Scripture Reading: Genesis 18:16-19:38
Sermon Title: Is God a Moral Monster?
Questions concerning the text:
1) This is the most detailed account of a particular day in Abraham’s life. Why? Our lengthy Scripture reading covered a 24-hour period in the life of Abraham. Why all the details?
Answer:
There are 27 references outside of Genesis where Sodom is mentioned. It is emblematic of gross immorality, deepest depravity, great mercy and ultimate judgment.
2) Is God a moral monster? Doesn’t it seem a little drastic to blow up a city with women and children? Explain: New Atheism
Answer:
a) God judged Sodom and Gomorrah because He is a just and good God.
God judged them because of their consistent (2 Peter 2:8) choice to sin. Genesis 18:20 says, "And the Lord said, 'The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave.'" Not even ten righteous people could be found in the city.
"I used to think that wrath was unworthy of God. Isn't God love? Shouldn't divine love be beyond wrath? My last resistance to the idea of God's wrath was a casualty of war in the former Yugoslavia, the region from which I come. According to some estimates, 200,000 people were killed and 3,000,000 were displaced. My villages and cities were destroyed, and my people brutalized beyond imagination - and I could not imagine God not being angry. Was God to refuse to condemn the bloodbath but instead affirm the perpetrators' basic goodness and treat them in a grandfatherly fashion? God is fiercely angry with sin because He loves people. God isn't wrathful in spite of being love. God is wrathful because God is love" (Yale theologian Miroslav Volf).
b) God judged Sodom and Gomorrah because He is a loving and merciful God.
- God was merciful for 120 years before the flood; for 430 with the Amorites (Genesis 15:16).
- God has been warning man by Sodom and Gomorrah’s example for thousands of years.
- God was merciful to Sodom in Genesis 14. Think of what the King of Sodom witnessed when Abraham met Melchizedek in the Valley.
- God was merciful towards them in conversing with Abraham (Genesis 18:22-33).
- God allowed Lots presence in Sodom for many years.
- God was merciful towards them through the protection and extraction of Lot (Genesis 19). God hindered them from sinning while protecting Lot, yet they persisted. He does the same today in using the legislative system to protect society. God also hinders man through conscience (Romans 2:1), yet man suppresses the truth (Romans 1).
- God’s judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah is a manifestation of God’s mercy towards us (Jude 3-7; 2 Peter 2:1-10).
c) When referencing Sodom and Gomorrah in the New Testament, “sensuality” is highlighted (Jude 3-7; 2 Peter 2:1-10). Another word for sensuality is perdition, waste, and destruction. How do we see this in our culture: laziness; overeating; over-spending; complaining; discontentment; misuse of sex.
We know the men of Sodom and Gomorrah were homosexual, "both young and old, all the people from every quarter" (19:6), to the point of disregarding available women (19:5-8). After they were struck sightless they still persisted (19:11). These men were totally given over to an overwhelming passion that did not abate even when they were supernaturally blinded by angels.
One commentator suggests, “Moses spoke clearly here in Genesis. The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were guilty of many things, but foremost among them was the sin of homosexuality” (Gregory Koukl). I disagree. There is no “foremost” sin. However, certain sins further evidence the degradation of the heart. The physical groping around (Genesis 19:11) in darkness perfectly illustrated their spiritual condition (Romans 1:18-2:1).
d) God pleas; Jesus pleas; the redeemed plea.
“In interceding for Sodom, Abraham is portrayed as fulfilling a role particularly associated with prophets. We have already noted verbal links with Moses’ great intercession in Exodus 32-34. Samuel (1 Samuel 12:23), Amos (7:1-9), and Jeremiah (Jeremiah 14-15) also pleaded with God on the nation’s behalf (Gordon Wenham).
- Jesus cried out in Luke 15 and Matthew 23.
- God pleas through creation, sending Jesus, creating the conscience, legislation, consequence, the preservation of His Word.
Homosexuality was not the “chief sin” amongst the people.
- Notice the final statement by Paul in Romans 1:28-32 and compare with Ezekiel 16:49-50.
- “Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed them when I saw it” (Ezekiel 16:49-50).
3) Can I live like Lot and be saved? “Can I live like Lot and be saved?” is not a good question. The correct question is: Why would I want to live like Lot?
Scott Lindsay’s illustration of demotivational posters (sarcastic):
- Procrastination: Hard work often pays off over time, but laziness always pays off now.
- Motivation (the ocean): If a pretty poster and a cute saying are all it takes to motivate you, you probably have a very easy job.
- Wealth: All I ask is for a chance to prove that money can’t buy happiness.
- The Secret to Success: What is the Secret? Pretend You've Already Achieved it – then offer to sell the secret to others.
- Picture of the Titanic “Mistakes” – “It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others.”
Answer:
a) Remember, we have heard about a grand total of two days in Lot's life from the Scriptures.
b) It cost Lot his legacy. Read Genesis 19:37-38
Lot lost his marriage; Lot lost his children; Lot lost his heritage; Lot lost his dignity; Lot lost his stuff. “However, they would not listen, but they did according to their former manner. So these nations feared the LORD and also served their carved images. Their children did likewise, and their children’s children – as their fathers did, so they do to this day” (2 Kings 17:40-41).
Lot allowed his children to live in the midst of sexual immorality. Therefore, Lot’s children practiced sexual immorality. As Lot’s children tempted him in sexual sin, the Moabites did likewise to Israel (Numbers 25). Contrast Lot’s children and legacy with God’s plan for Abraham in Genesis 18:17-19.
c) Lot was drained financially? “From the field, to the gate, to the cave.” “Lot’s cave is a bitter sequel to the house which had dwarfed his uncle’s tent, and the little trio is pathetic after the teeming crowd of 13:5. The end of choosing to carve out his career was to lose even the custody of his body. His legacy, Moab and Ammon, was destined to provide the worst carnal seduction in the history of Israel (Numbers 25) and the cruelest religious perversion (Leviticus 18:21). So much stemmed from a self-regarding choice and persistence in it” (Derek Kinder Genesis).
d) What did Lot lose in eternity (Matthew 25:14-30)?
e) More sin has been committed because of one righteous man’s genealogy (Moabites and Ammonites) than all of the sin committed by the people in Sodom and Gomorrah. Would you be okay going to Heaven knowing that is what you left behind?
4) What can I learn about Jesus from this story?
Answer:
a) Without Jesus, you are Sodom and Gomorrah. Read Isaiah 1:1-20**
b) Although Lot’s wife was moving in the right direction, she shows us that Christ looks at the heart. Do you want Christ or do you long for sin and fear judgment? Are you on your island of sin with Christ tied up as your escape boat? See Luke 17:20-37.
c) Ruth the Moabite became an Israelite (Ruth 1:4; Matthew 1:5).
d) God’s plan involves mysterious messiness (Paul Copan).
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