God's Work with Planet Earth

Just a refresher that we’re now in Stage 2 out of 5 of God’s work with Planet Earth, and we’re looking at how God dealt with humans in the Bible to learn more about Him. It seems clear that He didn’t always take the same approach in dealing with sin and rebellion.

So far, He sent Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden when they disobeyed but allowed them to have children and grandchildren before they died.

Nearly 1,650 years later things had gotten so bad that He caused a global flood, ironically, to save humanity from wiping themselves out. In saving the 8 people in the whole world who were still listening to Him, He gave humanity another chance.

When the people started gathering into one big city instead of spreading throughout the earth as God had instructed, He diversified the languages. This caused the people to spread out into different geographical areas with people they could understand.

God visits Abraham

Now we pick up in Genesis 18, and in spite of God being omnipresent, He came down to visit Abraham, appearing as a man, along with two angels who also appeared as men. Abraham went to greet them as they passed by and invited them to come eat with him. But I’m specifically interested in this passage, when they began to leave.

“Then the men rose from there and looked toward Sodom, and Abraham went with them to send them on the way. And the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing, since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.” Genesis 18:16-19

How interesting! God was honoring Abraham by letting him know His plans. It sounds like He’s speaking to the angels who were with Him, saying “We should let Abraham know what’s about to happen and why.” It reminds me of this verse:

“Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.” Amos 3:7

Alright, so what was God up to?

“And the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave, I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to Me; and if not, I will know.” Genesis 18:20-21

As if God didn’t know what was going on in Sodom. But by speaking this way, He’s letting us know that He carefully evaluates a situation before taking drastic action. Do entire cities really deserve to be destroyed by fire and brimstone? He’s going to thoroughly investigate first. God is obsessed with fairness, and this shows up over and over throughout the Bible, including Jesus’ teachings.

Abraham the Advocate

God came very close to, and communicated personally, with both Abraham and Moses. I wonder if it had to do with the fact that both these men pleaded with Him not to destroy people. God must have loved them for their love of fellow humans, and because they recognized His character of love and mercy as well as justice.

“And Abraham came near and said, “Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there were fifty righteous within the city; would You also destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous that were in it? Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” Genesis 18:23-25

The Reasons for Sodom and Gomorrah’s Destruction

In Genesis 19, the two angels who were with Christ when He met with Abraham showed up at Sodom. Lot was near the city gate and saw them come in, and having been taught by his Uncle Abraham, he invited them to spend the night at his home. He had a “feast” prepared for them.

“Now before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter, surrounded the house. And they called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them carnally.” Genesis 19:4-5

Now, in the New King James version that I use (unless otherwise cited) the word “carnally” is in italics. That means it is not in the Hebrew manuscript and was added to help the reader understand how the men of Sodom wanted to “know” Lot’s guests.

Why did the translators add this word? Because the Hebrew word “yada” (translated as “know”) is the same word used in Genesis 4 where “Adam KNEW his wife Eve and she conceived…”, three times, each resulting in Cain, Abel, and Seth being born.

What followed next is sickening. Lot offered his daughters as sexual playthings to the men, as substitutes instead of his guests. But the men of Sodom charged at him because they wanted to rape the men, not Lot’s daughters. At this point, the angels pulled Lot back into his house and struck the men outside with blindness. Eventually, they groped their way elsewhere.

You can read all this in Genesis 19, and if you really want to be disgusted you can read a very similar story in Judges chapters 19 & 20 where the men of Gibeah (a city of the tribe of Benjamin, and descendants of Abraham) did the same thing. This is what happens when people stop following God and become susceptible to the corrupting influences of Satan and his fallen angels.

Was this the reason Sodom was destroyed by fire and brimstone from heaven? It’s one reason, but there are others found in other parts of the Bible:

“as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” Jude 1:7

This matches up with the Genesis 19 account. If you don’t know what “going after strange flesh” means, Romans 1:26-27 explains.

“For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.” Romans 1:26-27

Why was the fire “eternal”? Sodom and Gomorrah are not still burning today. Because it came from an eternal God, and the result was eternal. There are no natural volcanos (like Mt. Vesuvius) around that could have caused this, and it’s geologically unexplainable, only supernaturally explainable. And yet there are still sulfur balls in that area today, which if ignited, burn with a hot blue flame. You can find videos showing this on YouTube.

“and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)—” 2 Peter 2:6-8

Evidently, while Lot originally thought living in Sodom with all it’s economical and social benefits would be great, he ended up being “oppressed” and “tormented” by all things he saw people do in that city.

“As I live,” says the Lord God, “neither your sister Sodom nor her daughters have done as you and your daughters have done. Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty and committed abomination before Me; therefore I took them away as I saw fit.” Ezekiel 16:48-50

What are the reasons God gave through the prophet Ezekiel for Sodom’s destruction?

• Pride
• “fullness of food and abundance of idleness”. Because of excess material wealth, in idleness they started delving into evil things
• In spite of having plenty of food, they didn’t help the poor and needy but only entertained themselves
• Haughty = pride again
• Abominations are the worst kinds of sins in the Bible. The nation of Israel committed them too later on.

Examples of Abominations

If you want to find a concentration of what God calls abominations, Ezekiel 22 is probably the place to look:

• Idolatry and the shedding of the blood of their own people (verses 3-4)
• Princes (leaders) use their power to shed blood (verse 6)
• Disrespect and disregard for fathers and mothers (verse 7)
• Mistreating the fatherless and the widow (verse 7)
• Despising things God says are holy and breaking the Sabbath (verse 8)
• Slander (lies to defame another’s character) which result in bloodshed (verse 9)
• Sexual immorality, described as: (verses 10-11)
  • Uncovering a father’s nakedness
  • “abominations with neighbor’s wife”
  • “another lewdly defiles daughter-in-law”
  • “another violates his sister”
• Taking bribes to shed blood
• Profiting by extortion of your neighbors
• Forgetting God (verse 12)

All these things God hates so much He called them abominations. We need to understand that just because something is recorded in the Bible doesn’t mean God approves. These stories are there for us to learn from as “examples to those who afterward would live ungodly”. (2 Peter 2:6)

Regional versus Global

“But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.”

“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.” 2 Peter 3:7, 10

Both the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the plagues of the Exodus were regional. However, the plagues and destruction that will happen as Jesus takes His people out of this world when He returns will be global. But we’re still in Stage 2, and we’ll get to our time later.