 The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah – Part 5, ‘Brimstone and Fire’ 2007 : April | Printer Friendly Version Today’s verses from Genesis 19 are simple from a literary perspective, but they are difficult for us to grasp from an emotional perspective: instantly, two cities and everything in the valley are destroyed. We are spared the horrendous details of the destruction, but it is clear that the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah comes directly from the Lord’s hands. What was it like to be the focus of the Lord’s wrath and destruction that day? As their surroundings were crumbling, did the people in Sodom and Gomorrah realize that their mocking of the Lord had begun to be repaid in full by a just God? Did some fall to their knees in an effort to repent before their death, or did they remain stubborn and unbroken until what they thought was the end. There’s no escape for them in death, where they would see the Creator they once mocked. On Sodom and Gomorrah’s final day, the sun rose, as it had always done before. On Sodom and Gomorrah’s final day, the drunkards rose to drink, as they had always done before. On Sodom and Gomorrah’s final day, the liars, cheaters and fornicators were doing what they had always done before….lying, cheating and fornicating. To them that morning seemed like all the others; all was well….until the fire started falling from the sky.... Sinful prospering and mocking of God do not continue indefinitely. True, the Lord is patient, and He might allow time for repentance, but there is a time of judgment coming for sinners. While they are not told the time and date, they are on a collision course with God. David reminds us of the same in Psalm 37, where he tries to answer the cries of the oppressed and those who have been beaten down by evil men:
What strikes you as you read today’s verses is the very personal nature of God’s judgment. Read these verses again carefully:
The people of Sodom and Gomorrah went to bed one night. Perhaps it was a clear night with a full moon. Perhaps they awoke to a glorious sunrise, and they thought it would be a magnificent day for them; they were wrong. Soon after the sun had come up, the fire started raining down from heaven until it had destroyed everything; their cities and their way of life vanished in an instant. This is why the story of Sodom and Gomorrah should drive home to us the importance evangelism and preaching to the lost. All might appear well to those who do not believe in Jesus, but that’s simply not the case. Like Sodom and Gomorrah, the unsaved have a present problem rotting the core of their souls: sin. While God might not execute judgment on them for years, the reality is that He could judge them anytime. What about us; how do we feel when that person we knew was unsaved is taken to stand before God? What if we didn’t share the Gospel with them? What do we say to God when we didn’t bother to share the greatest news with them? We must tell people about Jesus. Tell them there is forgiveness of sin for those who repent and believe in Him. It’s easy for us to be lulled into a sense of peace, when things are going well. I’m sure this was the case in Sodom and Gomorrah. For years, those cities shunned God. For years, they sinned and followed the evil desires of their hearts. For years, they took God’s patient waiting to mean that they would escape judgment. To those living near by, it must have seemed the evil in those cities would continue forever. It would not. One morning, perhaps a morning like today, everything changed in an instant…and fire fell directly from the hand of God. May the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you today and always…  Printer Friendly Version Archives | Tell Your Friends | Submit a Devotion |
 Genesis 19:23-29 (ESV) 23 The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. 24 Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven. 25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. 26 But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. 27 And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord. 28 And he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley, and he looked and, behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace. 29 So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived. • Read Chapter • Listen to Chapter |
