The story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah shows, on the one hand, how much God hates sin and, on the other hand, his desire that we approach him for forgiveness. According to the biblical account in Genesis 18, one day three men who were actually three angels came to the tent where Abraham lived with his family. During the conversation, God reveals to Abraham his decision to destroy those two cities.
Arrival of Lot in Sodom
Why does God share his plan with Abraham? One reason may have been because his nephew Lot lived in Sodom with his family. When God called Abraham to leave his land and go to the place he would show him, Lot went with him, but since the two of them had many cattle and possessions, the land could not support them all. This created unease among those who worked for them and they had to part ways.
Abraham let Lot choose where he preferred to go and Lot decided to settle in Sodom, as it was a fertile land, pleasing to the eye and irrigated land. However, its inhabitants were wicked and committed serious sins against God. As time passed, God decided to destroy the city.
As we see in Genesis 18:20-21, God did not want to act without making sure that the inhabitants of Sodom were so bent on evil that there was no solution. He sent two angels in the form of men into the city, for he longed to find a reason not to destroy them.
God knew Abraham’s affection for Lot and his family. He knew that he would try to intercede on their behalf and the city’s behalf and he did. Abraham told God:
Are you really going to exterminate the righteous along with the wicked? Perhaps there are fifty righteous in the city. Will you exterminate them all, and will you not spare that place for the fifty righteous that are there?
(Genesis 18:23-24).
After some negotiation, God assured Abraham that he would not destroy the city if he could find ten righteous men. The sad reality is that there were not even ten righteous in the city.
The punishment
The angels came to Sodom where they met Lot. They wanted to spend the night in the square, but Lot invited them to come to his house. The rest of the people found out and a riot broke out in front of Lot’s house. The men of the town tried to take out the two visitors (angels) to sleep with them! The angels blinded all who tried to break down the gate and told Lot that he should leave the city with his family. The city would be destroyed immediately; they had verified the great perversity of its inhabitants.
Lot, his wife, and their two daughters made it out with the angels before the two cities were destroyed by God’s rain of fire and brimstone (Genesis 19:23-25). Lot was the only righteous man left in the entire city and God led the two angels to bring him to safety.
Why did God destroy the cities?
The punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah was not God’s sudden idea. Throughout the Bible we find passages that show the great moral decadence in which its inhabitants had been immersed for a long time. Let’s look at some of these passages.
- Genesis 13:10-13: Although Sodom is described here as irrigated land and a beautiful place “like the garden of the Lord”, it also speaks of the wickedness of its inhabitants and the seriousness of their sins.
- In Genesis 18:20-21 God converses with Abraham about the situation in Sodom and Gomorrah. He tells her that the fame of evil in them was such that there were people asking God to act against the people who lived there.
- Isaiah 3:8-9 mentions that the inhabitants of Sodom They neither hid nor were ashamed of their sins.. Rather they boasted and were brazen. We see that the level of immorality was such that they no longer recognized their actions against God as sin.
- In Ezekiel 16:48-50 we see God’s reasons for destroying Sodom: its pride, gluttony, apathy, indifference towards the poor and destitute. They lived for their own pleasures and disregarded the needs of those around them. They were proud, they believed themselves superior to others, and they practiced acts that were repugnant to the Lord.
- In 2 Peter 2:1-10 we see that unrepentant sin brings destruction. One of the examples given in this passage is that of Sodom and Gomorrah, two cities that God reduced to ashes as a lesson for the wicked (v.6). In contrast, he mentions Lot as an example of what happens when someone remains faithful to God: he delivered him from punishment.
- Jude 1:7 it says that Sodom and Gomorrah suffered eternal punishment for practicing (repeatedly executing) sexual immorality and vices against nature.
Was there forgiveness for Sodom and Gomorrah?
Yes! God is always with his arms open, willing to forgive those who come before him repentant. The inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah needed only to acknowledge his sin before God and ask for his forgiveness. In 1 John 1:9 it says:
If we confess our sins, God, who is faithful and just, will forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
(1 John 1:9)
The only ones who will not be forgiven are those who delight in their sin and do not recognize that they need forgiveness. When we ask God for forgiveness, whatever the sin, he forgives us and helps us live a life according to his will.
Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be fooled! Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor sodomites, nor sexual perverts, nor thieves, nor misers, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that was some of you. But they have already been washed, they have already been sanctified, they have already been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
(1 Corinthians 6:9-11)
God’s forgiveness is complete, he washes us and cleanses us from all our sins. Through the sacrifice of Jesus we are made holy, the past is erased and we become new creatures in it.
Get encouragement with these biblical examples of God’s forgiveness.
Parallelism with the end of time
The Bible mentions that at the end of time humanity will experience a great moral decadence and an increase in the inclination to sin. He gives Sodom and Gomorrah as an example and emphasizes the punishment that will come upon those who do not repent of their wickedness before God.
The same thing happened in Lot’s time: they ate and drank, bought and sold, planted and built. But, on the day that Lot left Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and killed them all.
(Luke 17:28-29)
God is just and will punish sin. But God is also a God of love and he gives us opportunities so that we realize the things we do, that are not in accordance with his will and ask for forgiveness. His greatest wish is that we all repent of the evil we have done and accept him as our Lord.
The Lord does not take long to fulfill his promise, as some understand delay. Rather, he is patient with you, because he does not want anyone to perish, but that everyone should repent.
(2 Peter 3:9)
The day will come when everything we have and see today will end. Although evil grows around us, we must keep our hearts alert to the voice of God. We can always come before him in repentance and receive forgiveness from him. He longs to receive us and wants us to be with him for eternity.
Articles that might be of interest: