Old Testament - Genesis 19 - Febrary 15, 2022

 2/15/2022 – Genesis 19

This chapter starts with Lot at the gate of the city of Sodom. He sees two angels approaching, he gets up to meet them, bows down recognizing their holiness and asks them to come to his home for food and for staying the night in safety. In Sodom, Lot has been surrounded by wickedness, yet he immediately recognizes these two men as angels. [Interestingly, the JST says three angels.]   

When the men of Sodom knew there were new men visiting, they came to Lot’s door demanding that the angels (that they see as men) be given to the men of Sodom for ill purposes. Lot offers his two daughters, who are virgins, to the crowd, but they wanted these men who had just arrived in the town. When Lot refused, the crowd came toward him threatening, angry that Lot was telling them that what they were doing was wrong.  They came toward Lot, then the angels opened the door, pulled Lot inside, and caused all the men in the mob to be blind, and unable to enter the house. 

The JST tells this story differently telling us that the mob was determined to harm everyone within the house, but that Lot stood out and pleaded with them to not follow through with their desires “for God will not justify his servant in this thing; wherefore, let me plead with my brethren, this once only, that unto these men ye do nothing, that they may have peace in my house, for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof. And they were angry with Lot and came near to break the door, but the angels of god, which were holy men put forth their hand and pulled Lot into the house unto them, and shut the door.” (JST Genesis 19: 14-15)

In v’s 12-13 these holy men spoke to Lot: “Whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place; For we will destroy this place, because of the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the Lord; and the Lord hath sent us to destroy it.” 

Lot then went to his sons-in-law, telling them of the catastrophe that was about to occur, asking them to take their wives, his daughters, and flee the city, but his sons mocked him. The morning came, the 3 angels “hastened Lot saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lets thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city. And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the Lord being merciful unto him: and they brough him forth, and set him without the city.”(v’s 15-16) The angles told them to flee, to not look back, to not stop in the plain, but to get to the mountains.  Lot didn’t want to go to the mountain. He wanted to go to a smaller city, but he followed the Lord’s counsel. 

When the fire and brimstone came raining down on Sodom, it also rained down on the smaller cities around Sodom. Lot’s wife was the only who looked back, and she was turned into a pillar of salt. This is from my study manual: “The account of Lot’s wife being turned into a pillar of salt has puzzled many commentators. Was this event a literal thing, or was it figurative? There are two indications in the scriptures that the phrase “looked back” was an idiomatic way of saying “she turned back” or “returned to Sodom.” When warning the disciples of the destruction which was going to come upon Jerusalem, the Savior warned them to flee without delay, not even going into the house to get their possessions. Jesus said, “And he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back. Remember Lot’s wife” (Luke 17:31–32; emphasis added). He then admonished them that he who seeks to save his life will lose it, and he who loses his life will find it. Elder Bruce R. McConkie paraphrased those verses in these words: “Look not back to Sodom and the wealth and luxury you are leaving. Stay not in the burning house, in the hope of salvaging your treasures, lest the flame destroy you; but flee, flee to the mountains. “Seek temporal things and lose eternal life; sacrifice the things of this life and gain eternal life.” (Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 1:645.) The implication is that Lot’s wife started back to Sodom, perhaps to save some possessions, and was caught in the destruction. In the Doctrine and Covenants is a scripture that uses the same terminology as Genesis 19:26. After warning the Saints to flee spiritual Babylon, which is wickedness, the Lord says, “He that goeth, let him not look back lest sudden destruction shall come upon him” (D&C 133:15; emphasis added). Again, the implication is that of a return to wickedness. Most scholars agree that the most probable site of Sodom is now covered by the southern part of the Dead Sea, a body of water with a high salt content. If Lot’s wife returned to Sodom, she would have been caught in the destruction. Her becoming a pillar of salt could be a figurative way of expressing this outcome. But whatever it was that happened to Lot’s wife, it is clear that she perished.”

Their world has been destroyed, their mother is dead, they are living in the high mountains- Lot and his two daughters. The first daughter plotted with her sister--the JST says “and they did wickedly” to get Lot drunk and then to lay with him, they said they did this to that they might “preserve seed of our father”.  They were both successful, and each bore a son. The son of the first daughter was called Moab, and became the father of the Moabites. The second daughter had Benammi, who became the father of the children of Ammon.

Once again, help from my study manual: “The account of the incestuous seduction of Lot by his two daughters is a shocking one but one which, again, illustrates that the Old Testament records the evils of the people as well as their righteousness. There is no way to justify the wickedness of what the two daughters did, although it may be better understood when it is considered that the daughters may have thought that the whole world had been destroyed in the holocaust that befell Sodom and Gomorrah and that Lot was the only source of children left to them. Moses may have included this account in the record because it shows the beginnings of the Moabites and the Ammonites, two peoples that would play an important role in the history of the people of Israel.”

Now for the lessons. With Heavenly Father, we must not delay in our obedience. One of the recent prophets used the phrase: “DO IT” very often, but then after some time he changed it to “DO IT NOW”.  The Lord has always commanded us to ‘flee wickedness’. 

Jeffrey Holland had an article in the January 2010 Ensign about ‘What did Lot’s wife do wrong?’ He wrote: “Apparently, what was wrong with Lot’s wife was that she wasn’t just LOOKING back; in her heart she wanted to GO back. It would appear that even before she was past the city limits, she was already missing what Sodom and Gomorrah had offered her….She did not have faith. She doubted the Lord’s ability to give her something better than she already had…To all people of every generation, I call out, “Remember Lot’s wife’ [Luke 17:32]. Faith is for the future. Faith builds on the past but never longs to stay there. Faith trusts that God has great things in store for each of us and that Christ truly is the ‘high priest of good things to come.” (Hebrews 9:11)