The start of today’s passage sees two angels arriving in Sodom and being greeted by Lot, who welcomes them and invites them to visit him, and allow him to give them dinner and wash their feet. Although they initially reject his offer, they eventually accept, and Lot gives them food and shelter.
Today’s chapter and the one preceding it are linked in more ways than one. Firstly, Lot’s greeting and his hospitality are very similar to the way in which Abraham welcomes the three visitors. This establishes Lot as a righteous man, as we know Abraham and his family to be. When the angels tell Lot of Sodom’s destruction and urge him to leave, we can conclude that Lot and his family were the few righteous people referenced in the previous chapter. We can therefore see that God kept his promise to Abraham that he would not destroy even the ten righteous people in Sodom.
On top of this, Lot bargains with the angels, in the same way Abraham did with God. In running to the hills, as the angels said, Lot claims they would die, so asks to instead flee to a small nearby city, and the angels concede. The last – slightly more tenuous – link is the doubt of Abraham and Lot’s respective wives. Sarah’s doubt was grounded in logic; whilst Lot’s wife’s doubt is a result of disobedience. The angels specifically told them not to look back while fleeing, but she reaped the consequences of not following this instruction and became a pillar of salt.
Between the various horrors of this chapter, there is something to learn. Firstly, God keeps His promises. Secondly, God can take our worst situations and use them for His greater plan. The chapter ends with Lot’s daughters placating their father with wine and becoming pregnant by him. Yikes. However, one of them gave birth to a boy named Moab. If we fast-forward several centuries, we find a Moabite by the name of Ruth becoming instrumental to the family line that would lead to David, and eventually, Jesus.
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Thank you that you can take any situation and work it to your good. Today I give to you my heaviest struggles with the belief that you can turn them for your glory.