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What was the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah?
The text of Genesis 19 implies that God considered Lot as a Godly man, largely due to Abraham's covering as family. This approval would have been extended to Lot's family as well. But God had a fierce anger directed at the other inhabitants of the town. We know that he destroyed Sodom with fire and brimstone (sulfur) from above. According to the story, he killed all of the men and women of Sodom, as well as all the children who lived in the city.
A number of astronomers believe the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah involved comet activity by God's order. Dr. John S. Lewis, a retired professor of Planetary Sciences at the University of Arizona, is one scientist who believes that the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was caused by cosmic bombardment, where the description is a signature event of asteroid bombardment. Genesis 19:24 says, “Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone (burning sulfur) and fire from the Lord out of heaven.” The burning sulfur could be a description of the break up and disintegration of a comet in the Earth’s atmosphere. In addition, cometary material is rich in sulfur. Even a small meteor fall can produce a smell of sulfur that is so strong that it is almost suffocating.
Knowing that a cometary impact is being described sheds a different light on what happened to Lot’s wife. Genesis 19:23 says that Lot entered Zoar (the town of refuge agreed upon in verse 21) yet verse 26 says Lot’s wife looked back. This is not an issue of Lot’s wife simply turning her head to look back. It is an issue of her returning back (walking back a good distance) in order to look. (In Luke 17:29-32 Jesus likens the day of his return to the day it rained fire and brimstone on Sodom and says “he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back. Remember Lot's wife.”)
By returning back for a view of the impending destruction Lot’s wife was close enough to be “consumed” (Genesis 19:17). Genesis 19:26 says “But his (Lot’s) wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.” The Hebrew word translated as “salt” is the word malach (#4417 in Strong’s Concordance) which means “powder” as in something “pulverized” like salt or dust. So Genesis 19:26 can be understood to mean “But his (Lot’s) wife (returned and) looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of dust.” Now this verse takes on new meaning because comet impacts raise and produce vast amounts of dust. After an impact the atmosphere rolls back, and then fierce winds containing superheated grains of dust shoot out from the impact site like the “base surge” which rolls away from the site of a nuclear explosion at ground level. Genesis 19:17 NIV warned of being “swept away.” Genesis 19:25 says all “which grew upon the ground” was destroyed. Anyone caught in this surge at just the right distance could conceivably be suffocated and covered by hot dust and become a pillar of dust after the dust cooled and hardened.
It remains unclear from this brief passage in Genesis why God demolished the city. The following theory has been held by conservatives for centuries; that homosexuality ran rampant. This option seems unlikely because in Genesis 19:5, the passage states that all of the men (perhaps all of the people since women where never counted) of Sodom formed the mob at Lot's house and demanded to "know" the angels. The percentage of homosexuals in a typical group of male adults is generally around 5%, not 100%. Additionally, Lot had lived in the city for many years and would have known if all of the men were homosexuals; he would not have offered to sacrifice his daughters to the mob if the men were entirely homosexual.
The reason that the mob wanted to "know" the angelic visitors was to gain the power of the angels. In ancient times, sacred relations were very common. People would engage in intercourse with temple prostitutes who represented a god or goddess. By doing so, the people believed that they would receive a blessing from the deity. If the people of Sodom realized that angels sent by God were present in their city, the men of Sodom may have concluded that raping the angels might give them supernatural powers. The city was rich in commerce; so much so that they were fully given to the flesh to pursue decadent pleasures as did the Roman Empire.
The strongest evidence revealed in Scripture is the residents were uncharitable and abusive to strangers, the poor, sick, and disadvantaged. In that society, a person had a very strong obligation to protect any guests in their home. This belief has considerable support in the many other references to Sodom in the Bible and Jewish literature.
In ancient Jewish literature, such as the Ethics of the Fathers and the Talmud, there are many references to Sodom. The phrase "middat Sdom" was used. It may be translated as "the way the people of Sodom thought". It meant a lack of charity and hospitality towards others; ignoring the needs of the poor, etc. In the Middle East, a person's survival could depend upon the charity of strangers. To help strangers was a solemn religious duty of paramount importance. See Leviticus 19:33-34 and Matthew 25:35, 38 and 43.
Ezekiel 16:50 describes Sodom's sins as pride, laziness, insensitivity to the needs of the poor, and haughtiness, verse 50 refers to the citizens of Sodom as having "committed abomination." It is not known which "abomination(s)" occurred in Sodom, but it could conceivably have been same-gender sexual activity. Also, Jeremiah 49:18 is interpreted as criticizing the inhabitants of Jerusalem for their sexual sins, and implying that they were like the men of Sodom. Jude, Verse 7 wrote that Sodom's sins were gravely sexual in nature. Various biblical translations of this passage in Jude describe the sin as: fornication, going after strange flesh, sexual immorality, perverted sensuality, homosexuality, lust of every kind, immoral acts and unnatural lust. This is not necessarily the reason for the destruction, but was part of it.
Ezekiel 16:49-50 helps clarifies for us why the city was destroyed: “Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen." God states through the prophet that he destroyed Sodom because of their pride, their excess of food while the poor and needy suffered; sexual activity is not even mentioned. Additionally, Matthew 10:14-15 and Luke 10:7-16, Jesus implied that the sin of the people of Sodom was to be inhospitable to strangers.
What we see in panoramic view is a city of wealth and prosperity, a loss of boundaries regarding morality, with a continual lust for more indulgences of the flesh of every kind. Sounds like modern times, doesn’t it? One of the prominent fruits of a decadent person, city or society is a loss of compassion for the needy. The total sum is the scourge that was worthy of hell fire. I have often said; the moment I stop helping the needy is the moment that my flesh has taken control, when my heart is no longer attune to God's. The Western society has placed such a large emphasis on personal gain, wealth, possessions, recreations, that after all indulgences are paid, there is nothing left for those the Lord calls most dear to his heart.
Not wanting to add a marketing plug, but I am grateful to the Lord for Messiah Missions and Meet Me Under the Bridge for example, where all funding is directed for the spiritual and physical needs of some of the poorest souls on this planet. If you have seen the photos, you already know. I used to donate widely too many humanitarian concerns and various institutions, most who paid salaries and maintained buildings. But in my case, the Lord showed me to instead redirect to ignored concerns, vetted through any channel that first spiritually is committed to others, while assisting the needy along the way. I pray each of us are careful who and what we support, and even more concerned if we have no active method to help others outside our immediate family. A freely giving heart is God’s heart.
Knowing that a cometary impact is being described sheds a different light on what happened to Lot’s wife. Genesis 19:23 says that Lot entered Zoar (the town of refuge agreed upon in verse 21) yet verse 26 says Lot’s wife looked back. This is not an issue of Lot’s wife simply turning her head to look back. It is an issue of her returning back (walking back a good distance) in order to look. (In Luke 17:29-32 Jesus likens the day of his return to the day it rained fire and brimstone on Sodom and says “he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back. Remember Lot's wife.”)
By returning back for a view of the impending destruction Lot’s wife was close enough to be “consumed” (Genesis 19:17). Genesis 19:26 says “But his (Lot’s) wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.” The Hebrew word translated as “salt” is the word malach (#4417 in Strong’s Concordance) which means “powder” as in something “pulverized” like salt or dust. So Genesis 19:26 can be understood to mean “But his (Lot’s) wife (returned and) looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of dust.” Now this verse takes on new meaning because comet impacts raise and produce vast amounts of dust. After an impact the atmosphere rolls back, and then fierce winds containing superheated grains of dust shoot out from the impact site like the “base surge” which rolls away from the site of a nuclear explosion at ground level. Genesis 19:17 NIV warned of being “swept away.” Genesis 19:25 says all “which grew upon the ground” was destroyed. Anyone caught in this surge at just the right distance could conceivably be suffocated and covered by hot dust and become a pillar of dust after the dust cooled and hardened.
It remains unclear from this brief passage in Genesis why God demolished the city. The following theory has been held by conservatives for centuries; that homosexuality ran rampant. This option seems unlikely because in Genesis 19:5, the passage states that all of the men (perhaps all of the people since women where never counted) of Sodom formed the mob at Lot's house and demanded to "know" the angels. The percentage of homosexuals in a typical group of male adults is generally around 5%, not 100%. Additionally, Lot had lived in the city for many years and would have known if all of the men were homosexuals; he would not have offered to sacrifice his daughters to the mob if the men were entirely homosexual.
The reason that the mob wanted to "know" the angelic visitors was to gain the power of the angels. In ancient times, sacred relations were very common. People would engage in intercourse with temple prostitutes who represented a god or goddess. By doing so, the people believed that they would receive a blessing from the deity. If the people of Sodom realized that angels sent by God were present in their city, the men of Sodom may have concluded that raping the angels might give them supernatural powers. The city was rich in commerce; so much so that they were fully given to the flesh to pursue decadent pleasures as did the Roman Empire.
The strongest evidence revealed in Scripture is the residents were uncharitable and abusive to strangers, the poor, sick, and disadvantaged. In that society, a person had a very strong obligation to protect any guests in their home. This belief has considerable support in the many other references to Sodom in the Bible and Jewish literature.
In ancient Jewish literature, such as the Ethics of the Fathers and the Talmud, there are many references to Sodom. The phrase "middat Sdom" was used. It may be translated as "the way the people of Sodom thought". It meant a lack of charity and hospitality towards others; ignoring the needs of the poor, etc. In the Middle East, a person's survival could depend upon the charity of strangers. To help strangers was a solemn religious duty of paramount importance. See Leviticus 19:33-34 and Matthew 25:35, 38 and 43.
Ezekiel 16:50 describes Sodom's sins as pride, laziness, insensitivity to the needs of the poor, and haughtiness, verse 50 refers to the citizens of Sodom as having "committed abomination." It is not known which "abomination(s)" occurred in Sodom, but it could conceivably have been same-gender sexual activity. Also, Jeremiah 49:18 is interpreted as criticizing the inhabitants of Jerusalem for their sexual sins, and implying that they were like the men of Sodom. Jude, Verse 7 wrote that Sodom's sins were gravely sexual in nature. Various biblical translations of this passage in Jude describe the sin as: fornication, going after strange flesh, sexual immorality, perverted sensuality, homosexuality, lust of every kind, immoral acts and unnatural lust. This is not necessarily the reason for the destruction, but was part of it.
Ezekiel 16:49-50 helps clarifies for us why the city was destroyed: “Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen." God states through the prophet that he destroyed Sodom because of their pride, their excess of food while the poor and needy suffered; sexual activity is not even mentioned. Additionally, Matthew 10:14-15 and Luke 10:7-16, Jesus implied that the sin of the people of Sodom was to be inhospitable to strangers.
What we see in panoramic view is a city of wealth and prosperity, a loss of boundaries regarding morality, with a continual lust for more indulgences of the flesh of every kind. Sounds like modern times, doesn’t it? One of the prominent fruits of a decadent person, city or society is a loss of compassion for the needy. The total sum is the scourge that was worthy of hell fire. I have often said; the moment I stop helping the needy is the moment that my flesh has taken control, when my heart is no longer attune to God's. The Western society has placed such a large emphasis on personal gain, wealth, possessions, recreations, that after all indulgences are paid, there is nothing left for those the Lord calls most dear to his heart.
Not wanting to add a marketing plug, but I am grateful to the Lord for Messiah Missions and Meet Me Under the Bridge for example, where all funding is directed for the spiritual and physical needs of some of the poorest souls on this planet. If you have seen the photos, you already know. I used to donate widely too many humanitarian concerns and various institutions, most who paid salaries and maintained buildings. But in my case, the Lord showed me to instead redirect to ignored concerns, vetted through any channel that first spiritually is committed to others, while assisting the needy along the way. I pray each of us are careful who and what we support, and even more concerned if we have no active method to help others outside our immediate family. A freely giving heart is God’s heart.