Warnings

Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, 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 good.
(Ezekiel 16:49-50)

The total depravity of Sodom and Gomorrah was the result of their mishandling the blessings of God. It was God who created the fertile plain on which their city was built, yet they were proud of themselves for their riches. Again, it was God who provided the rain which kept the harvests coming in, but they ate gluttonously instead of using the excess food wisely. It was God that allowed them such prosperity that they did not have to spend all their time working in order to survive, but they chose to amuse themselves instead of using their free time to help others. They didn't use their abundance to help the poor and needy, which would have been a way for them to have wisely handled the resources that God had given them. They became arrogant and depraved and so suffered the judgment of God.

The obvious parallel these days is the United States of America, or some other wealthy country that is moving away from morality, trying to exclude God from public life. There is application there; however there is also personal application. Pride, gluttony, laziness, apathy (or even contempt) for the impoverished, arrogance and being given over to our desires (or lusts) are all common failures to which we all can fall.

The judgment of God came on Sodom and Gomorrah after they had a witness. No, not just Lot (who, though he was a follower of God, was living among them ineffectively… a whole other subject), but Abraham himself had rescued them from an invasion (see Genesis 14). Abraham interceded for them; if there had just been a bit of true righteousness in them, the cities would have been saved (Genesis 18:16-33). Likewise, we can be saved from God’s ultimate judgment, if we have Christ’s righteousness in us. We won’t become instantly perfect and sinless; we will still make mistakes and fail. However, we will begin to have victories over our sins and failures through God’s power and others will see the change in our lives.

For those of us who have become Christians, the choice is will we live like Abraham or Lot? Abraham was a neighbor of Sodom, he used the blessings God gave him to rescue Lot and Sodom (again Genesis 14), but he does not live in Sodom. Lot, perhaps wanting to enjoy the culture of Sodom, chooses to live among them (Genesis 13:10-13). Therefore instead of being able to help them in their time of need, he is carried off with them when the invading armies come (Genesis 14:11-12). When he finally makes a stand on his morals, the people of the city turned against him (Genesis 19:9). And it is only by God’s exceeding mercy that Lot was saved from Sodom’s destruction (Genesis 19:16).

It’s interesting to note that Lot starts off by pitching his tents near Sodom (Genesis 13:12). His proximity to Sodom gets him caught up in their war, he and his belongings are carried off by the invading army (Genesis 14:11-12)… It’s possible the invaders didn’t know the difference between Lot and the residents of Sodom! By the time of the destruction of Sodom, we find Lot in the entrance of the city (Genesis 19:1), this is where the men of the city would gather together to do business. Finally, we discover that he has moved into the city proper (Genesis 19:2), and that God literally has to drag him out in order to save him from destruction (Genesis 19:16).

The desires of this world are like Sodom. As Christians we are saved out of the world, and its coming destruction. But sometimes we remember the fun we had before, while conveniently forgetting the pain, sorrow, loneliness, emptiness, sickness, loathing, etc. that came along with it. We get tempted to go back to our old ways. We justify it by saying; we’ll be a good example, a good witness to these “sinners”. But we find that, more and more, we fall back to our old ways, even though it may seem to be much less fun. And we feel trapped. Lot could have left; we can leave our failure behind as well, with God’s help. He was troubled by the actions of those who surrounded them (2 Peter 2:7-9). So too, will we not have peace while living “in the world” not doing as we should. Lot lost everything but his life, and his legacy was Moab and Ammon two nations that fell to idolatry and were enemies of God’s chosen people, Israel. We face eternity without rewards to lay at our Master’s feet, and leaving behind a darkness where we could have spread the Light.