Genesis 19-21 (incest)

My point of blogging this exercise is to record sort of rapid observations and, frankly, keep me honest about the task at hand.  This passage, however, includes the story of Sodom and Gomorra.  That story has been used to abuse people in the name of Christ for so long, it is hard to ignore.  So, here are some facts from today’s reading:

• The men, both young and old, of Sodom wanted to rape Lot’s visitors Gen. 19:4
• Lot only knows them as men, not as angels Gen. 19:1-5
• Lot offers his two virgin (why does that matter) daughters to be raped instead Gen. 19:8
• Lot real bad wanted to at least stay in a small city rather than go into the mountains Gen. 19:18-20
• God turned Lot’s wife into a pillar of salt for looking back at the city Gen. 19:26
• Lot ended up living in the mountains anyway, so, since his daughters had no men with whom to bear children, they got Lot drunk and slept with him, each conceiving children who became fathers of nations Gen: 19:30-38.
• Abraham told ANOTHER king that Sarah was his sister, so God sterilized the kings’ household Gen. 20: 1-17.
• Abraham confesses that Sarah is BOTH his wife and half-sister Gen. 20:12
• God lets Abraham send away the mother of his first born to make Sarah happy.  Gen. 21:12.

Look it up.  So, I am not sure what to get from this.  I had actually forgotten that Abraham’s marriage to Sarah would be illegal in modern times.  I see in here three things of note about the culture that created these passages: (1) they were a rural people, suspicious of urban life, (2) they were obsessed with sex as something evil, and (3) they were distrustful of women. 

Luckily, we don’t have any people like that ruining our country today.