Genesis 18-19; Job 7-8; Proverbs 2:1-5
Commentary on Genesis 18-19:
- God and two angels appear to Abraham passing in front of his tent.
- Abraham, as a model of hospitality, arranges water, rest and food for the visitors.
- God reaffirms the promise that Sarah will get pregnant.
- Sarah, listening behind the door, laughs and disbelieves the promise, and when confronted about it by God, she lies about having done so.
- God reveals that he is going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah for their wickedness, and sends his angels to the Valley.
- Abraham intercedes, asking God to not destroy the cities if there are righteous people there, and God accepts his intercession.
- Lot, who was living in Sodom, sees the angels and receives them with good hospitality as well.
- The men of Sodom, everyone of them, surround the house, calling Lot, for they wanted to abuse the visitors, in a sexually, perverted, and homossexual way.
- Lot, trying to protect the visitors, offers his daughters, who were virgins to the crowd, so they could do what they pleased the them.
- The crowd rejects the offer, and intimidate Lot by saying that they will do worse to Lot that they would do with the visitors.
- The angels then bring Lot inside the house and judge the men, blinding them.
- The angels tell Lot about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and tell him to grab his family and escape the city.
- Lot’s sons-in-law ignore his message, and Lot himself lingers in the city.
- The angels, demonstrating mercy, grab Lot, his wife, and his daughters by the hand and brought them forth outside the city. The angels tell Lot to escape hastily and don’t look back, because if they do, they’ll be consumed.
- Lot asks to escape to a small city instead of the hills, and the angels promise to not destroy the city he’s going to.
- Lot and his family start escaping, while the angels start destroying the cities.
- Lot’s wife looks back and becomes a pillar of salt.
- God remembered Abraham, and protected Lot from the destruction.
- Lot becomes afraid to stay in Zoar (the small city) and goes to the hills with his two daughters.
- The daughters seem to think the whole world is being destroyed, and the first-born suggest to the youngest that they make their father drink wine so they can sleep with him so that they can have descendants.
- They execute their plan of raping his father while he is drunk and unconscious.
- The first-born’s son is called Moab, and he is the origin of the Moabites. The younger’s son is called Ben-ammi and is the origin of the Ammonites.
God’s question to Sarah (Gen 18:14): “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” resembles the Annunciation story where Archangel Gabriel says to Mary (Gen 1:37): “For with God nothing will be impossible”. But differently from Mary, Sarah doesn’t believe God’s word because of her old age, while Mary makes a beautiful act of faith and believes the Angel’s word, even as she was a virgin and intended to remain a virgin for her entire life.
Abraham intercession is a clear example on the Catholic doctrine intercession of the Saints. Lot and his daughters are saved by Abraham’s plead to God to save the righteous people among the wicked.
An inversion dynamic happens with Lot and his daughters. He offers them to be raped by the crowd to protect the angels, but in the end, he is the one that gets raped by them.
The Origin of the Moabites and Ammonites story (Gen 19:30-38) repeats the pattern seen in the Origin of the Canaanites (Gen 9:18-29). By getting drunk through wine, the father of the family allows sexual sin, rape and incest, to occur, generating people that will be the ascendants of peoples that will be enemies of Israel (Canaanites, Moabites and Ammonites).
The Sodomites’ sexual sin is not only sexual depravity and perversion because of the abuse they were about to commit, but also because of homosexuality. The rejection of the offer to take Lot’s daughters demonstrate the disordered preference, by the men of Sodom, for men over women.
Commentary on Job 7-8: In Chapter 7, Job continues his speech, responding to Eliphaz:
- But now, he doesn’t have any hope of being recovered. (Job 7:7)
- Job expects his life to end shortly, and because of that, he will continue to complain and speak about his pain. (Job 7:11)
- Job asks why God pays so much attention to men, but differently from other parts of the Bible where this is cherished (like the Psalms), the pain and suffering clouds Job’s judgment, and can only see God looking at men to punish their sins. (Job 7:17)
- Job still inquiries God on what he did to justify his suffering (Job 7:20)
In Chapter 8, another friend of Job speaks, Bildad:
- Bildad reprehends Job’s words.
- Bildad makes basically the same point as Eliphaz, saying that God would not let a truly upright and blameless man suffer.
- Bildad, though, offers a little piece of hope, saying that Job will recover and his latter days will be great, and he’ll have laughter once again.
Commentary on Proverbs 2:1-5: Not that much to say, really. Wisdom is the antidote of the way of evil, of men with “perverted speech” (lying, giving false witness, incentivizing others to commit sin), of men that walk in the path of darkness