Seder 17: On Being Compared Unfavorably to Sodom and Gomorrah

The cities Sodom and Gomorrah have come to be synonymous with moral depravity and divine judgment.

Speaking of God, Peter wrote that "by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly" (2 Peter 3:6).

What do we conclude, then, when a prophet compares a nation or town unfavorably with Sodom and Gomorrah?  That can't be good.  Let's look at two places in the Bible where this happened and see what we can learn from them.

The prophet Ezekiel prophesied to the people of Judah as they were going into exile in Babylon. In chapter 16 he communicated a message from God saying that "your sister Sodom and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done" (v 48).

This verse is saying that the people of Judah were even worse than the people of Sodom.  How could this be?  Surely visitors to Jerusalem were not attacked by unruly mobs.

The next two verses explain:  "Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom:  she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.  They were haughty and did an abomination before me.  So I removed them, when I saw it."

These verses seem to be saying that the root causes of the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah were selfishness, pride, and haughtiness, a general attitude that one does not have to answer to God or anyone else.  Such an attitude is the spirit of Sodom, the mindset that led to the mobs that attacked strangers.  This makes the story of Sodom come a little more close to home.  In our prosperous world, such attitudes are easy to fall into and are all too prevalent.

A second prophet who unfavorably compared a group of people to ancient Sodom was Jesus of Nazareth.  Jesus at one point strongly corrected the people of some Galilean towns who had seen a number of his miracles but had not come to repentance (Matt 11:20-24).  For example:

"And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven?  You will be brought down to Hades.  For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.  But I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you."

Here Jesus is bringing out the principle that we are judged according to the revelation that God has given us.  There are higher expectations for those who have been given more (Luke 12:48).  Sodom had received some witness from Lot and Abraham, but Capernaum had spent quite a lot of quality time with the Son of God. 

Jesus' words also bring the story of Sodom closer to home.  For what generation has the Word of God been more readily available than the present one?  We should be sure to take full advantage of such riches.