Today’s Scripture: Genesis 18:1-21:7
This was a very interesting read. If I didn’t know better I would think this was the plot in the latest R rated movie or maybe an HBO Reality series!
Gen 18:20. So the Lord said, “I have heard a great outcry from Sodom and Gomorrah, because their sin is so flagrant. I am going down to see if their actions are a wicked as I have heard. If not, I want to know.”
As I worked my way through today’s reading it seemed like all of today’s players were a little, ummm… dysfunctional. They seemed pretty wicked, including Lot and his daughters. And Abraham and Sarah were right behind them. Here are a few of the highlights:
- The men of Sodom were beating Lot’s door down to have sex with his house guests
- Lot thought he was doing a smart thing by giving his virgin daughters to these perverts at his door to protect his house guests
- Lot’s daughters thought the only way to preserve their family line was to get their father drunk and have sex with him
- Abraham lied about his wife Sarah AGAIN and put her in a position to possibly be forced to have sex with the King Abimelech of Gerar.
I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling pretty good about my family right now!
There’s something I realized for the first time today. The Ten Commandments weren’t given until approximately 1000 years after the flood. The one thing they did have from Adam and Eve’s mistake in the Garden was the knowledge of good and evil. Did they override that knowledge? Did God give us our instruction book, the Bible as a result of the sinful mortal flesh (Gen 6:3) of the early humans?
I don’t know the answers but I do know that from the days of Sodom until today, we needed a savior. Thank you Lord for sending your Son, Jesus Christ to redeem humanity for our wickedness.
Heavenly Father, Thank you for Jesus!
Dysfunction is right. I’ve always been puzzled by Lots suggestion that the men outside his door take his virgin daughter’s (who we find out are engaged) instead of raping his guests. These were Lots only children! How can a parent ever suggest tossing out his precious children to save his guests? It does sound like the angels had a presence about them, however, and perhaps Lot was just reaching for any possible solution.
Another puzzler regarding Lot is his fear. He didn’t want to go to the mountains because he was scared, so he went to the tiny village where he got scared of the men there and so decided to go live in a cave. This does not sound like the same man who had tremendous wealth while traveling with Abraham, so much so that they had to part ways. Something must have occurred to him to reduce him and his wealth significantly, PLUS he lived in Sodom – where evil and wickedness were so great that the LORD destroyed it. Yet he was scared of everything else. It seems so irrational to me.
One of the most comforting scriptures that I read today was when God said to Sarah, “Is anything too hard for the LORD?” I needed to be reminded of that. Sometimes I get into situations or see situations that seem helpless, yet truly nothing is too hard for my God and if I pray from that angle, my faith is great expounded.
I recently learned an interesting tidbit about circumcision that I wanted to share with you guys, since this is the first chapter that circumcision is mentioned. The LORD said, “Any child age 8 days or older, must be circumcised.” Well…Vit K is a blood clotting vitamin that is produced in the intestines from bacteria, but is absent in the body when the child is born (because there is no bacteria in the body). Anyway, at 8 days of age, the vitamin is finally well-established in the body. If babies do not have this vitamin, a small pinprick could make them bleed to death. They now give a Vit K shot as soon as the baby is born, but way back then they had no idea why God said “8 days old,” but their obedience protected their child. I thought it was another one of those, “GOD, You are soooo awesome,” discoveries!
Even this early in the story of God and man, it’s no wonder that God had to send us Jesus.
Very interesting Sheila, thanks !
Today what popped out in the forefront to me is what God sees as righteous and the difference in what my brain sees as righteous. It is from the smallest denial by Sarah that she laughed to the dysfunction of the rest of the chapter. Abraham’s plea was for 10 righteous in the end. If I am honest, by looking at behavior, would I have considered any of those righteous enough to save by human standard.
Again, I pray Lord, let me see others and including myself how you see me. Help me to grow in love and mercy to those around me.
Give me eyes to see.
I wonder how Lot’s two daughters were able to have sex with him without him knowing it!! Also, both daughters became pregnant AND they both had a son. That equals six huge miracles which makes me think that God must have had something to do with it.
To me, that’s as huge as Abraham and Sarah having a son in their old ages. Interesting!
Dysfunctional is an understatement! I love the opening chapter where Sarah hears she is to have a son and she laughs, but this account is a call to believe that God can do the impossible. Lot, however, is willing to sacrifice his most precious possessions to uphold his honor by protecting his guests. He was saved from making this sacrifice by the refusal of the mob and the actions of the angels. I think Lot’s daughters’ acts of incest show Sodom’s influence on them. “Do not love the world or anything in the world…. [for] the world and its desires [lusts] pass away” (1 John 2:15, 17) under the judgment of God. It is dangerous and folly to become attached to the present corrupt world system because it awaits God’s swift and sudden destruction.”
I am grateful that I am not the only one who has a problem with Lots choice to offer up his daughters in exchange for the safety of his houseguests. It’s interesting to me that he went to live in a cave because he was afraid of the people in Zoar. I wonder if he saw something in them that was similar to the people in Sodom and had learned something along the way?
As again Abraham was deceitful about Sarah being his wife, I was struck with the thought of how much our sin and the choices we make affect the people around us. In Egypt terrible plagues came upon Pharoah and his household. In Gerar King Abimelech was given the choice to return Sarah or he and all his people would die, and God had already caused all of the women to become infertile. It doesn’t feel right that no consequences are shown for Abraham. He left with more goods than he arrived with. I am reminded that God’s ways are above my ways, His thoughts above my thoughts.
When Sarah overheard the news about her giving birth to a son she laughed. She denied laughing because she was afraid. God kept his promise and she gave birth to a son. I am so thankful that God keeps His every promise and is faithful always in spite of our mistakes and times of unbelief!
Reading about all this dysfunction gives me renewed hope that God can and will use “normal” people to accomplish His will for His glory!
As I read this passage I couldn’t help but think about my 15 year old daughter. I can’t imagine any thing making me want to put her in harms way! Why would anyone who once knew Gods hand of provision live in such a place as that.
We bought this home a little over a year ago. We knew the price range we had to search in and looked at many places. We chose a house that wasn’t our first pick for its layout but it did have the best neighborhood of all the ones we looked at. I can do without a big kitchen and I can make do with only one and half baths. I can not knowingly pick a place that is in a bad neighborhood.
Abraham – a righteous man – a liar. I don’t have God vision but if my kids told me a half truth I would still punish them for lieing. Abraham not only didn’t get punished but prospered.
So todays reading has left me somewhat baffled. I’ve read all these passages before but they never struck me the way they did today.
Dysfunctional yes, but aren’t we all. I think the most amazing part is that through all the lies, lust, fear and almost everyother sin known to man, God still answered Abraham’s plea for Sodom and his nephew. I wonder if Abraham had the courage to ask God to spare Sodom for 1, what God’s response may have been? I believe, if we have the boldness to ask God for anything, and it be in His will, we will have it! It’s encouraging to know, no matter what is going on, in and around, our lives the power of God can overcome. In one of Beth Moore’s studies she quotes “God doesn’t expect us to be perfect, but PASSIONATE”! Boy, that takes the pressure off. Today’s reading is a perfect illustration of God’s ability to use our imperfections passionately!
Good Afternoon Folks,
What a rich day of discussions we are having! I love the fact can we can say I don’t know, I don’t like that, etc, but still trust that God is God and He Knows best!
I wanted to update on you a challenge we are having with our Bibles. I am using the One-Year Chronological Bible, New Living Translation published by Tyndale House. Several of you are using the On-Year Chronological Bible, New International version published by Zondervan. There are passages in the Bible that know one knows when they actually happened and these two publishers chose different places to insert the events that did not have a date. So that is why some of you are in Job right now… The NIV Chrono Bible is in Job and the NLT Chrono Bible is in Genesis.
In an effort to keep everyone on the same track I have been putting each day’s reading at the top of the post. I pray that this frustration doesn’t become to big of a distraction. If possible it would be great to return it and get the New Living Translation, but either way let’s do our best to make it work.
If anyone has any ideas on how to solve this, please share with the group.
Growing with you today!
Dianne
what a disturbing read today. Can we say OH MY GOSH! everyone has covered all the disturbing things and the good things that come from God in this chapter. i’m so thankful we have a loving, tolerant, forgiving God. i know that everyone that is doing this study wouldn’t think of doing anything that remotely happened in today’s reading, but i found myself giggling a little when Abraham was asking God for fifty, forty people, etc. Haven’t we all done that? God i really want this, God i really need this, God this and God that, on and on. All the while God knows whats best and we just need to ask Him and believe who He is. i just know that sometimes God sits there and just giggles to Himself and says this one is my child, i’m still working on her.
Have a blessed day
In God’s love and trust, alisha
Very thought-provoking! The two stories about Lot giving those men his daughters and Abraham lying about his wife has always troubled me…like “Was it ok for them to do that, were they in God’s will?” But I like your take on this….you’re an awesome writer girl!
I am just so thankful that, because Jesus died on the cross in my place, God only sees the reflection of Jesus when he looks at me.