This is blog #4 of a continuation of my response to a missive/blog posted several months ago entitled "Why I am a Christian Who Supports Gay Marriage." Please Google it and check it out before continuing.
The truth is, unless you've read and studied Genesis chapters 13 thru 19, you will not understand that the story about Sodom and Gomorrah doesn't begin in Genesis chapter 19; nor does it end there! And the idea that those two cities of a region were destroyed (along with two others, Admah and Zeboiim) because all the young and old men of Sodom wanted to gang bang a couple of angels disguised as adult male visitors to Lot's household is just, well...wrong! (In fact, the word "sodomy" is not defined as "homosexuality'; it is defined as the act of having anal or oral sex with a person or animal, regardless of gender.) The story is much larger and deeper and more significant than an act of punishment for one attempted act of debauchery (in fact, the cities were well on the way to their demise at least 20 years before that fateful event): It is about being in right standing with God as opposed to being in right standing with the world; it's about trusting in God and His faithfulness vs trusting in Man and his faithlessness; it's about God's abundant generosity, mercy and favor vs Man's unquenchable penchant for indulging in wickedness, selfishness and corruption when God is rejected in favor of worldly pleasures; and most of all, in the end, its a prophetic microcosm of the end times, when satan and his demons and all unbelievers will be cast into the lake of fire.
The story surrounding Sodom and Gomorrah, and the reason for their destruction, actually begins in Genesis 13:1. When God decided to use a righteous man named Abram (before he was renamed "Abraham") to be the father of the Jewish people and the beginning of a the lineage that would produce the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, He led him and his household out of his homeland and away from his people and his father's household into the region of the Canaanites, that would eventually become known as the countries of Israel and Jordan. Abram's nephew, Lot, who was also considered to be a righteous man, saw God's favor on Abram and decided to join up with him and relocate to the new land God had given him.
Over a few years time, God blessed Abram and Lot with much kin, servants, possessions, livestock and flocks. Unfortunately, after a few years too much "togetherness" began to result in strife and confrontations between Abram's household and Lot's household over herds, flocks and possessions, so Abram suggested to Lot, whom he now called his "brother," rather than having quarreling and divisiveness among themselves and their followers, that they divide the land in half and part ways with each other. Lot agreed, so Abram gave him first choice of which half of the land area he wanted to live in, saying "If you go to the left, I'll go right; if you go to the right, I'll go left."(Gen 13:9-12) (This is significant because the land was originally given to Abram, not Lot; yet Abram gave the first pick to Lot, symbolically indicating that Abram was trusting God for which parcel of land he wound up with and for His continued provision and prosperity in that land.) Now this is the point where the story of Sodom and Gomorrah begins to come into play, and the beginning of Lot and his households' worldly slide into obscurity, and eventual destruction!
Basically, they were dividing the land on an extended line running north to south through, and pretty much centered on, what is now known as the Dead Sea (again, significant, and/or ironic, in the long run). Now Lot, instead of consulting God or deferring back to his elder and Uncle, Abram, to whom God had given the land, chose the eastern half of the territory (in what is now known as Jordan) because it contained the rich and fertile plains of the Jordan river (referred to as "like the garden of the Lord") and the prosperous and free-living cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, leaving Abram the mountainous and arid western half, now known as Israel. The Bible put it this way: "Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom."(Gen 13:12) In fact, Lot eventually moved into a house in the city of Sodom with his household.(Gen 14:12) What's important and notable about this division and relocation process is that while the righteous man Abram was determined to rely on the Lord's provision for his and his household's needs and possessions, the righteous man Lot was selfish and covetous, and he depended on what he could see, touch and control for his provision and possessions; and that would eventually be his downfall!
The first mention of the problem which existed in the city of Sodom, which would eventually lead to its destruction, occurs in Gen 13:13, where the Bible says, "Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord."(NIV) The Amplified Bible says it this way: "But the men of Sodom were wicked and exceedingly great sinners against the Lord." Now there are several things about this Scripture that we need to know in order to understand its importance and significance:
- Sodom was the primary city of a group of five Dead Sea cities: Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela (also called Zoar). This is significant in that Sodom was the largest city in the region, not some small, outcast town, where all the men were described as wicked (or evil).
- In every major translation and most minor translations of the Bible, the word "men" is used to denote the male population of the city, not the population in general. Only a very small number of the modern "easy reading" versions of the Bible written after the 1990's, like The Message, use the word "people" instead of "men." This mistranslation of the Hebrew and Greek word for "men" is important to note because it changes the original significance of the verse.
- Most all translations indicate that the men were not just "doing bad things", but that they were wicked and that they were sinning "greatly" or "exceedingly" against the Lord, indicating that they were "in your face" or "mocking" God in what they were doing. It's interesting to note that there were no Laws or Commandments from God in place at this time...Those wouldn't come until 430 years later; so they weren't really breaking any definitive "laws" from God. Therefore, given the extreme nature of their actions, one has to conclude that these men were doing things which violated the normal, natural design and function of humanity and other elements of God's creation; in other words, they were violating natural laws, or laws of nature. This assumption is later verified by the attempted actions of the male population of Sodom against the two angels staying at Lot's house as described in Genesis chapter 19, which we'll examine a little later in this post.
- It's important to understand that this verse describes the situation concerning Sodom at least 20 years before the events of city's destruction described in Genesis chapter 19. God didn't just decide to destroy the city based on a particularly hideous attempted male sexual attack on His angels (who were disguised as men)...That was just the final straw!
- Most interesting is that the timing of this statement in the Scriptures shows that Lot knew what people were saying about Sodom and its sister city but chose to live there anyway, apparently believing that he and his clan were immune to the area's basic debauchery and evilness...like many of the situations involving Christians and where they live and who they chose to associate with today. (One is reminded of the old adage: If you wear white gloves to play in the mud, the mud doesn't get glovey; it's the other way around.)
19 The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. 2 “My lords,” he said, “please turn aside to your servant’s house. You can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning.”
“No,” they answered, “we will spend the night in the square.”
3 But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate. 4 Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. 5 They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.”
6 Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him 7 and said, “No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing. 8 Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man (in other words, young, virgin females). Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”
9 “Get out of our way,” they replied. And they said, “This fellow came here as an alien, and now he wants to play the judge! We’ll treat you worse than them.” They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door.
10 But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door. 11 Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door.(NIV1984)(emphasis mine) (Please Note: May I suggest that you compare this translation against any other of the most popular and widely used versions of the Bible, other than The Message, to see how closely the various translations line up with the one here, especially in regards to the verses and words I have emphasized. Please don't rely on one source for the account of this important incident.)
After reading this excerpt (and Gen 13:13), especially the highlighted text, can anyone NOT see that this incident is about an apparently usual "welcome" party for traveling men who happened to spend the night in Sodom? Do you not see that Lot knew the vile treatment that was in store for these traveling male strangers at the hands of the male population of Sodom, and, as a gate official, tried to avoid the practice in this case by insisting that these apparent (neither Lot nor the townspeople knew that they were angels) strangers come and stay at his home? Does anyone else besides author of the subject blog not see that this is about a huge crowd of males who, after taking a pass on Lot's offer to have unfettered, unlimited sex with his young virgin daughters instead (for most men, the ultimate sexual fantasy), insisted on forcing their penchant for unnatural (unnatural in that it was/is not within God's normal design for nature or the human body that males of any species should have sex with other males in their species), male-on-male sexual relations (dare I say, "homosexual sex") on unsuspecting male visitors to the area? Finally, proving there's nothing new under the sun, notice how this mob belligerently threatens Lot, who after living in the area for so many years is still considered to be an alien, with even worse treatment for "judging" them and showing his "intolerance" for their behavior! Sound familiar? The whole idea that this incident was just about gang bang (or forced) sex with no homosexual overtones is just plain ludicrous.
The fact of the matter is that the blogger's suggestion that this event was about gang bang sex and that's why God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah is just as wrong and misleading as those who claim it was about gay marriage or homosexual activity. In either event, if that was the case, God would probably have just destroyed all the men of those cities, instead of every living thing, as happened. But this incident was a vivid example of the vile depravity that had overcome the entire population of this region; it was the final straw, a symbolic trigger or detonator, if you will, for the destruction of a population that had rejected God and whose unnatural sexual proclivities threatened the the very fabric and existence of the small, developing civilization of that time.
Taking the story out of context, as this blogger and many others do, you miss a critical piece of information concerning the reason for the total destruction of Sodom and her sister cities that comes to light during a conversation Lot has with the Lord about His intentions, which is chronicled at the end of the previous chapter, Gen 18:16-33. Basically, after being told of God's intentions for the area Lot and his family were living in, Abraham negotiates with the Lord to spare the region by appealing to His Divine fairness: Basically, he starts with getting the Lord to agree to spare Sodom if there are fifty righteous people (not just men, but including women or children, who acknowledge God and at least try to follow His ways) living in the city, and then he tactfully and respectfully negotiates the number down to ten people, obviously knowing that the possibility of finding even that many was slim and nil! You see, the reason why every person, even the children of Sodom and her sister cities were completely destroyed is because not only were they brazenly and defiantly rejecting God from their society and engaging in licentious behavior which threatened the stability and growth of their population, but they were also indoctrinating their children, the future generations, with this behavior; and that would not - and will not - be tolerated for long. What's really interesting is that we have proof in a vivid example of what was happening among the younger generation of Sodom in the last half of the chapter which describes the destruction of the town, Genesis chapter 19.
Genesis 19:30-38 describes the bizarre behavior of Lot's daughters (both of them) with their father:
30 Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave. 31 One day the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man around here to give us children—as is the custom all over the earth. 32 Let’s get our father to drink wine and then sleep with him and preserve our family line through our father.”
33 That night they got their father to drink wine, and the older daughter went in and slept with him. He was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.
34 The next day the older daughter said to the younger, “Last night I slept with my father. Let’s get him to drink wine again tonight, and you go in and sleep with him so we can preserve our family line through our father.” 35 So they got their father to drink wine that night also, and the younger daughter went in and slept with him. Again he was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.
36 So both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father. 37 The older daughter had a son, and she named him Moab[g]; he is the father of the Moabites of today. 38 The younger daughter also had a son, and she named him Ben-Ammi[h]; he is the father of the Ammonites[i] of today.(NIV 1984)(Kara and others please take note of the highlighted text, indicating that the daughters seduced the father, not the other way around.)
As an important subscript to this event, you should know that: a) Lot was never heard from again after this chapter, and that b) The Moabite and the Ammonite civilizations were completely destroyed within a few generations.
The truth is, the story of the destruction of Sodom, Gomorrah and their sister cities is not about a single act of debauchery or depravity; it is about the destruction of a civilization whose way of life was based on the rejection of Almighty God, His influence, His order and His judgement, and the concept that anything goes, as long as it makes you feel good, which inexorably results in an evil climate of debauchery and depravity...Kinda like we are experiencing in much of the world, especially in America, today.
