Rain Of Fire

Stories From The Hebrew Bible
THE RAIN OF FIRE THAT FELL ON A CITY

One day Abraham (for we shall now call him by his new name) was sitting in the door of his tent, when he saw three men coming toward him. They were not common men. They were angels, and one of them was the Lord Himself, coming in the form of a man.

When Abraham saw these men coming, he went out to meet them and bowed to them and said: “Do not pass by, but come and rest a little under the tree. Let me send for water to wash Your feet; and take some food; and stay with us a little while.”

So this strange person, who was God in the form of a man, sat with His two followers and Abraham.

They ate some food which Sarah, Abraham’s wife, made ready for them, and then the Lord talked with Abraham. He told Abraham again that in a very little time God would send to him and Sarah a little boy, whose name should be Isaac. In the language that Abraham spoke, the name Isaac means “laughing”; because Sarah laughed when she heard it.

Then the three persons rose up to go, and two of them went on the road which led toward Sodom, down on the plain of Jordan, below the mountains. But one of them stopped and said:

Shall I hide from Abraham what I am going to do? For Abraham is to be the father of a great people, and all the world shall receive a blessing through him. And I know that Abraham will teach his children and all those that live with him to obey the will of the Lord and to do right. I will tell Abraham what I am going to do. I am going down to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and I am going to see if they are as bad as they seem to be; for the wickedness of these cities is like a cry coming up before the Lord.

And Abraham knew that Sodom was very wicked, and he feared that God was about to destroy it. And Abraham said:

Will You destroy the righteous with the wicked, the good with the bad, in Sodom? Perhaps there may be fifty good people in the city. Will You not spare the city for the sake of fifty good men who may be in it? Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?

The Lord said: “If I find in Sodom fifty good people, then I will not destroy the city, but will spare it for their sake.”

Then Abraham said:

Perhaps I ought not to ask anything more, for I am only a common man, talking with the Lord God. But suppose that there should be forty-five good people in Sodom, will You destroy the city because it needs only five good men to make up the fifty?

And the Lord said, “I will not destroy it, if there are forty-five good men in it.” And Abraham said, “Suppose there are forty good people in it – what then?” And the Lord answered, “I will spare the city, if I find in it forty good men.” And Abraham said, “O Lord, do not be angry, if I ask that if there are thirty good men in the city, it may be spared.” And the Lord said, “I will not harm the city, if I find thirty good men there.” And Abraham said, “Let me venture to ask that You will spare it if twenty are there.” The Lord said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of twenty good men, if they are there.” Then Abraham said, “Oh, let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak only this once more. Perhaps there may be ten good men found in the city.” And the Lord said, “If I find ten good men in Sodom, I will spare the city.”

And Abraham had no more to say. The Lord in the form of a man went on His way toward Sodom; and Abraham turned back and went to his tent.

Do you remember Lot, the nephew of Abraham? He chose to live in the land of Sodom though the people were so wicked. Do you also remember how Lot was carried away a prisoner when Sodom was taken by its enemies and how he was rescued by Abram? Even after all that had happened, Lot still went to live in Sodom again; and he was there when the angels came to Abraham’s tent, as we read in the last story.

So, two angels went to Sodom and found Lot, the only good man. Lot took the angels, who looked like men, into his house, and treated them kindly and prepared a meal for them.

Finding out about the strangers in Lot’s house, the men of Sodom stood in the street outside the house and tried to take the two men out. These wicked and cruel men wanted to do them harm. But the men of Sodom could do nothing against them, for when they tried to break open the door, and Lot was greatly frightened, the two angels struck all those wicked men blind in a moment, so that they could not see, and had to feel around in the dark for the door.

Then the angels said to Lot:

Have you here any others besides yourself, any sons or sons-in-law or daughters? Whomever you have, get them out of this city quickly, for we are here to destroy this place, because it is so wicked.

Then Lot went to the houses where the young men lived who were pledged to his daughters, and said to them: “Hurry, and get out of this place, for the Lord will destroy it.”

They would not believe his words and laughed at him.

And when the morning was coming, the two angels tried to make Lot hasten. They said: “Rise up quickly, and take your wife, and your two daughters that are here. If you do not haste, you will be destroyed with the city.”

But Lot was slow to leave his house, so the two angels took hold of him and of his wife and his two daughters and led them out of the city. God was good to Lot, to take him out of the city before it was destroyed.

And when they had brought Lot and his wife and his daughters out of the city, one of the angels said to him: “Escape for your life; do not look behind you; do not stop anywhere in the plain; climb up the mountain or you may be destroyed!”

And Lot begged the angels not to send him so far away. He said,

O my Lord, I cannot climb the mountain. Have mercy on me and let me go to the little city that is near. It is only a little city, and you can spare it. Please let me be safe there.

And the angel said, “We will spare that city for your sake; and we will wait until you are safe before we destroy these other cities.”

So Lot ran to that little city, and there he found safety. In the language of that time, the word “Zoar” means little; so that city was afterward called Zoar. It was the time of sunrise when Lot came to Zoar.

Then, as soon as Lot and his family were safely out of Sodom, the Lord caused a rain of fire to fall upon Sodom and the other cities on the plain. With the fire came great clouds of smoke, covering all of the plain. So the cities were destroyed and all the people in them; not one man or woman or child was left.

While Lot and his daughters were fleeing from the city, Lot’s wife stopped and looked back; and she became a pillar of salt, standing there upon the plain. Lot and his two daughters escaped, but they were afraid to stay in the little city of Zoar. They climbed up the mountain, away from the plain, and found a cave, and there they lived.

So Lot lost his wife and all that he had, because he had made his home among the wicked people of Sodom. Abraham looked down from the mountain toward the plain and saw the smoke rising from it, like the smoke of a great furnace.

And that was the end of the cities of the plain, Sodom and Gomorrah, and the other cities with them. Zoar alone was saved.