[And He Walks With Me] Genesis 19

1        In most ancient cities, the city gate was where the community leaders gathered to conduct official business. Typically, the town’s elders would sit at the gate, and people could bring their concerns and disputes to them. After each party presented their case, the elders would make a decision. The fact that Lot was sitting in Sodom’s gateway indicates he was a leader in the community. This is significant because Lot was an outsider. Typically, outsiders were never granted the social capital to sit as an elder. Lot, then, was extraordinarily influential.

Unfortunately, Sodom was a community characterized by rampant sin and violence. This raises an important question: was Lot among the leaders of the community because he was a leading sinner, or because he was working to reform the city? The fact that he got up to meet thembowed with his face to the ground, and offered them a place to stay and protection in the following verses suggests that he was righteous and working toward reforms. After all, no one else apparently did these things. Yet, that could have been a lingering remnant of his former righteousness. In all likelihood, Lot was trying to play both sides, and the result was a life of significant cognitive dissonance. He knew what he was supposed to do in God’s eyes, and he did that when it was not too much trouble. Yet, he also knew what was popular and valued in the community’s eyes, and that drove a significant portion of his actions and attitudes. Lest we frown upon Lot for this behavior, we must recognize that it is still extremely common today. There are many who claim to be Christians, and they behave like one when it is not too much trouble. Yet, they are also driven by what is popular and valued in the community’s eyes, and that is far from aligned with the will of God. The result is a life of cognitive dissonance in which we know what we are supposed to do but often do not act accordingly.

2-3        No doubt, Lot knew that, if these visitors [spent] the night in the square, they would be assaulted by the locals. This is likely why he urged them so strongly. Lot may have, in many ways, conformed to the surrounding culture, but he still knew what was right and wrong, and he realized that the community’s behavior would bring shame and judgment. Thus, he insisted these visitors stay with him in the hopes of saving the community’s and his reputation.

4-5        The prolific sinfulness of the city is on full display here. Before they went to bed means that it was still early. They did not wait until most of the population was asleep to conduct themselves with shame. They did it when everyone was awake to see what was going on. Both young and old, the whole population shows that this was not just the foolish youth or another segment of the community. No, this was a gang large enough to [surround] the house, and they all demanded the opportunity to rape Lot’s visitors.

6-8        Lot’s offer to bring… out to you his daughters who haven’t been intimate with a man so that the men of the city can do whatever [they] want to them is shocking to modern sensibilities, to put it mildly. This, however, was the nature and importance of hospitality in ancient cultures. See note on 18:6-8 for more.

9-11        In an ironic twist of events, it was Lot’s guests who protected him and his family from the crowd.

Although Lot was seated among the community leaders earlier in the day, as soon as he stood against the culture, they rejected him as an alien and thought he was acting like a judge. When people are committed to doing what they know is wrong, they will not tolerate anyone who they perceive to be challenging their behavior.

14        When we are so engrossed in sin, we do not take seriously God’s power to judge. Lot was going to give his daughters in marriage to men who were so engrossed. When Lot risked his own safety to warn them, they thought he was joking and laughed at him. The irony is that they had accused he was condescending them, but now, they were condescending him.

16        The fact that Lot hesitated, and the angels had to [grab]his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hands of his two daughters and [bring] him out and [leave] him outside the city is significant. The reluctance to leave is a strong indication that Lot and his family were also invested in the city’s sinfulness.

18-20        Lot’s desire to compromise is demonstrated again. Rather than run to the mountains beyond the influence of Sodom’s influence, he proposed this town  that was close enough for me to flee to. Notice, though, the rest of his reasoning: It is a small place and it’s only a small place, isn’t it? Too often, we may resolve to avoid the worst sin, but instead of fleeing all the way to beyond the influence of that temptation and sin, we desire to settle just on the edge of it so we can flirt with it, reminisce about it, perhaps even dabble with it as opportunity arises. We try to stay as close to sin as possible without being swept away (17). Even when faced with the complete destruction of Sodom, this was Lot’s problem!

21-22        In his graciousness, God agreed to not demolish the town you mentioned, but the reader is given the strong impression that God was not happy about this arrangement. God’s grace drives him to spare a lot of things now that will not be spared later. Do not mistake his gracious forbearance for endorsement.

I cannot do anything until you get there reinforces the nature of Lot’s compromise in vss 18-20. If God would wait for Lot to reach the town before he destroyed Sodom, it seems reasonable that he expected to wait for Lot to reach the mountains.

26        Again, we see Lot’s and his family’s compromise. Lot’s wife looked back was less about looking to see what God was doing and more about looking with regret on the things about Sodom that she would be missing.

30-38        Now, the full spectre of Lot’s and his family’s compromise is revealed. The daughters’ plan to get [their] father to drink wine so that [they] can sleep with him and preserve [their] father’s line is a special kind of detestable. Indeed, “incest [of this sort] is already viewed in negative terms in the ancient world,” condemned in Hammurapi’s laws even before the Mosaic Law condemned it.[40] However, two things should be noted. First, Lot is at least partially exonerated in that they had to get him drunk first (i.e., he would not do it otherwise). Second, their plan was hatched out of desperation because “it most likely seemed to Lot’s daughters that they were the last people on earth”[41] and Lot “apparently had made no effort to find spouses for his daughters” as was expected at the time.[42]

It is interesting to contrast Lot’s position at the beginning of this chapter with his position at the end. At the beginning of the chapter, he was sitting in Sodom’s gateway as a leading elder of the sinful city. At the end, he recognized the magnitude of sin and so lived in the mountains along with his two daughters, because he was afraid to live in Zoar. That is, he isolated himself and his daughters for fear that they would be caught up in sin and destroyed as Sodom was. Lot therefore went from embracing temptation and sin to completely eschewing the entire world to avoid temptation and sin altogether. In both cases, terrible things happened, showing that neither of his responses were appropriate. We must find a way to simultaneously engage with the world and avoid sin.

36-38        Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father. Their sons, Moab and Ben-ammi became the progenitors of the nations of Moab and Ammon, respectively. It is interesting that these nations would grow up to seduce Israel into their pagan practices. Moab, in particular, is noted for this in Numbers 25 following the incident with Balaam and his donkey.