People in our day and age don't like this story. It either makes them uncomfortable or outright angry. Let me just say right here, I am not God. I didn't make the rules and I'm not going to do any kind of 'Bible Hide and Seek' to try to get around the message of these cities' destruction. This story is about wickedness and God's judgment on that wickedness. But it is also, again, a picture of God's mercy and long-suffering.
Before we come to the gates of Sodom and Gomorrah, we are introduced to Abraham. He is the man with whom God chose to make His covenant and would because of that, become the father of the Israelites, the Christians, and even, through a poor decision, the Muslims.
God had previously called Abraham out of his home town to a place yet to be revealed. Abraham went and his nephew, Lot, went with him. Over time, God blessed them both and their herds became so large there weren't enough resources to sustain both groups. The people who worked for Abraham and Lot began to fight each other for grazing rights.
Abraham says to Lot, "Hey, we are kinsmen. Let's part friends. If
you go right, I'll go left. If you go left, I'll go right."
We don't think about it but, Abraham showed his faith in God by letting Lot choose. He was looking at the same land as Lot. He was the patriarch of the family. He could have said, "I'm going down there where it's green and beautiful. You go somewhere else." Abraham trusted God to provide.
Skip ahead several chapters of important covenant things we will cover another time. This part of our story can be found in Genesis 18. One afternoon, Abraham is sitting in the door of his tent and sees three figures heading his way. God and two angels were passing by. When God appeared in the Old Testament, we know it was Jesus. That is another study we will do, but for now, trust me.
God says, "OK. Go for it."(I'm paraphrasing, of course)
He runs into the tent and tells Sarah to quickly bake bread with fine flour. He runs to his herd and selects a tender, choice calf and tells a servant to prepare it. So, God and two of His angels have lunch with Abraham.
Anyway, as God was leaving and Abraham was walking Him out of the camp, God asked the angels, "Should we tell Abraham what we are about to do? After all, he is the guy I have chosen. It is he that will pass on my promise to his children and show them what is right in the eyes of the Lord."
Pay careful attention here. God says to Abraham,
"The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great. Because their sin is so grievous. I will go down to see if their actions fully justify the outcry that has reached Me, and if not, I will know." Genesis 18:20.Doesn't it sound like someone somewhere was praying against the sin of Sodom? Just something to ponder. I think I'll study this out and come back to it sometime.
And, did you catch what else God said? His judgment of Sodom was not immediate and it was not without consideration.
The two angels depart at this point but God continues speaking with Abraham. Abraham said, "Will you really sweep the righteous
God said, "If there are fifty righteous in Sodom, I will spare the whole place."
Then begins Abraham's begging for Sodom. He started at fifty and, over and over, went mostly by fives all the way down to ten righteous.
Each time God says He will spare the city for the righteous found there. What was it I said about God's long-suffering and mercy? But, we see that Abraham was worried. He knew God would be hard pressed to find any righteous people in the city.
We also see that God already knew what He was doing because He didn't call the angels back and and say, "Hang on, guys. We may have a change of plans." There were not even ten righteous people in the city and God knew it.
This whole exchange was to prove God's justice and mercy to Abraham and his children all the way down to us. Remember, the reason God revealed His plan to Abraham in the first place is for the sake of his offspring.
Now we are in Genesis 19. The angels approach the city in the evening. Lot is sitting at the gate and sees them coming. He recognizes them for what they are and asks them to come to his home; but the angels say they will spend the night in the square of the city. I think the angels thought they would look around the city that night and see how bad it was.
Lot already knew how bad it was and the Bible says Lot insisted so strongly that the angels changed their plans and followed him into his home. Then, the Bible says,
"Before they had gone to bed, all the men of the city of Sodom, both young and old, surrounded the house," Genesis 19:4.Think about that. Every man in the city both young and old came to Lot's house. The men were saying, "Hey Lot, send out those guys you took in that we may know them."
No one argues what that means. To 'know' in the Bible is to have sexual relations. For example,
"Adam knew his wife and she conceived and bare Cain,"
Lot goes out and closes the door behind him. He says, "Guys, don't
(By the way, no where in the Bible does it say that God condones giving over your virgin daughters to an angry mob!)
Did that stop them? No! They wearied themselves to find the door.
We all know what happens. The angels basically have to drag Lot and his family out of the city and God rains fire and brimstone from heaven destroying everything.
Another thing we tend to overlook is the angels asked Lot if there is anyone else that needed to get out of the city. Lot says his daughters are engaged to be married and they should take their fiances, too. But, the young husbands-to-be thought Lot was mocking them when he told them that God was going to destroy the city and they stayed behind. Again, another example of God offering mercy and people wanting nothing to do with it.
So, now to the nitty-gritty; what was the sin of Sodom? For starters, we know that overt homosexuality was at the top of the list. Here are some scriptures to verifying that homosexuality is a grievous sin:
Leviticus 18:22, 20:13
Mark 10:6-9
Romans 1:26-28
I Corinthians 6:9-11
I Corinthians 7:2
I Timothy 1:8-11
Jude 1:7
In Ezekiel chapter 16 we read that Sodom had the sins of pride, fullness of bread and abundance of idleness. Have you ever heard the old expression, 'An idle mind is the devil's workshop'? Well, there you go.
Jeremiah 23:14 says,
"But, in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies; they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from his evil; all of them have become like Sodom to me and its inhabitants like Gomorrah."
So, strengthening the hands of evildoers so that no one turns from their evil ways is Sodom-like behavior, also. I think we can say that passing laws to protect evildoers counts as strengthening their hands, don't you?
What is the difference between sin and evil; I mean everyone sins, right? Sin is missing the mark. It is getting angry in traffic or falling off the wagon. Don't get me wrong, sin separated us from God and Jesus had to die for us because if it. Even that little old lady who seems perfect is a sinner and needs Jesus.
Evil, though, is a different animal. Evil is a continuous mind set to do harm to the kingdom of God or His people. Jesus said,
"Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." (Matthew 6:12)
In other words, we blow it and ask God to forgive us; we will, in turn, forgive others who blow it.
But Jesus goes on to say, "Deliver us from evil." So, I agree. Homosexuality was not the only sin of Sodom but the continuous mindset that embraced sin, led to evil; and ultimately, to the destruction of the cities.
Do we think that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah just woke up one day and said, "Hey! Let's be the example of debauchery for all generations 'til the end of time!" No, I think it was an attitude of tolerance for sin that started it all.
Ephesians 4:27 says, "Give no place to the devil." Place in this verse means 'foothold.' In the world today, we haven't just given a foothold to the devil, we've cleared him a room!
I think it starts slowly and oftentimes with our love of sinners. We don't want to hurt anyone's feelings or judge.
Hang on. Do I mean we should stop loving people? Absolutely not! We are to love sinners. But, we are not to embrace, encourage and even legalize any behavior that goes against the Word of God. That's when sin becomes evil.
Sin will push and push until there is no room left for righteousness.
We may say, "It's just a little sin. It won't hurt anyone," but sin is cancer. It can be given no place. Unfortunately, we as a society have grown more and more tolerant of it.
We are a very tolerant society. Or are we. Here are some links to test that theory:
Wait, so we're not more tolerant of nativity scenes. Maybe we are more tolerant of public displays of the Ten Commandments. Let's see:
Have we become more tolerant of Christianity in general?
No! Of course we aren't more tolerant of anything that has to to with goodness, wholesomeness, godliness. We are not more tolerant of anything but sin and of that, we open our arms.
Every time we hear the names of Sodom and Gomorrah our ears should prick up. What happened there is a reminder of what happens when we give a place, no matter how small, to sin.
Sin won't stop on its own until everything dies.
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