Ezekiel 16, the prophecy referred to in the previous post, also contains some fascinating statements about the future of Sodom and Gomorrah. God says in verse 53 that he will "restore the fortunes" of "Sodom and her daughters," and verse 55 says that Sodom and her daughters "shall return to their former state."
Combining these statements with those of Jesus in Matt 11:23-24 has led some to speculate that when the people who were incinerated at Sodom and Gomorrah are resurrected at some point in the future, perhaps they will then receive a fuller revelation of the Gospel, and perhaps some will repent and be granted eternal life. This is entirely speculative, but it is something for which we can hope, remembering that God is "patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance" (2 Peter 3:9).
Showing posts with label Sodom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sodom. Show all posts
Thursday, July 16, 2020
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.
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.
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.
Wednesday, July 8, 2020
Seder 16: Genesis 18---Abraham's Mysterious Visitors
Genesis 18 begins by mentioning an appearance of God to Abraham. Historically there have been two main interpretations of Genesis 18:1. In one reading, the verse speaks of God coming to see Abraham, perhaps to comfort him after his recent circumcision. According to this interpretation, three men arrive while Abraham is communing with God. In verse 3 Abraham says to God, in effect, "Don't go away. I need to take care of these visitors, but I'll be back." He treats the men with great respect and rushes to prepare a banquet for them (Gen 18:1-8).
We soon learn that these are not ordinary visitors During the meal God announces again that Abraham and Sarah would soon have a son (vv 10-15), even though Sarah is past menopause.
God has a second momentous announcement to share with Abraham. It is time to deal with the great evil coming from the nearby towns of Sodom and Gomorrah (vv. 16-21). After this announcement, "the men turned from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the LORD" (v 22).
Chapter 19 then begins by noting, "The two angels came to Sodom in the evening." So two of the men are, in fact, angels. What about the third? One possibility is that the third is also an angel but is not needed at Sodom. Perhaps he goes to Gomorrah instead, or on to whatever his next assignment is.
Another possibility is that the third is the Lord who had announced the coming birth of Isaac and stayed behind to talk with Abraham. In this scenario, Genesis 18:1 is saying that the visit of the three men constitutes an appearance of God, and he addresses one of the three men in verse 3.
In this second reading, the third visitor's coming might have been a Christophany, an advance appearance of the Messiah. Many Christians through the centuries have affirmed this interpretation, going back at least to Justin Martyr (c. 150 AD), who proposed it in Chapter 56 of his Dialogue with Trypho.
Those who identify the third man as the Messiah often point to Gen 19:24: "Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven." This verse seems to mention two "Lords", one presumably on earth and the other one in heaven.
The text does not tell us when Abraham recognized the special nature of his two visitors. If he did not realize this at first, then his lavish hospitality is all the more remarkable. Heb 13:2 seems to be a reference to Abraham and his visitors: "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares."
On the other hand, if he quickly picked up on the fact that his visitors were more than human, then he can be credited with excellent powers of spiritual discernment.
In a sermon on July 4, 2020, David Waddle reflected on Abraham's example in Genesis 18, both his remarkable hospitality and his faithful intercession for Sodom.
Sunday, June 7, 2020
Seder 12: Gen 14---Abram Rescues Lot
In Gen 13:14-18, God promised to give the land of Canaan to Abram and his descendants. But no one had yet informed the four Mesopotamian rulers who would invade sometime later (Gen 14:1-12).
Those rulers had been requiring the five cities of the plain (Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar) to pay them an annual tribute. When those five towns decided they were tired of paying, their overlords determined to make the trip of several hundred miles and collect the tribute personally.
The invaders came south through what is now Jordan on the road called the King's Highway, subduing all the peoples they passed on the way (and perhaps collecting additional tribute). Later, in the fortieth year of the Exodus, the Israelites would come north on that road and claim these areas for Israel (Num 21). Perhaps those Israelites were encouraged by the exploits of Abram recorded in Gen 14.
After trouncing the cities of the plain in a one-sided battle, the army from Mesopotamia left with a substantial amount of booty, including Abram's nephew Lot. Taking someone from Abram's family proved to be a crucial error on their part. When Abram heard what had happened, he set out in pursuit with "his trained men, born in his house, 318 of them" (v 14).
The size of Abram's party is the only such figure given in the chapter, so it is not so easy to put into historical context. What we know about populations at that time suggests that 318 was a pretty respectable number, showing how much Abram had been blessed. Abram's army was probably comparable in size to those of the five cities of the plain, so Abram was in some sense a "king" himself.
On the other hand, Gen 14:1-12 emphasizes the strength of the invading force, which was probably substantially larger than Abram's forces.
The 318 is also an unusually precise figure, so there has been some speculation about its significance. An article published in 1969 (S. Gevirtz, "Abram's 318", Israel Exploration Journal, Vol 19, No. 2, pp 110-113) points out that 318 is the sum of all the prime numbers between seven and seven times seven (7+11+13+17+19+23+29+31+37+41+43+47 = 318). This is a fun fact but probably not relevant.
One midrash observes that 318 is the total of the numbers associated with the Hebrew letters in the name of Abram's chief servant, Eliezer (Gen 15:2) and suggests that Abram and Eliezer pursued Lot's abductors all by themselves, just the two of them. There is no hint of this in Gen 14, but the midrash does underline an important truth: It does not matter how small Abram's army is. What matters is that God is with Abram.
Abram and his trained group of 318 caught the Mesopotamians by surprise and recovered what the invaders had seized, including Lot. When Abram returned victorious, he established himself as a regional power. Would be now require tribute from the cities of the plain? No, he decided that he would steer clear of local power politics and make clear that he placed all his trust in the true God to provide for him (vv 21-24).
In his EBC commentary on Genesis, John Sailhamer notes that Abram could be said to have followed the principles for warfare against distant nations later laid out in Deut 20. He had
Those rulers had been requiring the five cities of the plain (Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar) to pay them an annual tribute. When those five towns decided they were tired of paying, their overlords determined to make the trip of several hundred miles and collect the tribute personally.
The invaders came south through what is now Jordan on the road called the King's Highway, subduing all the peoples they passed on the way (and perhaps collecting additional tribute). Later, in the fortieth year of the Exodus, the Israelites would come north on that road and claim these areas for Israel (Num 21). Perhaps those Israelites were encouraged by the exploits of Abram recorded in Gen 14.
After trouncing the cities of the plain in a one-sided battle, the army from Mesopotamia left with a substantial amount of booty, including Abram's nephew Lot. Taking someone from Abram's family proved to be a crucial error on their part. When Abram heard what had happened, he set out in pursuit with "his trained men, born in his house, 318 of them" (v 14).
The size of Abram's party is the only such figure given in the chapter, so it is not so easy to put into historical context. What we know about populations at that time suggests that 318 was a pretty respectable number, showing how much Abram had been blessed. Abram's army was probably comparable in size to those of the five cities of the plain, so Abram was in some sense a "king" himself.
On the other hand, Gen 14:1-12 emphasizes the strength of the invading force, which was probably substantially larger than Abram's forces.
The 318 is also an unusually precise figure, so there has been some speculation about its significance. An article published in 1969 (S. Gevirtz, "Abram's 318", Israel Exploration Journal, Vol 19, No. 2, pp 110-113) points out that 318 is the sum of all the prime numbers between seven and seven times seven (7+11+13+17+19+23+29+31+37+41+43+47 = 318). This is a fun fact but probably not relevant.
One midrash observes that 318 is the total of the numbers associated with the Hebrew letters in the name of Abram's chief servant, Eliezer (Gen 15:2) and suggests that Abram and Eliezer pursued Lot's abductors all by themselves, just the two of them. There is no hint of this in Gen 14, but the midrash does underline an important truth: It does not matter how small Abram's army is. What matters is that God is with Abram.
Abram and his trained group of 318 caught the Mesopotamians by surprise and recovered what the invaders had seized, including Lot. When Abram returned victorious, he established himself as a regional power. Would be now require tribute from the cities of the plain? No, he decided that he would steer clear of local power politics and make clear that he placed all his trust in the true God to provide for him (vv 21-24).
In his EBC commentary on Genesis, John Sailhamer notes that Abram could be said to have followed the principles for warfare against distant nations later laid out in Deut 20. He had
- not been afraid of a larger army (Deut 20:1).
- taken only trained men ready for battle (Deut 20:5-9)
- taken spoil from the distant nations (Deut 20:14).
- not taken spoil from peoples in the promised land and stayed separate from them (20:16).
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