Sermon Tone Analysis

The Depravity of Sodom

This is no doubt one of the hardest passages to preach on in all of scripture.

There’s so much here that’s easy to misunderstand.

In fact, even when we do properly understand this text, it still doesn’t paint the rosy, lovely picture of God we typically like to look at.

In fact, this passage doesn’t seem to paint anyone in a favorable light.

The people of Sodom are obviously painted unfavorably.

They’re the worst kind of sinners.

They are so evil, in fact, that the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah become archetypes of evil throughout the rest of scripture!

What precisely they did, however, remains a bit of a mystery.

Isaiah comments on Sodom and Gomorrah, comparing them to Israel in his day, and charging them with general injustice.

Jeremiah lists lying, adultery, and supporting evil-doers among Sodom’s sins.

Ezekiel claims that the sin of Sodom was failing to help the poor.

Other interpretations have been offered as well, from homosexuality, to rape, to simple inhospitality to foreigners.

The text itself isn’t entirely clear what the Sodomites wanted to do to the angels, but we can be assured it was not good.

Likely, their sin was broader than any one thing.

The story leads us to believe that whatever they did want with the angels, some kind of misguided lust lay behind it.

Yet they were also certainly lacking in hospitality to foreigners, and the way that the angels were treated shows a horrid lack of care for the poor and needy as well.

Yet, the people of Sodom weren’t the only sinful people in this story.

Even Lot does something absolutely abhorrent!

We’ve kind of come to expect Lot to make bad life decisions at this point in the Genesis story.

The story begins with Lot sitting in the gateway of the city.

In Lot’s day, all of the city business: the politics, the law making, the judging and decision making, happened at the city gates.

This might imply that Lot had become a rather powerful figure in the city of Sodom.

If this is the case, then we can safely assume that he has had some part to play in the evil that went on in that city.

At first, Lot doesn’t seem like such a bad guy though.

He, at the very least, offers to take in the Angels, who appeared as men, and give them a place to rest for the night.

And when the crowds come knocking on his door to harm his guests, he stands up for them and protects them.

He even goes so far as to offer his daughters to the gang of men outside his door!

This is a shocking and disturbing scene in the story.

Lot is willing to give up his own daughters, to let something so horrible happen to them, and this is the first thing that comes to his mind!!!!

This is a depressing story to read, because there are really no Good characters in it.

It is very reminiscent of the story of Noah, when the world became so bad that it grieved God to his heart.

We may imagine God felt a very similar pain when looking on the evil in this city.

The Judgement of God

And so God brings his judgement down on Sodom.

He rains fire and sulfur down on the city of Sodom, completely wiping it off the face of the earth.

This is a terrible reminder of the fate of sinners.

Not only does sin bring about destruction on those who participate in it, but we are taught by scripture that one day God will come to judge the earth, and he too will personally deal with sinners.

The penalty of sin is death, the price of rebellion against God is fire and brimstone.

This should, perhaps, frighten us.

Because, as we well know, scripture also says:

There is no one who is righteous, not even one;

11 there is no one who has understanding,

there is no one who seeks God.

12 All have turned aside, together they have become worthless;

there is no one who shows kindness,

there is not even one.”

13 “Their throats are opened graves;

they use their tongues to deceive.”

“The venom of vipers is under their lips.”

14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”

15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;

16 ruin and misery are in their paths,

17 and the way of peace they have not known.”

18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.

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No one is righteous.

All have sinned.

Everyone is under the penalty of death.

The wrath of God is coming, fire and brimstone will rain down on the heads of sinners.

Johnathan Edwards, the famous fire and brimstone preacher of the 18th century, puts it like this:

“The bow of God’s wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood.”

This passage forces us to confront a very challenging question.

Do we worship an angry God?

Does God really want to destroy us all?

Are all of us sinners consigned to hell?

Is the fate of the world sealed, because God’s judgement demands we be punished?

Abraham as Intercessor

That is the question the text wants us to wrestle with, but if we walk away thinking, as Johnathan Edwards did, that God is an angry, wrathful tyrant, then we’ve really missed some important details in this story.

The fate of sinners is fire and brimstone, the penalty of sin is death, and yet, why then was Lot saved?

Lot, who appears to be only marginally better than the rest of Sodom, is rescued out from the destruction of the city.

And so we have two competing theologies here.

On the one hand, God seeks justice.

He cannot stand to look on human evil in the world, whether it be sexual sin or neglect of the poor.

All injustice grieves God, and brings about the judgement of destruction.

And yet, here we have a sinner just like the rest, Lot, who God spares.

Why?

Just before the angels entered into the city of Sodom, far away, up on a hill, sat Abraham, arguing and praying with God.

God, trusting in Abraham, had divulged his plans for Sodom and Gomorrah.

He had heard the outcry against these cities, and he simply couldn’t let their injustice and evil go unanswered any longer.

So, he told Abraham, he had decided to wipe out the whole city.

For Abraham, however, this was every bit as unjust as whatever the people of Sodom were doing!

A good God doesn’t just blow up an entire city.

A just God doesn’t wipe out everyone because of what a few people did.

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 forgive it for the fifty righteous who are in it?

25 Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous 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?

God, far be it from you to do such a thing.

Abraham is really saying, “That is profane!

That solution is unworthy of a Holy God”.

At the heart of Abraham’s prayer and pleading with God is the question, “Does evil override good, or can good override evil?”

Does all of the evil that goes on in Sodom override the good there too, or is the good worth something to God?

So Abraham begins to haggle with God.

How much good will it take to override the evil?

50 good people?

45? 20? 10?

To Abraham’s surprise, God doesn’t really seem to be in a haggling mood.

He’s not playing the haggling game.

Because what we would expect is for God to make a counter offer: “No not 50, but I’ll do it for 100.”

But God does no such thing.

Instead, he simply agrees with Abraham, that yes, good does override evil.