Sodom and Gomorrah

I have started my Study of Sodom and Gomorrah. I must say I am somewhat astounded by the rapidity of revelation I am receiving in this short amount of time. Scriptures have raced through my mind connecting other parts of the Bible. This in my belief is the presence of the Holy Spirit.

We are told that in the heat of the day Abraham was sitting in the door of his tent when the Lord appeared to him by the trees of Memre. So Abraham lifted his eyes and behold there were three men.

This is the first time in scripture that the Lord Himself appeared to man in the likeness of a man, but it would not be the last before He was born.

Now this is and would be a foreign concept to a non believer, young Christian or those whom only have a stomach for milk.

Christ our Lord also appears as a man in the furnace with Shadraq, Meshach, and Abednego  other places in the Old Testament we are told of the Angel of the Lord appears.

The one proven constant of the Lord's appearance is Salvation or Life in some form.

The Lord appeared to Abraham and gave life to a Child and to save Lot and his daughters. But the Lord disappears, I believe that He went back to Heaven for the coming judgment upon Sodom because there was only the presence of two angels when they told Lot to flee that place because there was judgment coming.

Let me stop her for a bit of commentary.

Now there could be a milk message here that God didn’t like the evil in the plains cities (Sodom and Gomorrah) and He destroyed them and left it at that.

But that would do a great injustice to the true story we read starting in Genesis chapter 18. This is a story of Life also, a story that God always has a plan and always builds up something even in the face of destruction. A child was given to Abra

ham and Sarah (the beginning of God's chosen people) Life through our Lord by the very Hand of God!

Lot was saved not just spared because of his faithfulness but saved and used to further the Kingdom of God. (Always a plan) the Angels came with the Lord (now angels are messengers or warriors) they were in Sodom for both reasons.

Not just to report on the hideous happenings in the City but there also I believe to ensure there would be none able to escape!

The scripture say that the young men and the old came to Lot's home to beseech him to send the strangers out so that they could know them carnally. (I never thought I would ever see such debauchery in my life but I believe we are seeing this very same mentality in places in our country)

The angels when in Lot's home blinded the men at the door. That is our first glance of the impending doom that was going to befall them all.

Back to my writing:

We are shown that the pleading of a Godly man truly does availeth much.  Abraham pleaded with the Lord to save those in the city several times by asking if there are fifty righteous will you spare them and the Lord said yes, then it was 45 then 40 then 30 all the way down to ten every time the Lord agreeing to spare them, if there were even a (remnant) among them they would have been spared. (there is always hope as long as there is a remnant of God's people willing to be Godly)

Abrahams pleading tells me that Abraham had no confidence in there being anyone righteous in that horrid place but being a good man he could not stomach the thought of the coming destruction.

(Vengeance is mine saith the Lord)

The angels told

Lot left the city and took his wife and daughters with him, this after Lot's son-in-laws thought he was joking as he told of the destruction to come.

So in the morning the second directive to leave came, Lot was told to hurry and leave the city so that they would not be consumed in the wrath that was about to pour out on this place.

Lot still hesitated (that’s another message in itself) so the angels took Lot's hand of his wife and daughters and escorted them out of the city. The Lord was being merciful because of his righteousness, (a gift that the ungodly will never know.)

So Lot was told to escape for his life and not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. (this is an indication that Sodom was not going to be the only city destroyed) Lot was told to flee into the mountains but Lot was afraid if he went into the mountains he would be killed by some evil.

(there must have been evil everywhere in the plain and surrounding area and Lot was acutely aware of it) so Lot asked if he would be allowed to flee to the small city of Zoar and that favored the Angels because they were not going to destroy that city. (There is a very important lesson here. The Lord says “behold I stand at the door and knock” but the situation with Lots let’s us know that He our Lord will not stand and knock forever, there is a time limit. We have no idea how long that may be but it becomes obvious that the Lord will continue on if we do not follow. But He will wait on us if we commit to obey his commands. God is long suffering)

So Lot and his family flee to Zoar and when he arrives the destruction begins. The Lord rained fire and brimstone out of Heaven on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in the morning that Lot arrived in Zoar.

The scripture describes the destruction as all of the cities of the plain and all the inhabitants and everything that grew in the ground. (there is that every living thing in the picture. This was the example that God intended His armies to follow) that’s another story.

This is the time that Lot's wife looked behind him and was turned into a pillar of salt.

(if we are told not to do something by the Lord we either follow His direction and find favor or we bring wrath upon our head)

Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had seen the Lord and gazed out across the plain, all of the plain had been consumed and Abraham described the smoke and fire as that of a giant furnace.

When Lot saw the results of the destruction of the plains he got scared and fled into the mountains. (this is another good message for Christians, it is best to flee even the places near great sin lest we be consumed)

(I’ve heard some say that Lot was disobedient because he was told to go into the mountains, but Lot was not disobedient, he asked the Angel if he could go to Zoar and was given permission,indicating there was no disobedient act involved)

There may be more to come from this study after God allows me time to meditate on it and absorb all that He gave me today. I cannot even find the words that could convey the flood of the spirit I have been blessed with today.

This just came to me. Notice that Abraham didn’t pray for specifics or ask the Lord to change the hearts of the people of the plain but only to save them if they were found worthy. If there had been a remnant then fervent prayer for them would have been prudent but prayer for the intentionally lost is wasted effort.

 My take on this would be to ask if the Lord finds any worthy to save them.

Time to separate the wheat from the chaff.

The story of Sodom and Gomorrah is a window into God’s wrath, total destruction. God had damned the cities of the plain.

The ground where those cities stood became scorched earth, it is uninhabitable to this very day. We cannot even liken it to the surface of the moon, because the moon is in its natural state but the plain where Sodom and Gomorrah stood is in a supernatural state cursed by God himself!

This came to me this morning. In Genesis 19:4 it says that the men young and old came to lots's house. I’ll stop there. It says (Young and Old) these vile sinful peoples had raised up their children to accept the evil deeds in which they were partaking.

This was not just the sinful activity and hearts of evil adults, they were including the children in their evil deeds.

The scripture clearly tells us that the Lord and the angels were going to go to Sodom and verify that the charges that had been brought against Sodom and Gomorrah were true. Heaven had heard through prayer and supplication of the evil that had overwhelmed the cities of the plain.

So much so that the Lord himself came to assess the situation. (now I believe that the Lord and the Heavenly Host were there to identify the fallen ones that inhabited the cities of the plain not just to make sure the activities had not been exaggerated) when the angels spoke with Lot they made it very clear the purpose of their presence.

(I feel this shows the absolute necessity of prayer against evil and evil places!) Abraham showed us we are not to pray for destruction but we are to pray about and against the evil of this world!!)

Kenneth Kellar
A Man Called by God to Teach and Disciple