20 Then the LORD said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous 21 that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.”
22 The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the LORD. [e] 23 Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare [f] the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge [g] of all the earth do right?”
26 The LORD said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.” Gen. 18:20-26
Sodom and Gomorrah are two cities that stand out above all others in their infamy. Even modern secular conversation is frequently dotted with allusions to “fire and brimstone” and the very names of these two cities. Indeed, sexual acts of violence, sexual deviance and sex crimes are called sodomy – deriving their name from the city of Sodom.
Our first introduction to Sodom and Gomorrah is when the two angels who visit Abraham leave him and head toward the cities. As the text says, God had heard an “outcry” over the exceptional wickedness of the people there.
This is an intriguing thought – that God hears an outcry about evil on the earth. From where does this outcry originate?
We may well recall that Cain’s murder of his brother Abel (the world’s first act of violence) resulted in an outcry to God:
10 The LORD said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. Gen. 4:10
In John’s Apocalypse, we have a similar thought:
9When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. 10They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” Rev. 6:9-10
The martyrs cry out to God to avenge the shedding of their blood, and God experiences the pain of seeing man’s wickedness on a daily basis.
God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day. Psalm 7:11
Imagine the din that must reach God’s ears continuously – the blood of war dead, the murdered, the aborted, the cry of the abused, the outcast, the oppressed. To think that our Father hears this outcry daily and continues to tolerate the existence of mankind is an amazing testimony to His forbearance.
All of this is a reminder of man’s abiding wickedness before God and God’s right to judge us for it. In our text, God is depicted the same way He was in the tower of Babel account – He stoops down to observe man’s deeds. This underscores how God is high and lifted-up over His creation and that He has sovereign reign over man’s affairs.
Another lesson of interest here comes from Abraham’s “bargaining” with God and what this tells us about man’s condition.
Abraham appeals to a sense of justice (surely God would not wipe out the righteous and the wicked together) and asks God if He will not spare the cities for the sake of fifty righteous people. He repeats this request until he whittles the number down to a mere ten.
Abraham’s motives might have been simply to protect his brother and his family in this bargain. Then again, he may have truly thought, “Surely there must be other righteous among the wicked of Sodom and Gomorrah”. God certainly knew, and we find God allowing Abraham to bargain with Him for the sake of a handful of “righteous” people.
It does not appear that Lot was not participating in the great evil of the cities. He and his family seemed to be a refuge of relative goodness among wicked and perverted men. However, God’s definition of righteousness is quite different from ours.
In the account that follows in chapter 19 of Genesis, we encounter Lot, his wife, two daughters who are unmarried, and two daughters who are married. This is a total of eight people (assuming no children) who are potential candidates for saving – ironically the same number of people who found refuge on the ark. However, of these, Lot is unable to convince his sons-in-law to bring their families with him, and only Lot, his wife and two unmarried daughters flee the city.
Here’s the sobering question. Putting aside the relative innocence of Lot and his family (they were apparently not participants in the violent and perverted crimes of the city), were these four individuals really righteous?
Let’s take a closer look at these four “righteous” people after they flee the city:
- Lot’s wife disobeys the command of the Lord and is turned to salt (Gen. 19:26)
- Lot allows himself to become drunk with wine…twice (Gen. 19:33-35)
- Lot’s daughters have sex with their father in his drunken state (Gen. 19:33-35)
Why is this story of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Bible? First of all, it is a historical account of the origins of God’s chosen people and the other nations associated with them. The children conceived by Lot’s daughters go on to become the Moabites and Ammonites. Both of these peoples would have antagonistic relations with Israel in the future.
Notice how similar this story is to the Noah account. Noah was warned of impending destruction, but he was only able to convince some family members to go with him. He was delivered from the destructive wrath of God. Immediately afterward, he became drunk and indecent in his tent. His son committed some act of disrespect concerning his drunken and naked condition, resulting in a curse delivered by Noah. The curse would result in animosity between the Jews and the Canaanite people.
In both of these stories there is a greater lesson about man’s wickedness and God’s judgment.
Man is hopelessly unrighteous before God. Even the “righteous” few in this story turn out to be just as flawed as the people God destroyed with fire and brimstone (and flood).
As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; Rom. 3:10
The details of the destruction of these two cities is a sobering reminder of the reality of the wrath of God. Jude refers to this account in his epistle:
5Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe.6And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. 7In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire. Jude 5-7
We must take away from this account a sense of our own culpability before God and our reliance on His grace to save us. We are His to judge, and we are His to save. God’s salvation of Lot was an act of grace. The text tells us God preserved Lot and his family because of God’s covenant with Abraham, not because of Lot’s righteousness:
29 So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived. Gen. 19:29
In short, God came to Lot (a sinner) with a message of salvation. It was Lot’s belief that led to his salvation – a belief that resulted in action.
Another important principle is this one. As Abraham petitioned God on behalf of the city, he not only asked for God to save his family, but also the entire city for the sake of a few righteous people. Abraham assumed (and rightly) that God would be willing to save the many for the sake of the few. The odd thing is that Abraham doesn’t take this all the way down to the obvious end where Abraham would say, “God, what if there was ONE righteous person?” Maybe he lost his nerve; the text doesn’t say. From the way things were going, we can have no doubt God would have said again, “Yes, for the sake of one righteous person I will not destroy the city.” In fact, we know this to be true because this principle – that God would allow many sinners to be saved because of the righteousness of ONE other person points us clearly and directly to Jesus.
18 Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. 19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. Romans 5:18-19
God’s wrath is a terrible thing. Praise God that we can avoid the terror of His wrath if we place our obedient faith not in our own “righteousness”, but in His saving work through the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Because of His faithful, sinless life, many will be saved.
Hey JJ. Good post. Thanks for the insight.
how are you!This was a really admirable website!
I come from china, I was fortunate to look for your topic in bing
Also I obtain a lot in your Topics really thanks very much i will come every day