The Sin of Sodom and Gomorrah: Gen 19 + a Bunch of Prophets

1. PRAYER
Eternal God,
you are present with us
throughout our lives,
even when others plot to do us harm.
May we learn to live together in unity,
that in all we do, we may sing your praises
now and forever.
Amen.

2. the CHURCH calendar: SUNDAY, 8.13.23

3. Based on the approved budget for
2023, anticipating $250,000 in giving, we
need $20,833/month on average.
MAY offerings: $14,911-$5,922; $4,720 < ‘22
JUNE offerings: $17,594-$3,239; $3,987 > ’22
JULY offerings: $16,078-$4,755; $1,598 > ’22
-$37,948 off pace for 2023;
-$3,556 behind this time ’22 Keeps going down!
JULYGIVINGUPDATE
$

4. Genesis 19 + a bunch of other Prophets
The SIN of SODOM and GOMORRAH

7. DESTRUCTION
of
SODOM
and
GOMORRAH
by
John
Martin
(1852)

8. SODOM
and
GOMORRAH
by
Pavel
Fireman
(2014)

9. GENESIS 18:20-21, 23-24a
Then the Lord said, “The outcry against
Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and
their sin so grievous that I will go down
and see if what they have done is as bad
as the outcry that has reached me. If not,
I will know.” …Then Abraham approached
him and said: “Will you sweep away
the righteous with the wicked?
What if there are fifty righteous
people in the city?

10. GENESIS 18:24b-26
Will you really sweep it away and not spare
the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people
in it? Far be it from you to do such
a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked,
treating the righteous and the wicked alike.
Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all
the earth do right?” The Lord said, “If I find fifty
righteous people in the city of Sodom,
I will spare the whole place for their sake.”

11. GENESIS 19:4-7
Before they had gone to bed, all the men from
every part of the city of Sodom—both young and
old—surrounded the house. They called to Lot,
“Where are the men who came to you tonight?
Bring them out to us so that we can have sex
with them.” Lot went outside to meet them and
shut the door behind him and said, “No, my
friends. Don’t do this wicked thing.

12. GENESIS 19:8
Look, I have two daughters who have never slept
with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and
you can do what you like with them. But don’t do
anything to these men, for they have come under
the protection of my roof.”

13. Lot seeks to protect his guests
and does so by offering the crowd his
two virgin daughters. Lot’s offer
makes graphically clear the value
of women relative to men.
The practice of hospitality
is a practice of men protecting
men from men. Women are not
protected, and women can be the
means by which men are protected.
They are sacrificial lambs.

14. As commentators note,
(Lot’s behavior here might
be understandable) given
the practice of hospitality
in the context of patriarchy,
but it is neither excused
nor applauded. We are
right to be horrified.

15. GENESIS 19:12-13
The two men said to Lot, “Do you
have anyone else here—sons-in-law,
sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city
who belongs to you? Get them out of here,
because we are going to destroy this place. The
outcry to the Lord against its people
is so great that he has sent us to destroy it.”

16. GENESIS 19:17, 24-26
As soon as they had brought them out, one of
them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and
don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to
the mountains or you will be swept away!”… Then
the Lord rained down burning sulfur on
Sodom/Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the
heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and
the entire plain, destroying all those living in the
cities—and also the vegetation…But Lot’s wife
looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

18. GENESIS 19:36-38
So both of Lot’s daughters became
pregnant by their father. The older daughter had
a son, and she named him Moab;
he is the father of the Moabites of today.
The younger daughter also had a son,
and she named him Ben-Ammi; he is
the father of the Ammonites of today.

19. This narrative explains the
origins of the people who will
be troublesome to the Israelites
throughout their history,
and it presents them as
the result of immoral behavior
and as members of
the extended family.

20. So what was the SIN
of Sodom and Gomorrah?

21. ISAIAH 1:4, 10
Woe to the sinful nation, a people
whose guilt is great, a brood of evildoers, children
given to corruption!
They have forsaken the Lord;
they have spurned the Holy One of Israel
and turned their backs on him…
Hear the word of the LORD,
you rulers of Sodom;
listen to the instruction of our God,
you people of Gomorrah!

22. ISAIAH 1:16-17
Wash and make yourselves clean.
Take your evil deeds out of my sight;
stop doing wrong.
Learn to do right; seek justice.
Defend the oppressed.
Take up the cause of the fatherless;
plead the case of the widow.

23. ISAIAH 1:23
Your rulers are rebels,
partners with thieves;
they all love bribes
and chase after gifts.
They do not defend
the cause of the fatherless;
the widow’s case does
not come before them.

24. AMOS 4:4-5, 11
“Go to Bethel and sin; go to Gilgal
and sin yet more. Bring your sacrifices
every morning, your tithes every three years.
Burn leavened bread as a thank offering
and brag about your freewill offerings—
boast about them, you Israelites, for this
is what you love to do,” declares the
Sovereign Lord…I overthrew some
of you as I overthrew Sodom
and Gomorrah.

25. JEREMIAH 23:14
“And among the prophets of Jerusalem
I have seen something horrible:
They commit adultery and live a lie.
They strengthen the hands of evildoers,
so that not one of them turns
from their wickedness.
They are all like Sodom to me;
the people of Jerusalem
are like Gomorrah.”

26. EZEKIEL 16:49-50
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. Therefore I did away
with them as you have seen.

27. (Between 2nd – 1st century BC)
Sirach 16:8 states that God
loathed the people of Sodom
“on account of their arrogance,”
and 3 Maccabees 2:5 charges
them w/having “acted arrogantly.”
Wisdom 19:15 places greater emphasis
on a lack of hospitality, teaching that
God punished
Sodom “for having received strangers
with hostility.”

28. 2 PETER 2:7
…and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man,
who was distressed by the depraved
conduct (ESV: sensual conduct)
of the lawless…
NOTE: Peter’s language doesn’t specify
same-sex behavior, but the sexual
violence the men sought to inflict

29. JUDE 7
Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding
towns gave themselves up to sexual
immorality and perversion.
NOTE:Can also be translated as “indulged in gross
immorality and went after strange flesh.” Sarkos
heteros = “different flesh.” Jude ”indicts them for
pursuing flesh
that was too different, attempting
the rape of angels." (MatthewVines)

30. (Early Church) legend has it that
Origen, a 3rd century Christian
theologian/writer, castrated himself in
order to avoid sexual temptation.
But even he declared the sin of
Sodom to be inhospitality toward
strangers. ‘Lot escapes the
conflagration for this reason alone:
because he opened his house
to strangers.’…And Jerome lambasted
S/G for pride/gluttony…

31. So what do we make
of all this?

32. 1. Genesis 19 has nothing to do
with 21st century same sex activity
or relevance for gay marriage;
the story discusses a group of
men doing evil by attempting the
gang rape of angelic messengers
(NOTE: it also gives us powerful
insight into the reality of ANE
patriarchy’s impact on women)
MYCONVICTIONS

34. Haywood
Hansell

35. HANSELL’SCONVICTIONS
1. Victory by air was possible
2. High altitude B-29s
3. Daytime runs
4. Precision bombing to make
warfare as quick, humane,
and bloodless as possible
by targeting strategic industrial
and military choke points, not
civilian population centers

36. 1. Victory by air was possible
2. High altitude B-29s
3. Daytime runs
4. Precision bombing
The Norden
Bombsight
HANSELL’SCONVICTIONS

37. Curtis
LeMay
Haywood
Hansell
January 6, 1945

38. LeMAY’SCONVICTIONS
1. Victory by air was possible
2. Low altitude B-29s
3. Nighttime runs
4. Relentless area bombing w/napalm
(a highly flammable, sticky jelly;
gasoline thickened w/special soaps
producing hotter, more intense,
longer burning fires) to make
warfare as violent, brutal,
and quick as possible

39. Tokyo Bombing // March 10, 1945
(“Paper City”)

40. The Longest Night
of theSecondWorldWar
300 bombers,
1665 tons of napalm,
16sq miles destroyed,
glow visible from 150mi,
1 million people homeless,
100,000+ people burned alive,
impacting more people than
Hiroshima/Nagasaki combined

41. 1. Genesis 19 has nothing to do
with 21st century same sex activity
2. We need a moral vision of God
exceeding our human standards
(I.E. If we’re troubled by the human
human decision to firebomb Tokyo,
we should be all the more troubled
w/the idea of God doing the same
to Sodom and Gomorrah)
MYCONVICTIONS

42. 1. Genesis 19 has nothing to do
with 21st century same sex activity
2. We need a moral vision of God
exceeding our human standards
3. Our moral vision of God,
our assessment of ethical issues,
and our reading of scripture needs
to be based on Jesus
MYCONVICTIONS

43. LUKE 4:8-10
Again, the devil took him to a very
high mountain and showed him all the
kingdoms of the world and their splendor.
“All this I will give you,” he said,
“if you will bow down and worship me.”
Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan!
For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and
serve him only.’

44. A Prayer For The People of God
God of awe and wonder,
though your silence can burn like ice,
yet your whisper cuts through fear;
we long to hear your faithful word.
Bless us with bold belief even in the darkness
of the night and the assault of life's storms,
that we may be messengers of your justice,
on behalf of those in need, in Jesus’ name,
Amen.