Sodom and Gomorrah- Genesis 18

 

Genesis 18 – Sodom and Gomorrah

 

This is an illustration of the Christian Life.  It seems strange to us to tell a visiting stranger to wash his feet and come in.  We would not quite say that today, but this is probably the oldest custom that is known.  Today, people remove their hats, more so than their shoes.

Abraham says, “Wash your feet.”  It was a token of real hospitality.  Abraham is entertaining three especially important guests.  He prepares a meal, during which he discovers these are royal guests.  “Some have entertained angels unawares.”  Hebrews 13:2. That was Abraham – he did not know whom he was really entertaining.

It was not proper in that day even in the East today for the wife to come out and be the one to entertain, especially since there were three male guests there.  But they ask about Sarah.  Sarah is in the tent probably with her ear to the wall.  She hears and asks herself, “Is it possible that I will have a son?”  Then she laughs.  I think this laughter is saying, “this is something just too good to be true, it just can’t happen to me!”

Once the meal was over Abraham walked a distance with these men, and down below there, they saw Sodom and Gomorrah.  It is a good thing that God told Abraham He was going to destroy these cities, because Abraham might have gotten the wrong impression of God.  Now Abraham has time to think about it.  The first thing that came to his mind, of course, is his nephew, Lot.  He asks God “What about the righteous?  He could not understand why God would destroy the righteous with the wicked.  Abraham starts with fifty righteous to save the city.  God answers “no” to fifty.  Abraham continues until he gets the number down to ten.

Whatever God does is right, and if you do not think He is right, the trouble is not with God, but with you and your thinking; you do not know that the judge of all the earth does right.  We are wrong; He is right.

In the end, we discover there was one righteous man and God knew him. That was Lot.  God said to Lot, “Get out of the city, I cannot destroy it until you are out.” 

Do you know the Great Tribulation period cannot come as long as the Church is in the world?  Jesus Christ already bore our judgment; and The Great Tribulation is part of the judgment that is coming.  This is the reason the church cannot go through it.  Sodom and Gomorrah are a picture of the world today.  Christ can come tomorrow, and it would be in keeping with the carrying out the picture which is before us here in Genesis.