Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 19-20.
On of the blessings of reading through the Bible on a regular basis is that, eventually, you start to notice connections between passages which you might otherwise overlook. Today, I noticed the similarity between the behavior of the men of Sodom and the men of Gibeah as described in Judges 19. I am quite sure that the similarity was not accidental. The writer(s) of the Book of Judges intended for us to notice that the men of Gibeah behaved similar to the way the men of Sodom behaved when they brought God’s judgement down on their city. I will not go into the significance of that similarity today, since it rightfully belongs in the study of the Judges 19 passage. I just wanted to bring it up as something I would not have been less likely to notice if I did not read over these passages at least once a year.
When the angels had resolved the situation with the men of Sodom who attempted to break down Lot’s door, they told Lot to get anyone whom he valued out of the city before God destroyed it. Unfortunately, Lot’s sons-in-law did not take him seriously when he told them that God was about to destroy the city. Perhaps I am mistaken, but it reads to me that they viewed Lot as a religious nut job. That would be consistent with what the men of Sodom had said to Lot earlier in the night. Their comment seems to suggest that Lot had previously indicated that he did not approve of the behavior of the people of Sodom, which reflects well on Lot. We should seek to be viewed by our nonbelieving neighbors as Lot was viewed by his.
I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.