does not give up. In fact, he insisted and pressured them so much that the messengers went with him. They arrived at Lot’s house and he made them drinks, he baked them bread and they ate. Does this sound familiar? Like uncle, like nephew? Much of this vocabulary is identical. Abraham met them at his tent on the hill, Lot met them at the gate of the city. At this point it sounds positive. However, remember the literary design? Remember we are in Sodom?

 

Timing, verse 4, 

 

“Before they had gone to bed,” All of the men, from all parts of the city, both young and old, surrounded Lot’s house, completely, verse 5, 

 

“They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.”

 

The Hebrew word for “have sex with” has been translated in English “to know.” It has only been used one other time so far, in Genesis 4, where Adam knew his wife Eve and she conceived and gave birth. 

 

Lot goes outside to meet with them, and notice, he shut the door behind him. Lot tries to reason with the mob, he says, verse 7, 

 

“No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing.”

If we were ancient Hebrew scholars we would immediately recognize the Hebrew word for “wicked” and the Hebrew word for “to know” look graphically similar. 

 

Then notice, Lot offers his virgin daughters in order to appease the crowd. Good grief! 

1. As if you can reason with a mob in the first place
2. What on earth was Lot thinking? Can’t you see his daughters looking at each other and thinking, “Is he crazy?”

 

Remember, Lot knows exactly who these two men are, they are messengers of God. He had to have been frantic while trying to shelter them. The mob of men arrived and Lot must have thought since he was an elder in the city, who spent time sitting at the city gate, he could somehow persuade his colleagues. 

 

Notice their response, verse 9,

 

“Get out of our way,” they replied. “This fellow came here as a foreigner, and now he wants to play the judge! We’ll treat you worse than them.” They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door.

 

So much for being a leader in the city?! The crowd was about to do away with Lot and break down the door, when the men inside the house, sent out their hand, brought Lot inside and closed the door. The messengers then proceeded to strike the mob with blindness, from the littlest to the biggest, so they struggled to even see the door. 

 

That was our opening scene of chapter 19.

 

There is a lot going on here, but what I want us to focus on is how this story is designed to communicate in light of our literary design pattern so far? 

 

If we break it down we have a group of men, young and old highlighting their pervasive evil intent. We have seen this before, where we had a city of men that emphasized the pervasiveness of evil, which resulted in a flood. If we go back to Genesis 6, verse 5, we read that Yahweh saw the “evil” of humanity. The same Hebrew word for evil, “ra” is used here. We also read that every purpose of the thoughts of their hearts was “ra” all the time. Yahweh’s opinion about the human heart doesn’t even change after the flood, Genesis 8:21b, 

 

“Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil (ra)from childhood.”

Sodom and Gomorrah are compared to this level of evil. They are the mega beast. These lines reveal to the reader that Yahweh is going to bring severe judgment against this city. Regardless of what Abraham might have argued, these lines provide legitimacy to God’s act of bringing justice against the pervasive evil that exists in this human city. 

 

The next correlation to the literary design is the evil intent of the men of Sodom, to gang rape the visitors. We could go into a litany of reasons this part of the story has created offences for different cultures over the centuries. Suffice it to say that sexual abuse of any kind is terrible. Today I want us to focus on the significance this has on our literary design. We have seen this before. 

 

Remember, the men that are inside the house? They are not your average humans. 

In fact, they are not humans at all. They are spiritual beings. We have already read a story involving sexual interactions between spiritual beings and humans, remember? Back in Genesis 6 in the story of the sons of Elohim and the daughters of humanity. A union that was illegitimate and out of order in God’s eyes. This story is a reflection back on the significance of that story in Genesis 6. The flood story began with a story that contained illicit sex between spiritual beings and humans and ended with a story of illicit sex in a tent that involved a father and a son. 

 

In this Sodom story things have been precisely inverted. It begins with a story of men, wanting to gang rape a group of male spiritual beings, and ends with a father having illicit sex with his daughters. 

Although the name of the city, Sodom, has come to be known as same sex intercourse, the author seems to have another intent. The crime that is reiterated here is  another illicit union of Heaven and Earth. 

 

Here is another interesting feature that I have discovered in my studies. The word for “ark,” in Noah’s ark, is not a Hebrew word, it is an Egyptian word. This word first appears in Genesis 6, verse 14, to describe what Noah was to build. The Hebrew word used is “tevah” and it is only ever used one other time in Scripture, in the story of Moses. It is the thing that Moses’ mother makes to put the baby in to help him float on the water and allows him to be saved. 

 

The word for ark, “tevah” in Hebrew, spelled backwards, is “habbayit” the Hebrew word for “house.” What does that mean for the story we just read? 

Every time you read the word “house” in Hebrew, you are reading the word, “ark” backwards. 

 

In this story, 

the house was surrounded by the men. 

For Noah, the ark was surrounded by water. 

 

The men go to the entrance of the house. 

Noah’s ark had an entrance on the side of the ark. 

 

In the story of the Ark, “Yahweh closed the door of the ark.” Here, Lot closed the door behind him and appealed to the mob, “No, don’t do this, these men have come here for shelter.” 

 

The mob almost breaks down the door. The flood tries to break down the door.

The men inside the house grab Lot, bring him inside and just like Yahweh, they close it. The house becomes a refuge, an ark. 

 

Next week we will continue with the men inside the house telling Lot to go tell his family to flee for their safety, just like Noah did for his family. 

 

There we have it, the flood story retold in a different manner. What do we do with this? 

 

We began the story with Lot starting out in parallel with Abraham, seeming to be gracious in responding to the two visitors, much like Abraham did. Lot could obviously see they were messengers of God. Is that why he insists they stay at his house, a refuge, instead of in the city center on a bench? Lot certainly knows what goes on in this city that he lives in. In fact, Lot calls it evil. 

So we have Lot, who was trying to do well in Sodom, but let’s face it, Lot lives in Sodom, where we all know what happens there. The epitome of moral complexities. 

 

Check in time. 

 

Life for us is no different than it was for Lot? Check around, look at our world today. We still have our Sodoms and we still have our “arks.” And somehow, like Lot, we do our best to live graciously and not get caught up in the evil that’s going on. 

 

Abraham and Sarah haven’t proven to be much better. In one chapter they are walking with faith and trust and the next chapter they were sexually abusing an immigrant slave. 

The Bible provides us with real life scenarios of real people. That should not only help us to make positive decisions, but also remind us that regardless, God has our back and will see us through, if we continue to put our focus on Him. 

 

Here’s where God’s love is significant. Not only does God have our back, He’s felt our pain, experienced exactly what it is like to be human and lived amongst our moral complexities. As God, He was able to do so perfectly and therefore become the perfect sacrifice needed to save us from all our sins. 

 

We celebrate His life, death and resurrection today with the Lord’s Supper.