Although the mass of men are unaware of it. God is intensely interested in all His creatures, even as the Lord Jesus said, "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father" (Matt. 10:29). Individuals, nations and cities all come under the watchful eye of God, His saints being cared for in a special way, but His providential goodness and His government are ever manifest to those who have eyes to see.
The cities of men are the seats of government and learning, where are displayed their treasures and culture, and where most of their pleasures are found. Alas, the cities are also centres of vice and all kinds of corruption, where the depraved nature of man finds its gratification and manifests the extent of its debasement. The outstanding features of man's city were seen when Cain "went out from the presence of the Lord" and "builded a city ". There was confessed murder by Lamech, the agricultural industry of Jabal, the music of Jubal, and the arts and crafts of Tubal-cain. With these things there was that introduced which would keep man busy and charmed, with all thought of God forgotten, and the voice of conscience silenced.
Lot saw the country that surrounded Sodom to be "well watered everywhere"; it was "as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar" (Gen. 13:10). With such a rich hinterland, Sodom no doubt became prosperous, and its prosperity was the cause of its downfall. This is made clear by the Lord through the prophet, where He says to Israel, "Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her … neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy (Ezekiel 16:49). Instead of using the prosperity that God, in His goodness, had given to alleviate the conditions of those in need, they used their wealth to gratify themselves in gross wickedness.
Pride is the first thing mentioned by the Lord, and it is the leading member of the seven things that are an abomination unto the Lord (Prov. 6:17); it was the cause of Satan's downfall (Ezek. 28:17), and the cause of the fall of many another, even as Scripture teaches, "A man's pride shall bring him low" (Prov. 29:23), and "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall" (Prov. 16:18). Pride marks nations, such as is recorded in Scripture, "We have heard of the pride of Moab" (Isa. 16:6), it marks individuals, and also cities, as here in Sodom. The Lord, who hates pride, takes account of it, wherever it is found, and deals with it in His government.
Whatever caused the pride of Sodom, we are not told: it may have been its great prosperity, for men are very proud of their possessions, especially if they have acquired them by their industry or natural ability. "Fulness of bread" in Sodom certainly showed prosperity, but instead of thanksgiving to God, and the desire to use what He had given them in His interests, the inhabitants gave themselves over to pleasure, and that of the most depraved kind. They were "lovers of their own selves", for they did not "strengthen the hands of the poor and needy", as they ought to have done.
There was also "abundance of idleness", which gave the men of Sodom plenty of time for their pleasures. When Adam was driven from Eden, he was to eat of the ground with sorrow all the days of his life, and God added, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread" (Gen. 3:17-19). The sons of Cain, with their music and arts, had attempted to take the sorrow out of life; the men of Sodom, with their abundance of idleness, had evidently managed to eat their bread without the sweat of Adam.
The pride, luxury and leisure of Sodom brought in grievous sin, which was not unnoticed by God, for "the Lord said. Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it" (Gen. 18:20-21). Alas, when the angels were in the house of Lot, they found that the grievous sin of Sodom was according to the cry that had been heard by the Lord in heaven.
Abraham's intercession for Sodom is lovely, and how pleasing it must have been to God, who listened patiently to His servant, who was separate from Sodom and all connected with it, save with Lot, who had been ensnared into association with it. Lot was related to Abraham, and it was no doubt to spare Lot and his family that Abraham pleaded with God. A patient and merciful God was willing to spare Sodom if ten righteous persons were found in it, but they were not to be found. So far as we know, there was but one righteous man, and that was Lot, who was "vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked", and his righteous soul was vexed "from day to day with their unlawful deeds" (2 Peter 2:7-8).
In mercy, the angels dragged righteous Lot out of Sodom, and the consuming judgment of God fell upon it and upon Gomorrah, turning them into ashes, "making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly" (2 Peter 2:6). All thought of God had gone from the hearts and minds of the men of Sodom, and only self-indulgence occupied them, with the grievous fruits of divine judgment. The record of these things has been left for men, in the holy Scriptures, that they might learn of the ways of God, but the sad history of man shows that he has no desire to learn from God, preferring to go his own way.
Having the oracles of God, there was no excuse for the favoured city of Jerusalem going in the way of Sodom. Jerusalem was the most highly privileged city on earth, for God's holy ark had been brought there, and Jehovah's glory had been enshrined there in the temple Solomon had built. The worship of Jehovah centred there; His priests ministered in His sanctuary; His king sat upon His throne; and God had given all the enemies of Israel into their hands.
Before the reign of Solomon had passed, idolatry had found a place in Israel, and because of it God said He would divide the kingdom, and give ten tribes into the hand of Jeroboam (1 Kings 11:33-36). As soon as Jeroboam sat upon his throne, he led his people into the sin that appeared at the foot of Sinai, for he made two golden calves, and because of this idolatry the ten tribes were led into captivity, for the kings after Jeroboam followed in his idolatrous footsteps.
Grievous as were the sins of Sodom, and the sins of the ten tribes, they were not to be compared with the excesses of the city of Jerusalem. Grieving over the sins of Jerusalem, Jehovah said, "Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters … neither hath Samaria committed half of thy sins; but thou hast multiplied thine abominations more than they" (Ezek. 16:48, 51). These awful abominations are shown in Ezekiel 8.
Is it any wonder that the Lord said the evil of Jerusalem far surpassed that of Sodom and Samaria? Yet there was a remnant true to God in the midst of the evil, and the Lord called to His servants, whom He had appointed, to execute His judgments upon the guilty city, "Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof" (Ezek. 9:4). Lot and his daughters were spared from the doom of Sodom: God had His remnant in Jerusalem, who were marked by Him to escape His consuming judgment.
At a later date, God's judgment again fell upon the guilty city, the city over which the Son of God incarnate wept, and to whom He said, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee" (Luke 13:34). What the Lord foretold of the desolation of Jerusalem in Luke 21:20 was fulfilled when Titus, the Roman general, took the city. Another judgment awaits Jerusalem, as prophesied in Zechariah 14:1-2, when the idolatry spoken of by Daniel, and by the Lord Himself (Matt. 24:15), is introduced by antichrist, the man of sin.
Of the city built by Nebuchadnezzar, in which he boasted, there was a prophecy by Isaiah, long before the date of its accomplishment, "And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah" (Isa. 13:19). As surely as this prophecy was fulfilled, so shall the prophecies of Revelations 18 be fulfilled. Foreseeing the divine judgment upon the false church, which professed to belong to Christ, but which was utterly unfaithful to Him, an angel from heaven, "cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird" (Rev. 18:2).
Christendom, which has been exalted to heaven with the privilege of the light of God, has far exceeded in iniquity the sins of Sodom and the sins of Jerusalem. Under the cloak of Christ's Name, professing Christendom embraces systems of religion that are diabolical in nature, and utterly hateful to God and to those who value the holy Name of Christ. In the parable of the wheat and the tares, the Lord told His disciples that the children of the wicked one would be found among the wheat in the kingdom of heaven, that is, in that which professed His Name on earth.
Paul warned the elders of Ephesus of the grievous wolves who would enter into the Christian circle, not sparing the flock. John spoke of the antichristian teachers who had been within, but had gone out. Jude wrote of "certain men crept in unawares … ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ." The Apostle Peter joins these servants of the Lord to tell us that "there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them … and many shall follow their pernicious ways."
The pride that was found in Sodom is also found in the Christian profession of the last days, where "men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters. proud, blasphemers … despisers of those that are good … lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof" (2 Tim. 3:1-5). In these western lands, where there has been the bright light of the Gospel, men are turning from the truth, and the things that marked Sodom, the corruption and violence, are to be found everywhere.
There is the pride of human achievement, the boasting in the religious circles of progress, "being rich and increased with goods", and there are evidences of luxury everywhere that kings of a past century would have envied. No one need be hungry, for there is fulness of bread, just as there was in Sodom, and there is plenty of leisure, or as it says in regard to Sodom, "abundance of idleness ". Men are not seeking God in their leisure, for they are lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, and in their pleasures the sin of Sodom is not wanting.
Nor has God forgotten the persecution of His saints by the false church, in which "was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth" (Rev. 18:24); and when her judgment comes, it will be celebrated in heaven, for the Lord has said, "Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her" (verse 20). How awful will the divine vengeance be, as indicated in the following verse, "And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all ".
Every part of Babylon will come under judgment; its world of music "shall be heard no more at all"; its world of science shall not be found any more; its great industrial system, which has made it so rich, will for ever pass in judgment; its culture and philosophy "shall shine no more at all"; and that which speaks of nature's purest joy will not be found there, for the whole system will go for ever in God's consuming judgment.
All around us today we see this great system of worldly religion, fast going on to judgment, and there is a voice for the saints of God, sounding from heaven, "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues" (Rev. 18:4). His own will recognise in this call the voice of the Lord Himself, for no other can say, "My people ". He would not have His own mixed up with such a wicked system, for association with evil defiles.
Man was tried in innocency in Eden in perfect conditions, yet he failed grievously. In Sodom, we see what man is, not in innocency, but with an environment very similar to that of Eden, for the plain of Jordan, where Sodom was, was like "the garden of God ". With luxury and leisure, there was pride, and in its train the corruption and violence that drew upon it the divine judgment. Then God took up Israel as a nation, separated them from the idolatrous nations around, dwelt among them, showed them His glory, His signs and wonders, gave them His living oracles, protected them from their enemies, brought them into a land flowing with milk and honey, gave them a priesthood whereby they could approach Him, and gave them a king to sit upon His throne in their midst. Yet in spite of every privilege, Israel rebelled against God, Jerusalem, the city of their king, and the centre of their worship, becoming the scene of idolatry and violence. God often intervened governmentally, punishing His wayward people, until the only remedy was the captivity, and the destruction of the city.
And what shall we say of Christendom? It has been most highly favoured, favoured beyond the natural privileges of Sodom, or the religious privileges of Jerusalem, having the whole revelation of God in the completed word of God, and the presence of the Spirit of God in His House. Its iniquities have merited the awful judgment that awaits it, and that soon shall be executed by a righteous God.
Wm. C. Reid.