FALLING IN WITH A BAD 'LOT'

Genesis 19

Abraham had a nephew who was a pain in the ass.The nephew's name was'Lot'.Lot had grown prosperous under Abraham's tutelage.So prosperous that Abe took him aside and said,'Look,Lot,together we have too much stuff.Pick a direction,you go one way and I will go the opposite direction.

This was very nice of Abraham,as the elder,he could have picked any direction and told Lot to get lost.But he didn't.Lot,with the folly of youth,picked the best area to traverse(showing little respect to his Uncle Abe).Abe went along with Lot's choice,and went the opposite way.

Of course,Abraham had to come to Lot's aid a couple of times.The first time Abraham had to actually get involved into a war:the War of The Nine Kings.Lot had wandered too close to Sodom and he and his family had ended up getting captured.Abe to the rescue.

Lot must have lost most of his possession's in the war(though the Bible doesn't say so)because he moved his family inside the city gates of Sodom...no mean city.

This is where Abraham saved him again.Two angels of the Lord came to Abraham and told him that Sarah was going to be with child.Before they left they told Abraham that they were going to destroy the sinful Sodom and Gomorrah.

Abraham,having to have known that Lot lived in Sodom,talked the angels into not destroying the city if only ten faithful people lived in it.(Abraham talked them down from a minimum of 50).This act by Abraham basically saved Lot and Lot's families lives.

I believe that Sodom deserved it's reputation as an evil city,but not for the reason most Bible thumpers proclaim.I believe that that men of Sodom were just hard evil folk.It had nothing to do with being homosexual.Though they may have been homosexual,that was not what got the city dissed,it was that these men were mean and evil.I know of no homosexual that would have done what these evil men were willing to do.

At this point,I'll get to the jest of the story.The Bible writers were now making it perfectly clear that it was advantageous to have God on your side.Because if the people of Sodom and Gomorrah deserved to get whacked.Lot and his relationship with his daughters...well...let's just say that they had a very strange relationship.

Here,read it for yourself:

The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening. Lot was sitting at the city gate. He saw them and got up to welcome them, bowing before them and said, "Please, my friends, come to my house and stay the night. Wash up. You can rise early and be on your way refreshed."

They said, "No, we'll sleep in the street."

But he insisted, wouldn't take no for an answer; and they relented and went home with him. Lot fixed a hot meal for them and they ate.

Before they went to bed men from all over the city of Sodom, young and old, descended on the house from all sides and boxed them in. They yelled to Lot, "Where are the men who are staying with you for the night? Bring them out so we can have our sport with them!"

Lot went out, barring the door behind him, and said, "Brothers, please, don't be vile! Look, I have two daughters, virgins; let me bring them out; you can take your pleasure with them, but don't touch these men—they're my guests."

They said, "Get lost! You drop in from nowhere and now you're going to tell us how to run our lives. We'll treat you worse than them!" And they charged past Lot to break down the door.

But the two men reached out and pulled Lot inside the house, locking the door. Then they struck blind the men who were trying to break down the door, both leaders and followers, leaving them groping in the dark.

O-K,I am all for hospitality...but,if I had daughters,I don't care how special my guests were,this would not happen in my household.

It gets even more dysfunctional.After Sodom and Gomorrah goes boom,and Lot's wife turns into salt...this bizarre story takes place...

(Lot) lived in a cave with his daughters.

One day the older daughter said to the younger, "Our father is getting old and there's not a man left in the country by whom we can get pregnant. Let's get our father drunk with wine and lie with him. We'll get children through our father—it's our only chance to keep our family alive."

They got their father drunk with wine that very night. The older daughter went and lay with him. He was oblivious, knowing nothing of what she did. The next morning the older said to the younger, "Last night I slept with my father. Tonight, it's your turn. We'll get him drunk again and then you sleep with him. We'll both get a child through our father and keep our family alive." So that night they got their father drunk again and the younger went in and slept with him. Again he was oblivious, knowing nothing of what she did.

Both daughters became pregnant by their father, Lot. The older daughter had a son and named him Moab, the ancestor of the present-day Moabites. The younger daughter had a son and named him Ben-Ammi, the ancestor of the present-day Ammonites.

Ooowww...it doesn't get much grosser than that!And Bible literalist have a problem with homosexuality?This is the Bible,people.It just goes to show you that taking this stuff totally literally-even if this story is totally true-that you have to look for the deeper symbolic meaning.That being:faith in God will help you.

Ugh!Excuse me.I have to go clean my eyeballs.