Genesis 19:23-25
2007.Aug.23 03:03
The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah
Read Genesis 19:23-25 | Full Chapter
Before I jump into this week’s passage, I was reading in 2 Peter last week and came across a passage about Lot that may be a bit more positive about him than I have been. I’ll examine that more in a couple of weeks when I return my focus to Lot. Also, I’d like to note that I feel…erm…iffy about this particular article/study/whatever. I’m just not sure where to go with it or if have any useful comments. But, then, it is a study after all.
The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
(Genesis 19:23-25, ESV)
According to an unsophisticated search on BibleGateway, Sodom is mentioned 28 times outside of Genesis in the Contemporary English Version. My impression, after a quick survey is that these references generally refer to pending destruction and/or comparisons. Here’s a few samplings:
Unless the LORD of hosts
Had left us a few survivors,
We would be like Sodom,
We would be like Gomorrah.
(Isaiah 1:9, NASB)
You and the people of Jerusalem
are evil
like Sodom
and Gomorrah.
(Jeremiah 23:14, CEV)
You people of Jerusalem have sinned twice as much as the people of Samaria. In fact, your evil ways have made both Sodom and Samaria look innocent.
(Ezekiel 16:51, CEV)
So I tell you that on the day of judgment the people of Sodom will get off easier than you.
(Matthew 11:24, CEV)
We should also be warned by what happened to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and the nearby towns. Their people became immoral and did all sorts of sexual sins. Then God made an example of them and punished them with eternal fire.
(Jude 1:7, CEV)
One thing I notice is that Jehovah exercises his judgment on Sodom and the other cities of the plain, while retaining it in other cases for a later day of judgment. Groups who are deep in communal sin are compared to Sodom, and in several Biblical cases, judged to be worse. Perhaps then Sodom is an example of when a community has taken sin too far. As in, if your town is worse than Sodom, you need to change completely, and you need to change yesterday. If that is the case, perhaps God destroyed Sodom to make clear to future generations that such sin is unacceptable, even in the context of a fallen earth; this then is the line at which a community can no longer survive.
Or maybe not.
There is also the question of Jehovah’s justice. God’s sense of justice and fairness is not the same as my natural sense of these things. I can often come to an understanding of his actions, but sometimes my immediate take on his justice is that it is not intuitive. Why judge Sodom so harshly? Why give mercy to so many others? Of course, I have a hard time questioning God’s giving mercy to anyone, since I am so grateful he has given mercy to me. And yet…and yet…and yet.
Is it worth thinking about such things? Yes, it is. But let me not forget, in such thoughts, God’s holiness, nor his mighty hand. I may not understand the details of his decision, but I rejoice both in his grace and his righteousness. And I also must be humbled by these things. When I find myself proud, I want to remember how easily God overthrew these proud cities.
