Manna October 14, 2022
On a return visit to Sodom
“Behold, this was the sin of your sister Sodom: Pride, abundance of food and carefree security she and her daughters had, but she did not help the needy and poor.They became haughty and did things that were disgusting to me. That’s why I threw them off when I saw it. “ Eze 16:49-50
“Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and with the desire of your heart, while you had abundance in all things,will you come to serve enemies whom the Lord will send against you, under hunger, thirst and nakedness and lack of everything. And he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has exterminated you. “ Deuteronomy 28:47-48
When Abraham was still just Abram, he settled in what we call the land of Canaan, all according to God’s clear instructions. Leaving Chaldean Ur for an unknown land was a test of faith that then opened the door to countless blessings. But also for dangers that are close to those who are blessed. Growth is good in itself. This means that many can share in abundance, but abundance not infrequently leads to a careless life where the mere presence of all abundance dulls the person and unleashes more and more of his worse sides. After a certain given breaking point, the sharing of abundance turns into the accumulation and hoardingof abundance. And it is not normal that the former abundance is anylonger shared by others. And then it ceases over time. And turning to its opposite, those who had everything will lack everything. Why? Becausethey stop being aware of and thank the one who ultimately gave them all this good. What you take for granted is often quickly taken away.
The Jordan Valley was “everywhere abundant with springs of water” before the Lord God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. (Genesis 13) The great caravan route between Egypt and via Damascus to the tworiver country of Mesopotamia was routed along this valley, andAbram had come wandering in the opposite direction once. There was abundance that led to arrogance and to the general morale sinking like a stone in a mine shaft. The care forthe less fortunate disappears and the whole region rejects God and does what is abominable in the eyes of the Lord. Nor could the verdict be delayed. Lot, who had so happily chosen to settle in the midst of this metropolis of iniquity in the valley, realizes the full extent of his “sitz im Leben” when the messenger of the Lord comes to his home in Sodom in the evening. The story with all its gruesome details is worth reading and pondering. Genesis 19
“ In the evening the two angels came to Sodom, and Lot was then sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, and he fell down with his face to the ground 2 and said: “My lords, come to the house of your servants. Wash your feet and stay overnight. Then you can continue your journey early tomorrow.” They answered: “No, we will stay in the square for the night.” 3 But he begged them so earnestly that they turned away and entered his house. He prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.
4 Before they had gone to bed, the men of the city surrounded the house, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people without exception. 5 They called to Lot and said to him: “Where are the men who came to you last night? Send them out to us so we can sleep (have sex) with them.”
6 Then Lot went out to them at the gate, closed the door behind him 7 and said: “My brothers, do not do so badly! 8 I have two daughters who have never slept with any man. Let me send them out to you, and you can do what you want with them. Just don’t do anything to these men, as they have taken refuge under my roof.”
9 But they answered, “Move!” They further said: “ He has come here as a stranger, and now he wants to be our judge! Now we will do more harm to you than to them.” And they forced themselves upon Lot and rushed forward to burst open the door.
10 Then the men stretched out their hands and drew Lot into the house and closed the door. 11 The men outside the house they struck with blindness, both small and great, so that they tried in vain to find the door.
12 Then they said to Lot: “Do you have any more here? Any sons-in-law, sons, daughters or anyone else in town that belongs to you? Take them away from this place, 13 for we will destroy it. Their cry has become so strong before the Lord that the Lord has sent us here to destroy it .”
14 Then Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, those who were to have his daughters, and said: “Break up! Get out of this place, for the Lord intends to destroy the city.” But his sons- in-law thought he was joking. (No sinner seriously believes that God will call him to account.)
That joke soon sticks in the throat when God’s judgment is executed: “ Early the next morning Abraham went to the place where he had stood before the Lord and looked down upon Sodom and Gomorrah and all the plain. Then he saw smoke rising from the land, like the smoke of a melting furnace. When God destroyed the cities of the plain, he thought of Abraham and let Lot escape the destruction, when he overthrew (turned upside down) the cities where Lot had lived. ”
In the introduction I quoted the prophet Ezekiel’s judgment on Sodom. It was not only that the God-given sexual gift with its protective framework of commandments had been set aside, it was that they did this with pride, with arrogance, and with a contempt that shines through in Lot’s intended sons-in-law: “They thought that he was joking when he warned of doom.” They also had a contempt for the weak in society. They lived in an abundance without mercy. They were prone to violence to get their way. They were an exact precursor to the contemporary pride movements.
Are we done now?
One might have hoped that Sodom and Gomorrah was a closed chapter. But that is not the case. When Lot went down to Sodom, he was rescued from there. But he and his children had been shaped and molded by their surroundings so that “Sodom” followed him back up to Mount Zion in the mountainous regions of Judah . Read on in the same chapter and see how his daughters reasoned. One does not come up with the idea of incestuously having a child with one’s own father if one has not been morally dulled by an oversexualized society where all that has subsequently become normal behavior that was actually forbidden. The fact that it is forbidden never means that you cannot do it, but that there are consequences if you do.
Throughout the Bible, Sodom appears as a warning example. See here how often it occurs:
MATTHEW 11:23 AND YOU, CAPERNAUM, WILL YOU PERHAPS BE LIFTED UP TO HEAVEN? NO, YOU’RE GOING TO HELL. FOR IF THE MIGHTY WORKS DONE IN YOU HAD BEEN DONE IN SODOM, IT WOULD HAVE STOOD TO THIS DAY. 24 BUT I SAY TO YOU: THE LAND OF SODOM WILL HAVE IT MORE LIGHTLY ON THE DAY OF JUDGMENT THAN YOU.”
LUKE 17:28-30 IN THE SAME WAY IT WAS IN LOT’S TIME: THEY ATE AND DRANK, BOUGHT AND SOLD, PLANTED AND BUILT, BUT THAT DAY WHEN LOT LEFT SODOM IT RAINED FIRE AND BRIMSTONE FROM HEAVEN AND DESTROYED THEM ALL. SO SHALL IT BE IN THE DAY WHEN THE SON OF MAN SHALL APPEAR.
Romans 9:28-30 Quickly and finally the Lord will give an account on earth. Isaiah also prophesied: If the Lord of hosts had not left us any descendants, then we would have become like Sodom, we would have resembled Gomorrah.
2 Peter 2:5-7 “ Neither did He spare the ancient world but preserved Noah, the preacher of righteousness, with seven others when He let the flood strike the world of the wicked. He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction and reduced them to ashes, thus giving an example of what awaits the wicked. But he saved the righteous Lot, who was tormented by the loose life of the lawless. “
Neither did He spare the ancient world but preserved Noah, the preacher of righteousness, with seven others when He let the flood strike the world of the wicked. He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction and reduced them to ashes, thus giving an example of what awaits the wicked. But he saved the righteous Lot, who was tormented by the loose life of the lawless. “
Jude 6-8 ” And the angels who did not hold fast to their high position but forsook their proper abode, those he keeps in custody in darkness with eternal chains until the judgment of the great day. So it is also with Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, which similarly threw themselves into sexual immorality and followed unnatural desires. They stand as a warning example and receive their punishment in eternal fire.
Yet these dreamers similarly desecrate their bodies . They despise the Lord and mock higher powers.”
As if that wasn’t enough, we see a future scenario where Egypt, Sodom and Jerusalem have become one and the same. Before the new Jerusalem comes down from the sky from God, the old Jerusalem has been so infiltrated by the legacy of Sodom that three different but equally degenerate societies are seen as one:
Revelation 11:7 “Their corpses will be lying in the street of the great city that spiritually speaking is called Sodom and Egypt and where their Lord was also crucified.“
We call it “Convergence” when seemingly completely separate things merge and turn out to be one and the same. But before the manifestation it had been hidden from people’s perception.
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem that kills the prophets.”
What did the prophets say worth being killed for??
Isaiah 3:8-12
” For Jerusalem totters
and Judah falls,
because in word and deed they
stand against the Lord ,
rebellious against the
eyes of his glory.
9 Their oversight testifies against them.
Like the people of Sodom
, they show their sins openly
and do not hide them.
Woe to their souls,
for they have
prepared disaster for themselves.
10 Say to the righteous
that it shall be well with him,
for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.
11 But woe to the wicked!
It will go badly for him,
he will get again
for their deeds.
12 The oppressors of my people are children,
and women rule it.
Oh, my people,
your leaders lead you astray
and spoils the way you would go”
1 Peter 4:17
“The time has come for judgment, and it begins with God’s house . But if it begins with us, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God ?”
We will not get rid of Sodom. And now it is moving into free evangelical congregations in town after town in the Uk, and in Sweden and across the globe..
Why don’t they read all of God’s word? Why do they only read things that itch the ears and agree with their self-chosen worship system? Why do they stand where scoffers sit?
Because the fear of God is not before their eyes!
“ In my heart I hear
what sin whispers
to the wicked.
He has no fear
of God in his eyes,
he tells himself that no one
will discover and hate his crimes. “
Psalm 36:1-3
Doncaster 14th October 2022