02-24-2017, 04:01 AM
(02-23-2017, 05:27 PM)irukandji Wrote:(02-23-2017, 11:54 AM)Hell Rell Wrote: I don't know what either technically means but I think of a prediction as something you use to make a guess at what will happen in the future but you know it can be wrong but prophecy is something that is guaranteed to happen.
An interesting definition. Because the Bible has more than a few prophecies in it, I wanted to bring up one, and that is Sodom and Gomorrah.
I won't go into the nitty gritty details of this story. Suffice to say God gives Lot, an upright and just man, a chance to find similar upright and just men in two cities that are loaded with depravity. If Lot cannot find any, God's going to obliterate the cities. Now these citites are so bad that even the the angels who come to Lot's house disguised as travelers are placed in danger from the depraved. Lot even goes so far to offer his virgin daughters to the depraved so they will leave the travelers alone. Lot tries negotiating the number of righteous down, but after three times of negotiating with the Almighty, God gets fed up, decides to destroy these hellholes and Lot must flee the cities with his family. The cities are demolished in fire. The refugees are warned not to look back at the cities. Lot's wife, naturally, disobeys, and is turned into a pillar of salt.
There are a few morals here that could very well amount to prophetic story. But then things take a rather strange turn.
Lot is now without a wife and his daughters are now without men because all of the available men have been burned to a crisp. They now believe themselves to be the only people left in world. As a result, they sleep with their father in order to become pregnant. Being fertile was considered the most important thing for a woman in biblical times.
What is the prophecy behind the story?
Do allow me to make a small correction in your narrative? Please don't be mad of me but I think this is important to be able to answer this question. At least to give the answer I have.
God decided to destroy the cities as you wrote. Then He decided to inform His friend (this word is important because this is written in the bible) Abraham. Abraham is the one who negotiate the numbers of innocents. It is not Lot. Abraham did that because he was worried about Lot. In the end of the negotiation God said to Abraham something like: OK, I know Lot is innocent and I will save him.
The rest of the history is like you said.
I made this correction because for me the important thing in this history is that God could simply destroy the two cities. But He decides to deal with Abraham in equal terms as friends and inform him first even allowing Abraham to negotiate the number of innocents, as you said.
For me, if there is a message I this it is about the fact God wants to deal with humanity as friends. Lot was saved because of God and Abraham friendship.
Even the fact that Lot daughters having childrens with him it was not condemned by God at that time. Reading the Bible ahead when Moses is leading Israel after the slavery time, there is a city that God asks to not be attacked because that was a city from Lots descendants.
Certainly many different messages can be read from this passage and many people have used this to talk about sins and so on. But for me the most important it is about God and Abraham friendship.
Note: do you forgive me for the little correction about your narrative?
“If two people agree on everything, one of them is unnecessary.”
— Attributed to Winston Churchill
— Attributed to Winston Churchill