Genesis 16: Sarai is frustrated and impatient, not believing that God would provide biological children as he had promised. God had promised Abram children, and it was customary for a man to divorce a woman for being baron. I wonder if Sarai thought this would happen, giving Abram the ability to have a child so she chose to act and make it happen for herself. She tells Abram to sleep with her slave, Hagar. Abram marries Hagar as well, and Hagar become pregnant. Once this happens, Hagar treats Sarai as if she is irrelevant and is very rude and ‘mean girl’ towards her. Sarai tells Abram how she has been treated, and Abram reminds her that yes, Hagar is Abram’s second wife and is pregnant with his child, but she is still Sarai’s slave and belongs to her. Abram gives Sarai his blessing to punish her as she sees fit. Sarai is very hard on Hagar, so Hagar decides to run away. While running away, Hagar is approached by an angel and Hagar explains why she has run away. The angel reminds her that she belongs to Sarai, and must return and submit to her. He also tells her that she is pregnant with a son, and she is to name is Ishmael, and that he will live a life of constant movement from place to place, never being settled, and always being in conflict.

Genesis 17: Years later when Abram is 90 years old, God visits Abram, and he tells him that he will soon be the father of many nations. With this comes a name change from Abram to Abraham, meaning the father of many. Sarai’s name is also changed to Sarah, which means princess. He tells, now called Abraham, he and Sarah will have many descendants that will be kings and instructs Abraham to start the act of circumcision at the age of 8 days old- offspring to anyone who he purchases, and all of his people. The act of circumcision was a sign of a covenant with a god that separated them from ungodly people so they would secretly know if someone was truly godly if that is what they claimed. He tells Abraham that Sarah will give birth to a child named Isaac, and he thinks it’s ridiculous because of her old age, and tells him that his. He instantly realizes that Ishmeal, the son of Hagar, is his first born. This was to be rightful heir, and askes God to bless the mess from the choices he made from doubt. God promises that both sons will be blessed and rule over many nations and create kings. But God promises to make a covenant with Isaac, the son of Sarah and Abraham, which would be treating him as privileged as a first born would be treated. Abraham immediately acts on every man in his possession to be circumcised, Abraham himself being 99 years old at the time of circumcision, and his son Ishmeal being 13.

Genesis 18: While Abraham was sitting in the heat of the desert day, God arrives to visit with two angels. He and Sarah quickly gather a meal to welcome the three and allow them to eat under the tree. God tells Abraham that he would return in one year, and Sarah will have a son. Sarah laughed because at this time she is much past childbearing age. God asks her why she laughed- she denies it when confronted- and God reminds her that through him everything is possible and to wait and see that nothing is impossible to the lord. She will become pregnant and give birth to a son named Isaac. God and the angels are leaving to travel on, It’s important to remember that God only reveals the future to people who he knows will follow through on direction. God reveals to Abraham that he plans to visit the cities of Sodom and Gomora due to the rumor of the cities being oversaturated crime, violence, and overall sin. If this is so, God will destroy the two cities, killing everyone inside them. Abraham feels sad that there may be some good people in these cities, and asks if there are 50 righteous people, would he still destroy it?  The lord promises that if there are 50 good people, he will let the cities be. Abraham knew there likely weren’t 50 good people, so after several what if there are ‘x’ amount of good people, and Abraham settles after several requests to leave the city be, he ends on 10 good people. Perhaps this is because Lot and his family had settled there long ago when he and Lot went to the right, and to the left. Eventually Lot moved his tent right in the middle of Sodom, likely sinking into sin. So, Abraham must find 10 righteous people in order for God to allow Sodom and Gomora stand.

Genesis 19: When Abraham travels to Sodom, Lot was sitting at the Gates of Sodom as a person of authority it’s believed. Back then, the person who sits at the gates control the city, so he was clearly the head of Sodom. Lot invites Abraham and the angel into his house to stay the night, likely to keep them safe from evil and violence. They declined his offer to reside with Lot, however they accepted Lot’s invitation for a meal. Later in the evening, several men came to Lot’s door and demanded he released the three men who arrived so they could sodomize them. Lot begs the men to act right, and instead offers them his two daughters to rape. This is absolutely WILD that Lot was to offer his daughters to these terrible men to rape is appalling and I cannot comprehend how this wouldn’t be punishable by god to allow harm to his own daughters. The men saw Lot as a traitor, so Abraham and the angels manage to shut and lock the door to keep safe from the men. The angels have been given permission to make the decisions for themselves, whether to destroy the cities or not, and they see it is the right thing to do. The angels tell Lot to gather his family and people to save immediately so as to save them before the cities are destroyed. With a complete lack of urgency from Lot due to the of the city of fun and sin, the angels choose to take Lot and his family and remove them from the city, and they are instructed to run away from Sodom and Gomora, head to Zoar, and warns them not to look back. They promise to wait to destroy the city until they safely arrive at Zoar, a small city in the hills. The Lord sent sulfur and fire- thought to be a volcano or maybe just fire from God- and against the directions to not look back. This is also thought to mean she looked back with longing and regretted leaving her sin city. For this she was turned into a pillar of salt, because God say that she could not be a pure person, possibly fearing that she would influence people to become like Sodom and Gomora, completely obliterating the whole purpose of destroying the cities in the first place. Since she was among one of the unrighteous, she wasn’t spared her life. Abraham goes back to visit the destroyed cities the following morning and is grateful that Lot was saved. Lot chooses to live in a cave in fear of crime. Late in time, Lot and his two daughters are still living in their cave alone without any other people nearby. The daughters realize that they wouldn’t be able to have children, so each daughter chooses to get their father drunk and sleep with him to become pregnant. It must be clear that Lot was unaware of this, however both daughters gave birth to Moab and Ben-ammi, father if the Moabites and Ammonites, who are just constant trouble for Israel in the future.