Genesis 19: Sodom and the outcry to God by the stranger in the land

God is love.  1 John 4:8

The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness,  Exodus 34:6; Psalm 86:15; 103:8; 145:8.

So, what gives here?  How can a loving and merciful God be so angry and vengeful?

Gen 19:13.  The outcry to the LORD against [Sodom's] people is great, so he has sent us to destroy it.

Was God angry?  Yes.  Was God willing to give them a second chance (or a third, fourth, or fifth)?  Apparently.  Did you notice that at the end of Gen 18, God was willing to relent on his plans of judgment if only 10 people could be found in Sodom who would do the right thing.

Let's count.  Lot, his wife, and 2 daughters.  That makes 4.  He had to son in laws.  If they both had two  more friends, then they could have saved the city.  But the son in laws just laughed.  (14).  And they were the ones closest to the God-fearing Lot.

Why did they not believe Lot?  Was his witness too dim for them to see?  Not even those closest Sodomites to him shared his faith or perspective on God.  How in the world did he even stay in such a place?

So, not even 10 people (the same number that was required before Jews could establish a synagogue in a city--so perhaps a symbolic number suggesting that there were not enough God-fearing people in the land for God to tolerate the behavior) who feared God were found in Sodom.

And God decided for the nuclear option.

So, what was God's motivation?

I have seen some options on this:
1) God just got tired of the sin and decided to destroy it.  But this does not sound like the God who is compassionate and patient.  I need a better rationale than this.
2) Lot was righteous and needed to be saved.  My take on this is that Lot, who had displayed rather poor judgment and immaturity, was probably not the standard bearer for God's ideals like Abraham.  Yes, Abraham had his faults, but he at least kept his distance from trouble when able and lived in the land promised to him by God, even though he didn't own it.  I don't think Lot's action or inaction had much to do with the punishment.  Perhaps if he had been a better influence, the city would have turned to God, or at least 10 people would have been converted.  But this is not clear in the text.

Neither of these options really satisfies me.  Is there an answer that allows me to see God as compassionate and patient, yet also holy and just?

How about this:
God's reaction to Sodom was based on a "cry out."  But God was responding to the voices of others, not himself.  The three angels saw first hand how Sodom mistreated strangers and foreigners in the land.  And not just mistreated, but abused and violated.  This was not the first incident, but God made sure it was the last.  There was not one person in the land who stood up for the helpless or the defenseless strangers. 

So, God, after patiently waiting for Sodom to get it right, finally stood up for the persecuted and the violated.

In compassion, he protected those who would be harmed.  In justice he avenged those already wronged.

And Sodom had an apocalyptic moment on par with the judgments of Revelation--and it was all based on God's protection and justice for the stranger and the helpless.

How does your community do in protecting and caring for the stranger, alien (legal or illegal), or defenseless in your community?  How would God respond to your area if he allowed three messengers to experience it first hand?

Remember, you may already be entertaining angels and not even know it.  Hebrews 13:2.

Also, we as Christians are foreigners and exiles in this world.  We, of all people, should be sensitive to the needs of the foreigner and the wanderer.  1 Peter 2:10-12.