God
& two angels visited Abraham, God's hand-picked founder of his chosen
nation, Israel. They came disguised as
men, travelers along the road. The
angels went down to Sodom & Gomorrah, to observe firsthand the wickedness
in those cities, because parties in heaven were so dull. The other visitor,
who was God,
stayed behind. He told Abraham that He
was going to destroy the cities & off the people because of their evil
ways.
Abe, a special friend
of the Lord, began to bargain with God to spare the cities if there were
righteous people in them. First Abe
asked the Lord if He would spare the cities if fifty righteous people lived
there. The Lord said, “Yes.” “How about
forty?” “OK.” “Thirty?”
“I guess so.” “Twenty?” “You’re pushing it, but all right.” “Ten?” God agreed not to destroy Sodom &
Gomorrah if even ten righteous people lived there, but that was as far down as
He would go. God told Abe, “I’m going to
go home & lie down--you’ve given Me a headache.”
When
the two angels arrived at Sodom that evening, Abe's nephew Lot met
them at the city gate. Lot &
his family lived in Sodom (a suburb of Gomorrah) in a small 3 bedroom, 1 bath
house. It was a fixer-upper, but it was
all that he could afford. He took the
two men to his home & fed them.
All
of the people of the city surrounded Lot's house & said, "Where are
the cute guys who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can party
hearty." By ancient custom, the
visitors were under Lot's protection. Lot knew he was obligated to protect his
guests so, as any good host would do, he offered the rioters his two virgin daughters
instead.
The angels struck the
rioters blind!! The angels told their hosts,
“No peeking!!” & led Lot, his wife & two daughters by the hand out of
the city. The Lord rained down burning
sulfur on Sodom & Gomorrah, destroying the buildings, the people, & all
the vegetation in the plain. Lot's wife
disobeyed the angels when she said "I think I left the oven on," looked back, & turned into a pillar of salt. Whether or not she was iodized is not known.
An atheist would rather not believe in God & be pleasantly surprised when he dies than the other way around----fishducky
