SEMESTER 2
424 – Sodom and Gomorrah
BIBLE INSTITUTE OF CORRESPONDENCE
COURSE: BIBLE SURVEY II LESSON # 24
SODOM AND GOMORRAH
INTRODUCTION:
As a companion study read carefully page forty-nine of MAJOR BIBLE EVENTS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.
1. The conduct of the people in these cities and their destruction is typical of divine judgment upon sin throughout the Bible; i.e., God made an example of them.
2. Some such reference to them is made at least eighteen times in the Old Testament and ten times in the New Testament.
3. In this lesson, we shall see not only the sin and the judgment, but the spiritual message it carries.
I. THE CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE OF SODOM AND GOMORRAH (GEN. 13:13
)
1. All men are sinners, but these were exceedingly so. (Gen. 13:13
)
i. There were not ten righteous people in the whole place. (Gen. 18:32)
2. The particular nature of their sin was homosexuality. (Gen. 19:4-8) Consider Rom. 1:24-28.
3. This is referred to by God in very harsh and degrading terms:
i. Vile affections,
ii. Against nature,
iii. That which is unseemly,
iv. Reprobate mind.
4. The depth of this wickedness is most clearly seen in God’s purpose to destroy. Under the law it carried the death penalty.
II. LOT’S PRESENCE IN SODOM
1. Lot’s reason for dwelling in Sodom was economic. (Gen. 13:8-13)
2. Lot’s presence in Sodom was a vexation of his soul. (II Pet. 2:6-8)
3. Lot’s effect upon the Sodomites for good was nil. (Gen. 19:9)
4. The result of Lot’s time in Sodom was the loss of his family. (Gen. 19:12-14)
III. ABRAHAM’S MISPLACED INTERCESSION (GEN. 18:23-33)
1. Abraham’s intercession was not specifically for Lot and his family, but for Sodom and Gomorrah, for their sakes. (Gen. 18:24-25)
2. Abraham never requested the actual sparing of Lot’s family, that was God’s action. (II Pet. 2:-9)
3. Abraham’s prayer (sparing the cities) was not answered, but the object of his intercession was realized; i.e., Lot was spared.
4. Understand, however, that Abraham’s concern was probably for all of “Lot’s ” offspring, whereas only two of them were ultimately saved.
IV. GOD’S JUDGMENT UPON SODOM AND SODOMY
1. Let any professing Christian who would claim man’s right to this perversion, remember God’s reaction to it. (Rom. 1:24-27)
2. God actually burned the whole society, with their children and all they had to cinders. (Gen. 19:23-28)
3. The manner of this was fire and brimstone (Gen. 19:24) as much like hell as you can imagine. (Rev. 21:8)
i. This word brimstone, in both Old and New Testaments implies that which is highly flammable, “as cypress resin or sulphur.”
4. Do not dare think such punishment is too severe. If the judge of all the earth does right, (Gen. 19:25) then we must see the sinfulness of this sin as the thing that is severe.
V. HOW GOD’S PEOPLE BENEFIT FROM DIVINE PURGING
1. As in the destruction of the Canaanites later, the land was vacated for Abraham’s seed – purged.
2. The example of judgment causes us to fear sin, consider how frequently this example made of Sodom and Gomorrah is mentioned in Scripture.
3. The epidemics of disease we are hearing about today are eradicated.
4. America might well remember Sodom and read Lk. 13:5.