Article on the Sins of Sodom and Gomorrah

 

Genesis 19:24, 25

The Bible says in Genesis 19:24-25, “Then the LORD rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah – from the LORD out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all those living in the cities – and also the vegetation in the land.”

What type of people are living in the city? Why God had overthrew those cities called Sodom and Gomorrah? What is the sin or greater sin they had done to get this punishment? To answer all these questions, please go through this article.

Firstly, we should go to the cities Sodom and Gomorrah, to understand about this. In Gen. 13:10, “Lot looked up and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan was well watered, like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, toward Zoar. (This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah).”

When Lot looked to the cities, it was written that, the whole plain of the Jordan. That means, the place where Lot stayed is the plain of the Jordan. The Sodom and Gomorrah are near to the city called Jericho. It is opposite to the land of Canaan. It is towards the East.

In Gen. 13:13, the Bible records about the people of Sodom and Gomorrah that, “the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the LORD.” That means the people are very bad in those cities. The land is fruitful, plain, and looked like the land of Egypt but the people were wicked. Though all are sinners, yet some are greater sinners than others. Even from small to great, everyone is wicked in the sight of God.

Even in 2 Peter 2:7, the Apostle Peter tells that, the people of Sodom were having filthy lives and they were lawless men. They have wrong relations and they were enjoying in it. They were very worse because they want to enjoy with the unknown men (angels). They want to enjoy men with men which is very abominable in the sight of God. This act is called Sodomy.

Now coming to the sin of the Sodom and Gomorrah. God revealed the sin to Prophet Ezekiel. In Ezekiel 16:49, 50 God revealed the sin of Sodom. “Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me.”

God revealed three types things as sin of Sodom. They are:

·         Arrogant

·         Overfed or Abundance of Food

·         Unconcerned or Careless

God revealed these three things as the sin of Sodomites and, He revealed that Sodom did not help the poor and needy; also, they were haughty and did detestable things before God. And God called Sodom as sister of Israel. Because the people of Israel also are started doing the same things.

Now we will be going to discuss the three main things which God called as sin of Sodom.

1. Arrogant:

What is arrogant? And why God called it as sinful? What are the consequences of being Arrogant? In this first point, we are going to see the answers for all the above questions.

The definition of arrogance is, the quality of being arrogant. The meaning of arrogant is unpleasantly proud and behaving as if you are more than, other people.

Arrogance means ‘bigging yourself up’ – whether publicity or just inside your own mind. Often it involves knocking others down at the same time. Other names for arrogance are: egotism, conceit, grandiosity, and self-importance.

Ancient Greek literature refers to hubris, a form of arrogance in which a person thinks himself to be higher in status than other ordinary mortals. In other words, a god. The basic strategy is to get others to see you as special, perfect, or flawless – diverting attention from your ordinary imperfections, weaknesses, and failings – and thereby keeping your self-esteem artificially inflated.

 

Arrogance involves the following components:

·         Early negative experiences

·         Misconceptions about the nature of self, life or others

·         A constant fear and sense of insecurity

·         A maladaptive strategy to protect the self

·         A persona to hide all of the above in adulthood

The positive outcome of arrogance is Pride, while the more negative outcomes can be referred to as Vanity. Pride is a state of self-esteem and perceived self-worth which may or may not be exaggerated. Ideally, it is a state in which you recognize your own good qualities in their own right, rather than exaggerating your good qualities to mask or deny your vulnerabilities.

Vanity is a state of excessive, unjustified pride – an obsessive tendency to compare oneself favorably against others, or to regard one’s own positive abilities or attractiveness as evidence of being above the common herd.  

            The Book of Psalms has more to say about arrogance than any other book in the Bible. The fact is that “The arrogant cannot stand in your presence” (Ps. 5:5). Also in Isaiah 2:11, the prophet Isaiah says that, “The eyes of arrogant will be humbled and human pride brought low; the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.”

            Jeremiah tried to warn the arrogant nation of Israel and the leadership that unless they repented and humbled themselves, they would be sent into captivity, but they didn’t listen. Even so, Jeremiah tried warning them by writing “See, I am against you, you arrogant one,” declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty, “for your day has come, the time for you to be punished” (Jer. 5031) because eventually “The arrogant one will stumble and fall, and no one will help her up; I will kindle a fire in her towns that will consume all who are around her” (Jer. 50:32).

            It seems easier for the rich to be arrogant which explains why James wrote, “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God” (James 4:16). God hates pride and those who are full of pride and arrogant are those who God is against and He will humble them who are (1 Pet. 5:5). He will be far from those who are arrogant and prideful.

            The words arrogance, arrogant, proud and haughty are mentioned over 200 times in the NIV Bible. In Prov. 16:5 the Bible says that, “Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination the Lord; be assured he will not go unpunished.”

            There are two Greek forms of the word arrogance used in the New Testament, essentially meaning the same. Huperogkos means ‘swelling’ or ‘extravagant’ as used in ‘arrogant words’ (2 Peter 2:18; Jude 1:16). The other is phusiosis, meaning a ‘puffing up of the soul’ or ‘loftiness, pride’ (2 Cor. 12:20).     Arrogance is nothing more than an overt display of one’s sense of self-importance (2 Tim. 3:2). It is akin to that “it’s all about me” mindset that says, “The world revolves around me” (Prov. 21:24).

            When we see some of the people lives from the Bible, we can see their fall. In the life of the king Uzziah, we can see this attitude ‘arrogant’. He became King of Judah at the age of sweet 16. But he ruled the kingdom for 52 long years more than the ruling years of David. In 2 Chronicles 26:5 says, “He sought God and God gave him success.” In v. 15, “His fame spread far and wide, for he was greatly helped until he became powerful.”

            His life is going well, and he was successful in all the areas. But in v. 16 we can see the downfall of King Uzziah, “But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall. He was unfaithful to the LORD his God, and entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense. And this results leprosy broke out on his forehead. In v. 20 says, “The LORD had afflicted him.” He had leprosy until the day he died. This is the strange side of the King Uzziah. He was excluded from the temple of the LORD.

            Instead of arrogance, the Bible teaches us the opposite. That is ‘Love’. Our Lord Jesus taught us that, “If anyone wants to come after Me, first he denies himself, take up his cross and follow Me.” The first word Jesus used is denying one self. That means, seeing others better than us. This is the teaching of Christ (Matthew 16:24). The Christian’s behavior towards others should imitate that of Christ who taught us to wash one another’s feet (John 13:14). The world says to strive to reach the top, but our Lord says, “Be humble under the mighty arms of God and He will exalt you.”

2. Overfed:

            This is the second reason of the sin of the Sodom. Also, we can call it as ‘Gluttony’. It was God’s great mercy that they had plenty, but their great sin that they abused it, glutted themselves with it, ate to excess and drank to excess, and made that the gratification of their lusts which was given them to be the support of their lives.

            We Christians often quick to label smoking and drinking as sins, but for some reason gluttony is accepted or at least tolerated. In Prov. 23:20-21 the Bible says that, “Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags.”

            Physical appetites are an analogy of our ability to control ourselves. If we are unable to control our eating habits, we are probably also unable to control other habits, such as those of the mind (lust, covetousness, anger) and unable to keep our mouths from gossip or strife. We are not to let our appetites control us, but we are to have control over our appetites.

According to St. Thomas Aquinas, there are different ways in overeating: They are,

·         Eating food that is too luxurious, exotic, or costly – Example: Jonathan eating honey

·         Eating food that is excessive in quality (too daintily) – Example: Israelites cried for meat

·         Eating food that is excessive in quantity (too much) – Example: Sodom

·         Eating hastily (too soon or an inappropriate time) – Example: Eli’s sons taking meat

·         Eating greedily (too eagerly) – Example – Esau sold his birthright for eagerness of food

He concludes that “gluttony denotes inordinate concupiscence in eating.” The first three ways are related to the food itself, while the last two ways related to the manner of eating. He says that abstinence from food and drink overcome the sin of gluttony, and the act of abstinence is fasting.

According to medical, compulsive overeating produces emotional, psychological, and physiological side effects that can dramatically compromise one’s quality of life and hope for the future. The compulsive overeating can lead to serious medical conditions, including: high cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, sleep apnea, major depression, kidney disease, arthritis, bone deterioration, stroke.

In the Old Testament, we can see the best example for the overeating is the King of Moab, his name is Eglon. In Judges 3:17 says, “Now Eglon was extremely fat man” (Holman Christian Standard Bible).

When we read the prophecy of Jeremiah concerning the Moab, we can clearly understand the attitude and behavior of the rulers and people of Moab. In Jer. 48:29 the Bible says, “We have heard of Moab’s pride – her overweening pride and conceit, her pride and arrogance and the haughtiness of her heart.” The rulers and the people of Moab are having very pride and arrogance. These came because of excessive of eating. Now here we can see the King Eglon who was very fat man died in the hands of Ehud, the Israelite.

Therefore, Agur asked God two things: one is, keep falsehood and lies far from me; and the second one is, give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread (Proverbs 30:7-9). We should pray like this. If we have abundance of bread, then we will have arrogance and say, “Who is the LORD?” That is why Jesus taught us how to pray. He said, “Give us today our daily bread (Matthew 6:11).

Jesus Himself said about the days of Noah and the days of Lot which will be repeated in the end days also. In Luke 17:27, 28, Jesus said about the people who are involved in eating and drinking. This is very dangerous and ruin our spiritual lives.

In Luke 21:34-36, Jesus warned us and said, “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness, and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap. For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth. Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may able to stand before the Son of Man.” Do not be like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah who are engaged with abundance of bread.

3. Unconcerned or Carelessness:

            The unconcerned means ‘not worried’, or ‘not interested’, especially when you should be worried or interested. The synonyms for this word are: anaemic, lukewarm, half-hearted, passionless, indifference and so on.

Carelessness refers to the lack of awareness during a behavior that can result in unintentional consequences. The consequences way of carelessness is often undesirable and tend to be mistakes. A lack of concern or an indifference for the consequences of the action due to inattention may partake in the origin of carelessness.

            In any education environment, careless mistakes are those errors that occur in areas within which the student has had training. Careless mistakes are common occurrences for students both within and outside of the learning environment, but did not for undeterminable reasons.

           

            The biblical strongman Samson was very careless with his commitments. He made a vow, saying “God, I’m going to live for You.” And to remind him of his vow to God, Samson promised to never cut his hair. But problem is that Samson refused to take himself seriously or to take God seriously. He thought everything was a big game and, so he toyed with temptation: “How close can I get to the fire and not get burned?”

            Samson’s carelessness made God to leave him. And “He did not know the Lord had left him” (Judges 16:20). That is one of the most tragic statements in the Bible. He was unaware of what was happening; how his lifestyle was perpetually weakening him little by little. It was gradual process. He had assumed he would always be strong.

            According to Rick Warren, “Nobody ever plans to be a failure. It just comes on gradually. Nobody says, ‘I’m going to be a drug addict’ or ‘I want break up in my marriage’ or ‘I think I’ll destroy my health’. But it starts with one little thing and builds and builds until the point that one day we wake up and say, “What had happened? This isn’t living for God.””

            Like Samson, we can see many people as examples for carelessness. Daughter of Jacob, Dinah was very careless, and she went outside and was raped by somebody. King Solomon was also careless about his marriage. He married 700 king’s daughters and kept 300 concubines. Because of them, he was turned to the idols in his old age.

            Now the city Sodom was unconcerned and careless about anything and they were living in the same situation. Even Lot may have warned them many times but there is of no use.

Conclusion:

Therefore, the prophet Ezekiel revealed the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah which became a way for their destruction from God. But God saved Lot from that city as Peter told in his epistle. The three main sins of Sodom and Gomorrah are the main sins of this present world.

Our Lord declared about His coming as the days of present generation will be the days of Lot (Luke 17:28). If we see today’s generation, these three main sins are clearly being seen everywhere. This is the sign of His coming! Let’s Prepare ourselves and be ready for His coming! And don’t involve in these types of sins.

Let us repent and come Back to God by doing so! May God bless You all!