Rabbi’s Reflections – Saturday, January 18, 2025
Shavuah Tov,

Rabbi’s Note:  We will continue with the second part of Psalm 23, verse 3, tomorrow.  Today, our usual “Shabbat” guest writer, David Harwood, has a fifth installment on Grace.  I put “Shabbat” in quotes because he doesn’t write on Shabbat, he writes FOR Shabbat and sends me his submission on the Thursday or before.  Thank you David and thank you readers.  End RN.

Grace 5 – Rescuing Grace
B
y David Harwood

Lot, not the most exemplary example of godliness, was godly enough to receive favor in the eyes of angels. Rescued from Sodom, with nowhere to go, he pleaded for mercy.

Look, please, your servant has found chen-favor (LXX: eleos-mercy) in Your eyes and You have magnified Your merciful loyalty (chesed), which You have shown me by letting me live. But I can’t escape to the hill country—for the disaster will overtake me and I’ll die!

Look, please, this city is close enough to flee there, and it’s little. Please let me escape there. Isn’t it small? And let me live!” So He said to him, “Behold, I will grant your request concerning this matter too—not to demolish the city of which you have spoken. Hurry! Flee to safety there, because I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” (This is why the town is named Zoar.) (Genesis 19:19–22) 

Lot found favor (chen) in their eyes and received chesed, intervening love. In the Septuagint, in this verse, chen is translated as eleos, which means mercy. That gives the sense of what he and his family needed.

Lot is revealed as an example of maintaining loyalty to God while enduring an ungodly culture. It’s written:

He rescued Lot, a righteous man deeply troubled by the shameless immorality of the wicked. (For that righteous man, while living among them, was tormented in his righteous soul day after day by lawless deeds he saw and heard.) (2 Peter 2:7–8) 

There is some background to the way he’s described. The Wisdom of Solomon was written beforehand and portrayed him like this:

Wisdom rescued a righteous man when the ungodly were perishing; he escaped the fire that descended on the Five Cities. (Wisdom of Solomon 10:6)

Rabbi Trail: Wikipedia has this to say about the book “Wisdom of Solomon.”  “The Book of Wisdom, or the Wisdom of Solomon, is a book written in Greek and most likely composed in Alexandria, Egypt. It is not part of the Hebrew Bible but is included in the Septuagint. Generally dated to the mid-first century BC, or to the reign of Caligula, the central theme of the work is “wisdom” itself, appearing under two principal aspects.”  End RT.

A righteous man, a “tzaddik” in Hebrew, perhaps this title had roots in Abraham’s intercession.

Abraham drew near and said, “Will you really sweep away the righteous (one tzaddik) with the wicked? (Genesis 18:23) 

Abraham was probably concerned about his nephew who was reckoned amongst the righteous.

Lot, a “righteous man.”

Think about that. When I read about Lot I don’t walk away thinking, “This man was righteous.” I think of him as self-centered in his relationships, and lukewarm in His devotion towards God. Yet, Lot greeted strangers and, as did Abraham, urged them to receive his hospitality.

Hospitality is considered to be a righteous practice.

For thousands of years hospitality, and defending guests, have been high values in Bedouin culture. These ideals are reflected in Scripture. (For more background go to theTorah.com and search for “Abraham and Lot’s bedouin style hospitality.”  It may be the second article authored by Dr. Clinton Bailey) Lot braved mob violence as he sought to shelter strangers. His willingness to give his daughters to Sodom’s madmen is replicated in the sordid story wherein a host offered his daughter, and a guest’s concubine, to wicked men (Judges 19).

I never paid much attention to this interaction:

“Get out of the way!” they said (to Lot), and they said, “This one came as an outsider and dares to judge! Now we’ll treat you worse than them!” 

“We’ll treat you (Lot) worse than them!”

So they strongly pressed against the man, Lot, and moved in close to break the door down. But the men reached out their hands, brought Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. (Genesis 19:9b–10) 

The angels grabbed him and brought him into the same shelter Lot granted them. Then those angels rescued him from the coming wrath. They grabbed his hand and brought him out.

So the men grabbed his hand, his wife’s hand and his two daughters’ hands—because of Adonai’s compassion for him—and they brought him out and left him outside the city. (Genesis 19:16b) 

Lot’s righteousness was revealed in the hospitality he offered. The angels liked what they saw. He found “favor in their eyes” and they rescued him. Allowing for human weakness, they displayed favor by letting Lot escape to Zoar.

Chen (favor/grace) was expressed in intervening mercy.

Righteous Lot, the man who found favor in the eyes of angels.

Daily Bread, reading plan by Lars Enarson (https://www.thewatchman.org/)
Sat 18-Jan-2025 18th of Tevet, 5785 Parashat Shmot
Ex 5:1-6:1 Isa 27:6-28:13; 29:22-23 Ac 7:17-37