When the two angels came to Sedom to save Lot and his family, all the men in the city wanted to abuse them sexually. Lot refused to bring them out and offered them his two virgin daughters instead.

We can learn two things from this: first, it was very important for Lot to treat his guests well, to give them shelter, food and safety in every way. This was a very positive feature in Lot.

The second thing we can learn is that Lot’s level of morality was very low. How could this righteous man be willing to deliver his virgin daughters to these beasts that lacked any sense of sexual morality? Free sex and homosexuality are results of having apostatized from the Creator and His commandments. Homosexuality is in the lowest level in the scale of deprivation, down on the road of apostasy and perdition. (see Rom. 1:18-32).

Avraham was very careful not to mix his seed with Kenaan’s descendants due to their low moral standards (24:3), but Lot didn’t have that inner strength to refuse the values of the world that surrounded him. This made him surrender little by little, to the pressure of his wife and the other inhabitants of Sedom. It is true that his righteous soul suffered because of the sin of the sons of Kenaan, as it is written in 2 Peter 2:7-8: “and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard)”. (ESV) However, Lot didn’t have the spiritual strength to guide his sons and daughters in the path of high moral values, as did our father Avraham (18:19). This was one of the reasons why Avraham had to split from Lot.

The Eternal had mercy on Lot and saved him from destruction, but he lost most of his family, his wife turned into a pillar of salt for turning back – possibly because of her motherly instinct when thinking of her children who stayed behind, and her love for the world in which she lived until then. Lot also lost all his possessions and all he had left was his two daughters, daughters of Sedom, whose moral principles weren’t higher than the rest of Kenaan’s descendants.

Avraham refused to be influenced and guided by the values of the world around him, and that’s why he was chosen and blessed. His moral strength keeps blessing the world until today. But Lot gave in to low moral values and lost pretty much everything. The Eternal however, had mercy on him and saved him along with his daughters, because he had a wonderful plan for the girls’ future. We’ll talk about that in tomorrow’s manna

Let’s reject Lot’s behaviour and follow our father Avraham’s example, refusing to stain our souls with sin of the world around us. Let’s teach our children and grandchildren to walk in the path of the Eternal, doing judgment and justice so that they can remain in the line of blessing that comes from heaven; not only for the physical offspring of Avraham, but also for those who follow the steps of his faith, because all those who are the Messiah’s are the seed of Avraham and heirs according to the promise (Rom. 4:9-13; Gal. 3:29).

Chazak ubaruch – be strong and blessed,