Tag: Lot

Trees of Remembrance

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So Ephron’s field, which was in Machpelah, which faced Mamre, the field and the cave which was in it, and all the trees which were in the field, that were within all the confines of its border, were deeded over.
Genesis 23:17 (NASB)

Genesis 23 goes into repetitive detail about Sarah’s burial site. Of all the things that are mentioned, it’s interesting that the Trees of Mamre are mentioned here.

They’ve been mentioned before.

Then Abram moved his tent and came and lived by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron; and there he built an altar to the Lord.
Genesis 13:18 (NASB)

The first time, it’s in Genesis 13 after Abram is delivered from Egypt, and after Abram and Lot separate. God says to Abram, “for all the land which you see I will give to you and to your descendants forever.”

The trees stand to remind us of this perpetual Promise.

Then a survivor came and told Abram the Hebrew. Now he was residing by the oaks of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and brother of Aner, and they were allies with Abram.
Genesis 14:13 (NASB)

The next time the trees show up, Abram and his friends are told about Lot having been captured by Empire.

Here, the trees stand as a reminder of God’s Promise to rescue. God is faithful.

Now the Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day.
Genesis 18:1 (NASB)

Next, it’s when God appears to Abraham to announce that Sarah will have the Promised son, Isaac.

The trees stand to remind us of the first promise, but the promise is clarified: it’s not just for Abraham, but also for Sarah.

And finally, the trees are here in Genesis 23, where Sarah is honored and memorialized by a permanent contract, which serves as another everlasting Promise.

But a Promise about what? In this moment of Abraham’s grief over Sarah’s death, what do the trees tell us?

Perhaps they whisper in the wind, “Even in death, I am with you.”

The end is not the end. The trees that stood to remind us of the Promise made in the beginning still stand to remind us of the same Promise at the end. “When I said forever, I meant forever.”

A Mother’s Instincts

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Now Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking Isaac. Therefore she said to Abraham, “Drive out this slave woman and her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be an heir with my son Isaac!”
Genesis 19:9-10 (NASB)

It’s difficult to understand why Sarah is so upset in this story when you read the English. Most translations render the word צִחֵּק (tsichek) to show Ishmael “mocking,” or “making fun of” Isaac.

But Sarah’s reaction is based on something much more concerning.

Up until this moment in scripture, nearly every instance of this word was in the Qal, or basic form: “laughter.” Abraham laughs, Sarah laughs, Isaac’s name is יִצְחָק (Yitzḥaq), and it’s the causitive form of this same word, so it means “to make laugh.”

But in Genesis 19:14, the word changes form.

So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, and said, “Up, get out of this place, for the Lord is destroying the city.” But he appeared to his sons-in-law to be joking.
Genesis 19:14 (NASB)

Here, tzachak becomes *tzichek.*

Lot’s sons-in-law think he is “joking” about the cities being destroyed. The context shows they didn’t take him seriously, so they didn’t go with him. That’s a proper use of this form of the word.

Is this what Sarah sees Ishmael doing to Isaac? Does she Ishmael just goofing around and gets annoyed by it?

If instead of looking backwards to Genesis 19, we instead look forward for the use of this word, it gets dark, quickly.

The next two times the pi’el form of this word shows up in Genesis, it carries a sexual connotation.

Now it came about, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked down through a window, and saw them, and behold, Isaac was caressing his wife Rebekah.
Genesis 26:8 (NASB)

She called to the men of her household and said to them, “See, he has brought in a Hebrew to us to make fun of us; he came in to me to sleep with me, and I screamed.
Genesis 39:14 (NASB)

After that, it shows up in Exodus, and it’s connected to both sexual activity and idolatry. This passage describes the people in front of the golden calf.

So the next day they got up early and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and got up to engage in lewd behavior.
Exodus 32:6 (NASB)

The final time it shows up in scripture is with the story of Samson, when he’s led out to “entertain the Philistines.”

It so happened when they were in high spirits, that they said, “Call for Samson, that he may amuse us.” So they called for Samson from the prison, and he entertained them. And they made him stand between the pillars.
Judges 16:25 (NASB)

And this makes me wonder how Samson is actually being treated here. It’s very likely that he is naked for their amusement. For their pleasure.

If we read Sarah’s reaction to be tied to this forward view of tzichek, the picture is much more concerning. Perhaps we are meant to see that Sarah believes Ishmael is going to do something terrible to her son.

So she does what any mother would do.

Abraham’s Heartache

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In the plain reading of Genesis 19 and 20, it’s unclear if Abraham knows Lot survived.

Given that, consider Abraham’s view: He pleads with God for mercy, to which God said “ok, for the sake of so few, I’ll spare the cities,” but then the cities are destroyed. Abraham got up in the morning to see smoke billowing up.

What must Abraham think?

Perhaps this goes unresolved for Abraham. And perhaps life is like that sometimes.

Shame

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Now Abraham journeyed from there toward the land of the Negev, and settled between Kadesh and Shur; then he lived for a time in Gerar.
Genesis 20:1 (NASB)

Genesis 20 starts with Abraham. Without Lot. Lot is not mentioned again during his lifetime, and the rabbis speculate on this.

One view is Abraham abandoned Lot due to the shameful act with his daughters, but I disagree. I think Lot stayed behind because he was ashamed.

Shame is so powerful. It’s soul crushing and paralyzing, and it’s right there in the very beginning of the story of sin, when the serpent deceived humanity.

Lot’s hesitation, his drunkenness… he is a man drowning in shame and worthlessness.

He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
Genesis 3:10 (NIV)

But God, who knows all things, remained kind to Lot’s descendants. We read in Deuteronomy 2 that a portion of the Promised Land has been preserved for them, and that Israel is not to make war against them to take their land.

Yes, Psalm 83 shows the sons of Lot are remembered for their rebellion and aggression against God’s people.

But we should consider the way God gave them a possession of the Land first. This tells us the future: perhaps He will again.

Slayer of Giants

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Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father. The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab; he is the father of the Moabites to this day. And the younger, she also bore a son and called his name Ben-Ammi; he is the father of the people of Ammon to this day.
Genesis 19:36-38 (NKJV)

Lot’s daughters get him blackout drunk and then sleep with him to get pregnant.

The generations born from this are the Moabites and the Ammonites.

For some reason, they are connected thematically to giants.

In Deuteronomy, Moses tells Israel not to war against the sons of Moab and Ammon, and that the land remains the possession of the sons of Lot.

With both sons, there is a note about the Rephaim. Giants.

The Moabites call them Emim. The Ammonites call them Zamzummin.

Then the Lord said to me, ‘Do not attack Moab, nor provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land as a possession, because I have given Ar to the sons of Lot as a possession.’ (The Emim lived there previously, a people as great, numerous, and tall as the Anakim. Like the Anakim, they too are regarded as Rephaim, but the Moabites call them Emim.)
Deuteronomy 2:9-11 (NASB)

When you come opposite the sons of Ammon, do not attack them nor provoke them, for I will not give you any of the land of the sons of Ammon as a possession, because I have given it to the sons of Lot as a possession.’ (It is also regarded as the land of the Rephaim, because the Rephaim previously lived in it, but the Ammonites call them Zamzummin, a people as great, numerous, and tall as the Anakim; but the Lord destroyed them before [a]them. And they dispossessed them and settled in their place)
Deuteronomy 2:19-21 (NASB)

The possession of the sons of Lot is the land where giants lived before God drove them out.

Perhaps this is a statement about God removing a powerful curse – a great shame that followed the family due to their origin, because of Lot and his daughters.

God is a slayer of giants.

Later, we’ll read that a certain Moabite woman named Ruth marries Boaz, father of Obed, father of Jesse, father of David.

And a certain Ammonite woman named Naamah marries Solomon, father of Rehoboam, first king of Judah when the monarchy was split.

Both sons of Lot are in the Divine Lineage.

Faces

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The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
Genesis 1:2 (NKJV)

The word “surface” is rooted in the latin “superfices,” or “upon the face,” which indicates the outward and visible portion of a thing.

The ancient Hebrew language uses this same concept with the word פָּנִים (panim). It means “face.”

But there’s another application of this word “face” in scripture that carries much more weight. When it applies to humanity and to God, it becomes a powerful theological word.

It is about the experience of acceptance and rejection.

In Genesis 1 & 2, we’re shown the face of the waters, the face of the deep, the face of the expanse of heaven, and the face of the earth.

But in Genesis 3, we encounter the face of God. Most translations say “presence,” but this is inaccurate.

Now they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
Genesis 3:8 (NASB)

The phrase in Hebrew is מִפְּנֵי יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים, which is “the panim of YHWH Elohim.”

And it’s from this panim that the man and his wife withdrew. Not from God’s presence, but from his face.

So what does this mean? How can we hide from God’s face?

Perhaps we see it more clearly when we see the face of man, who is made in God’s image.

We first see man’s face when we get to Cain. In the Hebrew, we read that God did not “regard” Cain and his offering. Literally, God did not even look at him.

So Cain’s face fell.

But for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell.
Genesis 4:5 (ESV)

What does it mean that his face “fell?” It’s the word נָפַל (nephal). (Interestingly this is also the root of “nephilim.”)

In the next verses, we get a clue. Falling is met with Rising: שְׂאֵת (se’et). Most translations say “accepted” but it is “lifting up” or “rising.”

The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to[ you, but you must rule over it.”
Genesis 4:6-7 (ESV)

If se’et is tied to being accepted, naphal is tied to being or feeling rejected.

Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”
Genesis 4:14 (ESV)

When Cain cries “I shall be hidden from your face,” this isn’t the same “hide” that Adam and Eve experience in Genesis 3:8. There, they withdrew. Here, Cain is concerned he’ll be obscured.

It feels linked to Cain’s initial lament: God did not pay attention to him or his offering. He wasn’t accepted.

So this is the understanding: God’s face represents acceptance. Our face reflects our position of acceptance or rejection.

When we’re in God’s face, and our face is lifted up, this is a picture of being accepted by God. When our face is down, we are experiencing rejection, but God can lift our face.

When Cain leaves, what he leaves is the opportunity for acceptance, choosing to wander instead.

Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod,[a] east of Eden.
Genesis 4:16 (ESV)

This usage gives us another hint about God’s reaction to Lot as he’s being rescued from the destruction looming over Sodom. Lot begs the angel to let him flee to Zoar, and the angel agrees to let him go there and also spare the city.

He said to him, “Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of.
Genesis 19:21 (NIV)

The phrase “I will grant this request” is literally “I have raised your face.” He’s saying: I have accepted you. I am saving Zoar on account of you.

Perhaps Lot’s hesitation back in verse 16 is really about wondering if he was accepted. He learns that he is.

And while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.
Genesis 19:16 (NKJV)

Lot’s Rescue

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So it came about, when God destroyed the cities of the surrounding area, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the destruction, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived.
Genesis 19:29 (NASB)

So Abram went away as the Lord had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
Genesis 12:4 (NASB)

The rabbis connect Genesis 19:29 to Genesis 12:4, and suggest that Lot was not just spared from the destruction of Sodom, but from the destruction of Haran as well.

Both cases are because of Abraham.

Lot’s Righteousness

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Why was Lot spared? Why did God preserve him in Genesis 19, other than for Abraham’s benefit? What’s so good about him?

The Midrash has a story that many of the commentaries use as their answer, and it’s interesting. It has to do with Lot’s position in the family.

When Lot joins Abram out of Haran, one of the first adventures is the ordeal in Egypt. Abram tells Sarai to lie about their relationship to avoid being killed by Pharaoh.

Suppose Abram was killed. Who would have benefited in that situation? Who would be the heir to the Promised Land? The rabbis say it was Lot.

The opportunity for Lot to demonstrate his character is there in Genesis 12. If Lot speaks up and says “no, they’re married,” Abram would die and Lot would gain everything.

Therefore, Lot’s righteousness is demonstrated by his silence. He chose to protect his uncle and forgo the financial benefit.

Pillar of Salt

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But Lot’s wife, from behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
Genesis 19:26 (NASB)

Why was Lot’s wife punished for looking back (literally, “behind him,” referring to Lot)? And why a pillar of salt?

Genesis doesn’t say, but there are rabbinical thoughts on this that run through scripture.

One explanation is that Lot’s wife dies because when she looked back at the cities being destroyed, what she saw was the very presence of God in fire and smoke, dwelling in the land. It’s the same “don’t look” that’s given as a warning in Exodus 19.

Same fire and smoke. Same warning.

Then the Lord spoke to Moses: “Go down, warn the people, so that they do not break through to the Lord to stare, and many of them perish.
Exodus 19:21 (NASB)

But why a pillar of salt? What does it mean?

This part is less clear, but the rabbis suggest the punishment is often like the sin. In the same way they wonder if the forbidden fruit was a fig (Adam/Eve clothed themselves in fig leaves), perhaps the salt points to salt-related sin.

The Midrash tells a story of Lot’s wife, being from Sodom, having the same inhospitable heart as everyone else there. So when someone came to their door and asked for a bit of salt, she said no!

From Rashi:

ותהי נציב מלח AND SHE BECAME A PILLAR OF SALT — By salt had she sinned and by salt was she punished. He (Lot) said to her once: “Give a little salt to these strangers” and she answered him, “Do you mean to introduce this bad custom, also, into our city?” (Genesis Rabbah 50:4).
Rashi on Genesis 19:26:2/cite>

Is it true? Is it what happened?

Who knows? But it does have a certain elegance to it, and I think it’s a good way to remember the story, and to remember to be generous and kind to strangers.

And also, don’t stare at the presence of God.

Hesitated

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But he hesitated. So the men grasped his hand and the hand of his wife and the hands of his two daughters, because the compassion of the Lord was upon him; and they brought him out and put him outside the city.
Genesis 19:16 (NASB)

Lot hesitates after the angels urge him to gather his family and flee the pending destruction of the cities.

Why?

There are many possibilities, but Genesis does not tell us.

Here are some of the suggestions offered by the rabbis in the Jewish commentaries:

– He was paralyzed with fear
– He wanted to grab more stuff from his house
– He didn’t really want to leave
– He didn’t really believe the angels

But the Minchat Shai says something far more interesting.

“If he tarries, wait for him.” (Habakkuk 2:3)
Minchat Shai on Genesis 19:16:1

Rather than focusing on Lot’s motives, it suggests that the teaching is found in the words used, tying “hesitated” to “compassion” and mercy. Mercy is tied to waiting.

But he hesitated. So the men grasped his hand and the hand of his wife and the hands of his two daughters, because the compassion of the Lord was upon him; and they brought him out and put him outside the city.
Genesis 19:16 (NASB)

For the vision is yet for the appointed time;
It hurries toward the goal and it will not fail.
Though it delays, wait for it;
For it will certainly come, it will not delay long.
Habakkuk 2:3 (NASB)

The focus is about God’s decision to wait for Lot, pushing him as necessary, and not on Lot’s hesitation.