Genesis 18:10-ch20 – God Does Save, Lot’s Drunk in a Cave

Genesis 18:10-ch20 – Sodom/Gomorrah, Ab/Abimelech

God tells Ab He’s going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Ab, scared for Lot, asks if He’ll destroy it if He finds 50 righteous people there… 40, 30, 20, 10? God says He won’t. SPOILER: God hears his heart and gets Lot out of the city.

God is patient, hears our prayers, but He also knows our heart. Lot is sitting by the gate – still has remnants of Godly life. He’s doing as wise men should do: sit by the gate and jabber about things. He’s the only member of the Sodom Ol’Timers Coffee Jabbers.

But when the angels tell him to get his family out, his sons-in-law think he’s joking. They don’t take him seriously. Lot is really coming across as a life-long mistake maker. He should have never left Ab and now he’s a bit of a joke… in Sodom.

They get him out and tell him to flee to the mountains. Like Cain before him “it’s too hard!” – he asks to be able to go to a small city (Zoar) instead. It’s small. As in, the evil is smaller. Hmmm.

Next thing you know, not sure why, but Lot is living in a cave in the mountains. Maybe the city wasn’t so “small”??? His wife is a pillar of salt somewhere, but he still has his daughters… unfortunately. No sons-in-law… which brings up the next problem.

His daughters, knowing there’s no men around (not sure why they care???), get their dad drunk and sleep w/ him each getting pregnant. What? Man, Lot, this is just getting worse and worse, buddy.

The babies are Moab (Moabites) and Ammon (Ammonites) – we’ll be hearing more from these guys. Thanks Lot.

Back in verse 28, Ab looks at the valley and it’s just smoke… like the smoke of a furnace. I don’t know if he ever knew that God got Lot out, but I’m not sure he’d be happier knowing how things wound up for his nephew.

In chapter 20, Ab tries the old “she’s my sister” trick again which causes a lot of trouble… again. God steps in and cleans things up. I’m certainly no better about learning my lesson. 🙁