Genesis 18   God and two angels came to Abraham’s camp.  Abraham somehow recognized his visitors.  And shows them hospitality.    “(The Lord) said, I will surely return to you when the season comes round, and behold, Sarah your wife will have a son.  And Sarah was listening and heard it at the tent door which was behind Him.”  Gen 18:12 Amp   After Sarah hears this, she laughed and then denied she had laughed.  She laughed because it was beyond her imagination that she, at age 90 and long passed the age of child bearing, could conceive.  But nothing is too difficult for God.   God told Abraham he had chosen him as His own so that Abraham may teach his children and those after to keep the way of the Lord.   And the Lord told Abraham His plans regarding Sodom where Abraham’s nephew Lot resided with his family.  Abraham bargains with God to save the upright and just.

	Genesis 19   In the evening two Angels visit Sodom and met Lot at the city gate.  Lot showed them hospitality and invited them to his home.  But the men of the city surround Lot’s home demanding Lot send his visitors out so they may sexually abuse them.  The angels defended Lot and his family and blinded those men.  The angels told Lot (and his own) to leave the city because it would be destroyed.  The angels told them not to look back.   After they flee the cities, they are destroyed.  Lot’s wife looked back and was destroyed along with the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.    Incest   Lot’s two daughters get their father drunk and lie with him.  The text suggests they fear they will have no other opportunity to have children or preserve their family.  The older daughter bore a son she named Moab, meaning ‘of a father.’  Moab is the father of the Moabites.  The younger also bore a son she named Ben-ammi which means ‘son of my people.’  Ben-ammi becomes the father of the Ammonites.  No more is mentioned about Lot.   Offsite Link:  Sodom and Gomorrah   Related verses:    “Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”  Jude 1:7 NIV   Commentary   “at the southern end of the Dead Sea there is a mountain of table salt called Jebel Usdum,   Mount of Sodom.  It is about six miles long, three miles wide, and 1,000 feet high.  It is covered with a crust of earth several feet thick, but the rest of the mountain is said to be solid salt”  Amplified Bible, footnote, p. 22.  This same source suggests Lot’s wife lingered because Sodom was where her “treasures and heart was.”    Commentary:   Traditional bible scholars accept the sins of Sodom and Gomorrha were homosexuality and rape.  Still others suggest “strange flesh” is a reference to bestiality.  Genesis 20   Abraham journeyed and comes before King Abimelech of Gerar (also Gera) and again misleads and tells him Sarah is his sister.  King Abimelech calls for Sarah but God comes to Abimelech in a dream and warns him that Sarah is Abraham’s wife.  God tells Abimelech that Abraham is a prophet and that he must give Sarah back to Abraham and that Abraham will pray for him.  Abimelech chides Abraham for the lie about his sister and his wife.  Abraham prays for Abimelech.   Abimelech is a Caaanite and does not know God but responds to God with generosity and kindness towards Abraham.  I find comfort in Abraham’s lapses of faith.  He is less than perfect but yet God deals with Abraham in kindness.  Again we see sin followed by mercy. Genesis Chapters 21-23 Continued Read many devotionals on this site here!

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