Our Gemara on Amud Beis uses a prooftext from the story of the destruction of Sodom for a Halacha regarding the handful of the Mincha offering burned on the altar (Vayikra 2:2). The verse (Bereishis 19:28) states:

“And, looking down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of the Plain, he (Avraham) saw the smoke of the land rising like the smoke of a furnace.”

The Gemara’s derasha learns that since a furnace does not release smoke (“haktara”) until the fire takes hold of the majority of the fuel, so too the majority of the handful of the meal offering must be consumed by the fire in order to fulfill the mitzvah of haktara, which then allows the rest of the meal offering to be eaten.

Aside from the Gemara’s derasha, there is a chronological difficulty with the verse. First, at the beginning of Bereishis chapter 19, we read about the destruction of Sodom and Lot’s escape. Then, after the narrative in verses 27 and 28, we hear the story again from Avraham’s perspective. It is odd that after reviewing the entire story, we hear it once again through Avraham’s eyes.

There are two fascinating exegetical answers that take us in entirely different directions. The Rambam (Guide for the Perplexed II:42) famously asserts that whenever the verse states an angel speaking to a prophet, it means by way of a prophetic vision or dream. Therefore, many of the seemingly miraculous stories in Scripture are actually happening in visions and not in physical reality. This has to do with a broader philosophical concern of limiting the number of miracles performed, because in order for them not to represent a change in the will of God—which would be something temporal and mortal—all miracles need to be pre-programmed and predestined (see Rambam Avos 5:6). Therefore, it is logical that the majority of miracles do not represent physical changes in reality, but rather visions.

In this case, Abravanel (Commentary on Guide for the Perplexed, ibid.) points out that the story of Sodom and the way Scripture pieces together the narrative is a powerful vindication of the Rambam’s position. This is because first we hear the story as experienced by Lot via the angels, which means that Lot really had all this in a vision. Sodom itself was going to be destroyed in some way; God was going to save Lot and compel him to leave the city, but the entire narrative was a vision. From the time he leaves the city until he comes to the cave, it is all a dream. It is interesting that eventually he wakes up from a dream in the cave (ibid., verses 30–38), as if to say that unknowingly, Lot felt the urge to flee Sodom suddenly, then slept in the cave and had a vision that explained what the urge was about, and eventually woke up.

That a person could have a feeling or a hunch—a sense of dread—and act upon it without knowing why, is a valid Torah concept. See, for example, Megillah 3a, which states that if a person feels afraid for no reason, it may be that his mazal perceived a danger, and therefore he should recite Shema as a soteriological act. And then Avraham also wakes up in the morning and sees the destruction of Sodom and the pillar of smoke. According to the Rambam, the verses are giving us alternate narratives so that we can understand how prophecy works. Lot had a sense of dread and ran away, then dreams about his encounter with the angels and what is happening to Sodom, so he gets the spiritual, behind-the-scenes drama. Externally and physically, Sodom is destroyed—however it was destroyed - (what was that pillar of smoke? A mushroom cloud? Did a planet-buster meteor hit Sodom?). So too, Avraham wakes up from his vision—as he experienced the story of Sodom, his praying and bargaining with God, etc.—and sees the result physically in the world as Sodom burning.

Be’er Mayim Chaim (Bereishis 19:27) grapples with the same chronological problem in the verses, but offers a different and beautiful answer. In the evening, when Avraham was given the prophetic message that Sodom was to be destroyed, he engaged in prayer on their behalf. Yet he perceived that the prayers were not received; Sodom was still fated to be destroyed. He resolved to pray again in the morning, because evening is a time of divine justice while morning is a time of divine mercy. This is why it says explicitly in the verse that “Avraham got up in the morning,” to stress, as in other places in Scripture, the zeal and eagerness to perform a mitzvah first thing. In this case, the mitzvah was to pray on behalf of the people of Sodom. However, Avraham’s plans were interrupted. He saw that it was too late. Sodom was destroyed.

To sum it up: the verses and their narrative structure are woven with implication and meaning. The Rambam can use it as a primer indicating the nature of the interweave between prophetic visions, physical reality, and miracles. Be’er Mayim Chaim uses it as an indicator of the virtue of a tzaddik. He won’t give up. He will be a zealot and pray immediately, and if that doesn’t work, he will seek a different time—perhaps where there is a greater manifestation of divine mercy. He won’t delay, and at the first opportunity to tap into that, he will wake up early and try again. Yet sometimes all the prayer in the world cannot change what needs to happen. This too Avraham saw and accepted.