The word Sodomy, generally taken to mean anal sex, finds it origins in the Biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah told in Genesis 19. Sodomy is said to be an abominable sin and the story used to illustrate how abhorrent it is to God. There is, however, much more to Sodom than homosexual activity and this may not have been the reason for the city’s destruction. Rather it may speak to the social and economic conditions of the world today.
Sodom is used in different places throughout the Bible as an example of extreme wickedness. We read in Genesis 18:20, 21 that God said to Abraham “I have heard a great outcry from Sodom and Gomorrah, because their sin is so flagrant. I am going down to see if their actions are as wicked as I have heard. If not, I want to know.”
In the evening two angels, appearing as men, enter Sodom to be greeted by Lot, Abraham’s nephew. Lot is insistent the strangers stay under his roof that evening in keeping with the custom of the time. Culture demanded a householder extend hospitality to travellers and afforded them protection under his roof,even at the expense of family members.
This is where it gets nasty. The men of the city turn up on Lot’s doorstep, demanding the strangers be given to them so that they may have sex with them. They are not satisfied when Lot offers his daughters instead and so the angels blind the mob.
Compare this to the way Abraham welcomed the strangers in the previous chapter. He ran to meet them, implored them to accept his hospitality, and waited on them as a servant. This was as it was meant to happen.
We are not told specifically why Sodom is condemned although it is obvious that pack rape not only violated the important obligation of hospitality to the stranger, an obligation born of necessity in a dry and hostile environment, but also would have caused grave injury if not death. But was that the sole reason for the destruction of the City and its neighbours?
2 Peter 2:7 says they were destroyed for their ‘shameful immorality’ and Jude 7 mentions ‘immorality and every kind of sexual perversion’. However if we stop at ‘every kind of sexual perversion’ we only have part of the picture, for their ‘immorality’ was much more than sexual in nature.
In Lamentations 4:6 the guilt of Israel is said to be ‘greater than that of Sodom’ because ‘her prophets and … priests … defiled the city by shedding innocent blood’. Isaiah, in chapter 1, sees the land of Judah laying in ruins, devastated by the nation’s enemies. If it had not been for God’s intervention it would have been totally destroyed as had Sodom and Gomorrah. Both its rulers and its people are likened to those wicked cities. ‘Listen to the Lord, you leaders of “Sodom.” Listen to the law of our God, people of “Gomorrah”’ (Isa 1:10).
They had turned their back on God. He was turned off by their sham religious ritual, their meaningless ceremonies, rituals and celebrations. He refused to listen to their prayers for they carried the blood of the innocent on their hands
Justice and righteousness had become a thing of the past. Jerusalem was full of thieves and murderers. Her leaders were corrupt, not only accepting but demanding bribes and neglecting their responsibilities to defend oppressed, widows and orphans.
In chapter 3 we read the Nation had been ruined by its leaders (v.12). They had oppressed and mislead the people, stolen from the poor and ground their faces into the ground. Jerusalem is likened to a ‘haughty’ woman, craning her elegant neck, flirting with her eyes, walking with dainty steps, tinkling her ankle bracelets’ (v.16). ‘The very look on their faces gives them away. They display their sin like the people of Sodom and don’t even try to hide it (v.9).
Jeremiah and Ezekiel likewise compare Israel to Sodom and Gomorrah. Although Jeremiah accuses the prophets of Samaria of leading Jerusalem’s prophets to sin he said ‘... the prophets of Jerusalem are even worse! They commit adultery and love dishonesty. They encourage those who are doing evil so that no one turns away from their sins. These prophets are as wicked as the people of Sodom and Gomorrah once were.” (Jer. 23: 13,14).
Ezekiel, in Chapter 16, likens Samaria, Jerusalem and Sodom as sisters, with Samaria the eldest. Of the three, Jerusalem is said to be by far the most corrupt. In verses 48 - 50 we read ‘As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, Sodom and her daughters were never as wicked as you and your daughters. Sodom’s sins were pride, gluttony, and laziness, while the poor and needy suffered outside her door. She was proud and committed detestable sins, so I wiped her out, as you have seen.’
Sodom is last mentioned in the Book of Revelation, again linked to Jerusalem. In Revelation 11 God’s two witnesses, or prophets, testify for 42 months before they are killed by ‘the beast that comes up out of the bottomless pit … (v.7).’ Their ‘bodies … lie in the main street of Jerusalem, the city that is figuratively called “Sodom” and “Egypt,” the city where their Lord was crucified’ (v.8). Jerusalem is again likened Sodom and also Egypt, the nation that oppressed the Israelites and held them in slavery, refusing to let them go when God called on them to do so.
Neglect and exploitation of the poor. Corruption in high places, pride and the display of wealth. God denied or ignored, or a show of religion that is devoid of concern for the poor and the weak. Sexual perversion of every kind. Does this not describe our world - a world worse than Sodom and Gomorrah?
It was to these things that the prophets of old called attention and sounded warnings of destruction. In Isaiah 3:9 we read the Nation has ‘brought destruction’ on itself. In Jeremiah 23:1,2 it is the leaders who through their wicked behaviour brought destruction on Israel. In Revelation the earth is destroyed not by God but by the sins of its inhabitants, the sins of Sodom (Rev 11:18).
While the Bible warns it does not leave us without hope. There remains time to turn back from our destructive ways, to return to the way of the Creator.
Bible quoted: New Living Translation
No comments:
Post a Comment