Daily Lectionary | Genesis 19 & John 9
Genesis 19
Summary
The story of Lot is one of exodus and deliverance. Abram delivers Lot from Chedorlaomer in Genesis 14. Now Lot will be delivered once again from the judgment that falls on Sodom. The two angels arrive at Sodom to inspect the city from the town square. Lot realizes this is too dangerous and invites the men in his home and, like Abraham in the previous chapter, shows them hospitality and serves them bread. The eating of unleavened bread before a great deliverance anticipates the Passover in Exodus.
All the men and young men of the city demand Lot give up his guests so the men may rape them. Lot foolishly offers his daughters to the ravenous crowd of men, but they want the male guests. The angels bring a preliminary judgment of blindness on the men such that they grope in the dark--perhaps evocative of their true spiritual condition.
The angels have to seize Lot, his wife and daughters to get them out of the city before God destroys it. We might learn something about the Lord’s final judgment. The Lord will remove the righteous by his strong hand of grace so they do not suffer judgment.
Abraham witnesses the smoke from the judgment of Sodom and Gomorroah. The smoke “goes up” or ascends to heaven. The word for “go up” is the same word used for the whole-burnt offering later in the sacrificial system.
Lot is rescued out of Sodom but insists that he goes his own way afterwards. Much like Israel in the wilderness, the rest of Lot’s life is something of a tragedy as he will dwell in caves, places associated with isolation and death in Scripture.
Because there was no hope of progeny, his daughters devise a plan to get their father drunk and sleep him so they might get pregnant. They do and give birth to Moab and Ben-Ammi. This sin is reminiscent of the scene after the judgment of the flood, when there was another fall in the context of a father’s drunkenness.
- What does this passage show us about the severity of God’s judgment and the hope of deliverance?
- Consider the contrast between Lot and Abraham. What lessons might we learn about faith?
John 9
Summary
On the first page of John we learn that Jesus is the light come to shine in darkness. Jesus tells us again that he is the light of the world in this passage (see also Jn. 8:12). And he says that his work must be done during the daylight not at nighttime.
The man born blind is in a perpetual darkness. Jesus however is the light that shines in darkness and the one who can bring new creation. So he takes dust combined with the water of his spit. The Lord formed Adam of the dust of the earth. This was Adam’s “birth.” Jesus has just told Nicodemus that one must be born again by water. The emphasis on the man being born blind stands out in this passage. Now the man will be born again, like Adam from the dust.
The new birth through water theme is prominently highlighted at Siloam. The man was told to go wash at Siloam. After this baptism, he returns seeking. The man bears witness to what Jesus had done for him. We learn that once again Jesus has performed a miracle on the sabbath day, further emphasizing his new creation work but also igniting the fury of those who refuse to acknowledge the light of the new creation and thus remain in their darkness.
The healed man catches flack from the Jews who didn’t want to believe Jesus did this for him and they expel him. Jesus finds him and receives him. We learn a lesson from Jesus about this miracle: “For judgment I came into the world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind” (Jn. 9:39).
This is about having our eyes opened to see Jesus.
Reflection Questions
- Who sees and who is blind in this passage?
- Jesus tells the man to wash in Siloam (which means sent). What’s the significance of this washing? Why might “sent” be important?