Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. Today's reading covered some sensitive topics, so if you have young ears nearby, user discretion is advised.
Yesterday, we wrapped up with a bit of a cliffhanger. God tells Abraham he's going to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of their wickedness. And Abraham was trying to negotiate with God not to destroy the city of Sodom in particular, because that's where his nephew Lot lived. We know Abraham really cares for Lot because, as you may recall, Abraham traveled hundreds of miles with 318 of his warrior servants to rescue Lot and his family when they were kidnapped and taken hostage during a war.
So here we are today with two angels showing up in 19:1, and again they appear as human males. We know this because that's how they're referred to in verse 10. Verse 5 gives us reason to believe that the human appearance they took on was probably physically attractive because the local men demanded to have sex with them. This is another scenario where, like in Genesis 6, humans are attempting to have sex with angels, but this time it's human males. The enemy has shifted his strategy a bit.
Sodom is a city that's known for several types of sin, and this can be a pretty divisive subject in society today and even within the church itself. One type of sin Sodom is known for is homosexuality. We haven't gotten to Leviticus 18.22 yet, but it uses the same Hebrew word when addressing this topic in detail. And then again in the New Testament, Jude 7-8 also points to this.
But it's not fair to say this is the sin they're known for at the time. Ezekiel 16, 49-50 says,
We definitely see those things displayed in the way the local men of the town treat their visiting angels. Nothing is more inhospitable than being gang raped. That's horrific.
And even Lot himself, who, by the way, is saved from the punishment, we see him demonstrating his own wicked response to this wicked suggestion by the local men. He offers them his virgin daughters. It's unfathomable.
Many commentators think this is merely a bluff on his part or even an offer he expects to be rejected by them. But regardless of what his intentions are, God's power intervenes. God's angels strike the local men with blindness in 1911, which seems like an appropriate penalty for their lust and greed.
God can't even find ten righteous men in the city. This is reminiscent of the days of Noah and the flood where only eight people survived. God could have destroyed the entire city, but he mercifully sends his angels to warn Lot and his family. Unfortunately, Lot only takes them halfway seriously. He dilly-dallies until the angels force him out. God destroys Sodom and its neighboring city Gomorrah, but he's merciful to Lot and his daughters despite Lot's rebellious delays.
Lot's wife has a different outcome. She's killed when she disobeys the angel's command not to look back as they're leaving. It almost seems like she's looking back longingly for the city. Sometimes people get frustrated when God destroys entire cities or people groups, but we have a glimpse here not only into God's motives, but God's mercy. After the destruction, Lot and his daughters move to the mountains, and the daughters despair that there is no one they can marry.
Their fiancées had been destroyed in Sodom because they didn't heed the warning. So they take matters into their own hands, much like their great-aunt Sarah did with Hagar. Scripture hasn't forbidden incest yet, but there's still a lot of wrong happening in this passage. And there's some mirroring here of what happened after the destruction of the flood between Noah and his son Ham and possibly his grandson Canaan. Canaan's descendants were cursed because of those actions, whatever they were.
Moving on to chapter 20, we zoom in on Abraham, who is on the move again. This time, he's in King Abimelech's territory, and he gets flashbacks of when he was in Egypt and Pharaoh stole his wife Sarah. So Abraham goes back to his old tricks, pretending she's not his wife, and King Abimelech steals her away, just like Pharaoh did. But one major difference is that King Abimelech didn't sleep with her, and we have reason to believe that Pharaoh did, since scripture says he took her to be his wife.
Sarah's kidnapping could really put a wrench in God's plan for her to have a baby with Abraham. So it's a good thing God's plans can't be stopped. God rescues them again by appearing to the king in a dream. In verse 6, God tells Abimelech that he kept him from sinning. God thwarts his efforts to sin. I love that.
And as for Abraham, he keeps trying to use his own plans to protect himself and Sarah, but both times, his efforts only get them both into deeper trouble. And it's only God who got them out. In verse 7, God refers to Abraham as a prophet. And this is the first time this word is used in Scripture. It carries the meaning and the weight of being a truth speaker, a human messenger of God to the people.
I find this slightly ironic since Abraham has twice told half-truths, but that just goes to show God's mercy and grace toward Abraham. By the time we hit chapter 21, Abraham and Sarah are about 190 years old respectively, and finally their long-awaited son is born, Isaac. Despite Isaac's birth being a huge blessing and the fulfillment of a 25-year-old promise from God,
It throws fuel on the fire between Sarah and Hagar, who still lives with them, along with her son Ishmael, who is now about 14 years old. After a couple of years of their strife, Sarah hears Ishmael's mocking laughter toward Isaac, and she tells Abraham to kick them out so that Isaac doesn't have to split his inheritance with Ishmael. Then God, interestingly, tells Abraham to do whatever Sarah says. But God himself does not forget Hagar and Ishmael.
God tells Abraham that he will make two nations from his two sons, the line of Isaac and the line of Ishmael. So Ishmael's line is promised descendants, and Isaac's line is promised descendants and land. One quick sidebar. From what I understand, Muslims believe that Ishmael, who is the firstborn, is the child of the promise. We're going to talk about this a little more in the days ahead, so hang on to that thought.
Hagar and Ishmael flee to the desert where Ishmael almost dies. But then, the angel of God shows up, listens to their cries, and provides for them where they've been cut off. He is still attentive to them. Meanwhile, Abraham wants ownership of a well, so he makes a treaty with some locals, one of whom is named Phecal. There are some strange names in the Bible, which is one reason why reading genealogies can sometimes be more interesting than you'd expect. What was your God shot for today?
Mine was in chapter 20, where God tells Abraham to pray for Abimelech. Has Abimelech hurt Abraham? Absolutely. Has Abimelech also taken action against God himself? Absolutely. So when God tells Abraham to pray for the man who has offended them both, that shows me God's great forgiveness. It reminds me of when God had Job pray for the friends who had wronged him. And it reminds me of John 17 20, where Christ prayed for me.
the very one whose sins are responsible for his death. Not only does God forgive, but he wants to display his heart of forgiveness to a broken world through us, his people. Even though all God's children are children by adoption, he still wants his kids to look like him. He wants us to point others to his heart, because only then can they see that he's where the joy is. ♪
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