(Warning: If you’re squeamish, or dealing with issues of sexual abuse, it might be good to sit this week out.)
This week, we’ve looked at Judges 19, wondering what on earth it might have to say to us. Yesterday, we looked at how it’s a picture of a world without God – a world into which Jesus stepped in order to put it right. But is that the only way it’s relevant to us?
One thing we haven’t looked at yet is the connection between this story, and an earlier one in the Bible. A slightly more famous story, found in Genesis 19. Abraham’s nephew, Lot, is living in Sodom. But the city has become utterly evil, and God’s about to destroy it. But Abraham begs God to spare the city if he can find 50 righteous people in it. Or even 45. Or 40. How about 30. Maybe 20. What if there were only 10? (Funnily enough, that’s about the size of Lot’s family.) So God agrees to spare Sodom if he can find ten righteous people there. And immediately God dispatches a pair of angels, disguised as humans, on a fact-finding mission to Sodom. Here’s where we pick up the story.