Sodom and Gomorrah
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Tell the Story
Tell the Story
Learning from the Story
Learning from the Story
1) We see the purpose of God’s judgement and wrath.
1) We see the purpose of God’s judgement and wrath.
It is common to think of God in human terms when reading stories like this
God hears Sodom and Gomorrah have been doing really bad stuff.
He has already told them multiple time and given the warnings.
His fuse is at the end so He blows up.
In an uncontrollable rage, God sends down fire and destroys the wretched people of Sodom and Gomorrah.
This is why stories like this make us squirm and why many have refused to believe in a God that would do such a thing.
The Truth: God’s judgement and wrath are a expression of His love.
The Truth: God’s judgement and wrath are a expression of His love.
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20 Then the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, 21 I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know.”
Gen 18:
the word “outcry” means a cry for help. The oppressed and abused of Sodom and Gomorrah were crying out to God for help.
Their sins were sexual immorality in many forms:
7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.
but not limited to sexual immorality:
49 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. 50 They were haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed them, when I saw it.
49 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.
Eze 16 49
They were proud, overfed, and lazy
They neglected the poor.
They were wealthy and yet neglected the poor.
They were wickedly arrogant
Prideful idolaters
God’s intervention in Sodom and Gomorrah a display of His just wrath on sin.
God’s just wrath was poured out in response to His mercy on the oppressed and the poor.
We struggle with God’s justice and wrath when we don’t understand the devastation sin causes.
God was dealing with a people who had no restraint on their pursuit of their sinful flesh
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. 28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
The fulfillment of justice is an expression of love and mercy. That God would see fit to destroy entire cities in order that justice be served and mercy be multiplied is an amazing expression of His love.
rom 1 24-
We should find comfort in the belief that God is a righteous God who, though unimaginably patient, will not let evil persist indefinitely. God will deal with evil not because He is an angry and cruel God, but precisely because He is a good and loving God.
This story is not meant to It is to comfort you and to express our belief that God is a righteous God who, though unimaginably patient, will not let evil persist indefinitely. God will deal with evil not because He is an angry and vindictive God, but precisely because He is a good and loving God.
We should find comfort in the belief that God is a righteous God who, though unimaginably patient, will not let evil persist indefinitely. God will deal with evil not because He is an angry and cruel God, but precisely because He is a good and loving God.
Gen
22 So the men turned from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord. 23 Then Abraham drew near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” 26 And the Lord said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.” 27 Abraham answered and said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. 28 Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking. Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?” And he said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.” 29 Again he spoke to him and said, “Suppose forty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of forty I will not do it.” 30 Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak. Suppose thirty are found there.” He answered, “I will not do it, if I find thirty there.” 31 He said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it.” 32 Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.” 33 And the Lord went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.
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Gen 19
16 But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.
Gen 19:2
19 Behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness in saving my life. But I cannot escape to the hills, lest the disaster overtake me and I die.
Lot was not spared because he was righteous, but because God was merciful and kind.
God remembered Abraham prayer for Lot
29 So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived.
2) We see a glimpse of God’s mercy and grace.
2) We see a glimpse of God’s mercy and grace.
Refer to
Abraham petitions God on behalf of the people.
He is asking God if the righteousness of a few people would be applied to the sins of the crowd.
We often see the sins of a few leading to the punishment of the many.
Abraham is testing the other approach.
This is not God showing mercy at the expense of justice, but showing restraint in view of the righteous.
The Truth: God is merciful and slow to anger.
The Truth: God is merciful and slow to anger.
16 But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.
We see Lot’s hesitation to leave his home even as God begins to destroy it
Lot is fearful and torn between his desire to stay and the necessity to leave.
Lot was not
19 Behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness in saving my life. But I cannot escape to the hills, lest the disaster overtake me and I die.
Lot was not spared because he was righteous, but because God was merciful and kind.
God remembered Abraham and had favor for Lot
29 So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived.
Lot deserved the same judgement as Sodom and Gomorrah.
Maybe he wasn’t gay or an adulterer or a thief, or a drunkard, but he was not righteous.
Lot was not spared because of his deeds, he was spared because of God’s grace and mercy.
3) We see the difference between God’s judgement and discipline.
3) We see the difference between God’s judgement and discipline.
There is a temptation to believe this story is a testament of how God deals with us when we sin.
Strike us with a lightning bolt.
It is a reason people have used to keep them from believing in God.
And it is a reason some of us feel so distant from God today.
But there is great comfort to be found in God’s judgement and in His discipline.
Distinguishing between Justice and Discipline
Distinguishing between Justice and Discipline
This distinction must be made or we will misunderstand God’s character.
God’s judgement is
This story leads us to fear God, and it should.
Judgement is the ultimate and final justice of God being served.
What this story is not showing us about God
In Sodom and Gomorrah we see God serving justice to well deserving people.
That He is a
Discipline on the other hand is God’s tool for leading His people back to Himself.
Just like a parent’s correction when their child is in the wrong
God discipline is meant to restore His people into a right relationship with Him.
The Truth: God’s discipline seeks restoration; His judgement carries out retribution
The Truth: God’s discipline seeks restoration; His judgement carries out retribution
There is a great comfort in God’s discipline
There is a great comfort in God’s discipline
We see a Father who loves us enough to lead us back to himself.
8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
8
God’s discipline has a hope-filled promise
Heb 12
11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
There is a great comfort in God’s judgement for all of us.
There is a great comfort in God’s judgement for all of us.
Refer to
Every one of us has been wronged in our lives: lied to, stepped on, beaten up, cheated...
Every one of us has been wronged in our lives: lied to, stepped on, beaten up, cheated...
There is the unmistakable and often arresting desire for justice/vindication.
Abraham petitions God on behalf of the people.
He is asking God if the righteousness of a few people would be applied to the sins of the crowd.
We often see the sins of a few leading to the punishment of the many.
Abraham is testing the other approach.
This is not God showing mercy at the expense of justice, but showing restraint in view of the righteous.
That they would pay for the offense they committed or at least
16 But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.
But when we do not feel justice has been accomplished we harbor bitterness or lash out in anger.
19 Behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness in saving my life. But I cannot escape to the hills, lest the disaster overtake me and I die.
What Sodom and Gomorrah promises us is justice will be served and vindication will be had.
Lot was not spared because he was righteous, but because God was merciful and kind.
But the even greater comfort for those who trust in Christ is that Jesus is vindicator
God remembered Abraham prayer for Lot
Not for the wrongs committed against us, but for our sin that has earned God’s just wrath.
29 So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived.
Response
Response
My job is to overturn some faulty and damaging views some of you have about God.
My job is to introduce, or reintroduce, to you our True and Amazing God.
The fact that you are here today is a testament to God’s grace in your life
That you will
He has brought you here not to judge you, but to lead you closer to Him.
Maybe that means turning over anger, bitterness, or whatever else is holding you captive.
Maybe that is bring sins you have been hiding to the light
Or maybe today is the day you submit your heart and your life to Our just, holy, righteous, loving, caring, and patient God and receive the gift of freedom in Jesus.