{"id":35465,"date":"2014-05-27T04:00:02","date_gmt":"2014-05-27T12:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/?p=35465"},"modified":"2014-05-27T14:33:38","modified_gmt":"2014-05-27T22:33:38","slug":"sodom-and-gomorrah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/sodom-and-gomorrah\/","title":{"rendered":"The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah"},"content":{"rendered":"
The events surrounding the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah are well known.<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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).<\/p>\n
Genesis 19 shows some of the depths of depravity to which Sodom had sunk.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s house, demanding that he send the visitors out so they can rape them.<\/p>\n
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).<\/p>\n
The visitors strike the crowd with blindness, and tell Lot to flee the city with his family because \u201cthe Lord has sent us to destroy it\u201d (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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
And yet, just as with Genesis 6\u20138<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n 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, \u201cMy nephew, Lot, lives there. I doubt that even he is righteous, but I love him. Would you spare the city just for him?\u201d Regardless, these are questions with no answers, for they were questions that were not asked.<\/p>\n However, the deeper question from this intercession of Abraham relates to how<\/em> God would have spared the city if He had <\/em>found ten righteous people dwelling within. <\/p>\n