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[#07] Genesis 1:9 – Let the Waters Be Gathered Together

By Jeremy Myers
1 Comment

[#07] Genesis 1:9 – Let the Waters Be Gathered Together
https://media.blubrry.com/one_verse/traffic.libsyn.com/redeeminggod/07_Genesis_1_9.mp3

One Verse PodcastHave you ever realized that in Genesis 1, God doesn’t actually create dry ground? Instead, He simply pushes back the waters so that the dry ground appears.

Have you ever tried to push back water so that you create a little space of dry ground in the midst of the water? It’s pretty much impossible, isn’t it? Yet we see God doing this in Genesis 1:9, the text we are looking at today, and we are going to see why Moses wrote about the water and the dry ground this way.

We will see that just as with every other verse in the creation account, Moses is making a theological point that his Hebrew audience would have recognized and understood.

And when we see his point, we will also see what Moses was teaching about sacred spaces, religious spaces, or holy ground. If you think that God is more present in your church building, or on top of some sacred mountain, or in a special prayer sanctuary, you will want to listen to today’s episode and listen to what Moses has to say about these sorts of places.

Genesis 1:9

The Text of Genesis 1:9

Genesis 1:9. Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear’; and it was so.

In this discussion of Genesis 1:9 we look at:

  • What it means for God to push back the waters instead of raising up the land.
  • The Egyptians creation myth about Atum and the creation of land.
  • Why it is theologically important that God did raise up the land.
  • What Genesis 1:9 teaches us about sacred places and holy mountains.

Resources for Genesis 1:9:

  • Logos Bible Software
  • Sailhamer on Genesis – Amazon or CBD
  • Keil & Delitzsch on Genesis – Amazon or CBD
  • Gibson on Genesis – Amazon or CBD
  • Walton, Ancient Israelite Literature – Amazon
  • Subscribe and Leave a Review on iTunes

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God is Redeeming God, Redeeming Scripture Bible & Theology Topics: creation, Genesis 19, podcast, the waters

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Seeing Jesus in Sodom

By Jeremy Myers
12 Comments

Seeing Jesus in Sodom

Yesterday, we briefly looked at an alternative way of reading the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19 which showed that God did not destroy these cities, but worked to rescue and redeem people from the destruction that these cities had brought upon themselves.

I concluded that post by saying that there were various texts in Scripture which supported this perspective so that the God revealed in Jesus Christ is also the God revealed in the events surrounding the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

In this post we look at some of these other texts, and in so doing, can hopefully see Jesus in Genesis 19.

Sodom and Gomorrah

God’s Compassion for Sodom and Gomorrah

It is first important to notice that Sodom and Gomorrah were not the only cities which were destroyed. Genesis 14:2, 8 lists the names of five cities of the plain. The five cities are Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar. Genesis 19:25 indicates that the entire plain was to be destroyed, and everything that lived upon it, including plants. This would have meant that all five cities were to be destroyed; not just Sodom and Gomorrah.

Yet when Lot begs leave to flee to Zoar instead of to the mountains, he is given permission and is told that Zoar will not be destroyed (Genesis 19:19-21). So already we see that because God knew of Abraham’s love for Lot, God had decided to rescue Lot from Sodom, and when Lot fled to Zoar, the people of Zoar were spared as well. So when Moses records the cities that were destroyed by fire and brimstone in Deuteronomy 29:23, only the four cities of the plain are mentioned: Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim.

This is important because the destruction of Admah and Zeboiim are mentioned elsewhere in Scripture. In Hosea 11:8, God says this:

How can I give you up Ephraim?
How can I hand you over, Israel?
How can I make you like Admah?
How can I set you like Zeboiim?
My heart churns within Me.
My sympathy is stirred.

Surprisingly, the one emotional trait which seems to be present in Hosea 11:8 is compassion. God does not want Ephraim and Israel to become like Admah and Zeboiim. It seems obvious from this text that God does not desire the destruction of the wicked, and He takes no delight in their destruction.

Due to the parallelism in Hosea 11:8, it seems that God is saying this is how He felt about Admah and Zeboiim as well. He did not seek or desire their destruction, but destruction came upon them nonetheless. If God had sympathy for the people of Admah and Zeboiim the way He had sympathy for the people of Ephraim and Israel, then God is starting to look a little bit more like Jesus, for a sympathetic God does not destroy people with fire and brimstone, but seeks to rescue them instead. But the people of the plain would not be rescued, and destruction fell upon them.

Sodom and Gomorrah were Handed Over to Destruction

Sodom and GomorrahBut even more importantly, we must take note of the verbs God uses in Hosea 11:8 to describe what might happen to Ephraim and Israel if they do not turn from their ways. God says that they would be given up and handed over, just like Admah and Zeboiim. God says, “How can I give you up? … How can I hand you over?” It seems that according to Hosea 11:8, the destruction that came upon the four cities in the plain was not directly by the hand of God, but was because the people departed from the protective hand of God, and brought their destruction upon themselves.

They had been given up and handed over to destruction, but despite what Genesis 19 indicates, Hosea 11 implies that the destruction on these cities did not come from the hand of God, but came from their departure from His hand.

No writer could more poignantly portray God’s distress at the thought of “handing over” or “giving up” the nation to destruction, as He would one day deliver up the Sin-bearer to redeem a lost race. He compares such a prospect to the time He gave up and handed over Admah and Zeboiim (Marilyn Madison Campbell, Light through the Darkness: A Vindication of God, 79).

This way of thinking about the destruction of the cities on the plain is seen elsewhere as well. Isaiah 3:8-9 says this:

For Jerusalem stumbled, and Judah is fallen …
They declare their sin as Sodom; they do not hide it.
Woe to their soul!
For they have brought evil upon themselves.

Once again, the impending judgment upon Judah is compared to what happened with Sodom. Through the pen of Isaiah, God does not say that He will destroy Judah as He destroyed Sodom, but rather that they will have brought this evil upon themselves. And this is exactly what happened, for Isaiah later says that God “removed the protection from Judah” (Isaiah 22:8). God did not bring the destruction upon Judah, but removed the protection from Judah when they departed from His protective hand.

Sodom in Romans 1

The perspective presented in Hosea and Isaiah is echoed by Paul in Romans 1. When Paul writes about the wrath of God that came upon people in the past who committed sins similar to those of Sodom, Paul says that God “gave them up” and “gave them over” to their sin (Romans 1:24, 26, 28).

This sort of terminology is how Paul defines the wrath of God and His divine judgment. God’s wrath is not His active punishment of sin, but rather, Him passively allowing rebellious people to follow where their sin leads and face the consequences of distancing themselves from Him.

Sodom in Jude 7

Finally, there is the reference in Jude 7 where we are told that Sodom, Gomorrah, and the surround cities suffered eternal fire because they had “given themselves over” to sin. It seems even that Jude, the half-brother of Jesus, wanted to clarify about the nature and source of the fiery and eternal destruction that fell upon Sodom and Gomorrah. Why did the fire fall? Because the people had given themselves over to sin.

Here is not even that God had given them over, but that the people had given themselves over. This is a classic example of a verse which shows that sin cannibalizes itself. When we persist in willful and rebellious straying from God and His ways, we invite the consequences of our sin down upon our own heads, so that eventually, the sin we consistently live within eventually falls upon our heads and consumes us. This is what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah according to Jude.

Sodom, Gomorrah, and Jesus

So what can we say about Sodom and Gomorrah, and especially the way the text reads in Genesis 19? It seems that when the whole counsel of Scripture is considered, God’s activity in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah amounted to simply allowing them to suffer the consequences of their own sinful rebellion, while taking what steps He could to warn, rescue, and deliver as many people as possible from the fire and brimstone.

Though Genesis 19 indicates that God sent the fire and brimstone, later revelation reveals that God gave the cities up to destruction, and handed them over to the consequences of their ways. So in this way, Genesis 19 reveals God once again taking the blame for that which He does not prevent (Marilyn Madison Campbell, Light through the Darkness: A Vindication of God, 82).

Though their sin was not His fault, and though the destruction that came upon the cities was the natural consequence for their rebellion, when God handed them over to destruction, He inspired to the biblical author to state that He Himself was sending the destruction. God takes the blame and bears the guilt for a terrible event in human history which was carried out “on His watch.”

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Genesis 19, Jude 7, looks like Jesus, Romans 1, Sodom and Gomorrah, violence of God, When God Pled Guilty

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The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah

By Jeremy Myers
25 Comments

The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah

The events surrounding the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah are well known.

The Plan to Destroy Sodom and Gomorrah

In Genesis 18:16-21, God informs Abraham that a great outcry against the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah had come up before Him, and so He was going to destroy the cities if they were as wicked as He had heard. 

Abraham, knowing that Lot and his family lived in Sodom, pled with God to not destroy the cities if righteous people could be found within. In one of the most amazing and challenging passages about intercessionary prayer in the Bible, Abraham goes from persuading God to spare the cities if fifty righteous people are found within them, all the way down to only ten righteous people (Genesis 18:23-33).

The Depravity of Sodom and Gomorrah

Genesis 19 shows some of the depths of depravity to which Sodom had sunk.

When the messengers visit Sodom, Lot invites them to stay in his house. Such hospitality was expected at that time. That night, the men of Sodom gather at Lot’s house, demanding that he send the visitors out so they can rape them.

Lot, showing that he himself is not so righteous, offers the mob his two daughters instead, but the crowd will not be dissuaded, and demand that he hand over the two visitors or they will do worse to him (Genesis 19:9).

sodom and gomorrahThe visitors strike the crowd with blindness, and tell Lot to flee the city with his family because “the Lord has sent us to destroy it” (Genesis 19:13). Lot pled with his two sons-in-law, but they would not flee, and ultimately, Lot was forced to flee the city with only his wife and two daughters.

Behind the Scenes in the Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah

The entire account pretty clearly seems to lay the direct action of the destruction of the cities in the hands of God. Aside from the statement from the messengers that God had sent them to destroy the cities (Genesis 19:13), the text says multiple times that the Lord sent the destruction, rained down the fire and brimstone, and overthrew the cities in the plain (Genesis 19:14, 17, 21, 24, 25, 29). In light of all this, the case seems pretty cut and dry: God saw the evil; God destroyed the cities.

And yet, just as with Genesis 6–8, there are multiple hints within the text itself and in numerous related passages in the Bible that something else was going on behind the scenes.

The first hint is in the intercessionary prayer of Abraham to spare the city if righteous people lived within it. Though Abraham stopped at ten, one wonder how low God would have gone. Would God have gone to five? To one? What if Abraham had simply said, “My nephew, Lot, lives there. I doubt that even he is righteous, but I love him. Would you spare the city just for him?” Regardless, these are questions with no answers, for they were questions that were not asked.

However, the deeper question from this intercession of Abraham relates to how God would have spared the city if He had found ten righteous people dwelling within. 

If, as has been suggested by the Chaos Theory, God cannot always stop destruction when it comes, how is it that God could have stopped this destruction if He had found ten righteous people in the city? 

If God has a policy of non-intervention, if nature is out of control, if the destroyer destroys, and if sin cannibalizes itself, how could God have stepped in and stopped all this if He had found ten righteous people in the city? 

What seems most likely is that, much like the flood and due to the various elements of the Chaos Theory, God was unable to stop the destruction of Sodom, but would do everything He could to rescue and deliver people from the impending destruction.

sodom and gomorrah

Genesis 19 seems to indicate that God knew that there were not ten righteous people in the city. 

In fact, as it turned out, there was probably not even one. Neither Lot’s family nor Lot himself turned out to be righteous. 

The destruction that was coming upon Sodom and Gomorrah had been coming for a very long time, and God had been holding back this destruction, but the situation has grown so bad that the people had departed from God’s protective hand. Yet God was faithful, loving, and merciful, and did what He could to rescue as many people as possible from the fire and brimstone. When it appeared that not even Lot was going to leave the city, God almost forcibly removed Lot, his wife, and his daughters from the city as an act of pure mercy toward him (Genesis 19:16, 19). 

Though Lot and his family probably deserved to be destroyed along with everybody else, God rescued Lot and his daughters through an act of pure mercy toward Lot, and in response to the intercession of Abraham. But note that even though God tried to rescue Lot’s wife, and Lot’s two sons-in-law, they were unwilling to be rescued, and there was nothing God could do to prevent their destruction.

Even Lot himself did not want to obey the commands of God. When instructed to flee to the mountains, Lot argued, and begged instead to be allowed to flee to Zoar (Genesis 19:20). Since this was a city that would not be destroyed, God allowed Lot to go there instead (Genesis 19:21). Once again, we see God’s mercy at work in the midst of widespread destruction.

Yet where in this text do we see Jesus? 

If Genesis 19 is to be read in light of Jesus Christ on the cross, we need more evidence that God was taking the blame for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah rather than actively sending it. 

This is especially true in light of Genesis 19:24-25, 29 which specifically state that the fire and brimstone came from God, and that He “overthrew” and “destroyed” those cities, along with all the inhabitants of the plain. This is a perfect example of what we have been arguing in this book, that God takes the blame for that which He did not prevent, that God bears responsibility for evil things that occur on His watch. Rather than destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, God did what He could to rescue and deliver people from the destruction which they had brought upon themselves. 

While this way of reading the text is not blatantly obvious in Genesis 19 itself, several other texts in Scripture provide further evidence that this is the best way of understanding God’s involvement in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

We will look at these texts tomorrow.

Until then, what are your thoughts so far on this take of Sodom and Gomorrah? Does it seem too much of a stretch? Does it make sense? What objections or additional insights do you have?

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Genesis 19, Lot, Sodom and Gomorrah, violence of God, When God Pled Guilty

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