Please consider this an interpretive (even fictionalized) account of Genesis 19. [written in 1999]

Lot sat at the gate of Sodom in the evening, conversing with men, as was the custom.  He looked up and saw two priesthod messengers approaching Sodom.  He rose up to meet them and knelt and and bowed himself with his face to the ground.  "Please, Brethren," said Lot.  "I am thy servant.  Come into my home for the night, wash your feet, and then ye may rise up early and continue your journey."

They answered, "There is no need.  We plan to rest in the street all night."

"Oh, no, no," Lot pressed them greatly, "it is no trouble and it would be a great honor to my family."

So the Brethren went with Lot into his home.  He made them a feast, baking unleavened bread, and everyone ate well.

But before they were ready to sleep, the men of Sodom, old and young from all over town, circled Lot's house in a spirit of vicious revelry.  They called out to Lot:  "Where are the men which came into thee this night?  Bring them out to us, so they can join the orgy!"

Lot came out the door and shut it behind him.  He had friends among them and did business with many of the men.  "Please, my brothers, do not do this wickedness here tonight."

"Stand back!  Get out of our way!  We'll get them ourselves!"  They knew they were not wicked and were angry with Lot for his intolerance and judgmental attitude.  This guy is a foreigner that we have welcomed into our great city, and now he pulls the self-righteous bit.  Now we will deal worse with him than with them.  "We will have the men and your daughters, and we will do as we like with them!"

Lot was afraid, but knew he could not even consider this thing.  He tried again to plead with the men.  "My daughters are too young, chaste.  And these men have come under the shadow of my roof, and are entitled to have peace in my house.  So, I ask you only this once that you not do this.  My God will not justify me if I give in to you."

This only made the revelers angrier, and they swarmed up to the door intending to break through Lot, but his visitors quickly pulled him in and shut the door.  They could all hear the barrage continue outside for a moment and then the sounds changed to angry surprise.  From the cursing outside, Lot's family realized that the wicked ones had been made blind by the messengers.  They couldn't find the door -- but even then, they were so lustful that it didn't stop them from trying.

The messengers talked to Lot.  "Do you have any other family here?  Sons?  Daughters and sons-in-law?  Gather all of your loved ones together and get out of this city immediately.  For we will destroy this place because of the cry of the little ones, the molested ones, waxes great before the face of the Lord.  The Lord has sent us here to destroy it."

Lot left right then.  He spoke to his sons-in-law that had married his daughters.  "Get out of this city immediately, for the Lord will destroy it."  But the sons-in-law couldn't believe him, they thought he was mocking them.  So when it was early morning it was only Lot, his wife, and his two young daughters that the Brethren woke up and hastened on their way.  Even Lot and his family tried to gather up stuff to take, but the messengers would not let them and took them literally by their hands and led them out of the gate.  The Lord was merciful to them and did not allow them to be consumed in the iniquity of the city.

At the gate, the angels said, "Escape for your life, don't look back, don't stay in the plain, escape all the way to the mountain, or you will be consumed."

"Oh, please," said Lot, "Thou and the Lord hast been merciful, and I have found grace in thy sight, but I'm afraid we will just die in the mountain, too.  Could we just go to the little town of Zoar?  It's just little and not too far away.  There our souls will be saved; it cannot be as wicked."

The Brethren answered, "See, the Lord accepts your plan.  He will not destroy the little town along with the rest of the plain.  But hurry, get going, so we can do what we came to do."

Lot got to Zoar soon after sunrise.  Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire out of heaven and he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities and that which grew upon the ground.

Tags: Choice Deliverence Priesthood Trials World

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