An all knowing God?
On the way to deal death and destruction to Sodom and Gomorrah, God, along with two angels, passed by Abrahams’ home. After taking in some refreshments, they left.
18:16 When the men got up to leave, they looked out over Sodom. (Now Abraham was walking with them to see them on their way.) 18:17 Then the Lord said, “Should I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? 18:18 After all, Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all the nations on the earth will pronounce blessings on one another using his name…..
18:20 So the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so blatant 18:21 that I must go down and see if they are as wicked as the outcry suggests. If not, I want to know.”
In this passage, God is uncertain whether to reveal his plans to Abraham and more importantly has only heard that Sodom and Gomorrah are wicked places and has to check for himself, hardly an all knowing, all seeing God!
Abraham then persuades God not to kill everyone in these places arguing;
18:24 What if there are fifty godly people in the city? Will you really wipe it out and not sparethe place for the sake of the fifty godly people who are in it? 18:25 Far be it from you to do such a thing – to kill the godly with the wicked, treating the godly and the wicked alike! Far be it from you! Will not the judge of the whole earth do what is right?” 18:26 So the Lord replied, “If I find in the city of Sodom fifty godly people, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
Abraham asks the same question several times, each time lowering the number of Good people there might be, until he gets down to ten.
18:32 Finally Abraham said, “May the Lord not be angry so that I may speak just once more. What if ten are found there?” He replied, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the ten.”
Not only is God shown not to be all seeing and knowing, he doesn’t even keep tabs on the Godly people. As it turned out, there was only one man, Lot, Abraham’s nephew, and his immediate family who were worth saving so the cities were destroyed anyway.
Take my daughters, please!
When Gods angels reached Sodom, they decided to stay at Lot’s house for the night.
19:4 Before they could lie down to sleep, all the men – both young and old, from every part of the city of Sodom – surrounded the house. 19:5 They shouted to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so we can have sex with them!” 19:6 Lot went outside to them, shutting the door behind him. 19:7 He said, “No, my brothers! Don’t act so wickedly! 19:8 Look, I have two daughters who have never had sexual relations with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do to them whatever you please. Only don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”
So the one Godly man in Sodom was willing to hand over his two virgin daughters, both of whom had husbands to be, to an angry mob with the instruction, “you can do to them whatever you please”! Nice of him to offer but the mob turned him down, demanding that he send out the two strangers.
And the Lord said let there be incest
Lot and his two daughters were the only ones to survive the devastation of Sodom and Gomorrah, (his wife had looked back during the escape and was turned into a pillar of salt). To secure their safety, they went to live in a cave in the mountains, but this had its drawbacks;
19:31 Later the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man anywhere nearby to have sexual relations with us, according to the way of all the world. 19:32 Come, let’s make our father drunk with wine so we can have sexual relations with him and preserve our family line through our father.” 19:33 So that night they made their father drunk with wine,and the older daughtercame and had sexual relations with her father. But he was not aware that she had sexual relations with him and then got up. 19:34 So in the morning the older daughter said to the younger, “Since I had sexual relations with my father last night, let’s make him drunk again tonight. Then you go and have sexual relations with him so we can preserve our family line through our father.” 19:35 So they made their father drunk that night as well, and the younger one came and had sexual relations with him. But he was not aware that she had sexual relations with him and then got up. 19:36 In this way both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father.
