The Children of Lot- A Sodom and Gomorrah alternate

With trepidation for the coming blasphemy .. (and a note to skip to the bottom for a refresher on the biblical story for reference if you are so inclined)

Lot was already a wealthy tribesman when he arrived at the gates of Sodom.

He and Abraham had traversed Canaan and Egypt for years together, growing their tribe’s wealth and power. Abraham preached the one true God and kept a rigid, strict moral certainty. Lot drank deep the joys of the earth and the vine. He followed the many gods of the land. He sang with the mountains, danced to art and beauty, bathed in music, soared in flesh.

The quiet simmering conflict between them grew too much and they went their separate ways.

Sodom was a refuge for more than just Lot. Artists, writers, lovers, makers, misfits, believers in everything and nothing.

Lot thrived there. He met Him. He met Her. Sometimes he was her. He knew them all . . . Biblically.

Abraham seethed. His God did not approve. Right was right. Wrong was wrong. So what if Abraham couldn’t . . . or wouldn’t impregnate his one and only wife Sarah. So what if he loved his handmaid Hagar, a woman of a people not his own and of a class not his own. He would solve for that somehow and make a great people, a pure people together with Sarah just as his one true God had promised. His other son Ishmael’s place in the plan . . . too complicated to dwell on.

Then Sarah was pregnant. Abraham couldn’t help but wonder, was it Lot. They were so friendly and she did so love her trips to visit her handsome cousin. She would come back wrapped in gorgeous new robes, humming new melodies, filled with new memories. She even had a new fresh delicious smell when she returned and there was a certain glow about her after those trips. She laughed hard when the visitors said she would bear a child. Did she laugh too hard?

As Isaac grew, Abraham couldn’t help but wonder: Were those Lot’s eye’s? Lot’s hands? Lot’s broad shoulders? Would God want a child of this unforgivable sin as his standard-bearer? Abraham had to sacrifice Isaac to God. The answer would come from on high if Isaac was his or a deceit. But Abraham couldn’t do it. He could not murder his child. What if he was his own? What if? He could destroy Sodom without repercussion though and so he did.

Abraham’s tribe was powerful. He would grow his wealth in Sodom’ plunder. He would destroy the many gods. He would destroy even the memory of Sodom’s many tempting sins would be erased.

But Sodom was not erased. Lot was warned. Angels of some sort came to warn him. In the panic of the flight and the seething hate of the attack, part of Lot’s family was destroyed, but a remnant remained. A remnant always remains.

As Lot fled the slaughter, he left a clue. A pillar of salt. The Bible said it was his wife. She could not help but turn back and look. How could she not? She knew a beautiful space in time. She knew a place apart that celebrated the all, if only for a moment.

Who was she? His one lover or his other? Was She She? Was She he? Was she lot in drag? We can’t know.

We can know that “she” left a pillar of salt and we can know that it lasted. That’s what salt does. It lats. It perseveres. It perseveres.

And so do we, Lot’s children, many times removed through many complicated family trees.

We, of all peoples, with all peoples, following the many gods.

Even the name, Sodom. It lasted too and its memory is far from forgotten and a good bit of fun.

POSTFACE: Abraham’s story begins in Ur. When Abraham left Ur for the land that God would show him, mention is made of Lot, his nephew joining him. The two traveled together with Sarah, Abraham’s wife, to modern Israel and even Egypt for a tour. As they did, they shepherded ta growing herd and amassed a fortune. Oftentimes from looting their host.

Not once but twice Abraham convinced his host that Sarah was his sister. This generally worked to Abraham’s favor. After the second of these incidents, this time in Egypt, Lot and Abraham parted ways and Lot moved to Sodom. In the bible story at this point, Lot has his wealth plundered by four kings but Abraham manages to have it restored. I left this part of the story out.

Abraham was powerful, old and without an heir.

Sarah suggested Abraham have a child with her handmaid Hagar. I spun this story a bit (or maybe the bible did). Abrham and Hagar have a son, Ishmael. Sometime later, angels appear to Abraham and Sarah and tell them that they will have a child together. Sarah laughs at this. In the text, they are both around 100 years old. (I also spun this part of the story, more than a bit)

Sarah gives birth to Isaac.

At this point in the text, there is a break to tell the story of Sodom. Following this are other stories including the banishment of Hagar and Ishmael, Abraham’s other son.

After that story is told is the story of Abraham being called by God to sacrifice Isaac. Sarah then passes away and the story continues with a shift of focus to Isaac as he grows and marries and his children of his own.

This story takes liberty in rearranging the biblical chronology. Such is the nature of spin.