“Genesis 19:1-5”

Tuesday, December 10, 2019

“Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. And he said, ‘Now behold, my lords, please turn aside into your servant’s house, and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise early and go on your way.’ They said however, ‘No, but we shall spend the night in the square.’ Yet he urged them strongly, so they turned aside to him and entered his house; and he prepared a feast for them, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. 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; and they called to Lot and said to him, ‘Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have relations with them.’”

---End of Scripture verses---

“Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening…” (verse 10) Two of the three “men” who appeared at Abraham’s tent in Hebron “in the heat of the day” (Genesis 18:1-2), are here clearly identified as angels. They had been sent by the Lord to “investigate” whether Sodom had “done entirely according to its outcry,” so that He would “know” if their “sin” was as “exceedingly grave” as the “outcry” indicated (Genesis 18:20-21). If they did so “in the evening” of the same day that they had departed from Abraham, then their travel time was miraculous in nature. “Speiser tells us that the ‘normal traveling time from Abraham's tent to Sodom was about two days,’ that is, some thirty-five or forty miles.” (James Burton Coffman)

“As Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom.” (verse 1) “The gate of a large city usually comprised towers and guardrooms and a large area where people could sit… The gate area in an ancient Near Eastern city served as a civic center where the affairs of the community would be conducted in full view of, and with full participation of, the citizens. Here gossip would be exchanged and disseminated, business transacted, and justice dispensed. (Nahum Sarna) “We agree with Leupold that Lot's presence here in the gate of Sodom, ‘constitutes a reproach,’ to this otherwise good and ‘righteous’ man. In fact, despite the fact of Peter's reference to the righteousness of Lot, we must definitely understand it in a relative, not an absolute, sense. Compared with Sodom he was righteous; or, as said of Noah earlier in Genesis, ‘He was righteous in his generation.’” (James Burton Coffman)

“When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground.” (verse 1) As his uncle Abraham had done before him, Lot warmly greeted his otherworldly guests by prostrating himself at their feet and presenting himself as their humble servant. He extended the same heartfelt hospitality, begging them to rest for the night under the shelter of his own roof and offering to refresh them by washing their feet. He also “prepared a feast for them, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate” (verse 3). Lot seems to have sensed the danger posed to these two travelers by not only urging them to not spend the night in the open “square” (verse 2), but by also strongly imploring them to “rise early and go on” their “way” before they caught the attention of the cities wicked natives. The angels were obviously not fearful for their own personal safety, and likely wanted to remain out in the open to determine whether the Sodomites’ reputation for wickedness was indeed warranted.

Lot prevailed upon the two angels by his insistent urging and they graced his Home with their presence. But, “before they” had the chance to pillow their heads for the evening, “the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter” (verse 4). This wording demonstrates that the wickedness of Sodom was, indeed, totally pervasive. “People from every quarter,” that is to say, from one end of town to the other, from all classes of people, to the very last person. Aside from Lot and his family, not a single righteous person could be found among the whole lot of them, let alone ten righteous people. They shouted through the door to Lot, “Bring them out to us that we may have relations with them.” (verse 5) “The sin here euphemistically referred to (cf. Judges 19:22) was exceedingly prevalent among the Canaanites (Leviticus 18:22) and other heathen nations (Romans 1:27). Under the law of Moses it was punishable by death.” (Pulpit Commentary)

Lot was eager to show the two strangers hospitality, but the wicked men of Sodom, conversely, only wanted to abuse and defile them. “Bring them out unto us, that we may know them; not who they were, and from whence they came, and what their business was; nor did they pretend anything of this kind to hide and cover their design from Lot, but they were open and impudent, and declared their sin without shame and blushing, which is their character, Isaiah 3:9; their meaning was, that they might commit that unnatural sin with them, they were addicted to, and in common used...” (Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible)

Please read Genesis 19:6-11 for tomorrow.

Have a great day!

- Louie Taylor

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