Abram
God comes to visit Abrahm and Sarah in person.
Throughout history, angels sometimes came as humans; however, God came in many different forms, such as clouds, whirlwinds, even humans. However, no one has seen the true identity of God at any given time (1 john 4:12).
In this chapter, Abraham is visited by God accompanied by two angels, and they are in human forms. They came for two reasons:
1) To inform and reaffirm Sarah’s pregnancy. But Sarah thought, how could she possibly become pregnant at her old age? So she laughed, and God supernaturally heard her, as she had no faith in God. So God confronted her and said, “is anything hard for the Lord?” Then she flatly denied she laughed because she was sore afraid.
2) The second reason was to find out if the city of Sodom and Gomorrah was worth saving, where Lot lived. This city was full of people who were committing all kinds of sinful acts.
The city of Sodom and Gomarrah where Lots lived is destroyed.
While God stayed behind to speak with Abraham, the two angels left for Sodom and Gomorrah to find out in person whether the city should be destroyed or not because too many people lived in wickedness.
When angels arrived at Sodom, Lot recognized them as angels because they stood out from the crowd, so he bowed with his face to the ground and invited them to stay as guests at his house.
After supper, everyone went on their way to get ready to bed, but all the men in town, surrounded the house because they wanted to have their way with the angels, not knowing their identity.
Lot pleaded with these men to leave, but they wouldn’t, so out of desperation, he offered his daughters to them instead, but they would not listen, as they forcefully tried to break down the door to enter the house. However, God’s messengers blinded everyone and pulled Lot safely into the house.
Then the angels told Lot to take his family and leave town the very next day because God was going to destroy the whole forsaken town of Sodom and Gomorrah.
So, the next day, Lot and his family ran away to the neighboring city, near mountain Zoar, where they would eventually live. (Genesis 19:24-25) Then the Lord rained down brimstone (flaming sulfur) and fire on Sodom and on Gomorrah from the Lord out of heaven, and He overthrew (demolished, ended) those cities, and the entire valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and whatever grew on the ground.
The angels had warned them ahead of time never to look back while leaving the city, but Lot’s wife foolishly looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
What is brimstone?
Brimstone (man now calls it “sulfur/sulphur”) is a lemon-yellow colored stone. Brimstone means, “burning stone” or, “the stone that burns.” When a plain brimstone is exposed to the air, nothing happens–but if a match is put to it, it will burn in a peculiar way, like a liquid fire, and it emits noxious fumes. The stone melts like wax but the dripping is a peculiar thick fire, like a piece of wax on fire. As it burns, it has a rich, fluorescent-type deep colbalt bluish color (see below right). It is an interesting, sticky, “acidy”-type burning fire. The little drops burn for some time. Ancient peoples sometimes used brimstone as a type of match.
Fact and Evidence about the city of Sodom and Gomorrah:
Today, the city is called Mount Sodom, located next to the Dead Sea. Based on the study by Oceanographers, the sea contains a large amount of salt beneath the sea. It is known as a place of healing; therefore, people would often travel to the Dead Sea to get cured. The city appears to show some kind of structures, such as pyramids and buildings left behind to indicate destruction took place.
The scientists discovered evidence of a “high-heat” explosive event north of the Dead Sea that instantaneously “devastated approximately 500 km2.” The explosion would have wiped out all civilization in the affected area, including Middle Bronze Age cities and towns. Silvia told Science News that the blast would have instantly killed the estimated 40,000 to 65,000 people who inhabited Middle Ghor, a 25-kilometer-wide circular plain in Jordan.
Source: The Times of Israel
https://www.timesofisrael.com/evidence-of-sodom-meteor-blast-cause-of-biblical-destruction-say-scientists/
Holy Bible
Abraham (Genesis 19)
Ｇｅｎｅｓｉｓ 19：1－29
(New Living Translation – NLT)
That evening the two angels came to the entrance of the city of Sodom. Lot was sitting there, and when he saw them, he stood up to meet them. Then he welcomed them and bowed with his face to the ground. “My lords,” he said, “come to my home to wash your feet, and be my guests for the night. You may then get up early in the morning and be on your way again.”
“Oh no,” they replied. “We’ll just spend the night out here in the city square.”
But Lot insisted, so at last they went home with him. Lot prepared a feast for them, complete with fresh bread made without yeast, and they ate. But before they retired for the night, all the men of Sodom, young and old, came from all over the city and surrounded the house. They shouted to Lot, “Where are the men who came to spend the night with you? Bring them out to us so we can have sex with them!”
So Lot stepped outside to talk to them, shutting the door behind him. “Please, my brothers,” he begged, “don’t do such a wicked thing. Look, I have two virgin daughters. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do with them as you wish. But please, leave these men alone, for they are my guests and are under my protection.”
“Stand back!” they shouted. “This fellow came to town as an outsider, and now he’s acting like our judge! We’ll treat you far worse than those other men!” And they lunged toward Lot to break down the door.
But the two angels[a] reached out, pulled Lot into the house, and bolted the door. Then they blinded all the men, young and old, who were at the door of the house, so they gave up trying to get inside.
Meanwhile, the angels questioned Lot. “Do you have any other relatives here in the city?” they asked. “Get them out of this place—your sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone else. For we are about to destroy this city completely. The outcry against this place is so great it has reached the Lord, and he has sent us to destroy it.”
So Lot rushed out to tell his daughters’ fiancés, “Quick, get out of the city! The Lord is about to destroy it.” But the young men thought he was only joking.
At dawn the next morning the angels became insistent. “Hurry,” they said to Lot. “Take your wife and your two daughters who are here. Get out right now, or you will be swept away in the destruction of the city!”
When Lot still hesitated, the angels seized his hand and the hands of his wife and two daughters and rushed them to safety outside the city, for the Lord was merciful. When they were safely out of the city, one of the angels ordered, “Run for your lives! And don’t look back or stop anywhere in the valley! Escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away!”
“Oh no, my lord!” Lot begged. “You have been so gracious to me and saved my life, and you have shown such great kindness. But I cannot go to the mountains. Disaster would catch up to me there, and I would soon die. See, there is a small village nearby. Please let me go there instead; don’t you see how small it is? Then my life will be saved.”
All right,” the angel said, “I will grant your request. I will not destroy the little village. But hurry! Escape to it, for I can do nothing until you arrive there.” (This explains why that village was known as Zoar, which means “little place.”)
Lot reached the village just as the sun was rising over the horizon. Then the Lord rained down fire and burning sulfur from the sky on Sodom and Gomorrah. He utterly destroyed them, along with the other cities and villages of the plain, wiping out all the people and every bit of vegetation. But Lot’s wife looked back as she was following behind him, and she turned into a pillar of salt.
Abraham got up early that morning and hurried out to the place where he had stood in the Lord’s presence. He looked out across the plain toward Sodom and Gomorrah and watched as columns of smoke rose from the cities like smoke from a furnace.
But God had listened to Abraham’s request and kept Lot safe, removing him from the disaster that engulfed the cities on the plain.
Source: Bible Gateway
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2019&version=NLT