Genesis 19

Lot meets the angels (vs. 1-3)—We see the same reaction from Lot that we saw from Abraham in the previous chapter. Goes to them, bows down, refers to them as “lord,” and invites them into his home and feeds them. It was typical hospitality among decent people of the day.

The men of Sodom show their degeneracy (vs. 4-11)—Before the evening was out, the wickedness of Sodom exposes itself. Men, “both old and young, all the people from every quarter” (v. 4) surrounded Lot’s house and demanded he give up his visitors for homosexual rape. Lot begs the men not to do such wickedness and offers his virgin daughters to the scoundrels instead. Only the fact that a person was expected to defend to the death guests he had invited to his home could excuse this atrocious offer of Lot. This affair could have really gotten ugly if the two angels had not intervened, pulled Lot back into the house, and struck the men of Sodom blind (v. 11). If the Lord needed any more confirmation about how wicked Sodom was, He had it in this event.

Lot and family given time to escape (vs. 12-22)—The angels urge Lot to gather all of his family—wife, sons-in-law, daughters, “and whomever you have in the city” (v. 12) and get ready to flee because the Lord was about to act. His daughters weren’t married yet, given the information from the previous section. They were only betrothed, which constituted a legally binding commitment—stronger than our “engagement,” but not yet married. It was why Joseph, though not yet married to Mary, had to “put her away” rather than just break the engagement. Anyway, the sons-in-law didn’t believe Lot (v. 14), so only his wife and daughters escaped with him. They waited till the next morning (the city gates would have been shut and locked at night), and then the angels told Lot to leave. Even then, Lot “lingered,” so “the men took hold of his hand, his wife's hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city” (v. 16). Lot just had something missing when it came to a crisis. The angels told him to hurry and flee to the mountains. Lot didn’t want to go there, but instead asked if he could go to the nearby, small town of Zoar. The angels acquiesced and that’s where Lot went.

The wicked cities destroyed (vs. 23-29)—The angels had told Lot and his family that, while the cities were being destroyed, they were not to look back (v. 17). Well, the Lord rained “brimstone and fire” on Sodom and Gomorrah (v. 24), and either out of curiosity or longing for what had been her home, Mrs. Lot disobeys and looks back at the destruction. She is transformed into a pillar of salt (v. 26). Do what the Lord tells you, no matter how simple it might seem.

Verses 27-28 indicate that Abraham was camped close enough that he could see the fire ascending up from the demolished cities.

Lot and his daughters (vs. 30-37)—This is one of the most revolting tales in the Bible. Again, as I mentioned earlier (chapter 13), Peter calls Lot “righteous” (II Peter 2:7), but this isn’t one of the events that led to that conclusion. For some fear that isn't revealed, Lot decided to leave the city he requested to go to, Zoar, and headed for the hills. His daughters, who don’t appear to be very spiritually deep, reasoned to one another that “there is no man on the earth to come in to us as is the custom of all the earth” (v. 31), as if every man in the world had been destroyed in Sodom and Gomorrah. It is also mentioned that they desired to preserve the lineage of their father, which is noble, but there's no faith demonstrated in God's ability to provide another mate for Lot, and of course, the means they chose for that preservation were absolutely execrable.  So, on consecutive nights, they get their father so drunk that he doesn’t know what he’s doing. They lay with him, both become pregnant, and give birth to sons whose descendents will become active players in most of the rest of the Old Testament—active enemies of Israel. For Lot is the father, through his own daughters, of the Moabites and Ammonites. How strange are the ways of history.