SODOMIZE
Here is another troubling story from Genesis in regards to how women were seen in the eyes of the Jews of the Old Testament. For those of you who really believe we need religion to teach basic morals I ask you to look for the moral here. Two angels arrive at Sodom in search of 10 righteous people. If the ten are not found the city is to be destroyed. Lot, Abraham’s brother is camped at the gates of the city; he sees the angels and pleads with them to stay with him.
Ge 19:1 The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground.
Now here there is little description of the angels, so how does it that Lot knows their identity. Some would argue he was simply being a Good Samaritan warning strangers of the city’s horrific nightlife. Also, take note that he is a significant landowner, but bows burying his face in the sand as the two strangers approach.
Ge 19:2 “My lords,” he said, “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.” “No,” they answered, “we will spend the night in the square.”
Ge 19:3 But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate.
I have inferred here that the angels are attractive and dressed in a manner that may have implied they had wealth. As this wealthy landowner, insisted on having them stay the night in his home. This bread without yeast is significant, but I am not educated enough to rationalize why angels need to eat.
Ge 19:4 Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom —both young and old—surrounded the house.
Ge 19:5 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.”
Clearly, the situation is deteriorating outside as these mad horny men surround Lot’s humble home. Now I understand cities can be clannish and known for making outsiders the object for violence in order to deter unwanted populace, but clearly, these men want a little something more. In my mind, I can envision mad mobs of men with clubs, torches, and blades, but to see a bunch of intoxicated men calling out for sex is in the least disturbing.
Ge 19:6 Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him
Ge 19:7 and said, “No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing.
Lot would clearly make a poor negotiator, as he does a terrible job here. “No my friends do no do this evil thing!” What exactly is the relationship Lot has with these people?
Ge 19:8 Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”
Now this part gets my blood boiling and should for you all, especially women. Being a father myself, this disturbs me and it would be a cold day in hell before I would give my daughter to a mob of sex maniacs. What makes it worse is Lot is sweetening the deal by informing the men that his two daughters have never known men and that they are more that welcome to do what they will with them! But don’t do anything to these men they have come under the protection of my roof?
Ge 19:9 “Get out of our way,” they replied. And they said, “This fellow came here as an alien, 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.
Ge 19:10 But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door.
The angry mob is not pleased with Lot’s offer and refers to him as an Alien. This opens a lot of questions, but for the sake of time let us stay with two. Has Lot suffered this “getting to know you” welcoming comity himself? Are Lot’s daughters so hideous that the mob considers it an insult?
Ge 19:11 Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door.
Now I do not subscribe to miracles, but I would love to know how these strangers blinded a mob of men to the point they were unable to find the door to Lot’s home. There is no mention of a bright light, powder, or magic only the word struck.
Ge 19:12 The two men said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here—sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here,
Ge 19:13 because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the LORD against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it.”
Here the angels include Lot in God’s plan to destroy the city as it is clear there are no righteous people here. What I do find disturbing is the reference that the angels are going to destroy the city not God. Many believe these men are extraterrestrials, well I guess an angel is not of this earth.
Ge 19:14 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry 90 his daughters. He said, “Hurry and get out of this place, because the LORD is about to destroy the city! ” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.
Now surely the son’s in laws have heard about the two strangers blinding a mob of men and that something serious was about to happen. If they were laughing, it would show that they were not worthy of the two hot babes he had offered them.
Ge 19:15 With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished. ”
Ge 19:16 When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the LORD was merciful to them.
Here again I wonder how much of a participant Lot was with the lustful men of Sodom. It seems that for him to have lived so close to sin city that he could remain without becoming involved. Maybe this is why he pleads for the angels to take mercy on the city.
Ge 19:17 As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!”
Ge 19:18 But Lot said to them, “No, my lords, please!
Ge 19:19 Your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die.
Excuse me if I botch this interpretation, but Lot says your servant has found favor in your eyes, meaning that we are to serve the angels and Lord. Now that Lot is a safe distance away from the blinded mob, he relays the message that it is impossible for him to make it to the mountains in time. These details give me grief mainly because the angels and the lord should be quite aware of Lots potential mobility and would not ask him to do something he was unable to accomplish.
Ge 19:20 Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it—it is very small, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared.”
Ge 19:21 He said to him, “Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of.
Ge 19:22 But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it.” (That is why the town was called Zoar. )
Again, time and time when one reads the bible and finds oneself scratching their head. It is not because we lack the knowledge to comprehend only the material itself is simply not logical. Zero hour is upon Lot and his family, as the two angels prepare to let loose the burning sulfur meanwhile Lot is fretting over a place to hide. Then miraculously Lot calls out, “Oh look there is a little town, look how small it is. If I go to the small town, my life will be spared. As the angel drags his toe in the sand and sighs heavily, “Aw all right you can go to the little town, but hurry up man, we have schedule to keep!”
Ge 19:23 By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land.
Ge 19:24 Then the LORD rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah —from the LORD out of the heavens.
Ge 19:25 Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land.
Ge 19:26 But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
Many have cited these verses as the equivalent to a nuclear explosion, delivered by extraterrestrials. Burning sulfur is more akin to napalm, as some have theorized that maybe a volcanic eruption may have been the cause. Whatever one believes of the first two conclusions the fate of Lot’s wife should be the most ludicrous or horrific. To become a pillar of salt is truly unscientific and insane. Was she reduced to a block of salt for the sheep to lick? Could Abraham not see his brother’s wife frozen in time as he surveyed the destruction below?
Ge 19:27 Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the LORD.
Ge 19:28 He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace.
Ge 19:29 So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.
The conclusion here is not very satisfactory as we are given only few details of how this extraordinary event took place. Three angels earlier in which one turned out to be the Lord visited Abraham. Abraham challenges the Lord in his decision to destroy the city and haggles a deal that if ten righteous people could be found the Lord would spare the city. Well we soon learn that the whole barrel of apples are tainted and Lot may not be all that clean either. My issue with the morals of the story are profound. When is it okay to annihilate a city, simply because they have succumb to lust. Morale rationale here is plain to see sex is for procreation!
When is just to abandon your daughters to a crowd of sex maniacs! Clearly this work was not intended for me to read, it causes me great concern and reinforces my point. Why write a book that will continuously be disproved because of its flawed logic. Philosophical use here is still null and void if one reads the scripture objectively, as many believe the book is not meant as a literal translation. The only take home lesson here is the one that in order to rule people one must use fear.
The Holy Bible, New International Version. :Ge 19:1
