Examples of Historical Judgements: Sodom and Gomorrah

In the coming days we shall now consider briefly some biblical examples of God’s judgement in history. There are a number of such judgements recorded in Scripture which set forth God’s attitude toward certain sinful acts or conditions in such a clear and dramatic way that they constitute a warning to all those in succeeding generations who might be tempted to follow in sins of the same kind.

One clear example of this kind is provided by God’s judgement upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

“Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the Lord out of the heavens. So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.” (Gen. 19:24-25)

New Testament writers refer to this event several times.

“[God] turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example [or a pattern] to those who afterward would live ungodly.” (2 Pet. 2:6)

Peter points out that the sudden, dramatic and complete overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah was an example, a pattern, setting forth God’s attitude toward the sins of which these cities were guilty.

Ezekiel gives a very interesting account of the basic moral and social conditions which produced the decline of Sodom, for God says to Jerusalem:

“Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.” (Ezek. 16:49)

God here specifies four basic causes of Sodom’s moral decline: pride, fullness of food, abundance of idleness and a lack of concern for the poor and underprivileged in their midst. Out of these basic causes there grew up that particular form of sexual perversion which has ever since been called by the name “sodomy.”

The amazing accuracy of the Bible is once again confirmed as we observe how, in many of the great population centres of our modern civilisation, the same moral and social causes are producing the same form of sexual perversion. The Bible does not suggest that this form of sin will in every subsequent case be visited with the same dramatic form of historical judgement, but it does teach that the unchanging attitude of God toward this form of sin has once and for all time been demonstrated by His judgement upon Sodom.

In the light of this revealed judgement of God, all who thereafter turn aside into this form of sexual perversion are left without any excuse. Even though no open judgement of God may fall upon them on the scene of time, their judgement in eternity will be nonetheless severe on that account.