A Story of God and All of Us - By Roma Downey Page 0,12
swords from his scabbards and wields them like a man who more than knows his way around a blade. The other angel has no need for such subtlety. A great broadsword dangles from his hip, and he knows how to use it. With a single, swift move this angel slides the thick sheet of sharpened steel from his sheath with two hands and makes one of Lot's tormentors pay for his behavior. The man falls to the ground, and the other angel grabs for Lot and his family. "We must go!" the angel says calmly, implying haste.
Lot and his family hesitate; however, they have no choice. The angels forcibly drag them out of the house and pull them along by their shoulders through the mob, not giving them a chance to turn back or slow down. "Don't stop running!" screams the first angel. "Not for any reason." He leads Lot's family through the streets, and the other angel protects them from behind.
The angels slash at the mob with their swords, felling one man after another in their mission to get Lot's family to safety. They know, as God knew when He bargained with Abraham, that the only righteous inhabitants of Sodom are Lot's family. God is about to destroy Sodom. Everyone in the city will die a horrible death, and the city itself will be lost to the ages. Unless Lot and his family get out quickly, they will also suffer this fate.
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Suddenly, flames rain down from the skies. A fireball slams hard into the streets with a sudden wail and clap of thunder. Lot's wife is almost paralyzed with shock and feels the white heat of this incredible explosion, as the second angel forces her to stagger onward.
The mob continues to pursue them as another fireball slams into Sodom.
And then another. The second angel stops running and uses the sharpened tip of his sword to draw a circle around him in in the dirt street. As Lot and his family continue their desperate race to freedom, he takes on all comers, hacking at them as if they were kindling wood.
Meanwhile, on a hillside overlooking Sodom, a horrified Abraham witnesses the flames shooting upward through the buildings as the city begins to burn.
Fireballs continue to rain down from above, joined by lightning and the unnerving boom of thunder.
He fears for Lot and his family as he watches the terror and prays that his nephew will get out alive.
Behind him, unseen, stands God.
Back in Sodom, stone buildings are beginning to col apse. Fire has burned through the wood and the thatch of roofs. Falling beams have trapped many families in their homes, and the screams of those experiencing the agony of flame on bare skin pierces the night.
The second avenging angel has finally defeated all challengers and caught up with Lot's family. The first angel says, "In saving us, you saved yourself.
Your decision to help us was a godly test of your righteousness. Run from the city and continue running. But remember this: Don't look back. Never look back. No matter what."
The angels disappear before the eyes of an amazed Lot and his family. They now stand in complete darkness, save for the light of the moon and the distant fire of a burning Sodom.
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"Keep going," shouts Lot, "and don't look back."
They run and run and run, their feet kicking up the desert dust as they race on to a new life. A monumental burst of lightning suddenly illuminates the sky, cracking down into the remains of Sodom. Then, in one last brilliant explosion, the city is gone. Lot hears his wife gasp. He loves her dearly, but he knows her contrary and prideful behavior. Before she can make the one mistake the angels warned them about, he pleads with her, "Do not look back!"
But her curiosity is insatiable. She absolutely must see for herself what is happening to the city she has called home for more than a decade.
Her last sight is an explosion of light. Her eyes are blinded, her body becomes paralyzed, and she turns into a pillar of salt.
A hard wind blows. Lot stares in disbelief at what used to be his wife. He watches with an all-consuming grief as gusts of air blast the pillar of salt, and pieces soon chip off and disappear into the night. That gale does not stop
blowing until the entire pillar is turned to dust and carried away.
Fearing the same fate, a terrified Lot and his daughters run for their lives.