The sins of Sodom and Gomorrah are not only homosexuality but also incest. This historical narrative is set on a plane with five cities near mountains and the Dead Sea. However, the location is less important than the life lessons that can be gleaned from the narrative. It starts with Abraham meeting with angels sent by God to tell him that his wife Sarah would conceive a child in her old age.
Then, these angels got ready to go to Sodom and Gomorrah to destroy them. Abraham pleaded with God to spare them if God found fifty righteous people. God said He would not destroy them if there were fifty righteous men. Then Abraham boldly but reverently asked in succession, what about forty-five or thirty or perhaps ten righteous people? God said He would not destroy them if there were fifty, forty, thirty, or twenty righteous men. Then, the angels turned away without answering if God would spare the cities for ten righteous people. Now that we have the stage set, let’s look at what happened and the sins committed. Genesis 18:20-33
The First Sins of Sodom and Gomorrah
Sodom and Gomorrah were pagan cities that worshiped Chemosh, the patron deity of the Moabites. Those who worshiped Chemosh practiced human and animal sacrifices. Milcom was the patron god of the Ammonites and is also known as Molech. God and the Jews despised Molech, and the child sacrifices to him. As you will see later, the Moabites and the Ammonites result from the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah.
The two angels arrive in Sodom. They are greeted by Lot, Abraham’s nephew. He is one of the men who sit in judgment at the city gate. He bows to them and invites them to his home. They say no. We will sleep in the city’s open air, but Lot is insistent and gets them to come home with him. That evening, the old and young men of the city come and ask Lot to send out the two men so that they can have sexual relations with them. So, their first sin is idolatry, and the second is homosexual rape. Lot tried to reason with the massive crowd of men, but that didn’t work. So, he offered to send his daughters out to them, but they refused his daughters and demanded to have the men (who were angels).
Why was Lot willing to send out his daughters? Because of the hospitality rules, he could not allow anything to happen to these angels; no reproach, physical, or psychological damage. As the head of the household, he was responsible for their safety. It was a different era with different rules back in 1845 BC. It was almost 4,000 years ago and only about 500 years after the flood. Hospitality and the greater emphasis on men over women forced Lot to nearly sacrifice his daughters. By the way, Lot lied. His daughters had husbands, and he said they were virgins. But this is still possible if they were betrothed but hadn’t consummated their marriages, but I think he lied, trying to sweeten the deal he was trying to make.
Escaping The Sins of Sodom and Gomorrah
The angels insist that Lot gather up his family and escape the destruction; the next day, they escape. But Lot doesn’t want to escape to the wilderness, so he talks the angels into going to the small city of Zoar. The angles tell them not to look back at the destruction, but Lot’s wife can’t resist and looks back, and God turns her into a pillar of salt. So, Lot, along with his two daughters, escapes the destruction. God rains down fire from heaven that completely consumes Sodom, Gomorrah, and the fields around them. In so doing, God eliminated idolatry, human adult sacrifice, child and infant sacrifice, homosexuality, and rape in that region. That was a short list of the many grotesque sins of Sodom and Gomorrah.
But the narrative doesn’t stop there. Lot’s two daughters form a plot. The oldest said, let’s get our father drunk and have sex with him. The younger agreed, and they got their father drunk. That night, the oldest committed incest with her father, but the scriptures say he was so drunk he was unaware of what was happening to him. The next night, they got their father drunk again, and the younger sister committed incest with her father. They both became pregnant. The older daughter named her son Moab, the origin of the Moabites. The younger named her son Ben-Ammi, the origin of the Ammonites. When God instructed Joshua to enter the promised land, he had already destroyed the Moabites and the Ammonites before he went to Jerico and wiped out the Amorites down to the last man, woman, child, and animal in the city.
The Sins of Sodom and Gomorrah
Let’s take an inventory of the sins that led to the obliteration of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Idolatry – They worship idols and false gods.
Human Sacrifice – They sacrificed men, women, and children.
Homosexuality – They condoned and participated in sexual relations between men and boys.
Rape – They participated in the homosexual rape of newcomers that entered their city.
Drunkenness – Lot’s daughters purposely got their father drunk by persuading him to drink.
Incest – Lot’s daughters had sex with their father. Whether that was to have his children or for their sinful pleasure is up for debate. Both of their children were the patriarchs of cities filled with evil, including Human sacrifice, Sexual deviance, Divination, Astrology, Witchcraft, Necromancy, and Wizardry. God hates these sins.
The Sins of Sodom and Gomorrah Continued
The sins of Sodom and Gomorrah go far beyond those mentioned in Genesis 19. God gives every nation or civilization a chance to repent or face the consequences. The Ottomans, the Roman Empire, various Chinese empires, the Mongols, the Greeks, the Babylonians, and the United States of America have sinned. The only difference is that they received their punishment, but our punishment is still in the future. It won’t be long, though, because the USA is full to overflowing with evil, debauchery, murder, child sacrifice (abortion), sexual deviancy, idolatry, and more! We are in big trouble if we don’t rekindle our love for our LORD, the Bible, and common decency. I pray that we have revival, but as I told my Sunday school class, “I pray for revival, but my hope and faith is in the rapture of the church.”
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