Scripture Daily

Context No. 2712 of 4322 · Genesis

Context · Reflection

Genesis 19:1-5: in context

1The two angels came to Sodom at evening. Lot sat in the gate of Sodom. Lot saw them, and rose up to meet them. He bowed himself with his face to the earth, 2and he said, “See now, my lords, please come into your servant’s house, stay all night, wash your feet, and you can rise up early, and go on your way.” They said, “No, but we will stay in the street all night.” 3He urged them greatly, and they came in with him, and entered into his house. He made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. 4But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter. 5They called to Lot, and said to him, “Where are the men who came in to you this night? Bring them out to us, that we may have sex with them.”

This is a scene that should be read soberly. The two angels reach Sodom at evening, and Lot, sitting in the gate, presses them not to sleep in the open square but to shelter under his roof. He bows, urges them, bakes bread, and spreads a feast. Everything Lot does is the ancient duty of welcome to a stranger, protection offered to guests.

Then the city shows its true face. Before the visitors lie down, the men of Sodom, young and old, from every quarter, surround the house and demand that Lot hand the strangers over to be assaulted. The horror of the moment is exactly the reversal it stages: hospitality against predation, shelter against the mob's will to violate the defenseless outsider. When Scripture later names the sin of Sodom, it points to this same root, a people at ease who had no care for the vulnerable and no fear of harming them.

How do I treat the vulnerable stranger, the one with no power to resist me, when no one is watching?

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