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.

Genesis 6:8-13

2006.Sep.05 20:35

God’s thoughts on people

Read Genesis 6:8-13 | Full Chapter

But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God…Then God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth.”
(Genesis 6:8-9,13, NASB)

Some ten (if I can count) generations after creating humanity, Jehovah is disappointed. It’s turns out humans are, well, human. We want to do things our own way. Now, I’m not really sure why God let this first set of humanity go all the way to the deep end, but for some reason, he seems to have chosen a progressional display of his judgement/grace paradigm (no, I’m not sure what I meant by that). He first allows humanity to so forsake him that he decides the vast majority must be destroyed and a new start made. I’m inclined to believe he had a very specific purpose for this progression, but I’m far too tired to think about it.

However, God does not simply say, “two legs bad,” and wipe humanity forever. After all, he might have. Clearly Enoch at least had chosen to be humble, and received God’s grace, so God had at least one friend out of the mess. But Jehovah chooses to continue humanity’s time of Earth, as he spares Noah, “a righteous man, blameless in his time” who “walked with God” (9). It’s really awe-inspiring how much God wants both many, many individuals, and humanity as a whole to go through this process of turning to him, how he created a people who knew so much of our potential for godhood that we inevitably rebel and hurt him, because then we could also understand him enough to be true friends, and how dedicated he is to this crazy messed up people, this humanity.

Now, it was a foregone conclusion at my birth that I was gonna be one of these totally messed up self-centered folks for a while, and at least revert to it throughout my earthly life. And I’m okay with that because it means I can see myself for what I am and quit fighting God. But there’s the rub of being one of these people. It’s one way or the other. I accept his grace and live, but relinquish my claims to godhood, as Noah did, or I try to prove myself against him, to glory in my powers, and become the sort of person to God that you just cannot stand to put up with. I like the idea of being powerful, but I choose to be a Noah; I choose rather to walk with God.