Three angels disguised as men visited Abraham. Two of them went to Sodom and Gomorrah to assess the wickedness level of these cities. God told Abraham that he would destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because of the extreme evilness of the people of these cities. Abraham somehow convinced God to spare the cities if there were ten righteous people living there. God agreed. Abraham's nephew Lot met the angels at the city gates of Sodom. Lot took the angels to his home and fed them. Then all the men of the city surrounded Lot's house and asked for Lot to send the two men (angels) outside so they could have sex with them. By tradition, the angels were under Lot's protection, and he was so taken aback by this insistence that he offered the mob his two virgin daughters instead. The angels struck the rioters blind and led Lot and his family out of the city to safety. God rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah and destroyed them. Meanwhile, Lot's wife turns into a pillar of salt.
In this story, the "evil" people of Sodom and Gomorrah are punished for their deeds. But really who can decide whether something is evil or not? Whose place is it to determine what is morally good or bad? As I read this story I came to question whether the punishment by the angels was unfair and it was. The man was willing to offer his own two virgin daughters order to save the angels from an apparent sin. And in my opinion that is a worse sin because it portrays women and inferior to men. Their own father cares less for his own daughters than he does for the two random strangers in his home.
http://christianity.about.com/od/biblestorysummaries/a/Sodom-And-Gomorrah.htm
I like your second paragraph commentary. It is very insightful and well thought out.
ReplyDeleteYou wrote a very detailed summary of the story it was good. I also like your point in the second paragraph about who can really decide what is good and what is evil, that is a very powerful idea.
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