Genesis 18:16-19:38--The Destruction of Sodom, Gomorrah, and the Other Canaanites Cities of the Plain

Genesis 18:16-19:38
World English Bible

16 The men rose up from there, and looked toward Sodom. Abraham went with them to see them on their way. 17 Yahweh said, “Will I hide from Abraham what I do, 18 since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed in him? 19 For I have known him, to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of Yahweh, to do righteousness and justice; to the end that Yahweh may bring on Abraham that which he has spoken of him.” 20 Yahweh said, “Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous, 21 I will go down now, and see whether their deeds are as bad as the reports which have come to me. If not, I will know.”

22 The men turned from there, and went toward Sodom, but Abraham stood yet before Yahweh. 23 Abraham came near, and said, “Will you consume the righteous with the wicked? 24 What if there are fifty righteous within the city? Will you consume and not spare the place for the fifty righteous who are in it? 25 May it be far from you to do things like that, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be like the wicked. May that be far from you. Shouldn’t the Judge of all the earth do right?”

26 Yahweh said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare the whole place for their sake.” 27 Abraham answered, “See now, I have taken it on myself to speak to the Lord, although I am dust and ashes. 28 What if there will lack five of the fifty righteous? Will you destroy all the city for lack of five?”

He said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.”

29 He spoke to him yet again, and said, “What if there are forty found there?”

He said, “I will not do it for the forty’s sake.”

30 He said, “Oh don’t let the Lord be angry, and I will speak. What if there are thirty found there?”

He said, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”

31 He said, “See now, I have taken it on myself to speak to the Lord. What if there are twenty found there?”

He said, “I will not destroy it for the twenty’s sake.”

32 He said, “Oh don’t let the Lord be angry, and I will speak just once more. What if ten are found there?”

He said, “I will not destroy it for the ten’s sake.”

33 Yahweh went his way as soon as he had finished communing with Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.

19 The two angels came to Sodom at evening. Lot sat in the gate of Sodom. Lot saw them, and rose up to meet them. He bowed himself with his face to the earth, 2 and he said, “See now, my lords, please come into your servant’s house, stay all night, wash your feet, and you can rise up early, and go on your way.”

They said, “No, but we will stay in the street all night.”

3 He urged them greatly, and they came in with him, and entered into his house. He made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. 4 But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter. 5 They called to Lot, and said to him, “Where are the men who came in to you this night? Bring them out to us, that we may have sex with them.”

6 Lot went out to them through the door, and shut the door after himself. 7 He said, “Please, my brothers, don’t act so wickedly. 8 See now, I have two virgin daughters. Please let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them what seems good to you. Only don’t do anything to these men, because they have come under the shadow of my roof.”

9 They said, “Stand back!” Then they said, “This one fellow came in to live as a foreigner, and he appoints himself a judge. Now we will deal worse with you than with them!” They pressed hard on the man Lot, and came near to break the door. 10 But the men reached out their hand, and brought Lot into the house to them, and shut the door. 11 They struck the men who were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves to find the door.

12 The men said to Lot, “Do you have anybody else here? Sons-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city, bring them out of the place: 13 for we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown so great before Yahweh that Yahweh has sent us to destroy it.”

14 Lot went out, and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters, and said, “Get up! Get out of this place, for Yahweh will destroy the city!”

But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be joking. 15 When the morning came, then the angels hurried Lot, saying, “Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the iniquity of the city.” 16 But he lingered; and the men grabbed his hand, his wife’s hand, and his two daughters’ hands, Yahweh being merciful to him; and they took him out, and set him outside of the city. 17 It came to pass, when they had taken them out, that he said, “Escape for your life! Don’t look behind you, and don’t stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be consumed!”

18 Lot said to them, “Oh, not so, my lord. 19 See now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your loving kindness, which you have shown to me in saving my life. I can’t escape to the mountain, lest evil overtake me, and I die. 20 See now, this city is near to flee to, and it is a little one. Oh let me escape there (isn’t it a little one?), and my soul will live.”

21 He said to him, “Behold, I have granted your request concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken. 22 Hurry, escape there, for I can’t do anything until you get there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.

23 The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. 24 Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Yahweh out of the sky. 25 He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew on the ground. 26 But Lot’s wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

27 Abraham went up early in the morning to the place where he had stood before Yahweh. 28 He looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and saw that the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace.

29 When God destroyed the cities of the plain, God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the middle of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.

30 Lot went up out of Zoar, and lived in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to live in Zoar. He lived in a cave with his two daughters. 31 The firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in to us in the way of all the earth. 32 Come, let’s make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve our father’s family line.” 33 They made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father. He didn’t know when she lay down, nor when she arose. 34 It came to pass on the next day, that the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let’s make him drink wine again tonight. You go in, and lie with him, that we may preserve our father’s family line.” 35 They made their father drink wine that night also. The younger went and lay with him. He didn’t know when she lay down, nor when she got up. 36 Thus both of Lot’s daughters were with child by their father. 37 The firstborn bore a son, and named him Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day. 38 The younger also bore a son, and called his name Ben Ammi. He is the father of the children of Ammon to this day.

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Similar to how the LORD came down and inspected things before the judgment of man at The Tower of Babel, the LORD had come down with the two angels that were with Him to see the wickedness of Sodom, Gomorrah and the other Canaanites cites of the Jordan Plain and to judge them.  Today's passage is an abrupt shift from the discussion of a renewed covenant of descendants and the promise of an heir that was of their own flesh and blood for Abraham and Sarah.  The LORD cannot hide from Abraham what He is about to do, and it is the same way with many things that the LORD is going to do in the future and us.  "15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant doesn’t know what his lord does. But I have called you friends, for everything that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you." (John 15:15, WEB).  Now, Jesus is specifically speaking of the gospel going forth to all nations and the fact that He chose these Eleven to be Apostles to lead the Church, and that this has been God's "Plan A" from the very beginning, but the point stands hat Jesus revealed many things to His disciples, especially in the last days before He dies to tell them about the future and what God's plan was for them, for the nation of Israel, and for the world.

​Abraham is rightfully concerned, because his nephew Lot is now living in the city of Sodom and his daughter have taken husbands for themselves from among the people of Sodom.  It was towards Sodom that the LORD looked when He asked Himself, “Will I hide from Abraham what I do, 18 since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed in him? For I have known him, to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of Yahweh, to do righteousness and justice; to the end that Yahweh may bring on Abraham that which he has spoken of him."

Then the LORD stopped speaking to Himself so that Abraham could hear him and instead spoke to Abraham saying, “Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous, 21 I will go down now, and see whether their deeds are as bad as the reports which have come to me. If not, I will know.”  Again, this reminds me of the inspection that the LORD did before confusing the languages of men at the Tower of Babel.  It is not enough for the LORD to have seen and heard about the wickedness of the Canaanites from far off.  He must come down and inspect to make sure that His judgment is just and righteous and to make sure that the righteous are not caught up in the judgment of the wicked, though Abraham does not yet know that last part and this is an opportunity for him and us to learn that fact.

A lot of space is then given to a "negotiation" between Abraham and God where Abraham is trying to figure out how many righteous people the LORD is willing to stay His hand of judgment for so that the righteous do not perish with the wicked in the fiery judgment that is coming on Sodom and Gomorrah.  The "trite" answer to why the "good" people supper alongside the bad is that there are no "good" people, but that is a discussion for another day.  The New Testament points out that Lot is really one of the "righteous."  He is a prophet of God living among the most wicked men, trying to warn them of the judgment that is coming for their sin and rebellion and trying to live as a righteous, counter-cultural example to them among a people that are constantly trying to make him and his family live in their culture and be accepting of their sin and even to celebrate it.  This may change your perspective on Lot.  He was by no means a perfect prophet or parent (no one is), but the Spirit wanted us to know in the New Testament that Lot wasn't ask bad as we try to make him out to be and his heart was genuinely distressed in his spirit having to see and live among the wicked lusts of these Canaanites in Sodom (see 2 Peter 2:4-9 especially verse 7--look at the entire passage for greater context on how to view this particular event and you'll see why I usually talk about the Flood and the destruction of Sodom together as events that are judgment for the wicked, but salvation for the righteous).  Abraham thinks he needs to convince God to save Lot and his family, but it is already in the mind and heart of God to save all who belong to Him.  Now, those members of Lot's family who decided to stay behind or who turned back because they loved what was behind more than what was ahead were destroyed in the judgment (the husbands of Lot's daughters and Lot's wife).  Not everyone will be saved simply because of blood relation or proximity or familiarity with someone who is going to be saved.  Each person must make their won decision whether or not to be a citizen of the kingdom of this world or an ambassador for the kingdom of God--a kingdom that is not of this world.  Only Jesus can transform you to make you a child of God by Adoption to be coheirs with Him and to receive every spiritual blessing that He deserves.  We are declared righteous because He has taken our unrighteousness that are like dirty, filthy garments, washed us with His blood and His Word and then clothed us in HIs perfect righteousness so that when God sees us, He sees the Son.

Abraham thinks that the existence of the righteous will keep God's judgment from every coming.  That's not exactly correct.  A time is coming when it will be like grapes that are ready to be harvested and God is going to first make sure that that only the grapes are harvested for judgment.  The righteous will look very different--they are like sheaves of grain that are also ready to harvest, though grain and grapes have different seasons for harvesting them.  The righteous will be harvested by the Lord of the Harvest Himself when it is their season and the righteous will be taken to the place that has been prepared for them.  The unrighteous, that is the wicked, will be harvested by the angels who execute their judgment on the wicked, but they will be careful to mark everyone ahead of time who belongs to the LORD and to make sure that none of them are caught up in the judgment.  So it is that what we see here is a preview of the final judgment that is to come (which is what that passage in 2 Peter is telling us-).  The righteous have no need to fear the future judgment of God because they are not destined for His wrath.  Only the wicked need to see that day approaching and fear it.  Hopefully that fear is a good motivator to get them to repent and humbly fall on their knees and faces before the LORD to ask Him to save them from themselves.

We then have a change of scenery as we switch to the perspective of the two angels that have gone to Sodom to find Lot and all those who belong to him and to bring those who would leave to a place of safety before the fiery judgment fell, but there was no time for them delay.  If they did try to delay, there was the possibility that they would get caught in the judgment (this is like those who say they are going to delay their repentance until the absolute last second and think they are somehow going to trick God into giving them the inheritance that belongs to the righteous when they lived their lives dedicated to wickedness.  Deathbed confessions are real, but we should not depend on knowing when death is going to take us, nor should we depend on being able to realize when the Lord is returning for His people as He's going to come "like a thief in the night"--unannounced and gone as quickly as He came.  The thief dos not stick around to be caught--he gets what he came for and makes a quick exit.  So it will be when Christ returns for His Bride.  It will all happen in what the Bible calls "the twinkling of an eye."  In just a fraction of a second it will be done--the dead in Christ will be raised first and then those who are still living will be joined together with Him and those in Christ who have proceeded them in death in the air, and they will all live with the Lord forever and ever, never to be separated from Him again.

The angels meet Lot at the gate where Lot has been hanging out doing business and probably prophesying to the Canaanites who were gathered together there to do business.  Lot was the only man at the gate who offered hospitality to these strangers.  They pretended (or may well have initially intended) that they were going to sleep in the city square, but Lot knew this was not safe for them and insisted that they spend the night at his house.  Keep reading to see why it was the Lot didn't want them to be out in public at night.  The people of the city had a far different view of "hospitality" than Lot did.

The men of the city were aware of the presence of these strangers, and they were aware that Lot offered them lodging for the night because all the important men of the city were gathered at the city gate to conduct business.  That is the way things were done back then, so Lot's invitation was made publicly.  He was declaring to all those around him that these visitors were his guests and under his care and protection.  The men of the city did not like that and they decided to form a rape mob to come after the visitors and assault them to "welcome" them to their city.  Apparently this is what they did to all men who came to visit them, and they may have even rationalized their actions by assuming that no one would come visit them unless this is what they wanted, for their reputation was well established.

The angels struck the men of the city that were trying to beat down the door of Lot's house with blindness so that Lot and his family could pas through their midst and escape.  The time for both judgment and salvation was at hand and there was no more time to make decisions.  Those who were with the angels were leaving and those who were not were staying behind, but we will read about one who started to leave but then turned around and looked back and she too was judged, being turned into a pillar of salt.

Luke 17:31-33
World English Bible
31 In that day, he who will be on the housetop and his goods in the house, let him not go down to take them away. Let him who is in the field likewise not turn back. 32 Remember Lot’s wife! 33 Whoever seeks to save his life loses it, but whoever loses his life preserves it.

Lot is told that he had to get as far away as possible before sunrise and he does not believe that he can make it to the mountain caves that the angels have instructed him to run to.  Instead he suggests a small town that is nearby called Zoar (its name literally means "Small") and asks that the LORD preserve that place so that Lot and his family could make it that far as it is close enough for them to get to before sunrise.  I am sure God would have either delayed judgment long enough to get to the caves or that God would have miraculously gotten Lot and his family to the caves if they had been willing to go and believe by faith that the LORD could make the impossible things possible--if only Lot had still been around to hear about Abraham and Sarah and how they were going to have a baby in their old age.  God is in the business of doing "impossible" things to bring about the salvation of His people so that He alone gets the glory.

Even though Zoar is nearby, Lot's wife can't resist looking back.  Her heart is with the people and the city that they are leaving behind that are being destroyed.  As soon as she turned back and looked, she was turned into a pillar of salt. "But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for God’s Kingdom.”" (Luke 9:62, WEB).  This is the meaning of the lyrics in the song "I Have Decided to Follow Jesus" with a chorus that ends "No turning back, no turning back."

All the cities of the Plain--Sodom, Gomorrah, and all the other Canaanite cites where Lot lived with the exception of Zoar were destroyed with fire and brimstone that rained down from heaven.  This was a warning to all the Canaanites of the coming judgment if they did not repent and it is a warning to all men of the fiery judgment of the Lake of Fire that awaits all those who choose to rebel against God and refuse to repent before the Day of Judgment.

Lot left Zoar and eventually did live in the very mountains that the angels tried to get him to flee to.  After some time passed, his daughters sought to have children (specifically sons) for themselves so that their family tree would not die off, for their husbands had died in the destruction of Sodom.  They hatched a plan to get their father drunk and have sex with him so that they could become pregnant by way of incest (and this is a form of rape since Lot was not a willing participant).  It is telling they knew their father well enough to know that he would never commit incest with them willingly, but they knew they could get so drunk that he would lose his ability to say "no."  They have learned the lessons of the Canaanites quite well.  The LORD took them away from the Canaanites, but we should not be surprised that they still act like Canaanites when they were raised among them and married Canaanite men.  Be careful about the culture your children are saturated in, even if you are on a missionary journey, for they will naturally pick up on the worldview of those around them.  The hearts of all men are naturally bent on evil, but the hearts of these Canaanites were especially evil and it is hard to imagine that God wanted Lot to be raising his family among them and wanted his daughters marrying their men and potentially having children with them (it is by the grace of God that is appears they had no children with their Canaanite husbands before they were destroyed).

This will be the beginning of the kingdoms/nations of Moab and Ammon (the Moabites and Ammonites).  God will spare these peoples judgment for a time because of their relationship to Abraham's family through Lot, but that relationship was not enough to save them forever as they became more and more wicked as time progressed and they hated the people of Israeli and they worked hard to try to get God to break His covenant with His people.  That being said, God is going to use a particular Moabite woman (Ruth) to bring about the salvation of both Jews and Gentiles as she is the great-grandmother of King David who is the ancestor to Jesus, the Son of David.  She is one of three women mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus and all of them are mentioned on purpose--we'll talk about each of them as we get to their stories.