Nine Observations from Genesis 19 in Light of Pride Month by Nicholas Kallis
My devotional time in the Scriptures has recently taken me to Genesis 19, where God rescues righteous Lot, and famously pours out his righteous wrath on wicked Sodom and Gomorrah. Quite providentally, my time in Genesis 19 has also aligned with “Pride month”, which is the West’s now annual and ritual celebration of the Sexual Revolution. Reading Genesis 19 during Pride month has illuminated truths about the world in which we live. Here are nine observations from Genesis 19 that are relevant for us during Pride month.
1. In the city of Sodom, there was total communal engagement in sin. Moses writes, “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” (Gen 19:4–5). Note that “both young and old, all the people to the last man” were engaged in this wickedness. The observance of Pride month is at heart, a cultic celebration of the Sexual Revolution. Major institutions now participate in the celebration by showing their approval of perverted sexuality. This ritual–like observation has infiltrated even companies and institutions aimed at children. America, like Sodom, demands total engagement of the entire populace in its sin of choice.
2. The sin of Sodom in Genesis 19 was their sexual immorality, notably, their pursuit of “different flesh” (σαρκὸς ἑτέρας) as Jude writes. Here, the “women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men” (Rom 1:26–27). Sodom’s degradation into such wickedness was a clear sign of God’s wrath, as Paul makes clear in Romans 1 (Rom 1:24, 26, 28). Likewise, the blatant celebration of such wickedness in America is a sign that God in his wrath has given many up to their sinful passions.
3. The righteous, so long as they do not give approval to the wickedness of sinful men will never be accepted as one of the world’s own. We see this in Sodom’s reply to Lot, “This fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them” (Gen 19:9). How long had Lot been part of Sodom? Perhaps two decades, or more (cf., Gen 12:4, 13:10–11, 14:8–12, 16:16). No matter how long, the men of Sodom did not consider him their own, but only a sojourner.
Likewise, today, if the righteous do not pay homage to America’s spirit of the age, then they too will be considered sojourners.
4. A sign of a wicked culture is intolerance of moral standards and objective pronouncements of right and wrong. The men of Sodom scoffed at Lot’s plea to restrain themselves from their wicked intention. Sodom knows no restraints, and tolerates no restraints. Sodom boasted in its acceptance of everything and anything. Sodom possessed no category of rightful shame, and no mourning over sin (cf., 1 Cor 5:1–2, 6). Pride month is about the unrestrained expressions of the human will, and the rejection of God’s governance over the human will.
5. Not only was Sodom guilty of the sin of sexual immorality, they were also evidently purveyors of great injustice. The angels said to Lot, “we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the Lord” (Gen 19:13). What was this outcry? Ezekiel 16 sheds some light. “Behold, this was the guilt of Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy” (Ezk 16:49–50). Sodom suffered from the paradox of tolerance and injustice, as well as the paradox of abundant ease, and great brutality. America too suffers from such paradoxes. America prides itself on tolerance, and has abundant ease, and yet at the same time, America commits great injustice and brutality in shedding the innocent blood of the preborn.
6. In Genesis 19:14, we find another mark of Sodom. “So Lot went out and said to his sons–in–law, who were to marry his daughters, “Up! Get out of this place, for the LORD is about to destroy the city.” But he seemed to his sons–in–law to be jesting.” Sodom was so wicked that its inhabitants could not receive with any seriousness the warning of God’s wrath. Their souls could not stomach it; they devolved into a life of trivialization. A culture or country that has the spirit of Sodom is known by their inability to differentiate the profane from the sacred.
7. In the response of the sons–in–law, we find ‘life as normal’ in Sodom. There is no general expectation of God’s imminent judgment. This is how Jesus reads the Sodom narrative in Luke 17. Jesus says, “Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot––they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all––so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed (Luke 17:28–30). Prior to this, Jesus connects the normal life of Sodom, right before its destruction, to the world of the ungodly in the days of Noah, just prior to its destruction (cf., 2 Pet 2:5–8). Jesus warns that the days preceding his second coming will be the same (Luke 17:22–37). As Christians living in America, we would do well to observe that our day is not so much different from the day of Noah and of Lot. Observing this, we ought to make every effort to warn people about the coming wrath of the Son, and plead with them to find the refuge that is alone found in his grace.
8. When Sodom is in the world, there is always the danger that Sodom will be in the church. Throughout Scripture, the biblical authors make use of Sodom to depict the corruption of God’s people or the danger that is near from false teachers (Deut 32:32–33; Judg 19; Isa 1:10; Ezek 16; 2 Pet 2:4–8; Jude 7; Rev 11:8). Peter and Jude mention Sodom in their letters because they are concerned that the spirit of Sodom has infiltrated the church through the false teachers who “have crept in unnoticed” (Jude 4). Jude says that their false teaching is the perversion of “the grace of God into sensuality” (Jude 4; cf., 2 Pet 2:7), and that in reality, a denial of “our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” (Jude 4). This is the “obedience–free” gospel that entices persons into enslaving sin (2 Pet 2:19–20).
9. As our Lord Jesus said, “Remember Lot’s wife.” For, as he continues, “Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it” (Luke 17:32–33). If we preserve our life in this wicked world; if we wish to be more than sojourners in Sodom, to be residents, we will be condemned along with Sodom. But if we lose our life, and die to sin with Christ, we will inherit the new heavens and the new earth. Let us then heed the words, “Do not love the world or the things in the world,” for “the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 5:15–17).
Nicholas Kallis is employed with the Billy Graham Evangelicalistic Association and lives in Enon, OH, with his wife and daughter.