When the Lord and His angels got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way. Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord. (Genesis 13:13)
While walking, the Lord said to Abraham.
Genesis 18:20-21
20]"The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous
21] that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me...
Abraham, worried about Lot, interceded with God for the righteous in the city. God promised He will not destroy the righteous with the wicked. Even if he found only ten righteous, he will spare the city. God is JUST and Merciful.
Genesis 18:22-19:11
God sent two angels appearing as men in Sodom and they arrived at the city at night time. Not knowing that they were angels, Lot invited them to spend the night in the house. Lot prepared food for them and they ate. Before they went to bed, the men of Sodom, both young and old, sorrounded the house. They called to Lot:
Genesis 19:5
"Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we can have sex with them."
The men of Sodom, both young and old, practiced HOMOSEXUALITY or had become homosexuals.
Genesis 19:6-11
Lot tried to offer his two virgin daughters to prevent them from doing this wicked thing to his visitors but they pressured Lot. The angels pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door. Then they struck the men with blindness so that they could not find the door.
Then the angels commanded Lot to gather his family and get them out of Sodom quickly because God will destroy the city. Lot's sons-in-law thought he was joking and they did not believe. The angels urged Lot and his family to hurry or they will be swept away when the city is punished.
Genesis 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.
As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said.
Genesis 19:17
"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!"
And Lot fled to Zoar. By sunrise, as Lot entered the gates of Zoar,...the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah out of the heavens. Thus he destroyed those cities and the entire plain, including all those living in the cities and also the vegetation in the land.
Genesis 19:26
But Lot's wife looked back, and she become a pillar of salt.
God rained fire on Sodom and Gomorrah because God hates HOMOSEXUALITY and all kinds of wickedness for God is holy. All the people, including Lot's son-in-laws who did not believe God's warning, perished. Only Lot and his two daughters who feared and believed God were saved. Even Lot's wife perished becuase she disobeyed God's command through the angels not to look back.
God destroyed the wicked because of sin, but God was MERCIFUL to Lot because he believed God and did not give in to sinfulness like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah.
In the past, God promised Noah not to destroy the earth with water again. This time, He revealed that He is going to judge the wicked with fire. Sodom and Gomorrah were completely destroyed. Abraham saw dense smoking rising from the land like smoke from a furnace.
Genesis 19: 29-30
29] So when God destroyed the cities of the plain,He remembered Abraham, and brought Lot out of the catastrophe that over threw the citied where Lot had lived.
30] Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave.
God judge not only individuals but also nations because of the wickedness of their citizens. However, because God is just, He did not destroy those who feared and believed Him together with the wicked even thought they were only a few. God saved them that believed, but everyone who did not believe and fear God perished.
Through no fault of his own, Lot's daughters became pregnant by his own seed. The older daughter had a son, Moab, the father of the Moabites. The younger daughter also had a son, Ben-Ammi, the father of the Ammonites. Though Lot was saved from judgement with Sodom and Gomorrah because God remembered Abraham who interceded for him, Lot lost all his possessions because he did not live in the land where God promised to bless Abraham.
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Hari
Enjoy reading...Blessing
