†. Gen 19:14a . . So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who
had married his daughters,
Sons-in-law and daughters are plural. So Lot had at least two more
daughters living outside the home with husbands. They will stay behind; and
burn to death; and so will Lot's grandchildren; if any.
Where were the sons-in-law when the flash went off back in verse 11? Didn't
it effect them? The flash actually only effected those who tried to break
down the door. Lot's sons-in-law were out in the streets that night along
with everyone else because Genesis said in verse 4 that everyone in Sodom
to the last man was present. Apparently, after the mob's attempt to lay
hands on the angels proved unsuccessful, Lot's sons-in-law remained nearby
to see what would happen next.
†. Gen 19:14b . . and said: Up, get out of this place, for the Lord is
about to destroy the city. But he seemed to his sons-in-law as a
jester.
Lot's daughters had married Sodom men, with very sorrowful results. Lot's
in-laws didn't share his religious principles, and had no interest whatsoever
in his god. The husbands were counted among Sodom's citizens who were
"very wicked sinners against the Lord."
Sodom was not only a bad environment for a man of God to build a life and
a career, but it was also a very bad place to raise a family. He gave his
daughters in matrimony to unholy men and now the girls are going to die
right along with the rest of Sodom; and possibly some of Lot's grandchildren
burned to death too. That's an awful high price to pay to achieve one's
personal ambition.
†. Gen 19:15-16a . . As dawn broke, the angels urged Lot on, saying:
Up, take your wife and your two remaining daughters, lest you be
swept away because of the iniquity of the city. Still he delayed.
In verses 10, 12, and 16, the messengers are called men. In verses 1 and
15, they're called "angels". In verses 17 and 21, they're called "he". In verse
18, Lot called them 'Adonay. In verses 21 and 22, they speak in the first
persona as "I". When you put it all together, it's apparent that God visited
Sodom as a pair of male human beings. Why God appeared to Abraham as
three human beings, rather than two, is a mystery.
The word for "delayed" is mahahh (maw-hah') which means: to question or
hesitate, i.e. (by implication) to be reluctant
I can best picture this with a scene from John Steinbeck's novel: The Grapes
Of Wrath.
When the day came for the Joad clan to move out of their shack from the
impoverished Oklahoma Dust Bowl to California during the economic
depression of the 1930s, Ma Joad spent a few last minutes alone inside
going through a box of mementos. She had lived in Oklahoma many years,
since she was a young bride-- raised her family there and enjoyed the
company of her kin. As she held up an old pair of earrings, looking at herself
in a mirror, it pierced her heart to see etched in her face the many years
that she had lived as a sharecropper; and that it was all now coming to
naught. Her home was soon to be flattened by a bulldozer.
I can imagine that the Lots walked through the rooms in their house,
reminiscing all the things that took place in their home over the years. As
the girls grew up, maturing into young women, they made marks each year
on a doorjamb to record their height. They looked at the beds where each
girl slept for so many nights from their youth; and Mrs. Lot thought back to
the days when she gave homebirth to each one in turn, read bedtime
stories, and rocked them all to sleep.
Leaving a home of many years rends the soul; most especially if kids grew
up there too. When I was about eleven, my parents sold the place where I
had lived since toddlerhood. I had a life there out in nature with boyhood
pals: fishing and hunting and exploring. It was so idyllic. Then we moved. I
was never the same after that. My heart was in that first home and never
left it. Subsequently, I became withdrawn, introverted, and disconnected;
never really succeeding in replacing my boyhood pals with new friends who
could give me a sense of belonging.
Years later, when ol' Harry Truman perished in the Mount Ste. Helens blast,
I totally understood why he chose to remain instead of fleeing to safety.
That mountain, and his lodge, had been a part of Harry's life for just too
many years. Mr. Truman felt that if that mountain went, then life wouldn't
be worth living any more. He decided to go with the mountain rather than
see it go and leave him behind to exist without it.
†. Gen 19:16b . . So the men seized his hand, and the hands of his
wife and his two daughters-- in the Lord's mercy on him-- and
brought him out and left him outside the city.
The word for "mercy" in that verse is from chemlah (khem-law') which
means: commiseration; which Webster's defines as: feeling sympathy for
and/or feeling sorrow or compassion for. Unless one's feelings are in the
mix, their commiseration is a hollow sham.
Does anybody out there reading this feel the plight of Lot's family? Can you
feel any of their pain? Can you feel their sorrow? Do you feel any sympathy
for them at all? None? Well . . anyway; God did. Yes, He was going to burn
their home down and kill the daughters who stayed behind. But God took no
pleasure in it whatsoever.
†. Lam 1:12 . . Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look around and
see. Is any suffering like my suffering that was inflicted on me, that The
Lord brought on me in the day of his fierce anger?
Is the Lot family's fate nothing to you-- all you online who journey with me
today through this passage in Gen 19? Just another Bible story? Well . .
those were real people you know.
†. Mtt 5:7 . . Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
The Greek word for "merciful" in that verse is eleemon (el-eh-ay'-mone)
which means essentially the same thing as chemlah. According to Jesus,
non-commiserating people will get no sympathy from God whatsoever.
Cont.
/
had married his daughters,
Sons-in-law and daughters are plural. So Lot had at least two more
daughters living outside the home with husbands. They will stay behind; and
burn to death; and so will Lot's grandchildren; if any.
Where were the sons-in-law when the flash went off back in verse 11? Didn't
it effect them? The flash actually only effected those who tried to break
down the door. Lot's sons-in-law were out in the streets that night along
with everyone else because Genesis said in verse 4 that everyone in Sodom
to the last man was present. Apparently, after the mob's attempt to lay
hands on the angels proved unsuccessful, Lot's sons-in-law remained nearby
to see what would happen next.
†. Gen 19:14b . . and said: Up, get out of this place, for the Lord is
about to destroy the city. But he seemed to his sons-in-law as a
jester.
Lot's daughters had married Sodom men, with very sorrowful results. Lot's
in-laws didn't share his religious principles, and had no interest whatsoever
in his god. The husbands were counted among Sodom's citizens who were
"very wicked sinners against the Lord."
Sodom was not only a bad environment for a man of God to build a life and
a career, but it was also a very bad place to raise a family. He gave his
daughters in matrimony to unholy men and now the girls are going to die
right along with the rest of Sodom; and possibly some of Lot's grandchildren
burned to death too. That's an awful high price to pay to achieve one's
personal ambition.
†. Gen 19:15-16a . . As dawn broke, the angels urged Lot on, saying:
Up, take your wife and your two remaining daughters, lest you be
swept away because of the iniquity of the city. Still he delayed.
In verses 10, 12, and 16, the messengers are called men. In verses 1 and
15, they're called "angels". In verses 17 and 21, they're called "he". In verse
18, Lot called them 'Adonay. In verses 21 and 22, they speak in the first
persona as "I". When you put it all together, it's apparent that God visited
Sodom as a pair of male human beings. Why God appeared to Abraham as
three human beings, rather than two, is a mystery.
The word for "delayed" is mahahh (maw-hah') which means: to question or
hesitate, i.e. (by implication) to be reluctant
I can best picture this with a scene from John Steinbeck's novel: The Grapes
Of Wrath.
When the day came for the Joad clan to move out of their shack from the
impoverished Oklahoma Dust Bowl to California during the economic
depression of the 1930s, Ma Joad spent a few last minutes alone inside
going through a box of mementos. She had lived in Oklahoma many years,
since she was a young bride-- raised her family there and enjoyed the
company of her kin. As she held up an old pair of earrings, looking at herself
in a mirror, it pierced her heart to see etched in her face the many years
that she had lived as a sharecropper; and that it was all now coming to
naught. Her home was soon to be flattened by a bulldozer.
I can imagine that the Lots walked through the rooms in their house,
reminiscing all the things that took place in their home over the years. As
the girls grew up, maturing into young women, they made marks each year
on a doorjamb to record their height. They looked at the beds where each
girl slept for so many nights from their youth; and Mrs. Lot thought back to
the days when she gave homebirth to each one in turn, read bedtime
stories, and rocked them all to sleep.
Leaving a home of many years rends the soul; most especially if kids grew
up there too. When I was about eleven, my parents sold the place where I
had lived since toddlerhood. I had a life there out in nature with boyhood
pals: fishing and hunting and exploring. It was so idyllic. Then we moved. I
was never the same after that. My heart was in that first home and never
left it. Subsequently, I became withdrawn, introverted, and disconnected;
never really succeeding in replacing my boyhood pals with new friends who
could give me a sense of belonging.
Years later, when ol' Harry Truman perished in the Mount Ste. Helens blast,
I totally understood why he chose to remain instead of fleeing to safety.
That mountain, and his lodge, had been a part of Harry's life for just too
many years. Mr. Truman felt that if that mountain went, then life wouldn't
be worth living any more. He decided to go with the mountain rather than
see it go and leave him behind to exist without it.
†. Gen 19:16b . . So the men seized his hand, and the hands of his
wife and his two daughters-- in the Lord's mercy on him-- and
brought him out and left him outside the city.
The word for "mercy" in that verse is from chemlah (khem-law') which
means: commiseration; which Webster's defines as: feeling sympathy for
and/or feeling sorrow or compassion for. Unless one's feelings are in the
mix, their commiseration is a hollow sham.
Does anybody out there reading this feel the plight of Lot's family? Can you
feel any of their pain? Can you feel their sorrow? Do you feel any sympathy
for them at all? None? Well . . anyway; God did. Yes, He was going to burn
their home down and kill the daughters who stayed behind. But God took no
pleasure in it whatsoever.
†. Lam 1:12 . . Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look around and
see. Is any suffering like my suffering that was inflicted on me, that The
Lord brought on me in the day of his fierce anger?
Is the Lot family's fate nothing to you-- all you online who journey with me
today through this passage in Gen 19? Just another Bible story? Well . .
those were real people you know.
†. Mtt 5:7 . . Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
The Greek word for "merciful" in that verse is eleemon (el-eh-ay'-mone)
which means essentially the same thing as chemlah. According to Jesus,
non-commiserating people will get no sympathy from God whatsoever.
Cont.
/
