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.
Showing posts with label 2 Peter 2. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2 Peter 2. Show all posts
Thursday, July 16, 2020
Seder 17: Gen 18-19---The Trial of Sodom and Gomorrah
One biblical passage that may puzzle readers at first is Gen 18:20-21, where God says, "How great is the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah and how very grave their sin! I must go down and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me; and if not, I will know."
At this point in the narrative, God has just demonstrated his omniscience by reading Sarah's mind (vv 12-15), so there is no question that he knows what is going on in Sodom and Gomorrah. But it seems that he wants to model, for Abraham and all his descendants (vv 17-19), how to conduct a proper judicial proceeding, with a public trial based on the eyewitness testimony of multiple witnesses. (One scholar who has explored this approach to Gen 18-19 is James Bruckner.) Conducting such a trial also gives the people of Sodom and Gomorrah one more opportunity to repent.
The evidence is presented in Gen 19, when two angels arrive in Sodom. The first person to be examined is Lot, who shows great hospitality to his guests (vv 1-3), much as Abraham had in Gen 18.
However, that night an angry mob came to Lot's house, demanding that Lot surrender his guests to them. Lot could not dissuade the mob from its evil intentions, and the angels finally immobilized them by striking them blind.(vv 4-11).
At this point the evidence was in, and the cities of the plain were destroyed after Lot and his two daughters escaped to safety.
As readers we struggle to make a fair evaluation of Lot. Lot initially settled at Sodom because of the wealth in that region (Gen 13:10-13). Was he wrongly valuing wealth and ignoring the spiritual problems there? The fact that he offers his virgin daughters to the mob (Gen 19:8) suggests that his own morality has been compromised by his time in Sodom.
The Genesis narrative implicitly compares Lot to Abraham in a number of places, and the comparisons tend to be unfavorable to Lot. For example, while Abraham is a father of many nations (Gen 17:4-6), Lot is the father of two, and they both begin with acts of incest (Gen 19:30-38). Lot is saved from the cataclysm partly for Abraham's sake (v 29). He seems to be an example of 1 Cor 3:15, someone who is saved but whose work does not survive the fire.
On the other hand, Lot can be seen as a kind of Noah figure, maintaining a righteous witness before a corrupt society. The apostle Peter later described Lot as "a righteous man greatly distressed by the licentiousness of the lawless" (2 Peter 2:7).
Rob Wilson shared further reflections on Lot, Christian witness, and "radical hospitality" in a sermon on Seder 17 given on July 11, 2020.
At this point in the narrative, God has just demonstrated his omniscience by reading Sarah's mind (vv 12-15), so there is no question that he knows what is going on in Sodom and Gomorrah. But it seems that he wants to model, for Abraham and all his descendants (vv 17-19), how to conduct a proper judicial proceeding, with a public trial based on the eyewitness testimony of multiple witnesses. (One scholar who has explored this approach to Gen 18-19 is James Bruckner.) Conducting such a trial also gives the people of Sodom and Gomorrah one more opportunity to repent.
The evidence is presented in Gen 19, when two angels arrive in Sodom. The first person to be examined is Lot, who shows great hospitality to his guests (vv 1-3), much as Abraham had in Gen 18.
However, that night an angry mob came to Lot's house, demanding that Lot surrender his guests to them. Lot could not dissuade the mob from its evil intentions, and the angels finally immobilized them by striking them blind.(vv 4-11).
At this point the evidence was in, and the cities of the plain were destroyed after Lot and his two daughters escaped to safety.
As readers we struggle to make a fair evaluation of Lot. Lot initially settled at Sodom because of the wealth in that region (Gen 13:10-13). Was he wrongly valuing wealth and ignoring the spiritual problems there? The fact that he offers his virgin daughters to the mob (Gen 19:8) suggests that his own morality has been compromised by his time in Sodom.
The Genesis narrative implicitly compares Lot to Abraham in a number of places, and the comparisons tend to be unfavorable to Lot. For example, while Abraham is a father of many nations (Gen 17:4-6), Lot is the father of two, and they both begin with acts of incest (Gen 19:30-38). Lot is saved from the cataclysm partly for Abraham's sake (v 29). He seems to be an example of 1 Cor 3:15, someone who is saved but whose work does not survive the fire.
On the other hand, Lot can be seen as a kind of Noah figure, maintaining a righteous witness before a corrupt society. The apostle Peter later described Lot as "a righteous man greatly distressed by the licentiousness of the lawless" (2 Peter 2:7).
Rob Wilson shared further reflections on Lot, Christian witness, and "radical hospitality" in a sermon on Seder 17 given on July 11, 2020.
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