Day 10 We Required This

Day 10 We Required This

32 Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.” Genesis 18:32

Sodom and Gomorrah, two cities found in the ancient world. Abraham’s nephew Lot chose to live there, the land being well-watered and lush. Two cities that somehow went astray in a particularly abhorrent fashion. Two cities that God blotted out. In one of the more famous incidents from his life, Abraham intercedes for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. Interestingly at the beginning of this episode, God muses whether to tell Abraham or not, deciding to tell him, “…18 seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? 19 For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.” Genesis 18:18-19 God expects Abraham to share the lesson he’s about to learn.

We focus on the salacious sexual sin of Sodom and Gomorrah. But the prophet Ezekiel clarifies things for us. 49 This was the sin of your warped sister, Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, gluttonous, and lazy. She never gave help to the poor and needy. 50 They were prideful, and they did abhorrent things right in front of Me, shamelessly and without remorse! As you already know, I put an end to Sodom and her daughters when I saw their behavior. Ezekiel 16:49-50 The Voice. The people of Sodom and Gomorrah were prideful and arrogant. In their pride, they forgot to help the poor and needy…among other things. They set their own standard.

Recently in one of my classes, a student remarked, “We set our own morality.” Most of their classmates agreed. They were not espousing some new and unforeseen theological failure. They merely reflect the culture in which they live. In our own pride, we turn away from God and develop our own morality, and this hubris necessitates Christmas. Back beyond all the tinsel, trees, lights, presents, and good food lies our own prideful nature and God’s constant work to let mercy triumph over judgment. We devalue holiness, forgetting that our own darkness separates us from the light. God carefully orchestrated the unfolding of history, leading up to Bethlehem…and the cross. Sadly, Sodom and Gomorrah are part of the Christmas story. They remind us of our own desperate need and His undying love. Love that makes the journey to the cradle.