“Sin City,” Genesis 19:1-29
Introduction
I spent the eighth grade living in Butte, Montana. When I moved there from California most of the kids I eventually met assumed that I was a surfer because I was from California. Of course, this is a little bit like assuming that everyone from Montana is a lumberjack. I was out of place. I was from a large city in the Central Valley of California. I had never actually surfed even one time. I was in the heart of the Rocky Mountains living with only my father and grandfather, in a small town that I knew nothing about. There was a small group of boys from my grade who all lived in my neighborhood. I had met them walking in the neighborhood one afternoon. It seemed likely that I would make friends with them. I moved to Butte in late summer. School would start soon and not knowing anyone, I was hopeful about the possibility of their friendship. On the first day of school I made my way to the bus stop. It was only a few blocks away. When I arrived there I noticed a girl who was about my age standing off in the distance. She didn’t talk to anyone and was very shy. I didn’t think too much of it until we boarded the bus and sat down. Not only did she sit by herself but she did so because there were several kids who would make a fuss if she decided to sit near them. This went on day after day, for perhaps the first week and a half of the school year. I watched as this girl got picked on by these boys about her hair, her clothes from her very limited wardrobe (she wore the same outfit several days in a row), and whatever else they decided to zero in on with their cruel taunts and hateful laughter. One day I had enough. One of the boys had taken Anna’s hat off of her head and put on another boy. He squirmed to get it off as though it were somewhere contaminated. It was not the actions of these boys that angered me the most. It was my realization that I had been watching, allowing, this to take place without a as much as a word of discouragement to the boys picking on this girl.I would later find out that Anna came from a very poor family and that her father had a sever chemical dependency problem. I had hoped to make friends of these boys. I didn’t know anyone at school yet. I had been living as though I believed that their friendship was more important than what was right. That day I severed the tie with these thoughtless boys before it had a chance to grow. Very much to the surprise of these boys, I stood up to the three of them on the bus that day. I took the hat from the squirming boy. I handed it to Anna. I then told these three or four boys that they weren’t going to pick on her any more. I further described in some detail what I would do to them if they did. I am very grateful that they chose not to test my threats as I was not nearly as brave or strong a young man as I boasted to them of being! I never saw them pick on her at the bus stop or on the bus anymore that school year. I became casual friends with one of the boys later. The shock of that event may have been enough to remind them of the good training that they had received at home perhaps they didn’t want to test this unknown “surfer” from California! Whatever the case was, that experience has always stuck with me as an example of the fact that occasionally, often in fact, we find ourselves surrounded by circumstances that we did not create but that demand a response.
I wanted the friendship of these boys but the truth is that the immediately practical option of looking blindly upon the plight of this girl was not the right thing to do.
To look blindly upon sin causes us to grow callous to its true character.
It turned out that I actually had the power to stop the injustice all along. In a very plain sense, had I don’t nothing to stop it, my passivity would If I had not acted that day, early in the experience, how long would it have taken until I had grown blind to it? Would it have been weeks before I no longer noticed?
Would it have been months before I didn’t care? Would I have eventually grown so insensitive to the situation that, for the sake of their company, I would have joined those boys?
Transition
This morning we will look at what is likely a fairly familiar passage of Scripture for most of us. At the very least, the general themes of the account of God’s destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah are familiar to us.
The fire and brimstone of this narrative are a part of our colloquialism in American religious and secular social life. The account of Lot’s wife becoming a pillar of salt is familiar to most of us.
When expositing the contents of any narrative account from the Old Testament it is easy to force moral applications upon the Bible. While it is often the case that the moral teaching forced onto the narrative contains moral teaching which is found in the Bible, the most honest exegesis (interpretation method) of the Bible is to allow the passage of Scripture being handled to speak for itself. Because of our general familiarity with the story it is easy to miss what is in the text.
As we move ahead in our discussion of Genesis 19 I would encourage you to set aside preconceived ideas what the account of Sodom and Gomorrah means.
Set aside thoughts from other sermons you have heard or studies you have been in.
Let us zero in on the text alone and see what it says in its own historical context and how that applies for us today.
Exposition
I have already alluded to what I believe to be the highest principal contained in this account. To look blindly upon sin causes us to grow callous to its true character. When our eyes are inundated with the sight of injustice and sin it has a cruel desensitizing affect.
Speaking of the believers who will be deceived by the sin and lies of the culture around them, the Apostle Paul describes this desensitizing affect this way: “Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron.” (I Timothy 4:2 KJV)
When we take in all of the junk of the world around us it affects us. It changes us. It pulls us away from God. It brings our mind into conformity with the world rather than conformity to Christ and the word of God.
Looking constantly upon the injustice and sin of the world dims our understanding of God’s holiness and diminishes our ability to properly interpret the world through the lens of God’s word. Inundation with injustice and sin is spiritually blinding.
As we examine the account of God’s destruction of Sodom and the salvation of Lot we find numerous examples of the way in which acceptance, tolerance, to injustice leads to spiritual blindness. As we will see, there are many examples of such blindness in the text.
The account begins with two angels arriving at the city gate of Sodom in the evening. It is no surprise that the angels find Lot at the city gate. The city gate in ancient cities served something like a town square in modern times.
People would conduct business at the city gate. They would receive travelers and conduct other affairs. These are the types of things in the Bible which lend a great deal of weight to the historical reliability of the narrative, the stories, of the Bible.
Time and again the Bible accounts contain facts and information which is consistent with that of archeological discoveries and what historians know to be true of ancient cultures.
Bible narratives have the “ring of truth.” The best way to approach the Bible is to allow it to speak for itself as what it claims to be, what history confirms it to be, and the way that the Christian church has always understood it to be: the written historically accurate inspired word of God.
Any lesser way of understanding the Bible cheapens its meaning and leaves our interpretation of it bland and inapplicable. It contains ancient literature, Hebraic poetry, instructions for living, wisdom, and song. Yes. And all of these are the vehicles through which God communicates to mankind.
In the previous chapter the Lord had spoken to Abraham about the emending destruction of Sodom. Abraham intercedes for Sodom. He asks the Lord what it would take to spare the city. Abraham has a lengthy dialogue with God. (Genesis 18:22-33) He entreats the Lord not to destroy the Lord if even 10 righteous people live there. The angels go to Sodom and find Lot there at the gate. They plan to stay in the in the town square but Lot insists that they stay with him.
Hospitality was and is a very important part of the near eastern culture. By preparing a meal for his guests in his home, Lot demonstrates his righteousness just as Abraham had done when he met these same angelic travelers in chapter 18.
The parallel between Abraham and Lot’s treatment of the travelers is intentional in account. It shows us, as it did the ancient reader, that Lot was indeed personally righteous just like Abraham. This is critically important to the account. Lot really was the only righteous man in Sodom. The question that I have for you is: “What then was he doing in Sodom?”
The action in the narrative rises as the men of Sodom, every last man in Sodom according to the text, descends upon Lots house. The Bible says that the men wanted “to know” the men who had visited Lot. The word usage here is the Hebrew word “yada.”
This word can mean many things. It can mean to perceive, to perceive and see, find out and discern, to discriminate, or to distinguish, among other meanings. In this context it almost certainly means that they wanted to know the men in Lot’s house in a sexually perverse way.
This is clear from the context of the passage, the preceding chapter’s discussion about the wickedness and sin of Sodom and Gomorrah, and Lot’s offering of his daughters who had “known no man” in their place. (v. 5) What on earth was Lot doing living in Sodom? He was a righteous man.
The people of Sodom had not grown evil and vile in their lusts earlier that same day. Surely Lot had watched for some time the wickedness of the city. No doubt he had grown comfortable with it. He had become blind to it and that had blinded him to holiness of God.
You see, if Lot had not lost his pure vision for the holiness of God then when the angels compelled him to flee the city with his entire family he would have went immediately. If he would have truly recognized the holiness of God then he would have realized the ugliness of the sin of Sodom!
Likewise he would not otherwise have been blind to the reality of God’s wrath which emanates from His holiness. When told to flee with his family he would have fled, had he not grown callous by the time he had spent living in Sodom. (v. 15-16) “He lingered.”
Similarly, how often are we indifferent to the truth of God’s word because we have grown indifferent, blind, by the searing intensity of the sin which surrounds us?
Rather than feasting our eyes upon God’s holy word, we watch the filth that is constantly pumped into our homes through television and other media and we are blinded.
We hear the words of Jesus, for example, telling the Pharisees to flee the wrath to come and we, like they, like Lot, hesitate, we waver, we stammer rather than fleeing the impending judgment of God upon the injustice with which we have feasted our eyes to the point of visual gluttony induced blindness! As the men of Sodom were busy trying to get into the house of Lot the Lord struck them with physical blindness so that they could no longer seek to accost the angels of the Lord.
What irony. The spiritual vision of Lot and his family had grown dim. They were spiritually blinded by scorching sights they no doubt beheld daily in Sodom. God used the mechanism of physical blindness to confound the men who sought to take the angelic visitors by force.
Lot’s sons-in-law were so blinded to the reality of God’s holiness that when Lot warned them of the impending doom of the city which the visitors had foretold, they laughed at him; “… he seemed to be jesting.” (v. 14) I am reminded of the people who scoffed Noah when he warned of the impending judgment of the great flood on the entire earth.
To look blindly upon sin causes us to grow callous to its true character. When we are surrounded by sin, even if we are personally righteous, even if we go to church, pray to God, seek to live personally righteous lives, it has a callusing effect that is unavoidable.
Worse yet, is the problem of complicity. When I overlooked that girl on the bus being treated so unjustly, in not doing anything about it I am compelled to believe that I was in many ways complicit in the injustice. That is, just because I didn’t commit the offense I was still, at least in part, responsible for it because our responsibility is not neutral.
Who has the greater sin? Is it the one who commits the offense in ignorance or because that is all he has known, or is it the one who knows better and has the strength to stop it?
Overlooking injustice and sin is reprehensible legally, morally, and biblically:
A. Consider the bank robbery driver of the getaway car. He doesn’t actually commit the crime if he only stays in the vehicle. Yet, he is guilty of the crime.
B. What about someone who ignores a crime. In some states so called “Good Samaritan Laws” have been enacted to protect those who seek to help from being held liable for mistakes made during the act of helping. They cannot be sued if genuinely they try to help but fail to do so perfectly. It is always morally reprehensible.
C. What about the parable of Jesus of the Good Samaritan? If the Samaritan in the story is commended for helping then is the converse true as well? Are those who do not help condemned? Surely there is a consistent biblical motif of positive righteousness, not passive religious obligation. We are called to actively pursue righteousness. We are not called to live righteous lives of monkish piety blind to the world?
Jesus commands us to actively “season” the world with righteousness and shine the light of righteousness in the world. “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.” (Matthew 5:13-15 ESV)
Conclusion
God blinded the men of Sodom. This account opens our eyes to the ugliness of indifference. Sin has consequences in the life of the sinner. It also has consequences in the heart of the one who is indifferent to the injustice that always finds its root in sin.
What about Lot’s wife who looked back on the old life she had known in Sodom rather than pursuing the righteous call of the angels instruction to flee from destruction? God is holy and He will not look upon injustice and sin passively. “But this scene would always remind Israel of Lot, lingering and halting, being dragged to safety. Why do some of God’s people fall in with the corrupt world rather than willingly flee a society destined for destruction?”
To look blindly upon sin causes us to grow callous to its true character. Why was it so difficult for Lot, whom the Bible describes as a righteous man, to leave a city notorious for its unrighteousness? I would suggest that it is precisely because the longer that we immerse ourselves in surroundings filled with injustice and sin, the dimmer their ugliness grows.
We become used to it. We become blinded to it. We become like the man who assumes that the whole world is smudged because he has not considered even the possibility of cleaning his own glasses.
Dear Saints, we must not look blindly upon sin. We must not linger when the Lord commands us to flee from Sodom. We must flood our vision with the things of God so that we will not grow indifferent to the great need of the world around us for the positive righteousness of the valid religion of God. When faith is lived in a vacuum of application in the world it is not faith. Action always accompanies genuine faith.
To look blindly upon sin causes us to grow callous to its true character.
Let us not grow callous but fervent in our pursuit of God, our proclamation of His worth and holiness, our declaration of His truth in love, and the exuberant celebration of His goodness in us and in the world!
Let us never grow blind to His glory and holiness so that we will not grow indifferent in our mission in this world. Amen.
