Ep. 10. Genesis 18-19 | Sodom
EPISODE 10
SODOM: GENESIS 18-19
Sodom was an exceedingly wicked city, or so we're told in Genesis 13, but Sodom's wickedness is not as singular as perhaps we were told in our youth. The Sodomite's sins are pride, excess food, prosperous ease, overlooking the poor, arrogance, and engaging in abominable behavior. These things aren't outlined for us in Genesis but instead found in Ezekiel 16. Lot, Abraham's nephew, moved to Sodom and made a home there with his wife and two daughters, but God, having heard of the outcry against Sodom, came to examine the city and, if necessary, destroy it. At this point in the story, Abraham is 99 years old. It is about a year before the birth of the promised son, Isaac. The Lord, probably not God the Father but perhaps an incarnation of Jesus the Son, shows up to visit Abraham along with two angels.
"The LORD said, 'Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?" Then he declared to Abraham, "Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and their sin is grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me." Undoubtedly concerned about Lot, Abraham asks, "What if fifty righteous are found there? Will you sweep away the place and not spare the fifty? Far be it from you to put the righteous to death with the wicked so that they fare as the wicked! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?"
His outcry to God is one we may have echoed. Won't the God of heaven and earth be fair? Won't he do what is right and just? The Lord promises he won't destroy the righteous along with the wicked, and we see that the righteous Lot is removed from the city before its destruction. It is a good point for us to make note of; God will not destroy the righteous along with the wicked. Even today, God is showing patience to those who deserve his wrath to show more grace to the objects of grace. God would not dare to uproot the sinful people from the face of the earth if it meant some of the righteous might be destroyed as well. We need only look at the examples of God's grace to the objects of grace in Romans 9 (despite saying chapter 11 in the video) and Matthew 13 to understand this well. People who argue that diseases and natural disasters are God's judgment on the sinful world should ask the same question Abraham did; "Will the Just Judge disregard his justice?" The answer will always be "No!" Even in Egypt, as we will see in the coming weeks, God made a distinction between his people and the godless Egyptians. God found a way to rescue and preserve his people prior to or in the midst of his judgment. God will always behave that way. Now, we live in a sinful, fallen world full of war, sickness, and plague, so what are we to do with these things? We recognize that wicked men will still behave wickedly, the followers of Jesus will continue to be persecuted, and sickness will still wreck our bodies, but these can't be confused with the judgment of God. God is ALWAYS fair and just and will never treat the righteous with the same measure he bestows on the wicked.
As wicked as the people of Sodom were, we see the Jews who rejected Jesus in his day were even worse. Jesus does many signs and miracles to show himself to be the son of God, but the Jews sought many times to put him to death. Jesus rebukes them sharply, saying that if he had performed the same signs in Sodom, they would have repented. This is a warning that for all the wickedness of Sodom, the greater sin is the rejection of Jesus. We would do well to remember what keeps people out of heaven is not the wicked things they do but the lack of faith they have in Jesus as the savior.
ADDITIONAL READING: Matthew 13: 24-30 and 36-43; Romans 9: 22-24; Ezekiel 16:49-50; 2 Peter 2:7-8; Revelation 19:1-3; Matthew 10:15; Matthew 11:20-24
