A Daily Genesis

Genesis 19:14-16

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[B][COLOR=#ff0000]†.[/COLOR] Gen 19:14a . . So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters,[/B]

It's been questioned that in a town famous for its gay men; what's with these marriages? Well; Genesis doesn't really say that Sodom's men were gay. Stay with me on this because it requires an explanation.

"Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to fornication and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." (Jude 1:7)

The koiné Greek word for "fornication" in Jude's statement is [I]ekporneuo[/I] (ek-porn-yoo'-o) which means: to be utterly unchaste.

A lack of chastity is exemplified by any number of immoral activities including, but not limited to immodesty, indecency, exposure, nudity, adultery, incest, living together, casual sex, swinger sex, wife swapping, sex between consenting adults, sex between consenting minors, sex between teachers and consenting students, sex with a sex toy, sex with a mannequin and/or sex with an inflatable doll, etc.

To be "utterly" unchaste implies not just a preference for those kinds of carnal gratifications, but an addiction to them.

The word for "strange" is [I]heteros[/I] (het'-er-os) which means: other or different. That could be taken to indicate bestiality but I think what it really refers to is unnatural sex; in other words: men sleeping with women isn't strange but rather quite the norm. But men sleeping with men is rather strange; viz: queer; which Webster's defines as: unconventional; in other words out of the ordinary.

Now, maybe the men of Sodom weren't gay; but their preference for the males under Lot's roof instead of the females strongly suggests they were at least bisexual. A man, or a woman, need not be psychologically gay to fall under the condemnation of going after strange flesh just so long as they go after it.

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.

[B][COLOR=#ff0000]†.[/COLOR] 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.[/B]

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. Lot 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.

But after watching a number of documentaries on NetFlix; I'm convinced that there are capitalists, Wall Street traders, lobbyists, sweat shop managers, and influence peddlers capable of walking over the bones of their own children in order to succeed and/or survive in the worlds of finance, garments, and politics.

[B][COLOR=#ff0000]†.[/COLOR] 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.[/B]

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 [I]'Adonay[/I]. 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. Just exactly how He is able to do that is a bit of a mystery. Some say that the messengers were avatars.

The word for "delayed" is [I]mahahh[/I] (maw-hah') which means: to question or hesitate, i.e. (by implication) to be reluctant; viz: hang back.

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 hard-scrabble sharecropper; and that it was all now coming to naught. Her clapboard 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 accompanied by soft lullabies.

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.

When ol' Harry Truman perished in the Mount Ste. Helens blast back in 1980, I totally understood why he chose to remain instead of fleeing to safety. That mountain, and his lodge, had been an integral 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 live without it.

[B][COLOR=#ff0000]†.[/COLOR] 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.[/B]

The word for "mercy" in that verse is from [I]chemlah[/I] (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.

"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?" (Lam 1:12)

Is the Lot family's fate nothing to you-- all you online who journey with me today through the 19th chapter of Genesis? Just another Bible story? Well . . those were real people you know.

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