Okay, two quick assignments:Do you think this is a like father like son kind of thing? Or for that matter, how would you account for Abraham making the same mistake twice?
Okay, just in case that wasn't confusing enough for you, read Genesis 19:4-9, followed by Judges 19:22-25. These are rough stories, but then again the Bible is not G-rated.
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Do you think it's odd that these accounts so closely parallel one another?
What are your thoughts?
Here's something I noticed for the first time in today's reading. Chapter 19, verse 1 says that Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. I'd always thought of Lot as a newcomer to Sodom, someone with little or no influence. Yet these words indicate that he was actually one of the city leaders. It was the respected men of the city who sat at the city gates and acted as a type of court and mediation system/city council.
ReplyDeleteSo, was Lot rescued because of his own goodness, or because of his relationship to Abraham?
I've always wondered that - could be because he was kin... I also found it strange that he has "sons in law" but at the same time his daughters are virgins. *shrug* Probably confusion in translation, but it does come across oddly.
ReplyDeleteThese mobs of rapists beating on the doors - brr! I always cringe when I read of them handing that poor powerless woman out to them to save their guest, like a sacrifice to appease them. How warped human beings can become. I sadly don't find it odd they parallel as I expect this sort of behavior happened more often than is recorded. :-(
And oh poor ol' Abimelech! I wonder if the second one was Abimelech Jr. - which would make it like-father-like-son doubled. At least he tried to set things right, and handsomely so. You think Abe would've told Issac about this one...
- Amy
I was thinking that the "sons-in-law" reference was very similar to the situation with Mary and Joseph. They were not married, but engaged or betroved, when Joseph found out Mary was pregnant and wanted to quietly divorce her. It sounds like their engagement was more than what it is today - a more binding agreement that required a divorce to break, even though they had not come together as man and wife physically. Mary was a virgin and was in the position of being divorced, and Lot's daughters (also virgins) were probably engaged just as Mary was and their future husbands were already referred to as sons-in-laws, even though they were not living together yet or married.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, that was kind of my take on that...
Merry
Thank you for your thought's, Amy. I enjoy the perspective you bring to the discussion.
ReplyDeleteMerry, you might have something there. I had not thought of it that way before, but you might just be right.
Any other thoughts on the similarity of these stories?
"Thought's"? How 'bout "thoughts"?
ReplyDelete