I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 19-20.

    When the angels got to Sodom, Lot insisted that they stay with him. The rest of the men of Sodom joined together to demand that Lot turn those men over to them. Reading between the lines the men of Sodom seem to be demanding that Lot lift his protection from the visitors. When Lot insisted on continuing to extend his protection to the visitors as their host, the men of Sodom told him that he was an outsider and no one would come to his defense either. The men of Sodom were guilty of sinful tribalism. They were willing to abuse and oppress outsiders for their own pleasure.

    I do not think that it is quite accurate that the men engaged to Lot’s daughters thought he was joking. I think it would be more accurate to say that they did not take him seriously. I suspect they thought that Lot was exaggerating because he was upset with what the men of the town had done earlier that night. In a way, they are an object lesson for us. They refused to separate themselves from the evil of those around them, even when warned that God’s judgment was about to come down. I am not fully sure of the implications for us, but, at the very least, we need to separate ourselves from our friends and neighbors when their sins go from being venal to oppressive.