In chapter 18 we saw the prelude to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.  Abraham lived just over the hills from Sodom near Hebron in a place called the plain of Mamre, and one day he had three heavenly visitors show up at his door, one of whom was the Lord.  In that visitation He told Abraham that there was a serious problem in Sodom, Gomorrah, and the surrounding area.  Serious enough for Him to come down personally and see to it.  Abraham knew that was really bad news.

How the Lord must have loved this man Abraham because He personally came to talk with him face to face about what He was going to do. You can be sure that Abraham and He discussed Lot and his family who lived in Sodom.  As the Lord tarried with Abraham the two angels that accompanied Him went on to Sodom to rescue Lot.  He had very recently been rescued from captivity by the Babylonian kings who invaded the area, and now he is in dire need of rescue again.  But he doesn't know that yet.

Now begins the discourse on the impending destruction and the rescue of Lot and his family, not only from the coming devastation, but also from the wicked people of the city.


Notice that it says two angels.  Remember this, because they are called men in chapter 18 and also later here in chapter 19.  If they are angels why are they called men?  Because they appeared as men in the flesh to those who saw them.

Now, it also says here that Lot sat in the gate.  What does it mean to sit in the gate?  Typically, the gate was the entrance to the city and it was there where most of the action took place.  Commerce was conducted there, the markets (bazaars) were often located there, and maybe most important of all,  justice was dispensed there because that is where the  judges also sat, in the gate.

But look, Lot quickly intercepted these angels.  Why?  Probably for the same reasons that Abraham did in chapter 18.  Lot recognized these men were very special indeed, and he instinctively acted quickly and decisively.

There are different ideas about this.  Some give Lot credit for being very hospitable and loving to entertain visitors.  Some say that the people of Sodom were not hospitable and that they ill treated strangers and visitors, and so Lot was trying to prevent them from being assaulted and raped.

Let's consider these things.

Okay, let's assume that righteous Lot was hospitable and he received strangers gladly, but why would he bow with his face to the ground to these strangers?  Ordinary visitors didn't receive that kind of treatment.  Bowing with your face to the ground is tantamount to worship.

And, the stories about Sodom being cruel and abusive to visitors are not logical.  It doesn't make sense because the word would get out and no merchant, tourist, or traveler would come to their city.  They would have no visitors and commerce would be stifled.  Cities were places of commerce, so visitors probably would be received gladly for that reason, but not in the way that Lot received these two.


It was not uncommon in those days to take visitors in off the streets for the night, but Lot was insistent that these two get in off the streets and to be hidden from view quickly.  He may have never seen an angel before but he likely had heard stories about them.  It seems that he did recognize them for what they were and he wanted to know for sure why they were there.  I think that he was fearful as to why they were there.

At first sight of these two angels Lot intuitively knew that the people of Sodom would be stirred up over them.  How?  Because he lived among them and sat in the gate with the elders and the people everyday and he knew their conversation and conduct.  Peter verifies this.

Conversation should read conduct.

Go back and read verses 2 and 3 again and get the sense of how urgently Lot talked them into entering his house and getting off the street.  He quickly planned their evening and night for them.  They would go to his house, stay out of sight while he entertained them, spend the night, then arise very early in the morning to depart while everyone else was sleeping.  Pretty good plan except the people had already seen them and were very curious.


Could this mean men, women, and even children?  Whatever the composition they were an excited mob.  Perhaps they had expected Lot to bring them out later to show them the city, which he obviously did not do.  They grew impatient and tired of waiting to see these two special visitors.


This verse has been taught by many to mean that it was only the men of the city who desired sexual contact with these angels, but if verse 4 above means everybody, then it was a mixed crowd.  In any case, Lot did not want to give the people of the city any opportunity to have any contact with these two.

Why?

He didn't know why the angels were there yet, and he knew that the flood during Noah's time came as a result of what happened between Adam's descendants and the first influx of fallen angels.  Remember, it was now only about 400 years after the flood, Noah had died only recently and Shem was still alive.  Lot also had firsthand knowledge about what happened as a result of later irruptions of rogue angels after the flood because he could see the results of it around him in Sodom.

He knew that the Rephaims, the Emims, and the Zuzims mentioned in chapter 13 were vile hybrids, the offspring of the fallen angels who mated with humans after the flood.  There were probably other hybrids besides these three groups in the area as well.  Lot was a smart man, on top of things, and he had to know about these evil people.

In addition, he knew that about 400 years previously God had destroyed all the descendants of Adam with a flood, primarily for crossbreeding with fallen angels.  The only ones saved out of perhaps millions of people were righteous Noah and his family.  There were other reasons for the flood to be sure, but that was the main problem, and righteous Lot knew about it.

And, it is also possible that the city of Babel, along with its famous tower, had been destroyed for the same reason among other things.  In fact, Lot was in Sodom now as a result of what had happened at Babel.  He and Abraham were forced to evacuate that area  because of the disaster a few years earlier.  So whatever precipitated the destruction of Babel was known to Lot and Abraham.

Also, some of the people of Sodom may have mixed with the offspring of Cain, the Kenites.  Cain was an evil hybrid that was produced as the result of the tryst between Lucifer and Eve.  Don't be shocked, his children are still with us today and they are the tares mentioned in Matthew 13.  They are called Kenites throughout the Old Testament scriptures.  Look up nos. 7014 and 7017 in Strong's Hebrew Dictionary.

Moses refers to them in his famous song in Deuteronomy 32.


Their father is Lucifer and he is their rock.  Our Rock is Jesus Christ, Yahweh, the I AM.


Jesus said that you would know them by their fruits.


It goes without saying that dragons and serpents are associated with Lucifer, the one who seduced Eve in the Garden.

So, some of the people living around Sodom were giant descendants (gibbor, or nephilim) of fallen angels and the daughters of men.  These giants had just been defeated militarily by the alliance of Babylonia kings mentioned in Genesis 13, one of whom may have been the famous Hammurabi.  These illegitimate offspring of the fallen angels were said to be giants like Goliath.  Goliath and his brothers were probably some of their breed and they were killed by David and his men nearly a thousand years later.

Lot must have been thinking on these things.  Was the appearance of these two angels the beginning of another influx?  Heaven forbid!


Right about now you might be wondering what in the world is Lot doing because he seems to be  offering his two young tender daughters up to a vicious crowd with rape on their minds.  That has been taught on a widespread basis.  Puh-leez!  Get a grip, be realistic and use common sense.

Regardless of what you have been taught, Lot wasn't offering his two young unwed daughters here as substitutes for the two male angels to prevent homosexual activity.  In fact, he wasn't really offering them at all.  Why would he?  The people of the city undoubtedly saw them each and everyday, and if they had been as vicious and rapine as we have been taught they would have had them already.

We have all done the same thing on occasion!  That is, made an absurb off-the-cuff statement that we didn't really mean literally in order to drive home a point.  That is what Lot was doing in making this ridiculous statement and he was bluffing.  The crowd knew that he wasn't really offering them his daughters and that is why they ignored the comment.  They could have called his bluff, but  if they had I don't believe for an instant that he would have given up the girls to them.

Believe you me, if the crowd had been nothing more than a bunch of unrestrained sexual deviates, some of them would have immediately accepted Lot's offer, took his daughters and had their way with them.  They didn't want the girls because they had something else on their minds and Lot knew it.  They knew these visitors were angels, and that is why he was trying to reason with them any way he could concerning who, or what really, they should mate with.  Someone of their own kind, not with angels, nor with anyone of another specie, or anything of a different kind.


These people were really upset at Lot for keeping them to himself.  Who was this stranger living among them who presumed to judge?  He didn't have the right.  They wanted the angels and they wanted them right now without any more debate.


Not just Lot's door, any door, the door to their houses.  They suddenly were no longer a threat to Lot and the angels.  When you are suddenly struck blind it humbles you instantaneously.  Think about it, all they could do was grope their way home in a panic and stay put.

Lot must have been terribly relieved and thought it was all over.  These angels would leave early the next morning and that would be that, or so he thought.  What a surprise he is going to get next.

The real purpose of their visit.


Lot had other children living in the city as well as servants living both in his house and in the suburbs with his herds and flocks.


Bingo!  Lot now knows the real purpose of their visit and it is stunning.  It had already been determined that everything and everyone in the area would be destroyed, and the angels were sent specifically to save Lot and his family.  What paralyzing, shocking news!  Even though Lot knew that their visit was serious, he didn't expect anything like this.


Lot's children would not believe him and thought he was a crackpot or a kook.  What a dilemma!


Lot was not reacting to the situation gracefully.  He and his wife may have even been rebelling at the thought of leaving.  They were reluctant to go because of their children and grandchildren who lived in the city.  How utterly disturbing it must have been to Lot and his wife that the married children wouldn't believe him, and that they would surely perish with all the others because of their unbelief.


They were still dragging their feet and as a result the angels had to physically overpower them and bring them away from the city.  The he here is the LORD, and He admonished them personally with extreme urgency in His voice.


Poor grieving thing!   The maternal instinct is very strong and how she must have hurt for her children, her grandchildren, and her friends.  She was overcome with grief and it caused her to make the fatal mistake of hesitating too long out in the open.  She was overtaken and covered in the molten falling debris within the pyroclastic cloud.  The thought occurs to me that she may have done it deliberately.  Did she?  Only she and God know.


He may have been awakened by the noise and the shaking.  Where he dwelt was not that far from where the action was taking place.


The asphalt that is common there was burning producing a dense black smoke that rose into the heavens.


The primary reason for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah

The tiny book of Jude in the New Testament explains it 2,000 years later.


In verse 6, Jude is talking about rebellious angels before the flood of Noah, the first influx.  The people among whom Noah lived were the descendants of the man Adam and they were destroyed for mixing with the fallen angels.  You can read about it in Genesis 6:1-7.  Notice in Genesis 6:4 it implies that there were more irruptions of these fallen angels after the flood.

In verse 7, Jude mentions Sodom and Gomorrah in the same context with the fallen angels and he says a peculiar thing.  One of the reasons for the destruction of these cities was the people were going after strange flesh.

That means homosexuality, right?  Wrong!  If that is what you have been taught it is not entirely correct.  Why, weren't there homosexuals in Sodom?  Yes, there were and there has been in every other place on Earth since man was created.  You probably know some, or at least know of some, where you live right now.

How do I know that homosexuality was not the main reason for their destruction?  Let me explain.

First, the sins of Sodom are laid out in Ezekiel 16:49-50 and the homosexual part is listed last, if at all.  Their sins appear in order of importance and pride is listed first.  Examine the verses below and see for yourself.


They didn't love God, nor did they obey Him.  They had become totally corrupt and worthless.  It is my considered opinion that my country, the U.S.A., is full of the same things today.  Consider it well.

Secondly, the word strange in Jude 7 is the Greek word heteros (Strong's No. 2087) and means other, different, or strange.  Please note that it is not homo.  This flies in the face of what you have been taught, doesn't it?

In other words, the words strange flesh in Jude 7 do not refer to homosexuality at all, but to heterosexuality.  In this case that means having sex with something other, different, or strange.  The Greek word heteros  means something entirely different today the way we use it as a prefix.  We have corrupted it beyond all recognition, and I have to wonder if that was not done deliberately by the children of Cain.

Don't be shocked!  Language is extremely important in how we frame things, and how we think about things.  Evil manipulations of words is one of the primary tools that is used against us, to mold and shape our thinking, and to control how we act and react to things.  There are many books out there on this subject.  One excellent fountain of knowledge on this subject is Noam Chomsky.  Look him up on the Internet and work with it.

Now, before anyone wrongfully accuses me of defending sodomy let me make it emphatically clear that is not true.  What I'm trying to prove here is that the old teaching about homosexuality being the main reason for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is wrong.

Jude clearly reveals the truth of the matter and they were an example for us to consider.  And what an example, because there is a possiblity that upwards of 1,500,000 people perished in their destruction.  If so, that is many times the number killed in Japan near the end of WWII when Truman tested atomic weapons on humans.  He dropped a uranium bomb on Hiroshima, and a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki.

Yes, that's right, I used the words tested on humans, because that is exactly what it was.  Think about it.  America is the only nation thus far to have used nuclear WMD's on another nation.  That fact is unsettling, to say the least, but what is even more unsettling is that it may not be the only time they will be used, by any nation or group of nations.  Consider it well my friends, because that too is a example for us to think hard about.  Armageddon comes.

The destruction of Babel, as well as Sodom and Gomorrah, occurred not long after the second influx of the fallen angels, and after the people in the area had mixed with them, say 200 to 300 years or so.  Nimrod was one of the offspring produced by the irruption after the flood.  It is interesting to note that God waited over 1,100 years after the first offending angels to bring on the Flood.  It too was an example, but was ignored both by the fallen angels and mankind because they did it again immediately after the flood.  God didn't wait nearly as long after that offense.

During Lot's time, and people being what they are, stories about the fallen angels had undoubtedly been romanticized and the people probably desired to see them again.  The recent raids by the armies of the Babylonian kings had taken care of some of their illegitimate offspring, the Rephaim, the Zuzim, and the Emims, but not all.  Anyway, I feel confident that the people of the area had been crossbreeding with those offspring of the fallen angels just mentioned, as well as the children of Lucifer, the Kenites, which is just as bad, or worse.  Angels are not men, they are other, different, or strange flesh and crossbreeding of any kind is prohibited by God.  For more on this subject, see my article on Adultery at ourfathersword.org.

The method used to destroy the area

Look at Genesis 14:3 and you will see that the writer who wrote this book hundreds of years after the destruction is inferring that the vale of Siddim, where Sodom and Gomorrah once were, was in his time covered by a salt sea.  In other words, what once was the lush and productive vale of Siddim by then had become covered with very saline water, creating the Dead Sea.  It probably did not exist prior to the destruction.

The exact method of destruction of Sodom and the surrounding area is not revealed in the Bible, but remember that God is natural.  He is so natural that He is supernatural.  He created nature and He uses natural methods to affect changes on the Earth.

Normal weather phenomena, regardless of severity level, can be eliminated in this case because the destruction was so widespread and so complete.  An earthquake is possible, as is vulcanism, and also impact by a large bolide.  These are natural things which are capable of such widespread and complete destruction, but anything else would pretty much be unnatural.

So what happened?


The Dead Sea is sitting astride the Syrian-African Rift which is a large fault in the Earth's crust hundreds of miles long that was formed a million or so years ago.  The likelihood of seismic activity along any fault is good.  So, keeping this in mind and zeroing in on verse 24 now, one could surmise that a powerful earthquake, with the resultant vulcanism,  may have caused the widespread destruction, but it is also possible that the prime cause of the disaster came from the sky.  A small asteroid perhaps, or a large meteorite, or even a small comet.  Don't be too hasty in rejecting this idea.  Think about the Dead Sea.  It is much deeper on it's northern end than on the southern end.   What if a small extraterrestial body moving exceedingly fast entered the atmosphere at a steep angle and impacted at what is now the the North end of the Dead Sea?

Upon impact by a large bolide, temperatures approaching 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit and pressures in the millions of pounds per square inch would be instantly generated, and everything at ground zero on the surface would be obliterated or vaporized.  Anything or anybody outside of, but near to, ground zero would be quickly innundated by a pyroclastic cloud of superheated water, steam and suspended debris.  Shortly after, hot molten rocks and debris would fall covering everything.  Exposed animal and plant life would perish in the affected area and the asphalt that is so prevalent there would have ignited and burned for who knows how long.

In any case, regardless of the cause of the disaster, it was utterly catastrophic for that area because verses 24 and 25 says it was.

To gain greater insight into what happened at Sodom and Gomorrah and how it applies as a type for us today, go to ourfathersword.org and study my essay entitled, Sodom, Lot, And The End Of This Age.