Blogging Through the Book of Mormon

The three “angels” or holy men have agreed to spare the city of Sodom if there are only 10 righteous people in it. Abraham asked these questions knowing full well that his nephew Lot and his family were there. Now I don’t know exactly how big Lot’s family was or if his family alone exceeded the 10 person requirement, but I know he had a wife and at least two daughters, so that’s only four people altogether, assuming they were all righteous. This really begs the question, why did Lot even live there if the whole city was so wicked? It’s really an interesting question, why does he stay? These angels walk toward Sodom and Lot sees them because he “sat in the gate of Sodom.” An article about this chapter form bibleref.com notes that Lot was probably “sitting at the gate as a leader and elder of the town.” When Lot sees these men, the article makes a good point of noting “he probably doesn’t yet know that these are angels sent to investigate the sins of the city’s people in preparation for...

The men that have visited Abraham and Sarah “rose up from thence, and looked toward Sodom.” It’s important to note that Abraham and Sarah have been incredibly hospitable to these visitors as illustrated by the fact that what Abraham offered and presented to these visitors was described in detail. It seems like the visiting men have a debate among themselves whether to “hide from Abraham that thing which I must do,” which seems like an interesting event considering that they are probably having this conversation within ear shot of Abraham. They consider telling him because they believe that he will “command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, and to justice and judgment.” The IM comments, “This verse records one of the keys of Abraham’s righteousness. Not only did he keep the commandments but he taught his household to do so too. Of this fact President Kimball said: ‘Abraham’s desire to do God’s will in all things led him to preside over hi...

There is a bit of confusion in the first verse of chapter 18 because it says that after Abraham had circumcised all the male members of his household like the Lord commanded him, “the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day… and, lo, three men stood by him.” The IM says, “we are not justified in teaching that our Heavenly Father, with other heavenly persons, came down, dusty and weary, and ate with Abraham. This is not taught in the 18th chapter of Genesis. The first verse of that chapter should read as follows: ‘And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre.’ That is a complete thought. The second part of this paragraph has nothing to do with the Lord’s appearing to Abraham.” It’s like that thing that says, “Let’s eat Grandma!” or “Let’s eat, Grandma!” Punctuation saves lives. I think this is another example of that. In fact, the IM says at the end of this explanation, “In the Joseph Smith Translation, Genesis 18:23 sta...