Sodom: A city with no fear of God
(Gen 18-19)
Chapter 18 starts off with a visit to Abraham from three men, who are believed (by most biblical theologians) to be two angles (who save Lot and his family in the next chapter) and the Lord, Jesus. God reveals His plan to Abraham that Sodom and Gomorrah's sins are very grievous, and that He plans to destroy the two cities. Abraham takes on his God given role as prophet (Gen 17:1, 18:19, 20:7), and comes before God on behalf of the people in this city. So God agrees to spare the city for the sake of ten righteous people.
God is sovereign: Here we see God's sovereignty and the act of prayer come together. God had already purposed to destroy the city of Sodom, and yet we see that He still wants Abraham to pray. As Pastor Paul Carter explains, "Abraham 'changes' God's mind, and yet God has willed him to do it."
The next chapter we see the two angels getting Lot and his family out of Sodom, because God will destroy it. We get a glimpse of what kind of man Lot has become, when he offers his two daughters to the violent and wicked men at his door. The angels finally have to drag Lot and his family out and Sodom and Gomorrah burn with brimstone from heaven.
God is just: Firstly, we see that God takes sin, and, in particular, the sexual sin the people of Sodom were practicing, very seriously. God carefully investigated their sin and deemed them wicked, before destroying them from of the face of the planet. Secondly, we see that God is just in not allowing the righteous to be slain with the wicked. Abraham calls on the justice and fairness of God and it is given with mercy.
God is full of Mercy: We see God's mercy in the life of Lot especially. He considered Lot righteous, though we obviously see he has been influenced by the ways of Sodom. We also see Lot's future generations being shown mercy (Gen 19:30-38) and time to repent before He also brings them to justice through Israel.
Gerar: A city who feared God
(Genesis 20)
After this devastating judgement, we come to the story of Abimelech, king of Gerar. Abraham travels into Gerar after conspiring with his wife to lie to the people and say that she is his sister, in case the king took her to be his wife and kill Abraham.
Their lies work, except the king still takes Sarah for himself. God appears to Abimelech in a dream and promises a swift judgement because he took Abraham's wife. Abimelech is TERRIFIED! This city, misjudged by Abraham, has the fear of God. They just saw what He did to Sodom and Gomorrah!
Just like Abraham, Abimelech calls for God's justice, asking Him if He would slay a righteous nation. Listen to what God says next:
"Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against me. That is why I did not let you touch her." Genesis 20:6
Next, God gives Abimelech a command to give Sarah back and get Abraham to pray for him.
God calls Abraham a prophet and his prayers save this righteous city from the wrath of God.
God is sovereign: God can sovereignly restrain people from sinning. Yet, here again, He uses Abraham's prayers to stay His hand of judgment.
God is just: We see there are consequences for sexual sin. Not only are we responsible for deliberate sin, but we are responsible for ignorant sin, yet we know that God sees the intentions of our hearts and will do what is fair. We also know from Matthew 5:28, that God looks at the heart, and that lust is just as punishable as adultery.
God is Merciful: We see God's hand of mercy towards the righteous and those who fear Him, by restraining them from sin and providing them a means of restoration.
What about us?
We can look to our culture and see a steady moral decline. Fornication is normal. Adultery and divorce are the result of most marriages. Homosexuality is promoted. Pornography is everywhere (whether you call it art or not). How long will God have mercy on North America? We ought to be trembling in fear like Abimelech.
But even closer to home, what about us as Christians? It's easy to point our fingers at the country we live in, but are we not harboring sin in our hearts?
We are all capable of committing the "worst" sexual sins possible. Look at Lot! He was a righteous man and he and his family were caught up in the disgusting sins of the culture around them. We would never even dream of doing such things, right? Wrong, sin starts not as a scandalous offence, but as a lustful desire, then an indecent thought, then a crude word, then a wrong move, until we are caught up in habitual sin.
Sin aims always at the utmost: every time it rises up to temp or entice, might have its own course, it would go out to the utmost sin of that kind. - John Owen
As the Botkin sisters wrote about in their book It's Not That Complicated, the inner vamp lives in all of us.
What do you think about often? Where do the affections of your heart lie?
Quite honestly, the reason I am writing this post is because of the sin I see within my own heart.
What do we do?
1) Pray.
"Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective." James 5:16
We see that God used Abraham's prayers to save people from judgment of God. Lets follow his example. Pray for yourself, pray for others, pray for our nation, and get others to pray for you.
Pray for God's sovereign restraint from sexual impurity.
Pray for God to change our hearts. (Psalm 51:1-4,10-11)
This is a sin we can't resist and concur on our own. We need the power of the Holy Spirit to mortify the deeds of the flesh. (Romans 8:13)
2) Repent and practice right thinking. (Phil 4:8)
While repentance includes acknowledging our sin before God it also requires a change of action.
A great place to start is to stay in the word of God. By knowing God more, we love Him more, and our affections are turned to Him and wanting to please Him.
Working out to our thoughts, Philippians gives us a thorough guideline:
"Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things." Philippians 4:8
What are the benefits of living a pure life?
I'm sure there are probably many found throughout the scriptures, but I will only touch on two.
1) What we see most obviously from the text is that we will escape the consequences and pain that comes with sexual sin. Just because Christ has born the wrath of God on our account, doesn't mean we won't have consequences. God doesn't set up these commands just to be restricting, but it is for our own good!
2) When we have our heart fixed on Christ and not the satisfaction of our own lustful desires, we will draw nearer to God. Lust we lead us to the world, but purity will lead us to the Holy God.
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God." Matthew 5:8
Sincerely,
Brooke
Another thing we can do is to have accountability to trustworthy person (s)
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