God,
true to his word to Abraham, sends two angels to Sodom, to see if they can find
ten honest people there. They take lodgings with Lot, Abraham’s nephew. That
was not their plan initially as they were content to roam the streets. Lot
advises them to shelter with him, as the streets are not safe. Lot offers them
great hospitality, but the hosting is interrupted by a mob that turn up at
Lot’s door, demanding that he surrender the mysterious strangers to their
control.
Lot actually offers to throw his own two virgin daughters to the rabble rather
than expose his guests to their whims. Quite what the daughters make of this
suggestion is unrecorded.
The Mob actually knows the angels are judging them and they are both angry
& frightened. They try to storm the house, but the angels intervene,
striking all the men outside the house blind.
Lot is told of the city’s impending destruction, and to round up his family for
an emergency evacuation. They are told to run, and not to look back at the
destruction behind them. They flee perilously late. Lot’s wife looks back
despite the angel’s advice and gets turned into a pillar of salt.
Abraham sees the destruction from afar. Lot, terrified of city life from then
on, goes to Zo’har and hides out in a cave with his daughters for the rest of
his life. His daughters are restless with their hermit like existence and
desire children, but Lot seems reluctant to let them leave the cave (the
ultimate expression of Agoraphobia). The girls hit on a novel solution. They
get him drunk nightly, and take turns making love to him while he sleeps off
the effects of the wine. One bears a son called Moab. The other gives birth to
Ben-Ammi, and both sons go on to found great nations, The Moabites &
Ammonites respectively.
Lot’s fate is one of the saddest in the Bible as he is a god man doomed.
Cast out by Abraham over their shared wealth, he ends up settling in a war torn
state, Sodom, taken hostage, and restored to wealth in time for a divine
nuclear bomb like attack by God on his city, with fire & brimstone. Though
he protects God’s angels even to the point of attempted sacrificing his own
family, he loses his wife, ends up too frightened to leave a cave and gets
incestuously raped by his own daughters. After that, we never hear of him
again in the Bible.
God, you really need to get your priorities right.
Abraham goes on another desert road trip with Sara, and in
Gerar, in the lands of the Philistines, he passes Sara off as his sister. This
should sound familiar, as it’s what Abraham, then Abram, did in Egypt too. This
time, the stooge set up is King Abim'elech, who takes Sara as his own.
God threatens Abim’elech with death for taking another man’s wife for love
making, but God has challenged him prematurely. Abim'elech is able to show that
he has not touched Sara, and points out that he knew all along she was
Abraham’s wife. Abim'elech pleads his innocence well. God orders Abim'elech to
return Sara to her husband. Meanwhile, all the women of Gerar have been struck
down with infertility for Abim'elech’s near taking of another man’s wife
(albeit unsuspecting as he was).
Abim'elech is unhappy and challenges the moral ethical nature of the entire
situation. He first tells his servants to expect trouble, especially as God is
involved personally. The servants are terrified. Abim'elech now bravely
confronts Abraham about why he claimed Sara was his sister rather than his
wife. Abraham claims history is partly true as Sara is not just his wife
but also his stepsister. (Whoo, more incest). He also claims he was worried
that Abim'elech might have killed him for bringing an already married beautiful
woman into Gerar.
Abim'elech accepts the story, makes peace with Abraham, gives him lots of
money, sheep, and tributes and lets him go in peace. God now gives the women of
Gerar back their full fertility, thanks to prayers by Abraham calling for it.
Sarah’s much promised fertility is now finally granted to
her by God, and she gets pregnant to Abraham at last. Their son is Isaac.
Abraham is 100. Sara is in her 90’s.
Isaac, soon circumcised, grows to be a childhood friend to Ishmael, fourteen
years his elder, but Sara distrusts the other son, and has him cast out of her
sight with his mother, Hagar. Abraham isn’t happy with this behaviour by his
wife, but God tells him to let it be, as Ishmael will be a great leader of
nations of his own.
Cast into the wilderness a second time, Hagar is virtually starved and dying of
thirst. She dumps Ishmael to fend for himself, and goes off on her way. God
hears Ishmael crying and makes her go back to him, providing water for both.
Ishmael gains an Egyptian wife and becomes a skilled archer.
Meanwhile, Abraham runs into a fresh conflict with Abim'elech, who God had
previously almost killed him with his bogus accusations of Abim'elech having
slept with Sara. Their new feud is over ownership and access to a well. Servants
of Abim'elech have denied Abraham access to the well or its water. Abraham
complains of this to Abim'elech who denies all knowledge of the situation.
Abraham has actually dug the well, so he is in the right this time.
Abim'elech and Abraham agree that Abraham has the rights to the well, and
they exchange sheep in their covenant of peace over the issue. Abraham thanks
God for this by planting a tree in his honour, though this time he and
Abim'elech have settled their differences amicably without direct divine
intervention. God gets credit for nothing here.
Arthur Chappell
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