Sodom's Downfall: Uncovering the True Sins of the City

Show Notes

Episode 434: 
In this enlightening episode, we explored the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, starting with the visit of the angels to Abraham and Sarah. The conversation between Abraham and the Lord about the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah showcased God's patience and mercy, as Abraham pleaded for the righteous in the city.

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You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome back to the Bible Guys. And if you listened yesterday, we was a cliffhanger. We made a decision. I wonder what's gonna happen. We're gonna read what story? What? What? What? What? They're gonna have to listen later, stay with us after this segment. Oh this is good. I know. Yes, it's a mystery. Yes, So before we dive into that, Yes, I'm going to read off several movie quotes. Yes, this is and we're going to see how fast Chris can name the movie it's from. This is the movie quote Race. I was just telling you in the last movie quote Race, we had a couple of fans who beat you. Yes, well you're you're assuming, Well they're they're messages on YouTube. So you'd have to call your listeners liars. Oh really yeah, okay liars because because you had a couple of them. I remember last time where you were slow to answer and we had a couple of people who got the one you missed and they were ahead of you. Yeah. Oh wow, okay, so all right. Well, hey, by the way, I always feel pressure on these, but uh, not as much pressure as missing Bible. Yes, I know that one's way worse, way worse, or when it's like is this a Justin Bieber song or a Bible verse? Right? Like, come on, yeah, I get off easy because of my extensive knowledge of movies. Yes, and I get off easy on the Bible stuff for the same reason I my extensive Bible knowledge. We just established that you didn't get off easy because you have more pressure. Come on, Jack, but I got the answer to stick with the illustration the joke. Yeah, more pressure for you? Is I think you were imagining extraordinary? No, I'm joking. It is hard. Okay, here we go, ready, So, Desiree says, and I need you to weigh in on this one, Chris, Yes, Desiree says. The listeners will get one thousand points for every quote they beat you on. Okay, let me here's my way in. That's what I suggested, and you scoffed at me. Well, a thousand points seems really lame. Yeah, okay, all right, well we're gonna make it fifteen hundred, fifteen hundred. I was gonna say, how about fifty thousand points? Wow, fifty thousand points not as much as your game on Monday. Well, my game was Bible verses. This is just movies. Okay, yeah, okay, fifty thousands sound good. Okay, so if they beat you, they get fifty thousand points. Okay, Okay, here we go, per question. Here we go number one. Yes, do these smiles seem fake? It doesn't matter where they come from? Great showing. Okay, the joy is real. The joy is real. He's talking to the critic right outside, right outside. So in the middle of that one, there's potentially somebody could have gotten one. What are you talking about? I said it so fast in the middle, I said, do these smiles seem fake? It doesn't matter where, And that's when you said it. So somebody got the answered before twice. Okay, yeah, I got all way through. Does the do these smiles seem fake? Where you say? Greatest Showman? Come on man? Did okay? Snakes? Why did they have to be now? Temple Raiss that's the correct answer. I can't believe I tried to say Temple of do almostaid. Yeah. Indiana Jones, Okay, life finds a way. Jurassic park. Good one. See you left the room the door open just a little bit. Uh, go ahead, make my day. It's an impact. Okay, that was easy, so as life as finds a way, so those are easy after all. Tomorrow was another day. Oh, tomorrow is another day. One of the most famous movies in the history of cinema, Shawshank Redemption. Well, let's go for history. Historically one of the greatest movies ever, according to the Oscar lists of greatest movies ever, Gone with the Wind. There you go, it is Gone with the Wind. Take a minute. Hey, you know somebody just got fifty thousand points out of that one. Yeah, probably the third of our listeners. Here we go. Well, by the way, I didn't like Gone with the Wind, and I honestly only saw it once and I was glad to be done with it, and I really didn't love it. And I certainly don't remember that line. Okay, Well, there you go, my precious Lord of the Rings. But there's three Lord of the Rings. I don't even know the titles. Okay, I don't know that I can give you that. Well wait a minute, Well, if you're gonna those are those are three seconds Lord of the Rings. The Journey of the Ring. What is it? Okay, so we're just going to say the Two Towers? That was it? Yep, the two Towers, Yep, two towers. And then number seven there's a snake in my boot toy story. Yeah, so we get through the cartoons were around that. So two movies you didn't care for were the two that you missed? Correct, Right, so you didn't care for Gone with the Wind and then right, well not a big out of all fairness I did get Then you knew that it was The Lord of the Rings. Yes, I got that very quickly. Yeah. Yeah, so we'll get it and go them. I like that, right, We're going to give you twenty five thousand points. Oh thanks, Jeff, okay, appreciate. Well, I think there's a very high likelihood that we have somebody out there that has one hundred and fifty thousand points on you. You think, so, yeah, yeah, we could have somebody three hundred fifty thousand points ahead of you. Well, every one of them had a little bit of a pause. Okay, fine, but so but you know, people probably beat you on Monday and your bobble Verstu. I bet they didn't. We'll find out. We will find out. Okay. Okay, So we had a big decision to make yes, and now we're going to get in trouble with Desiree because we have called the Audible and we're telling the story of Sodom and goodmorrow. Okay, there you go. So we were supposed to jump after these angels visit Abraham and Sarah. We were supposed to jump onto Isaac's birth, Yes, which is really the more important story. But this is really significant, and so we thought, hey, well we'll take a moment, yes, and not today, We'll do this one. So I'm not going to read the whole thing. You can find all of this story in Genesis chapter eighteen and in Genesis chapter nineteen. I'm just not going to read all, you know, fifty verses or whatever it is. Okay, So we'll start it and then we'll summarize the end. Here's what it says. Then, remember Abraham and Sarah feed these three guys, right, and they say, you're going to have a baby. Is anything too hard for the Lord? Then the Bible says in verse sixteen of chapter eighteen of Genesis, Then the men got up from their meal and looked out towards Sodom, and as they left, Abraham went with them to send them on their way. Should I hide my plan from Abraham? The Lord asked, For Abraham will certainly become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth be blessed through him. I have singled him out so that he will direct his sons and their families to keep away of the Lord by doing what is right and just. And then I will do for Abraham all that I have promised. So, the Lord told Abraham, I have heard a great outcry from Sodom and Gomora because their sin is so flagrant. I'm going down to see if their actions are as wicked as I have heard. If not, I want to know. The other men turned and headed towards Sodom, but the Lord remained with Abraham. Abraham approached him and said, will you sweep away both the righteous and the wicked? Suppose you find fifty righteous people living there in the city, will you still sweep it away and not spare it for their sakes? Surely you wouldn't do such a thing, destroying the righteous along with the wicked. Why would you be treating the righteous and the wicked exactly the same. Surely you wouldn't do that, should not the judge of all the earth do what is right? And the Lord replied, if I find fifty righteous people in Sodom, I'll spare the entire city for their sake. The Neighbraham spoke again. Since I've begun, let me speak further to my lord, even though I'm but dust and ashes. Suppose there are only forty five righteous people rather than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five? Lord said, I will not destroy it if I find forty five righteous people there. The ne Abraham pressed his request further. Suppose there are only forty. The Lord replied, I'll not destroy it for sake of forty. Please don't be angry, my lord. Abraham plead, let me speak again. Suppose only thirty righteous people are found. The Lord replied, I will not destroy it if I find thirty. Then Abraham said, since I've dared to speak to the Lord, let me continue. Suppose there are only twenty, and the Lord replied, then I will not destroy it for the sake of twenty. Finally, Abraham said, Lord, please do not be angry if I speak one more time. Suppose only ten are found there. The Lord replied, then I will not destroy it for the sake of ten. When the Lord had finished his conversation with Abraham, he went on his way and Ebb Abraham returned to his tent. And then the Bible says that those two angels went down to the entrance to city of Sodom. A Lot, a Lot was sitting there, right and and and so the end of the story is they did not find one righteous person in Sodom. Right, a Lot he lived inside them. He was in Yeah, him and his two daughters and his wife. His two daughters were engaged. So so let's let's let's cover that part of it real quick. Oh yeah, Abraham's I was thinking of the verse that said when it when he pitched his tent towards Sodom, that's when they split up, right, That's right, that's so. So that's what I was getting to say. So we've referenced a Lot one time, but only briefly. So Lot is Abraham's nephew. They and there's many other stories in Genesis we haven't covered about Abraham and Lot. They became extremely profitable, they became extraordinarily wealthy, and to the point where Lots, sheep and goats and cattle and camels were. Their shepherds were butting up against Abraham's sheep and camels and all that, and they were starting to have trouble, and so it was just too big of an operation, too hard, And so Abraham standing God had already said, Abraham, every place that your foot falls, I'm going to give to you in the land of Canaan. And so Abraham turns to a Lot and said, hey, it's all mine, but wherever you want to go, you go that way. I'll go the opposite direction, which is incredibly generous. And so the Bible says that Lot looked towards the area of Sodom Macgamore and realized that that's really it was a well watered plane, that Sodom Gomore. And the Bible says he pitched his tent towards Sodom. Sodom was a wicked city, but he just started moving in that direction. The next time we come across Lot is in verse nineteen, I mean, chapter nineteen, verse one, and it says Lot was sitting at the gates. He was the leader in Sodom at that point, right, So he started he just pitched his tenth that direction. Next thing, he's living there, and which happens. You know, as soon as you start paying attention to things, you tend to gravitate that way. You ever watch a kid ride in a bicycle when he's first learned to how to ride a bicycle, right, and all of a sudden he sees the mailbox and goes right at the mailbox, He sees the back end of your car, goes right at the back of the car. You tend to go the direction that you're looking. And that's what happened is Sodom started looking at a lot, started looking that way, and went there. So anyways, so lot is there, and this is Abraham's concern for Sodom, going, hey, wait a minute, lots there. He's a righteous man, his wife, his daughter's two daughters, and the Bible says that they were engaged. So there's six surely, and all the time that lot's been there, maybe he got four more people to follow God. And so he stops at ten. Too bad. If he'd stopped at five, maybe God went to destroy side him and go more at all. Right, Yeah, that's interesting, and you know it's it's just a tremendous conversation. And when you find yourself reading through this chapter, chapter eighteen, you may have a tendency to think that this is tedious. You know, he starts with fifty and goes down only five to forty five, then down to thirty, and then down to twenty there and you're like, why in the world would they continue to have this conversation? But you know, it does demonstrate a lot about the character and nature of God, doesn't it About God's patience, about God's love, about you know, God's unwillingness that any should perish, right, and so God is, you know, just he's tested because anybody who tests you, you know, like this, it reminds me of that. Everything reminds me of something in a movie or a scoon. But do you ever see the episode of the Office where Jim was saying to Dwight, do you think the apocalypse could happen in a week? And he'd say yeah, he'd say what about a month? He'd say, yeah, do you remember that? And he'd say, okay, how about this, hang on to your hat six months. He's like, yeah, I think that's a reasonable time, and he's like one year. And then Finally, Pam just gets up and walks off because they know that He's just going to continue on and Dwight's just going to continue to answer the questions. And that's exactly what this reminds me of, because it's like, it's like he just continues to just press and press and press and press, and yet God doesn't. It doesn't say that God was angry. He said, please, don't be angry for me asking, But he doesn't say that God, you know, expressed any type of frustration. He just simply said, I will not if there is righteous people there. So God's you know, God's even in the Old Testament, you know, when they when it's the God of wrath, God, God, he expressed his wrath towards sin. And yet even even that God, because after all, God still feels the way about sin that he did in the Old Testament today. But the massive difference is God's reaction to sin is massively different because of Jesus Christ. Right, So God's reaction to our wrath on Christ. So nothing changed. Yes, yes, so now currently in our day and age, God's response to our sin is what I was trying to say, is God's response to our sin is radically different. Then let's just say, like Abraham or Lots or the soughtes in the city because for those that are in Christ, for those that are in Christ, because Jesus paid it all. That's correct. Yeah, So anyway, even but even the God who who immediately executed judgment for sin is completely demonstrating his mercy and patience. Yeah, and so this demonstrates so many things. One, nothing's off the table with regard to what we can talk to God about. That's a really good pride right there. Yeah. So, and God was extraordinarily patient. So the question would be was God changing his mind, I'm going to destroy the place or was it that God was changing Abraham's mind. There's a little bit of that. Had Abraham gone down to five, would God have held his hand back? We don't know, right, because Abraham didn't go to that point. Did God and his feur knowledge know that Abraham wouldn't go there and there wasn't ten righteous people? But the Bible does say that this is Jesus right, This is a Jesus moment that he keeps calling him the Lord and the Lord, the one who said, I'm disgusted by their wickedness. I'm going to go check it out for myself and I'm going to wipe them out. So anyways, the two angels, we don't read this part, but in chapter nineteen, these the two angels that had left Jesus. They get down there ahead of time. They find Lots sitting at the gates and Lot takes them home, and Lot goes, well, it's getting dark, and this isn't a good city to be out on the streets and dark as a strange man in town. Well, then the men of the city show up, start beating on Lot's door and say, hey, send those two new guys out. We want to have sex with them. That's literally what the Bible says, right, And they start beating the door and Lot, crazy, Lot in this moment, is so concerned for these two angels that he says, no, no, no, I'll send my daughters out to you. They're virgins, Which is how twisted is a Lot at this point, He's twisted. Where he used to have the values of his uncle Abraham, now he's sitting in the gates as a person of authority in Sodom, and he's adopted their worldview, you know, the lack of value and a human. And so he's willing to give his daughters to these wicked men. But they don't want them, they say, instead they want the angels. He gives those two those what they perceived as men, right, most likely right and and uh and and you know, it's it's crazy to read a couple of sentences and try to imagine ourselves there. Maybe Lot was trying to justify saying I will do whatever it takes as long as this atrocity does not take place. You just can't have these men. Maybe he feared He's like, hey, I know these men. You know they're they're busting down the door. This is going to happen, right, this is going to happen, and this is this is going to be the end of me if this happens. So he offers the most atrocious thing, right, He's like, I'll do whatever it takes. I'm sure he didn't want to do it, but you're right, I mean the idea that he would say it. Yeah, I'd rather just say, yeah, Lord, save me, kill us all, or kill us all, kill us all, whatever whatever you're going to do. But no, I'm not going to do this. And instead, so the angels then go stand back right, and they reached out, they pulled Lot in the house, they bowed the door. They blind all the men. So now the men can't find their way. They stumble around, and they finally leave. That's what the angels do. And so then the angels turn around a Lot and say, hey, do you have any other relatives here? Do you have any sons and daughters? Do you have any sons in laws? Listen, here's what the city's going to be destroyed. You need to go get all of your family because you're the only righteous people in the city. Go get all of your family. And righteous is not good people. A Lot wasn't a good guy at this point, but he was faithful to God. He had faith in the one God, right, the Creator, and so he said, we're about to destroy the city completely. And then it literally says the outcry against this place is so great it has reached the Lord, and he sent us to destroy it. So Lot rushes out to tell his daughter's fiancees, hey, hurry up, let's get out of the city. But they thought he was joking. And then the angel comes and says, Okay, come on, you guys. Go Lot his wife and his two daughters, that's all. Even their boyfriends won't come, their fiancees, nobody else to come with them. And the angels say, when we go out of the city, don't look back, and of course Lot's wife does, so yeah, and then she she turns into a pillar of salt, which, by the way, that's an interesting choice by God. Yeah, right, so she don't look back, she does, what are we gonna do, Well, let's turn into a pillar of salt. So she does. And and many people probably this is a side total, total sidebar here, complete departure. But I bet you there's probably a ton of people that don't realize that the word sodomy cap comes from this story, from this behavior. Yeah, this behavior. Yeah, the idea of, you know, bring the men out so we can have sex with them, that whole action was defined by this story right here, right, So she turns into a pillar of salt, and uh, and I can't even imagine, Uh, you know how a Lot must have felt, right, because you know, one one act of disobedience, you know, is it's a pretty harsh judgment. And you know, how am I supposed to say this? It seems like to me that's an overreaction for disobedience. But then again, if you put yourself in the situation, God has already shown this unbelievable act of mercy by sending angels to say, the entire city is being destroyed. You shouldn't be here. You know you're being corrupted by it. But we have gone out of our way to spare you, and we are giving you this way out. So therefore it's it's kind of like the commandment don't eat of the tree in the in the in the in the middle of the garden, right, do not do this one thing, do not look back. And so you would think that they would just be able to, in their unbelievable gratitude, be able to do that. And I wonder if I wonder if that's symbolic of like looking back on not rejecting sin yeap, or not rejecting things that are bad for you, or still wanting or missing you know, the things that you used to do kind of thing, the good old days, the good old days. There's a sermon in there somewhere absolutely well. So the Bible said that God was having mercy. Abraham had asked God to have mercy on Lot and on the righteous in the city and so God was giving the the angels gave Lot the ability or the opportunity to go and try to rescue anybody who might be righteous. Are your sons in laws? Are your Do you have any sons here? Or anybody? And so Lot his wife, his two daughters. That's it. There's only four of them. After all that time, there's only four. What a waste. That's such a shame. He didn't go. And when Christians enter into our followers, or God enter into the places of darkness, we should be transforming those places. Our presence doesn't do that. It's the word of God and the power of God demonstrated that make changes right in dark places. But Abraham, but Lot and his family adopted the culture. So they were the only righteous ones. They were the only ones following God. But she looked back, which kind of shows where her heart was. And I think in that instance, and her heart was not with the place God was taking her too and with God. Instead, her heart was still with where she had been right. And so there's a note here about this, and it says life Lot's wife turned back to look at the smoldering city of Sodom, clinging to the past. She was unwilling to turn completely away. Are you looking back longingly at sin while trying to move forward with God? You can't make progress with God as long as you're holding on to pieces of your old life. Jesus said it this way in Matthew six twenty four. No one can serve two masters, right, That's it. So it showed that she wasn't righteous a lot his two daughters were. She was not right, right, that was the issue, and it caused horrible destruction. Let me say this though, because people are going to want to go jump on this and go, oh, it was the sodomy that wiped them out. That was the sin, right, It was one of the sins. But did you know And I was going to ask you this, but I'm not going to put you on the hook. Do you know what the sins of sodom war according to the Bible? The sins of sodom according to the Bible? No, yeah, so you have this. Here's what it says in Ezekiel. In Ezekiel chapter sixteen, verse forty nine, it says sodom sins were pride, gluttony, and laziness, while the poor and needy suffered outside her door. She was proud and committed detestable sins. So I wiped her out as you've seen. So the detestable sins would be the sodomy, right, But he names that last right and says it's pride, gluttony, laziness, and not taking care of the poor and needy. Isn't that amazing? So was that your goal to stump the Bible? Guys? Yeah, I didn't want to. I didn't want to to put you on on the thing that I was amazed by that because I always was under the impression it was only the homosexual practices. Yeah, you know, it wasn't. It was this whole culture of self centeredness, ignoring the poor, just pleasuring myself. It was. It was. It was the modern version of Vegas, essentially, right, pure pleasure and hedonism, no attention to the things that really matter in life, and so that eventually spirals down into you know, finally these detestable acts. Is the book of Ezekiels. Yeah, you know, now that you mentioned it, I'm not sure I could have picked out Ezekiel as that passage. Now that you mentioned it, as soon as you said, like, you know, the sins, I'm thinking, wait a minute, I've recently read through Genesis, and I'm thinking they don't list any other sins. Yeah, but then to be an Ezekiel, Oh yeah, I think I now remember that. In Bible college, I remember one of my professors talking about that stumping stumping the class. Yeah right, and uh and I think that there were a bunch of pastors kids in that class and they got it, you know. But I remember thinking that the first time. I so, I had never seen that until the first time I read through Ezekiel, probably I don't know, thirty years ago. I was like what because I thought I knew, you know, I was so judgmental towards one certain behavior. Yeah, and God had all these reasons. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah, well, hey that is that is a great topic. I am really glad we included that, aren't you. Yeah, it's great. Yep, I'm glad we I hate that it happened, but I think it's an important event that we need to correct, right. Yeah, okay, So hopefully we'll see you next time on the Bible. Guys,