Chapter 19
Two angels arrive in Sodom. There were three at Abram's tent. Per MSB note, they are called men in vs 10. MSB says that by this time they had taken human form. Lot sees them coming, and knows what fate awaits them if they are not offered his hospitality. How could he live and raise daughters in such a place? Can't really tell if Lot knows they are angels, recognizes something different about them, or just doesn't want to see travelers harmed in the city where he lives, but in any case, he presses them to come to his house. They do so, and he feeds them.
Every man in Sodom comes to Lot's house to abuse his guests. To the last man. This reminds us that the city would have been spared for only 10 good men. There weren't 10 there. There was only Lot. The angels rescue Lot and blind the would be attackers. The attackers riot when Lot tells them to take his daughters instead. They don't want his daughters. They want the strangers, and threaten to do to Lot what they had planned to do to the men. The angels pull Lot back inside, and make the rioters blind and unable to find the door to Lot's house.
2023 - Vs 8 says Lot's two daughters were virgins. Then in 14, Lot talks to his sons-in-law...who were ABOUT TO marry his daughters. So those daughters were leaving their "betrothed", NOT their husbands. These titles then were a custom of the time. Does vs 14 imply that Lot's future sons-in-law were out there in the crowd around the house? They were certainly a part of "the men of Sodom, both young and old". My goodness...Never thought about that before.
Note also that Lot bows himself with his face to the earth. It does not say "...and worshiped". We know these two are angels, but they don't tell him to get up. Because bowing like this was cultural. Doing so did not signify worship.
For we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the Lord , and the Lord has sent us to destroy it."
Genesis 19:13 ESV
There is a point that God draws a line. If enough innocents cry out to Him, He destroys completely. Not chastening, condemnation. This is an important distinction. God is not trying here to "scare" Sodom back into line. It has gone past that. Their destruction is now assured and immediate. As the end times will be.
The angels forcibly get Lot to leave. Even then, Lot won't go to the hills, but flees to a small town which would also have been destroyed. Lot saves a town full of homosexuals rather than fully obeying God's will.
2024 - Is this the same Zoar against whom Chedorlaomer and his allies fought in 14:2? This would make better sense than the Zoar that is on the coast of Egypt, West of the Nile delta.
Once Lot is safely in Zoar, God destroys S and G and the whole valley. This verse:
29 So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived. [Gen 19:29 ESV]
Lot is saved for Abraham's sake, not for his own goodness. He was kind and protective of the strangers, but when push came to shove, he hesitated. He didn't want to leave his possessions, his wealth, his home - even among such evil men - but preferred to stay. Perhaps he thought that if he stayed, he could save Sodom. Even so, it was his relationship to Abraham that saved him, and Zoar with it. Zoar means "small". Lot's son's-in-law think he is kidding and refuse to leave. Perhaps this also has something to do with Lot's hesitation in leaving. He was asking his daughters to leave their husbands behind. This will have consequences later.
Then, Lot moves to the hills with his daughters because he is now afraid to live in Zoar. They knew he showed up just before the destruction of that whole valley, and they probably thought he had something to do with it. There would have been a serious undercurrent of animosity. He moves into a cave with his daughters. A cave. The daughters feel bad that they won't be able to marry - no one would be willing to marry them given their mean circumstances - and they don't want their father to be without an heir. So the oldest girl makes a plan. They get him drunk, sleep with him, and have his sons, Moab and Ammon, two nations that would trouble Israel almost forever.
For later study: Take a look at the prophecies of these two places in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and other places. Don't they end up rising back to some sort of decent status at the end? I would think this also is attributable to Abraham.
Drinking makes you easily manipulated into sin. You will do and forget things you would not even dream of otherwise. It says that Lot never even knew his daughters were there. His sin was drunkenness. And even in that he may have been manipulated. He never recognized that any woman - much less his daughters - were in his bed. Perhaps this is why such a profound sin did not disqualify him as a righteous man. This is an interesting principle if I have it right.
When they showed up pregnant, did he question them? Did they tell him the truth? Was he appalled? Did they confess to him what they had done??? What a mess.