Sodom and Gomorrah

(Genesis chapter 19)

The story of Sodom and Gomorrah takes place primarily in Genesis 19 with God about ready to pass judgment on the evil people of Sodom. But before He does so, He elects to give them one last chance, a test if you will. He agrees to send two of His angels to the city. If they can find ten righteous among the citizens of Sodom, God will spare the city from destruction. However, if they cannot find ten righteous people then His judgment would stand and the city destroyed. We catch the story as the angels are coming into the town.

Genesis 19:1-5 (RSV)

"The two angels came to Sodom in the evening; and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, and bowed himself with his face to the earth, and said, "My lords, turn aside, I pray you, to your servant's house and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise up early and go on your way." They said, "No; we will spend the night in the street." But he urged them strongly; so they turned aside to him and entered his house; and he made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house; and they called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them."

That evening as the angels bed down for the night, the entire male population of the city encircles Lot’s home and accuses Lot of harboring these uninvited and unapproved strangers. They demand that Lot hand the angels over to them so that they may “know” them (“Yada” Strongs #3045). While there is much debate over the interpretation of this word “Yada”, I believe believe Moffet’s translation of “violent rape” is probably the closest. I personally don’t think that the citizens of this violent place really intended to sit down and have a nice little chitchat over tea with these strangers!

Whatever the exact translation, I think it’s clear the people of Sodom meant the angels harm. God also seemed to come to the same conclusion since after Lot and his family were a safe distance away, the city was destroyed – just as God had originally planned.

The question that is debated is this: Is God condemning the people because they were homosexual or because they were cruel, selfish and showed no mercy or compassion to others? Ezekiel 16:49-50 answers many of these questions when he states: "Behold, this was the inequity of your sister Sodom: pride, overabundance of food (in Hebrew this phrase literally means eating to the point of retching...), prosperous ease, and idleness were hers and her daughters; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty and committed abominable offenses before Me."

In other words they were evil and self-centered people who totally ignored God and thought nothing of attacking, raping and killing people. Here is where the interpretations begin to differ. One side believes the sin of the Sodomites was the method of rape they intended to inflict upon the angels (i.e. the act of sodomy), while the other side believes the fact that the Sodomites wanted to attack and harm the strangers at all demonstrated the evil nature of these people and their complete abandonment of the law of Love. In other words it wasn’t the method of rape that was important - but the fact that the Sodomites wanted to rape and kill them at all that is truly the issue!

I personally don’t think God cares so much about our method of intercourse as He does about the attitude and intent behind it. Even today, rape has nothing to do with a loving relationship. Rapists are motivated of power, the need for control, anger, hatred and in some cases even vengeance. Ezekiel's account substantiates our belief that the sin of the Sodomites was not one of homosexuality, but of a self-centered, unloving attitude that cared little for God or their fellow man.

Further supporting this belief, we know that historically between three to ten percent of any given population is homosexual. Yet here we see the entire male population of Sodom wanting to "know" the strangers. Never in recorded history has an entire population of people been gay and if by some quirk of nature they were, then where did all the children come from? And why would Lot even bother to offer his daughters to the crowd in exchange for the angels if he knew his bribe would be worthless (Genesis 19:8)? Nor does the 'act of sodomy' theory explain why God destroyed the women of the city as well. The final nail in the coffin to this argument is that Lot’s daughters were engaged to be married to men of Sodom! Clearly we can see that this story has little to do with homosexuality and is instead a violent gang action of some sort.

So why would the men of Sodom want to rape the angels? If you study history, you will find two important clues that may shed light on the issue. First, is that it was relatively common back then for the victorious army to rape high-ranking leaders of the defeated foe. Why? Because women were viewed as second-class citizens and chattel in many regards, items to be bought and sold, or even traded. For instance, in Genesis 19:8 Lot attempts to trade his two virgin daughters to the men of Sodom so they would leave the angels alone. What would we think about such an act today?

Because women were held in such low regard it was the ultimate form of humiliation to treat another man as you would a woman. Most men preferred death to such treatment for now they were viewed as mere ‘women’ in the eyes of their captors.

The other reason all the men of Sodom would want a ‘go’ at these angels was that the religious practices of the day believed that sexual relations with another somehow conveyed a portion of that person’s strength and power to you. This was the whole concept behind the practice of temple prostitution and the fertility cults. They believed that having sex with the temple prostitute (either male or female) conveyed a blessing from the god of that particular temple to the participant.

Can you imagine what the people of Sodom thought when they realized they were entertaining supernatural beings? They probably thought that they had hit the spiritual jackpot (!) and coveted the supernatural powers they hoped to attain through raping these angels. What fools they were! Who can mock God or the messengers sent on His behalf?

I think the Biblical passages pertaining to Sodom (Genesis 19), God’s own explanation of their sins in Ezekiel 16:49-50, historical perspective on why the men of Sodom wanted to rape the strangers (i.e. to humiliate them and the transference of supernatural powers through sex) and antidotal evidence (e.g. the entire male population showed up to “know” the strangers, not the small minority that would be the gay population) all point to only one logical conclusion. God destroyed the people of Sodom not for the sexual act of sodomy but for the wicked and debased spiritual state of these people who had clearly abandoned the Law of Love.

If this conclusion is correct then we can infer that when the Bible refers to the sin of the Sodomites. God is NOT talking about the specific sexual act of sodomy as some translations might imply. But to the overall spiritual state of the person that leads them to embrace a sinful lifestyle that is completely devoid of love.

On one final note concerning this passage. It’s alarming to note that for all the sins of Sodom the Lord told Israel that neither "Sodom nor her daughters have done as you and your daughters have done" (Ezekiel 16:48); for Israel not only chased (whored) after strange gods but she "despised her husband and her children" (Ezekiel 16:45). Because of this, God declares, He will be more forgiving of Sodom on the day of judgment than to Israel.

Why did God condemn Israel in Ezekiel? Because she showed no mercy towards strangers and cast out those she deemed ‘unfit’ from the house of Israel. The same Pharisaical spirit gave approval to Saul’s persecution of the Christians and tried to ban the Gentiles from Jesus’ forgiving grace. The same Pharisaical spirit is still at work today, causing us to draw lines between 'us' versus 'them' and attempting to define who is righteous and who is not. Such a spirit causes harm to the Body of Christ and limits (in it's own mind) who can and cannot be part of the kingdom of God. God makes no such divisions or limitations concerning Jesus Christ's saving grace (see the article titled "Whosoever"). All are welcome, all are His.

For a more in depth look at this subject read "Calling the Rainbow Nation Home"

by Rev. Sundby

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