Where Wickedness Rules

Where Wickedness Rules

Genesis 18:20-25; 19:12-16

Main Idea: God does not allow disobedience and rebellion against Him to continue unrestrained.

Children learn early in life that actions have consequences. If they disobey their parents, they get into trouble. If they run across the street without looking, there are dangers. Learning about consequences is one of the most important lessons children learn as they grow toward maturity. Learning about consequences is also one of the most important lessons believers can learn as they progress in Christian maturity.

Chapters 18-19 of Genesis teach us about consequences. God is just and loving, which means He both rewards and disciplines. This passage talks about the love and grace of God. It also tells about the judgment that comes with disobedience and rebellion. Our choices carry consequences for good or for bad. Both judgment and grace flow from the character of God who is holy and loving. These chapters remind believers of the connection between God's love and God's justice. We are shown His judgment against sin and His willing offer of grace.

Our God is loving, patient, and forgiving. He knows our weaknesses and graciously provides His instruction to steer us clear of trouble. However, when we constantly snub His instruction, ignore His guidance, and refuse His correction, our own day of reckoning comes. For is not only loving, patient, forgiving, providing, guiding, and correcting-He is also just.

The people of ancient Sodom and Gomorrah were living their version of the high life. However, their unbridled sin and uncontrolled recklessness ushered in an inevitable day of reckoning. God's displeasure with the people's sin took the form of unstoppable judgment. God's judgment falls where wickedness rules. He rescues by grace alone. God is just.

I. Understand the Context (Genesis 18:16-19:38)

The context passage for this week's session moves from the time the angelic visitors completed their business with Abraham through their dealings with and destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and on to the birth of Lot's two sons, Moab and Ben-ammi, by his daughters' sinful behavior. In this passage we find demonstrated fully the truth that God does not allow disobedience and rebellion against Him to continue unrestrained. Sodom and Gomorrah have gone down in history as places where wickedness ruled and also as places decisively judged by God. We also find demonstrated fully the truth that God rescues by grace alone. Lot and his family were grabbed by the hands and brought out of Sodom before judgment fell.

For overarching themes dominate the context passage. First, the writer showed how Abraham fared better than Lot, though Lot had been given the privilege of first choice of land. Second, the passage demonstrates how the covenant descendants of Abraham were to be characterized as people of justice and righteousness (18:19). Third, the writer conveyed the divine displeasure with the overt sin of Sodom and Gomorrah by destroying those wicked cities. Fourth, even in the midst of unbridled sin and total judgment, God extended grace to Lot and his family.

II. Explore the Text

1. Man's Sin (Gen. 18:20)

These passages illustrate the continuing themes of sin, judgment, and grace. Many cultures today are dismissive of God's call for righteousness and His repeated warnings of judgment. Yet only through understanding the biblical sense of sin and judgment can we truly understand and find His grace.

Verse 20

Then the Lord said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is immense, and their sin is extremely serious." 

This verse states the indictment by the Lord against the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Students of the Old Testament have learned to recognize the title the Lord as the covenant name for God and its appearance as a signal of covenant emphasis. The broader context of God's indictment against Sodom and Gomorrah was His formulation of the covenant community with Abraham and his descendants. The covenant community would serve as God's evangelistic camp, representing Him to the lost and scattered peoples. The wicked inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah were representative of all people everywhere who choose to live in defiance of God's righteous instructions.

Several key themes surface here. First, the Lord is actively involved in the world of people, assessing their spiritual status, instructing them on righteous living, and determining when their unrepentant attitudes deserve divine judgment. Second, the mention of the specific cities Sodom and Gomorrah, while representative of people everywhere, should remind Bible readers God confronts the specific sins of specific people in specific places.

The third theme, the idea that the One True God is holy and does not tolerate unconfessed sin, should sound an ominous note in the hearts of all wayward people. Fourth, the language of Genesis 18:20 with its emphasis of the outcry indicates that even when sinners do not confess their rebellions to God, the moral outrage caused by their offenses becomes a clamor for God to intervene with righteous judgment.

With these themes in mind, we immediately feel the gravity of the situation. The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah was “immense.” The term immense renders the Hebrew verb meaning “to be many.” The emphasis is on the massive number of wrongful acts occurring in Sodom and Gomorrah.

The indictment “their sin is extremely serious” hints at a fifth key theme. The term sin derives from a Hebrew verb that means “to miss the mark.” The term is singular in this verse and refers to the overall sinful behavior of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah. Yet the plural possessive pronoun is attached-hence, their sin. God was holding the people of these cities accountable as a unit. Today we often place so much emphasis on individual responsibility that we overlook the collective dimension of justice.

When God assessed the many shameful acts of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, He pronounced their sin as “extremely serious.” The Hebrew phrase means “very heavy.” Sin is a burden; no one is spared. Sinners are burdened by their own sinful conduct; their victims are also burdened. Moreover, the collective sins of humanity burden God (see Gen. 6:5-6).

Applying the Scripture:

What types of behavior made Sodom and Gomorrah deserving of God's wrath? In what ways were those two cities representative of all people everywhere?