We’ve all heard about prison rapes. The many against the one. The victim is helpless. In the prison community I understand it’s rare for any one to stand up against this sexual violence. It’s this combination “violence and sex” that brought the destruction of the world in the days of Noah. It’s the same in Chapter 19 with Sodom.
I like the way Kent Hughes says it, “The black rain of violent sexual perversion had fallen on all the men of Sodom. Moses’ choice of words is deliberate: ‘the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house’. Sexual orientation aside, such violence was anathema to all oriental culture. The violent depravity of the Sodomites was extraordinary. Lot’s home was encircled by a vast, gibbering mob of lusting men of every age, howling for perverted satisfaction.”
It’s very strange to think that Peterl, in 2Peter 2:6f, calls Lot “righteous” three times in three verses. It’s encouraging to us because, like Abraha and Noah who were also called “righteous” we see that it doesn’t mean “perfect.” Lot certainly wasn’t perfect.
He chose Sodom. He was attracted to the glitz and glamour of the city. It appears he married a Sodomite women, who couldn’t leave the city with the last longing look back. His daughters were engaged to Sodomite men who were destroyed in God’s anger. Later, while in a drunken stupor, in a mountain cave near Zoar, Lot would become a victim of a sodom-like sin of his own daughters.
Peter also described Lot as a tormented soul. I believe he lived too close to Sodom and Sodom lived to close to him. He liked the comforts, conveniences, and high culture of the city, but he was always spiritually vexed by it’s sin. But he couldn’t make his break.
“He’s the prototype,” Kent Hughes says, “of so many believers today.”