A Modern Woman's Perspective On The Kingdom of God on Earth


Showing posts with label Sodom and Gomorrah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sodom and Gomorrah. Show all posts

July 29, 2022

Sodom And Gomorrah & Lawlessness in America


I know that sounds like a sensational and overdramatized title for today's post, but let me share some information with you and see if you might not agree that it is appropriate. Our little Home Church group has been studying Genesis and considering all the resources throughout history that give us a broader picture of what was going on in this pivotal Book of the Bible. 

So much history of the world [and man's relationship with God] is packed into these 50 chapters and sadly, much of it is ignored, skipped over, or disavowed by the modern [and make that Western] Church, that I fear we don't see the comparisons with our current generation. Not only is the average citizen unaware that Satan planned to corrupt mankind's God-created DNA in Genesis 6, but they don't see that that perversion mirrors all the present-day scientific experiments with vaccines, gene editing, DNA sequencing, and human-animal hybrid experiments -- and neither do Christians see it!

So, our little Home Church just finished getting into the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18 and 19. To be honest with you, the Bible gives very little detail about what made these two cities so evil in the eyes of the Lord. What we do know from Scripture is this: The Lord Jesus, accompanied by two "men" appears to Abraham, sitting outside his tent. Abraham runs to them and bows down to the ground, indicating that these are no ordinary men, but actually this is Jesus and two of His angels. who have come to announce to Abraham the promise of an heir from God. Remember, Abraham is familiar with God's voice. If you are a student of ancient texts such as the Book of Jasher, then you know that Abram studied at the feet of his Eight-Times Great-Grandfather Noah, so he knew all about YHWH, and heard His voice call him out of the land of Ur to go to Canaan. So by the time Abraham is 99 years old in Genesis 18, he's pretty familiar with the Lord!

After this amazing promise of an heir, Genesis says the Lord and His angels "got up and looked towards Sodom". It seems that their visitation to earth had a two-fold purpose. The Lord says that the outcry of the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was so great, and their sin so grave that He was going to see for Himself if they had acted as vile and wicked as the cries coming to Him indicated (Genesis 18:20-21).  It is hard for us to imagine just how wicked because there is little detail given in Scripture to describe the lengths that the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah went to in their rebellion and perversion.

But, the ancient Book of Jasher (referenced in Joshua 10:13; 2 Samuel 1:18; and 2 Timothy 3:8) leaves no doubt as to why the Lord and His angels came in answer to the cries that had ascended to Heaven! For those who shy away from this historical reference material because it was not included in the Canon, the fact that God chose to reference it in the Bible tells me that it carries some credibility with Him. I use it for historical perspective and have found that it aligns with Scripture; it just gives us more details that expand our understanding of what the Bible reveals. 

That being said, here is just a portion of what was understood by the ancient Israelites regarding the abominations of wickedness in Sodom and Gomorrah:  And by desire of their four judges the people of Sodom and Gomorrah had beds erected in the streets of the cities, and if a man came to these places they laid hold of him and brought him to one of their beds, and by force made him to lie in them. And as he lay down, three men would stand at his head and three at his feet, and measure him by the length of the bed, and if the man was less than the bed these six men would stretch him at each end, and when he cried out to them they would not answer him. And if he was longer than the bed they would draw together the two sides of the bed at each end, until the man had reached the gates of death. (Jasher 19:3-5)

And when a poor man came to their land they would give him silver and gold, and cause a proclamation in the whole city not to give him a morsel of bread to eat, and if the stranger should remain there some days, and die from hunger, not having been able to obtain a morsel of bread, then at his death all the people of the city would come and take their silver and gold which they had given to him. (Jasher 19:8)

Then the Book of Jasher reveals that Lot, who lived in the city of Sodom, is blessed with a daughter named Paltith. Her soul was moved with pity for a man who lay in the center of town, starving from hunger... she fed him secretly with bread for many days, and the soul of this man was revived. For when she went forth to fetch water she would put the bread in the water pitcher, and when she came to the place where the poor man was, she took the bread from the pitcher and gave it him to eat; so she did many days. And all the people of Sodom and Gomorrah wondered how this man could bear starvation for so many days (Jasher 19:27-29). It wasn't long before the townspeople became suspicious. Why wasn't this man dying? So three men hid to watch and see who was feeding the stranger in their midst. They discovered it was Paltith and took her before the judges and asked what her punishment should be. Jasher 19:35 reveals her fate: And the people of Sodom and Gomorrah assembled and kindled a fire in the street of the city, and they took the woman and cast her into the fire and she was burned to ashes. 

Paltith wasn't the only one who suffered because of her righteousness. A young woman in the nearby sister city of Admah also defied the wickedness of her city and gave bread and water to a sojourner. When it was discovered that she transgressed their law, the judges also sentenced her to death ... The people of those cities assembled and brought out the young woman, and anointed her with honey from head to foot, as the judge had decreed, and they placed her before a swarm of bees which were then in their hives, and the bees flew upon her and stung her that her whole body was swelled. And the young woman cried out on account of the bees, but no one took notice of her or pitied her, and her cries ascended to heaven. And the Lord was provoked at this and at all the works of the cities of Sodom, for they had abundance of food, and had tranquility amongst them, and still would not sustain the poor and the needy, and in those days their evil doings and sins became great before the Lord.  (Jasher 19:36-44)

The rest of Jasher 19 coincides with what the Bible reveals ... the Lord sends the two angels to Sodom to destroy it because not one is found righteous among all the inhabitants. Not only have they been starving the poor and oppressed, but they demand that Lot send the angels out so that they might have sex with them (Genesis 19:4-5). Haven't heard that in your Church? Here is what the Amplified version of the Bible says: "the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, surrounded the house, all the men from every quarter; and they called out to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we may know them [intimately].” The Complete Jewish Bible (an English translation of the Hebrew Tanakh) actually says, "Bring them out to us. We want to have sex with them"! So, here we have a suggestion of sex between angels and men that mirrors what happened in Genesis 6 when Fallen Angels came down and had sex with earthly women. We saw how that ended! God chose to flood the world!

 As if all this is not enough to show us just how evil and wicked Sodom and Gomorrah had become, Jasher also reveals this ... In those days all the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, and of the whole five cities, were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the Lord and they provoked the Lord with their abominations, and they strengthened in aging abominably and scornfully before the Lord, and their wickedness and crimes were in those days great before the Lord. And they had in their land a very extensive valley, about half a day's walk, and in it there were fountains of water and a great deal of herbage surrounding the water. And all the people of Sodom and Gomorrah went there four times in the year, with their wives and children and all belonging to them, and they rejoiced there with timbrels and dances. And in the time of rejoicing they would all rise and lay hold of their neighbor's wives, and some, the virgin daughters of their neighbors, and they enjoyed them, and each man saw his wife and daughter in the hands of his neighbor and did not say a word. And they did so from morning to night, and they afterward returned home each man to his house and each woman to her tent; so they always did four times in the year.

I share all this with you to ask you to pray for our nation. If the events I have described in ancient Sodom and Gomorrah resulted in the Lord deciding to destroy it, what can we expect from the rising lawlessness in America? Although we have slowed down the abortion rate, it is still allowed in some states. I do not doubt that the cries of the victims of Child pornography and human trafficking have reached the heart of Jesus in Heaven. And everyday, there is another horrifying video on the nightly news of some wickedness done against an innocent person ... a mother pushing her child in a baby carriage is run over by a hit and run driver; a celebrated athlete is nearly blinded by a pipe thrown at her head by a homeless man as she simply walks down the street; a pedestrian is run over by a car, and the passengers jump out and rob the victim as he lies motionless on the street; our highest judges in the land receive death threats, while our government leaders appear to line their own pockets as they sell us down the river to foreign entities. And I don't know if you remember actress Lucy Lui appearing on Oprah and sharing that she has sex with angels. Sure looks to me as if Sodom and Gomorah have nothing on us! It is now becoming commonplace to see articles like the one written by Nick Burns, titled Savagery in America is a Symptom of an Increasingly Disordered World, and another one by Abraham Blondeau, in which he states, "Violent Crime is Consuming America."

So, as our Home Church discussed the evilness in the Bible of Sodom and Gomorrah, it was mentioned by someone, "I sure hope we aren't that bad, yet". I'm not so sure. The way we are headed certainly seems as evil to me. Abraham asked God to relent from His plan to destroy the wicked cities if He was able to identify 5 righteous people. I think God readily agreed because He already knew that no one was righteous and He would be carrying through on His threat. Now, I know we still have righteous people in our nation and we are all certainly praying and repenting. But there are times it seems that the wickedness is outrunning us. So, I just want to keep encouraging everyone that we walk as the Ekklesia and we must never acquiesce or concede our role! The world may know and embrace lawlessness, but we know the Law of Heaven and the Judge of Righteousness! We will never bow or yield to anyone but Him!

2 Peter 2:8 ...  (for that just man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by what he saw and heard of their lawless acts),