Having failed to find just ten good people in Sodom and Gomorrah, God sends two angels to the cities to destroy them. After decades of scrutinizing the Dead Sea Scrolls, the consensus among modern theologians is that the angels looked something like this:
If you remember back to Genesis 13, Lot and Abraham decided to go their separate ways, with Lot settling to the east near Sodom. When the angels arrive at Sodom, they find Lot at the city gates. My NIV Bible tells me this is a significant detail - "Traditionally, city fathers gathered in the gateway to make important decisions. Lot's presence suggests that he had become 'one of them' during his time in Sodom, which may explain why he struggled against leaving."
Lot persuades the angels to stay in his house for the evening. Their presence does not go unnoticed by the townsfolk. Every man from the town gathers around Lot's house and they call out to him - and I swear that I'm not making this up - "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them."
Lot, being the good father that he is, offers the rape-hungry crowd his two virginal daughters. But no: Man-love is what the townsfolk want, and man-love is what they shall get.
The mob tries breaking down the door, but the two angels fend them off by blinding them. The angels tell Lot that they are going to destroy the town, and to gather his family and leave. They warn him not to look back as the destruction ensues.
As Lot, his wife and his two daughters flee the city, Lot's wife looks back at Sodom while it is being burned by sulfuric rain and she is turned into a pillar of salt. Here's a picture of a rock formation overlooking the Dead Sea called "Lot's Wife":
After a short stay in the town of Zoar, Lot and his daughters take shelter in a cave. The problem with caves is that they make horrible places for meeting guys. So Lot's daughters do what what any reasonable girls would in that situation - Get their father so drunk that he won't mind having sex with them. Both daughters become pregnant, and the Bible gives us no clues as to whether their children were born with the correct number of fingers and toes.
A big question surrounding this chapter these days is whether or not it's an example of God's condemnation of homosexuality. I think though that one can make a pretty strong argument that it's more rape than homosexuality that is the sin of the Sodomites here. Also, some have argued that the original Hebrew text can be translated as "to meet with" rather than "to have sex with."
Also, for me this chapter is another instance where I wonder "Why I'm a being told about this?" What lessons am I supposed to learn from Lot unknowingly having sex with his daughters? They aren't punished or rewarded for it. It just happens as a sort of weird epilogue to Lot's story.
God on YouTube: An excerpt from Dogma where the angels played by Matt and Ben reference Sodom and Gomorrah.
