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Genesis 19
by
Harry Buschman
And the angels sayeth unto Lot, “Are there any here besides yourself? If you
have wife, sons and daughters, sons in law, whatsoever thou hast in the city,
bring them out of this Sodom and Gomorrah before the sun shall rise.”
But Sodom and Gomorrah was home to Lot. He and his family had lived all their
lives there and so he tried to reason with the angels. “We will be strangers
wherever we go – this is our home. It is a sinful place to be sure. Perhaps it
will change ...”
“We have come to destroy this place, because the voices of those who wax great
and rule here before the face of the LORD cannot be abided. The LORD hath sent
us to destroy it.”
And so Lot reluctantly went out and spake unto his wife and sons, and then to
his sons in law, he said, “Up, get you out of this place; for the LORD has sent
his angels to destroy this city.”
And when the morning arose, the angels still finding Lot and his family within
the house hastened him, saying, “Arise! Take thy wife and thy children, lest
thou be consumed in the fires that shall come to Sodom and Gomorrah.”
And it came to pass when they had set themselves abroad onto the plain outside
the city, the LORD said to them; “Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, do
not tarry in the plain outside the city; escape to the mountain lest thou be
consumed.”
By then the sun had risen above the city and the LORD rained down fire and
brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah from out of heaven. And He overthrew the
cities, and all the plain and all the inhabitants of those cities and that which
grew upon the ground.
Something of a racial or perhaps an ethnic memory of that event echoed in Harry
Adam’s mind as he stood on the cornice of the roof of his apartment. The
building had been abandoned weeks before when the threat was broadcast on CNN.
Harry refused to believe it ... it was not possible. This was New York City, not
Sodom and Gomorrah! If there was evil here it was no worse than could be found
in London, Paris or Baghdad. Why here? So Harry Adams chose to stay in town, but
when he was awakened this morning he could smell brimstone even though he had
never smelled brimstone before. There was a terrible flickering light in his
room, as though the building was in flames. He walked to his window and the
scene of the burning city outside was frightening, as though everything had
burst into flames spontaneously. He looked down in the street and saw fire
billowing out of the windows below him.
He ran to the roof and stood at the very edge of the cornice of his building,
above him two angels hovered above the smoke and flame, their arms outstretched
wide. He did the same but he remained firmly rooted to the roof under his feet.
He remembered the prophecy ...
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