Angels #3b - Lot's Visitors

Having left Abraham, the angels went to Sodom where they met with Lot who had earlier parted company from his Uncle Abraham. Somehow Lot had also moved careers. No longer a cattle herder, he was a city official of some sort. We know this because it was the city officials of that time who sat under the gate of a city, and Lot was sitting under the gate. Lot therefore had risen to prominence in Sodom.

The angels came to the city and were met by Lot as was mentioned. Lot insisted that they stay with him. But while they stayed the city's men came to have sexual relations with the men. This is very unusual, because there were plenty of other men to have sex with and Lot offered 2 virgin daughters to the mob to protect the visitors, but they didn't want their daughters, they wanted the men.

I will address several issues here:

1. Why are they so focused on these two men?

There must have been plenty of other travellors who came through the town, but these two were targeted. Jude states that the city went after strange (other) flesh. This is usually interprteted as men with men. But in this case, I think the NT writer was thinking of flesh of the angels. The people of the town knew that these men were unusual. Did they know they were angels? It is possible. Earlier Genesis spoke about Sons of God connecting with the Daughters of men. It is possible that in this worldview angels sometimes coexisted with people and it wasn't surprising to people of this time.

2. What is the sin of Sodom?

The OT never clearly states what the sin of Sodom is until Ezekiel. The OT uses Sodom as an example of evil many times. It talks about the sin of Sodom, but it does not describe the sin of Sodom until Ezekiel.

Sodomy which is taken from the word "Sodom," was the word used for homosexuality in the Law - so one can conclude that the OT culture saw a strong connection between the city of Sodom and the homosexual act.

While many believe the main sin of Sodom was homosexuality, some have suggested that the biggest sin was the bad treatment of strangers.

Ezekiel is the only Bible verse that spells out the sin of Sodom in detail.

"Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy." Ezekiel 16:49

This is not what we would expect.

Back to Lot...

Lot brought the visitors into his house and the men in the city wanted to rape them. The angels knew that the city had to be destroyed, so they told Lot and his family to leave and not to look back. Lot left with his wife and 2 daughters, but his wife looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt.

Originally the angels told Lot that he should run away to the mountains, but Lot wanted to move to a small city instead. The angels said he could so he moved into the small city, but became araid of the people so he moved into the mountains, but before all that, the angels told him to hurry out of the town because they couldn't destroy the town until Lot left.

I personally believe that he and his wife wanted to move to the city. For one, his wife turned around after leaving Sodom, in her heart unable to leave the city. But as for Lot, when it came time to go, he dragged his feet not wanting to leave. When he was literally dragged out of the city and told by the angels to move into the mountains, he wanted to move to another small city instead. Lot evidently did not like being out in the open fields.