Genesis 19:4-8

2007.Jul.14 15:41

Sin

Read Genesis 19:4-8 | Full Chapter

But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house. And they called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.”
(Genesis 19:4-5, ESV)

The sin of the people of Sodom is a grab bag. Lack of Inhospitality is noted in the Wikipedia article. Rape, at least attempted. Those are the two obvious. It strikes me as rather unnecessary to focus that for part of the group the rape they wish to commit is homosexual. But it’s in the grab bag too. And we can get caught up in any particular piece of their brutality, but that misses the point. A whole community bands together to rape travelers stopping for the night, a whole community which refuses to see its sin in such a vile action.

I find myself thinking of human slavery, particularly the enslavement of Africans brought to the Americas and of their descendants (Ha, beat that for PC!). How do we get to these points? At what point in our minds does any given war turn from reasons to just violence. How do we arrive at starting wars without reason? At some point, you find yourself banging on a pulpit saying, “These are the children of Ham and this is God’s punishment,” and you don’t even realize that you’ve embraced sin. Here’s a hint though: if you’re extrapolating from the curse of a recently drunk and rather pissed man to explain away your actions, you’re probably sinning.

How do you get there? It’s maybe not so much a slippery slope as the slow accumulation of excuses and apathy. Every sin that we say “just once more” or “not really so bad”, they add up. Or maybe there’s some other way. I am, after all, 25 and entitled to be completely wrong in my understanding of human nature. I am confident in what to do to keep from finding myself at that point: pray to Jehovah, study the Bible, keep myself around other believers so they are able to correct me, both through general association (church meeting, Bible studies, dinner, the like) and with defined accountability relationships (which I am not doing a good job of keeping up on).

Wow. That didn’t go where I was planning.

Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him, and said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. Behold, I have two daughters who have not known any man. Let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please. Only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.”
(Genesis 19:6-8, ESV)

The thing with Lot is he wasn’t always part of this community, so we can actually watch him sliding (hyuck, hyuck) into it. The thing that stands out to me like a green rhino playing banjo in a cornfield is that Lot calls the men at the entrance–those people closest to the house and likely the leaders–“brothers”.

Okay. Think about that.

Not the rhino; “Brothers”.

The next thing he does is far more vile. He offers the group his daughters to rape instead. And yet, because he’s named the leaders of a gang rape “brothers”, the element of surprise that he would do so is gone. Lot has accepted this community and its sin. He continues to live in it, and considers himself close enough to its leadership to call them brothers. Lot has already accepted this community and made himself a part of it.

Look even at his reasoning. He does not say, “Do not rape,” or even “Do not rape the guests of this town,” but only “Do not rape my guests”. Lot may be the most righteous among the people standing outside his home, but somewhere along the line, he lost the line. He’s already accreting the willingness to sin of his neighbors.

The people of Sodom have engaged a lifestyle of sin, and Lot, for his part, has not rejected it.