The angels that had visited Abraham arrive in Sodom and Lot greets them at the gate of the city. As evening approaches, he invites them to stay at his home instead of the town square. They are there to assess the wickedness of the city and will have an answer within a few hours.

That night, men of ages of the city bang on Lot’s door demanding he hand the visitors over to them to “know” them. Lot says, he cannot be inhospitable, so offers his two virgin daughters instead. Dude. The angels stop Lot and strike the men of the city with blindness. 

The angels tell Lot that God will soon destroy the city and offer Lot, his wife, his daughters, and their fiancés escape. The fiancés think they are joking. Where were these guys when Lot was bargaining with townsfolk?

Lot lingers and finally at dawn, the angels literally drag Lot, his wife and daughters out of the city toward the hills. Lot asks to stay in the town of Zoar and the angels agree and warn them not to look back. 

As the sun rises, God rains fire and sulfur on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot’s wife looks back and is turned to salt. 

Abraham goes out the next day and sees the smoke rising from the valley, and that God has spared Lot and his daughters as Abraham had requested. 

I wish the story ends here, but unfortunately it does not. Lot is now terrified of returning to Zoar, so he takes his daughters to live with him in a cave. As time goes by, the girls worry that without any men to marry, they won’t have children. They take turns getting their father drunk and sleep with him. The first son born is named Moab, meaning from father, and becomes the leader of the Moabites. The second son is called Ben-ammi, meaning son of my people, and becomes the leader of the Ammonites. 

While this is the end of Lot’s story, the Moabites do come back into the narrative centuries later, and one is included into the ancestry of Christ. Not only, does God save Lot at the request of Abraham, his legacy is continued indefinitely.