And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;
20. Because because ] Better, as marg., Verily verily.
the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah ] See Gen 19:13. (1) Either, this is the complaint concerning Sodom and Gomorrah going up to Heaven. The genitive “of” is then objective, like “the report of Tyre” (Isa 23:5), “the spoil of thine enemies” (Deu 20:14). (2) Or, it is the cry by the cities, which are personified, and which make their loud complaint against the inhabitants. The genitive then is subjective. See Gen 4:10.
their sin is very grievous ] Cf. Gen 13:13; Eze 16:49-50.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Gen 18:20
Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous
Gods judgment on Sodom
I.
The vale of Sodom was a region blooming and smiling in all the riches of nature; ON EVERY HAND THERE WAS SOMETHING TO RAISE THE THOUGHTS TO THE CREATOR. But amidst all this, what was man? His wickedness was so aggravated and extreme, that the region itself was doomed to perish with its inhabitants. Sin still infects the fair field of nature, and it is this which spoils the beauty of the scene. If all the sin in the world could become a visible thing, it would blast and overpower in our view all the beauty of nature. The sin of Sodom was so aggravated that its cry went up to heaven, and the righteous Governor was obliged to manifest Himself.
II. It is impossible not to be struck with THE CALMNESS AND QUIETNESS WITH WHICH THE WORK OF VENGEANCE PROCEEDED. Three persons came on a friendly visit to Abraham. They accepted his hospitality; spoke with him on a matter of complacent interest–the renewed assurance of his posterity. Then the men rose up from thence and looked toward Sodom. We are left in the dark as to one circumstance here. Only two of the persons went on to Sodom, leaving Abraham to converse with the Almighty. The third disappears from our view–unless he was a manifestation of the Divine Being Himself, and the same that Abraham conversed with in that solemn character.
III. Notice WHAT VALUE THE LORD MUST SET ON THE RIGHTEOUS, when for the sake of ten such men He would have spared Sodom. Only one righteous man dwelt in Sodom, and he was saved.
IV. THE PRECISE MANNER OF THE FEARFUL CATASTROPHE IS BEYOND OUR CONJECTURE. It would seem that an earthquake either accompanied or followed it, but the fire from heaven is intimated as the grand chief agent of the destruction. The people of Sodom had no time for speculations; there was just time for terror and conscience and despair. Yet our Lord says there is a still greater guilt, a more awful destruction even than theirs. The man that lives and dies rejecting Him had better have been exposed to the rain of fire and brimstone and gone down in the gulf of the vale of Siddim. (Y. Foster.)
Lessons from Sodom
I. Notice FIRST THE WORDS OF GOD WHICH INTRODUCE THIS HISTORY. Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, &c. Behind this human manner of speaking what a lesson if; here! The judgments of God from time to time overtake guilty nations and guilty men; but, huge and overwhelming catastrophes as these often are, there is nothing hasty, blind, precipitate about them. He is evermore the same God who, when the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah waxed great, is described as going down to see and inquire whether they had done altogether according to the cry of it.
II. In Gods assurance to Abraham that if there are fifty, forty, thirty, twenty, or even ten righteous men found in the city He will not destroy it, we may recognize a very important law of His government of the world: this, namely,–THAT IT IS NOT THE PRESENCE OF EVIL BUT THE ABSENCE OF GOOD WHICH BRINGS THE LONG-SUFFERING OF GOD TO AN END. However corrupt any fellowship of men may he, however far gone in evil, yet so long as there is a sound, healthy kernel in it of righteous men, that is, of men who love and fear God and will witness for God, there is always hope.
III. This promise of God, I will not destroy it for tens sake, SHOWS US WHAT RIGHTEOUS MEN, LOVERS AND DOERS OF THE TRUTH, ARE. They are as the lightning conductors, drawing aside the fiery bolts of His vengeance, which would else have long since scorched, shattered, and consumed a guilty world. Oftentimes, it may be, they are little accounted of among men, being indeed the hidden ones of God crying in their secret places for the things which are done against the words of Gods lips. The world may pass them, may know nothing of them, yet it is for their sakes that the world is endured and continues unto this day,
IV. Does not this remind us of one duty on behalf of others which we might effectually fulfil if a larger measure of grace dwelt in our hearts?–I MEAN THE DUTY OF PRAYER AND INTERCESSION FOR OTHERS. Prayer for others is never lost, is never in vain; often by it we may draw down blessing upon others, but always and without fail it will return in blessing on ourselves. (Archbishop Trench.)
Sodom
I. SODOMS SINFULNESS. Her sins were committed amidst an unbounded flush of prosperity; they were committed amidst scenes of much natural loveliness, Nature being outraged before the eye of her most beautiful forms: and they were committed not only in opposition to Natures silent, but to Gods spoken, warnings.
II. SODOMS WARNINGS. One was given by the entrance of Lot within its gates; another was given by the advent of Chedorlaomer and the invaders from the east. Abraham and Melchizedek cast their sublime and awful shadows from the Kings Dale southward upon Gomorrahs walls; but the sinners within felt not the hallowing sense of their presence, trembled not at the steps of their majesty.
III. SODOMS INTERCESSOR. Abrahams prayer shows–
1. The confidence that existed between himself and God.
2. It shows Gods personal knowledge of evil.
3. It shows Gods reluctance to punish.
4. It gives proof of the tremendous guilt of Sodom.
IV. This terrible catastrophe lies in A BYE-PATH OF THE DIVINE PROCEDURE; it did not relate immediately to the general course of the patriarchal dispensation; and yet what an awful aside did the fall of these cities utter. It must have struck Abraham with a new sense of the evil of sin and of the holiness and justice of God. (G. Gilfillan.)
I. THEY ARE PRECEDED BY A LONG HISTORY OF WICKEDNESS.
1. The shedding of innocent blood (Gen 4:10; Job 16:18).
2. The peculiar sin of Sodom.
3. The oppression of the people of God.
4. Withholding the hire of the labourer (Jam 5:4).
Gods judgments on nations
II. THEY ARE MANIFESTLY RIGHTEOUS.
1. They proceed slowly.
2. They are only inflicted when the reasons of them have been made evident.
3. They are self-vindicating. (T. H. Leale.)
The depravity of Sodom
We have to speak, then, of Sodoms sinfulness. Delicacy may seem to repel us from such a subject altogether, but there is a false as well as a true delicacy, which, by passing by sin in silence, gives it an amnesty, and suggests the thought of its repetition. Had the sin of Sodom been confined to that people, and had it been rooted out with the guilty cities, it would almost have been sacrilege against human nature to dig it up from the slush of the sea of death, and expose it to the world. But alas I it still exists even in Christian nations, and requires still to be denounced. Had there been but one prevalent evil practice in Sodom, there is something so disgusting, and at the same time comparatively so rare, in the sin which bears the name of the city, that it might have been as well, perhaps, to have passed it over in silence. But it is evident that the peculiar iniquity of Sodom was only the climax and consummation of the general depravity of the place. This is clear, both from the general principles of human nature, and from certain distinct declarations in the Word of God. We are told that pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness, were the sins, or rather were sins producing the flagrant and fatal sin of Sodom; and no doubt along with these every species of excess and licentiousness abounded, so that the city formed, with the exception of Lot and his family, one blot on the face of the earth; and we can conceive of a visitor shuddering with horror, as, passing through it at eventide in haste, he in this street hears cries, faint and half-sincere, of Father, force me not I and in another, finds men and women staggering in their vomit; and in a third, hears men cursing Jehovah, and cursing Lot, and cursing Abraham; and in a fourth, sees obscene dances; and in a fifth, beholds many plunging into the fires of an idol-sacrifice. All this, and more than this, which dares not even be shadowed out in expression, might have been seen in this fearful city, running over as a great caldron of iniquity, and coming to a point in that sin for which its inhabitants are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. It added to the aggravation of these sins, that they were committed amidst an unbounded flush of prosperity; that they were committed amidst scenes of much natural loveliness, nature being outraged before the eye of her most beautiful forms; and that they were committed not only in opposition to natures silent, but to Gods uttered protest. (G. Gilfillan.)
Sodom and its sin
Sodom itself stood not only in the alluvium of a river bed, but on a main highway for land carriage between Babylon and Egypt. The natural consequences of such a position followed fast. When Ezekiel in his analysis of its decline calls fulness of bread, comes without toil to a population so favourably situated. Wealth flowed in. With wealth easily acquired came abundance of idleness; and with leisure and wealth came luxury, their daughter. Then followed pride, the insolence of the pampered; at last, self-indulgence and shameless licence. Possibly the time had not yet arrived for the cultivation of those adornments which lend dignity to wealth, and serve even to veil the deformity of dissolute manners; of letters, I mean, and of the arts. Possibly the race was not endowed by nature with such gifts. At any rate, we detect no signs of such a degree of culture or refinement as has always accompanied civilization among Aryan peoples. The early civilization of the Hamitic tribes seems to have been of a vulgar material type, and to have fallen a speedy prey to vice and corruption. How far that corruption had gone in the case of Sodom is only too apparent on the face of the narrative. Disgusting and unnatural lust has been the plague-spot of heathenism in other times, as well as of at least one Moslem race in our own. But it never carried itself with such effrontery, or showed its vileness so openly, as in the town which has given it a name. Wherever it has appeared, it has marked a stage of social degradation ripe for destruction. Four hundred years after Sodom, other Canaanite tribes in Palestine had become infected with it, till the land was ready, in the strong words of Leviticus, to spue them out. Its prevalence in Greece when St. Paul wrote his letter to the Church of Rome showed how near Greece was to its fall. What it means in the case of the Turk, we are seeing to-day with our eyes. Unnatural vice fills the cup of iniquity to overflowing. It sends up a cry to heaven that the righteous Judge must answer. (J. O.Dykes, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 20. Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah] See Clarke on Ge 13:13.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Sins are said to cry when they are gross, and manifest, and impudent, and such as highly provoke God to anger. He names only these two cities, as being the most eminent in state, and exemplary in wickedness; but under them he includes the rest, as appears by the story.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And the Lord said,…. The Targum of Jonathan adds, to the ministering angels, the two angels that were with him in the likeness of men; or to Abraham, at least in his hearing, by which he understood that Sodom and other cities were about to be destroyed for their sins:
because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great; either of Lot in it, whose righteous soul was vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked, and cried to heaven against them; or of the inhabitants that were oppressed by others, either in their bodies, being forced to submit to their unnatural usage of them, or in their estates, of which they wronged them; particularly the cry of the poor among them, whom they suffered to starve, though there were fulness of bread in the midst of them, see Eze 16:49; the Jews b say, they appointed false judges, who oppressed all strangers that came to Sodom, and made a law, that whoever relieved a poor person should be burnt with fire: or the cry of their sins, which were many and great, and openly and impudently committed; the cry of which came into the ears of the Lord of hosts, and called for vengeance. Those two cities, which perhaps were the greatest and the most remarkable for their sins, are put for all the five cities of the plain, called Pentapolis.
And because their sin is very grievous; attended with very aggravated circumstances, they enjoyed great plenty of good things; and were not to be bore with, being so exceeding sinful, and so publicly and audaciously committed, especially that sin so frequent among them, which has its name from Sodom, see Ge 13:13.
b Pirke Eliezer, c. 25.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
“The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah, yea it is great; and their sin, yea it is very grievous.” The cry is the appeal for vengeance or punishment, which ascends to heaven (Gen 4:10). The serves to give emphasis to the assertion, and is placed in the middle of the sentence to give the greater prominence to the leading thought (cf. Ewald, 330).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
20. The cry of Sodom. The Lord here begins more clearly to explain to Abraham his counsel concerning the destruction of the five cities; although he only names Sodom and Gomorrah, which were much more famous than the rest. But before he makes mention of punishment, he brings forward their iniquities, to teach Abraham that they justly deserved to be destroyed: otherwise the history would not tend to instruction. But when we perceive that the anger of God is provoked by the sin of man, we are inspired with a dread of sinning. In saying that the “cry was great,” (416) he indicates the grievousness of their crimes, because, although the wicked may promise themselves impunity, by concealing their evils, and although these evils may be silently and quietly borne by men; yet their sin will necessarily sound aloud in the ears of God. Therefore this phrase signifies, that all our deeds, even those of which we think the memory to be buried, are presented before the bar of God, and that they, even of themselves, demand vengeance, although there should be none to accuse.
(416) “ Clamorem pro scelerum gravitate multiplicatum fuisse.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Gen. 18:21. Whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it.] Heb. Whether they have made completeness, or filled up the measure of their sins. And if not, I will know.] Onk. But if they repent I will not take vengeance.
Gen. 18:22. Stood yet.] Heb. And LXX. have, Was standing yet. Onk. Stood in prayer before the Lord.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Gen. 18:20-22
GODS JUDGMENTS ON NATIONS
Though every man must give an account for himself to God at the last day, yet Providence does visit judgment upon nations, as such, in this world. Nations have no existence in the future life, and therefore must be punished in this life. Hence religious minds read some awful lessons in human history. They see the punishments of Divine justice visited upon communities of sinners. We have here Gods threatening of judgment upon a wicked nation; a threatening which was as sure as doom; for they had exhausted the Divine forbearance, and there was no more space for repentance. Gods judgments upon nations have the same general characteristics as this one upon Sodom and Gomorrah.
I. They are preceded by a long history of wickedness. Gods retribution does not fall until the harvest of sin is ripe. The wickedness of this people had grown so great as to become proverbial. (Isa. 1:9.) A community must have existed for some time before it can give rise to proverbs. This way of referring to a nations moral character shows that it has been long established in evil ways. These cities were notorious for sins of the worst type. These are mentioned in the Bible as sins which bring down the judgments of God upon nations.
1. The shedding of innocent blood. (Gen. 4:10; Job. 16:18.) This is the highest crime against man. The blood of the innocent appeals to heaven for vengeance. God hears their cry, and by terrible judgments requires their blood of guilty nations.
2. The peculiar sin of Sodom. The vilest form of sensuality derives its name from this wicked city. There are sins of the flesh so heinous that they degrade men below the level of the brute.
3. The oppression of the people of God. (Exo. 3:7.) God regards this sin as specially directed against Himself. To fail in duty, or to go wrong, are sins against God; but to afflict His people is directly to affront the Majesty of God. The same principle is to be observed in the case of those who, by the calamities of human life, are in an especial manner thrown upon the care and kindness of God. The oppression of widows and orphans is regarded in Scripture as a crime which calls for immediate judgment, the very tenderness of God urging Him to inflict it.
4. Withholding the hire of the labourer. (Jas. 5:4.) Sins committed against society differ much in their consequences to individual men. The labourer who works for day wages suffers a grievous wrong when these are withheld. To rob him of the means by which he lives lies very near to crimes directed against his life. The judgments of God, sooner or later, overtake nations who have a bad eminence in such sins as these.
II. They are manifestly righteous. The judgments of God upon sinful communities of men are so conducted that the justice of them may appear.
1. They proceed slowly. The feet of vengeance travel with slow and measured steps. Though the punishment may be just in itself, and the sinful deserve no more time, yet it is delayed in order that Gods ways with men might appear to be right. When we intend acts of love and kindness, there is a propriety in our haste to do them. But in acts of punishmentof righteous judgmentall haste is unseemly. Mercy will rejoice over judgment as long as it possibly can. God is slow to punish. Judgment is His strange work. He endures even the vessels of wrath with much long-suffering. Men have time to see that the signal examples of Divine retribution which history furnishes are just and right.
2. They are only inflicted when the reasons of them have been made evident. God is represented as making careful inquiry. (Gen. 18:21.) Such language is evidently accommodated to our human weakness, but the intent of it is to impress the thought upon our minds, that God will not visit iniquity until it is fully proven.
3. They are self-vindicating. Sodom and Gomorrah are represented as crying to God for vengeance. (Gen. 18:20.) There are some sins which more than others loudly call to Heaven for punishment. Their just recompense thus approves itself to the conscience of humanity.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Gen. 18:20. God regards the sins of nations as such, and bears with them until they cry out for vengeance. They put a strain upon the Divine endurance until they become very grievous, and sparing mercy can hold out no longer.
The sins which destroy nations are those which strike at the very foundations of social order, purity, and safetylawlessness, corruption in family life, general insecurity amidst the wreck of just institutions. Such sins are among those which are open beforehand, going before to judgment.
History reads us this awful lesson, that the fall of great nations has been brought about by their own corruptions.
Every sin makes a moral demand for punishment, and has a voice of crimination against the sinner. Sins, however, are more especially said to cry when they are peculiarly heinous, flagrant, aggravated, and calculated to provoke the wrath of God; and such were now the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah, which two cities are doubtless mentioned for their pre-eminence in crime, though it is clear from Deu. 29:22-24 that several other cities in the immediate vicinity were involved in the same destruction.(Bush.)
Because their sin is very grievous. Or, very heavy; such as the very ground groans under; the axle-tree of the earth is ready to break under it. Sin is a burden to God. (Amo. 2:13.) It was so to Christ; He fell to the ground when He was in His agony. It was so to the angels who sank into hell under it. It was so to Korah and his companythe earth could not bear them. It was so to the Sodomitesthey were so clogged with this superfluity of naughtiness, as St. James calleth it (Gen. 1:21), that God came from heaven to give their land a vomit.(Trapp.)
Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous. The ways of God are not governed by capricethe result of mere will. They approve themselves to the reason of mankind.
Gen. 18:21. Every great judgment upon wicked nations is a special visitation of God.
There is a certain measure of sinsa capacity of iniquitywhich wicked nations must fill before Gods great judgments come upon them.
God is represented as a just judge who has no prepossessions in regard to the case, but is determined to make an exact and careful scrutiny.
The sins of nations require time to develop into a full-grown body, but it is a body prepared for death (Jas. 1:15).
These verses (20, 21), probably, are to be taken as retrospective; as being a parenthetical explanation of the whole scene, which might have been given at the outset, but is now incidentally thrown in: The Lord had said, I will go down now and seespeaking after the manner of men, to mark the perfect equity of His procedure, as not condemning hastily, or without inquiry. This had been His purpose in coming down to earth at all on this occasion. In the execution of this purpose, He had visited Abraham. And now, sending on to Sodom the angels who accompanied Him, and who were appointed to save Lot, He Himself remains behind.(Candlish.)
God keeps open the door of repentance to the very last, so that the worst of characters may have no cause to complain of injustice.
Descent here is, of course, but figuratively ascribed to God. There could be no change of place with Him who is everywhere present; nor can examination be necessary to the eye of Omniscience. The language merely represents God as employing those means of investigation which are necessary to man to declare that all the acts of His vengeance are in perfect conformity to justice, and that He never punishes without the clearest reason. And surely, if anything can show unwillingness to punish, or a desire to see everything in the most favourable light, or an anxiety like that of a tender parent to cleave to the last hope that his child is not irrecoverably lost, we have it in these words. It is speaking of God, indeed, according to the manner of men, but it implies that He would look into the whole case; that He would be slow before He came to the resolution to inflict vengeance to the uttermost; that He would institute a careful inquiry, to see whether what He knew to be bad was incurably bad. In a word, it implies that if there was any possibility, consistently with justice, of sparing that devoted city, He stood ready, in heart and mind, to do it. If we rightly apprehend the drift of the whole narrative, Gen. 18:20-21 are inserted by way of parenthesis, in order to acquaint the reader with the main design for which the Lord, with His two accompanying angels, had descended and made this visit to Abraham. On any other interpretation it is not easy to understand the propriety of the expression, Gen. 18:21, I will go down, when He had actually come down already.(Bush.)
Gods actions, both of mercy and judgment, are proofs of His complete knowledge of men. It is not a blind or irresponsible, but an all-seeing and rational Power that governs the world of nature and of man.
Gen. 18:22. Angels are Gods ministers for mercy and for judgment. They are sent forth to deliver the righteous, and to visit judgment upon the wicked.
Abraham stood yet before the Lord. And without such to stand and pray, the world could not stand: they bear up the pillars of it. Oh, the price with God, and profit to men, of praying persons! God will yield something to such when most of all enraged or resolved (Mat. 24:20). Lot was saved for Abrahams sake when all the rest perished.(Trapp.)
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
20. The cry of Sodom The cry of the sins and abominations of Sodom, which went up to God, like the voice of Abel’s blood (Gen 4:10) demanding punishment .
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And Yahweh said, “Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great and because their sin is very grievous I will now go down and see whether they have totally done according to its cry (ze‘aqa) which has come to me, and if not I will know”.’
The cry of those who have suffered in Sodom and Gomorrah, like the cry of Abel’s blood (Gen 4:10), has reached God. It is the cry of the land itself as it swallowed up their blood and has witnessed extreme sin beyond the imagination of men (‘its cry’). As the next chapter makes clear no stranger was safe in their streets, no woman could preserve her virtue. They had become utterly bestial. The Hebrew word for this ‘cry’ is ze‘aqa which is a semi-technical legal term referring to a strong cry for justice. Compare its use in Habbakuk 1:2; Job 19:7.
We have learned earlier that the iniquity of the Amorite was not yet full (Gen 15:16). It is clear, however, that the iniquity of the men of Sodom is, such were their evil ways.
This is specific anthropomorphism. God is of course aware of the truth. That is why He has come. But He wants Abraham to be aware of what is about to happen before it happens. Thus will he be able to intercede in such a way as to deliver his nephew and any other righteous men and thus will he and his people learn the lesson that will result from the appalling event to come. It is for Abraham’s sake that the delay has taken place.
But God also wants Abraham to know that He gave Sodom and Gomorrah every chance. He is concerned for Abraham to know the full truth about the situation so that he will be satisfied that Yahweh has done what is right.
In a sense this is a microcosm of the great Day of Judgment. Again God will already know everything, but the Day is necessary so as to confirm to all beings that God has dealt justly.
“I will now go down”. This echoes Gen 11:7. It is His angels who go in person as witnesses to the evil of the cities. But the all-seeing eye of Yahweh will go with them, ‘going down’ to see the situation after He has left Abraham and returned above.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Gen 18:20. The cry of Sodom, &c. The sin of cities is thus figuratively represented, calling aloud as it were to heaven for vengeance. See Isa 5:7. And for the phrase, I will go down and see, &c. see notes on ch. Gen 11:4; Gen 11:7. God is a just Judge, and will not punish without the strictest examination. Two of these three persons are deputed (Gen 11:22 compared with ch. Gen 19:1.) to go to Sodom, while the third, the superior Person, the Jehovah, continues with Abraham, and hears his intercession.
It must be pleasing to the learned, and may perhaps be considered as a collateral evidence of the truth of the sacred writings, to perceive the most celebrated of the classic writers continually borrowing their most brilliant ideas from the Oracles of God. Thus Ovid represents the Supreme as coming down to the earth in a human shape, to inquire into the state of a degenerate people:
“The clamours of this vile degenerate age Had reach’d the stars: I will descend, said I, In hope to prove this loud complaint a lie: Disguis’d in human shape I travell’d round The world, and more than what I heard I found.” GARTH.
REFLECTIONS.The visit over, the strangers depart. But Abraham had talked so much of the sweets of their company, he will not leave them thus, but brings them on their way. Note; We are loth to part with those, with whom we have enjoyed much of the presence of the Lord. And now Abraham’s kindness is still additionally repaid: while two of his guests are sent before him, the third stays. His Lord not only gives him his company, but reveals to him his secret. Observe,
1. God’s reasons for informing Abraham of his design. (1.) He will not hide his counsel from him; for he is a friend, for whom he had done much, and would do more. Note; God discovers more of his secret counsels to his servants, than to other men. An enlightened mind, thoroughly versed in God’s word, attains a knowledge next to prophecy. (2.) Abraham will instruct his children and household. Whatever knowledge he hath, will be made useful to others as well as himself. Ye masters of families, behold in Abraham’s practice your example and duty. [1.] Make it your care and business to instruct your children and servants in the way of the Lord. Remember, the lowest under your roof has an immortal soul, and it is entrusted to your care. [2.] Be yourselves examples of what you teach. [3.] Be constant with them at a throne of grace, both to shew them the way thither, and to obtain a blessing on your labours among them.
2. His discovery of the design of his visit to Sodom: their sins, which called for vengeance. And he is come to inquire: not that he wanted to be informed, but that he may appear both patient and just in all his judgments. Learn, (1.) Crying sins are heard in heaven, however unnoticed on earth. And Note; These sins were pride, luxury, and idleness, and their necessary consequences. Who need not hearken, whether some such cry go not up from him? (2.) Sinners say, “God will not see,” but they are woefully mistaken. (3.) God never punishes by report: many are belied, whom God will acquit: but where he condemns, his judgment is ever according to truth.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;
Observe! Sin is said to cry for judgment.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Gen 18:20 And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;
Ver. 20. Because their sin is very grievous. ] Or, very heavy; such as the very ground groans under; the axle of the earth is ready to break under it. Sin is a burden to God. Amo 2:13 It was so to Christ; he fell to the ground when he was in his agony. It was so to the angels, who sunk into hell under it. It was so to Korah and his company; the earth could not bear them. It was so to the Sodomites; they were so clogged with this excrement of naughtiness, a as St James calleth it, Jam 1:21 that God came from heaven to give their land a vomit.
a
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
cry. Figure of speech Prosopopoeia. App-6.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the cry: Gen 4:10, Gen 19:13, Isa 3:9, Isa 5:7, Jer 14:7, Jam 5:4
sin: Gen 13:13
Reciprocal: Gen 3:9 – General Gen 6:5 – God Gen 10:19 – Sodom Gen 19:4 – all Exo 2:23 – cry Num 11:17 – talk with Job 24:1 – not see Psa 78:59 – God Jer 23:14 – Sodom Eze 16:46 – thy younger sister Eze 16:49 – fulness Eze 16:50 – and committed Joe 3:13 – for their Jon 1:2 – for Luk 16:2 – How Luk 17:28 – General Rom 5:13 – until Rev 18:5 – reached
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Where Lookest Thou
Gen 13:8-11; Gen 18:20-22; Gen 19:25-28
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
Our Scripture today presents four looks toward Sodom. 1. There was the look of Lot, or the look of worldly advantage. 2. There was the look of the Lord, or the look of coming judgment. 3. There was the look of Lot’s wife, or the look of folly and of pride. 4. There was the look of Abraham, or the look of compassionate submission. Let us examine these four looks, one at a time.
1. The look of Lot. There had been a strife betwixt Abraham’s herdsmen, and the herdsmen of Lot. Abraham realized that the time for separation had come.
There are some who may feel that Lot had a keen business vision, and that he could see a dollar a long way off. We agree, but we add that Lot’s vision was circumscribed by his own personal advantage, and that, in reality, he was blinded and could not see afar.
2. The look of the Lord. This was the look of judgment. The Lord saw everything that Lot saw, but he saw more than Lot saw. The Lord beheld in Sodom a city that reeked with sin. He beheld the wreckage that would come to Lot and his family by reason of Lot’s foolish choice.
“The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew Himself strong in the behalf of those whose heart is perfect toward Him.” Those same eyes, however, look in judgment upon all whose heart wanders from the Lord.
3. The look of Lot’s wife. As they fled from Sodom, Lot’s wife turned, and looked back. We can hardly wonder at her folly. Everything she loved was in Sodom. She had left the daughters, who had married Sodomites, and her sons-in-law behind her. She had left her friends of fashion and of pomp behind her. She had left her beautiful home and its luxuries behind her. She had left more than all of this-she had left the affections of her own heart behind her.
When Lot’s wife looked toward Sodom, she looked toward her treasures, and toward those things which were dearer to her than life. Let us fear lest we, too, become entangled again in a yoke of bondage, and begin to long after the “flesh pots of Egypt,” and thus look back.
4. The look of Abraham. Abraham had prayed earnestly for Lot. The result of Abraham’s prayer was that Lot and his two daughters were saved. God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out.
I. PRAYER, AND THE UPWARD LOOK (2Ch 20:12)
Moab and Ammon came against Jehoshaphat to battle. They were a great multitude, and Jehoshaphat was afraid. Then Jehoshaphat prayed unto the Lord and said, “O our God, wilt Thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon Thee.”
In answer to Jehoshaphat’s prayer, the enemy was overthrown. We need to place our eyes upon God. God has said, “Fret not thyself because of evil doers.” To the contrary, we must learn to “rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.” When everything seems against us, it is only God’s opportunity to show His strength. Sometimes, in earnest prayer, we need to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.
“Men ought always to pray, and not to faint.” Habakkuk came to the place where the fig tree did not blossom, neither was there fruit in the vine; the labour of the olive failed, and the fields yielded no meat; the flock was cut off from the fold, and no herd was found in the stall: yet, the Prophet said, “I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.”
It was the clinging prayer of Jacob that made him a victor. It is when we come to the end of ourselves, and lift up our face with beseeching unto God, that He comes to our help.
God has said, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” It is sufficient everywhere. What we must do is to lift up our eyes unto the Lord, and get in touch with His power. We will. always find that there is a larger balance to the credit of faith when we draw upon Heavenly resources.
II. SERVICE, THE OUTWARD LOOK (Joh 4:35-36)
The Lord told the disciples to lift up their eyes, and to look, for the fields were white unto the harvest. When our eyes were upon the fields for service, His eyes would be upon us for blessing. When the Children of Israel faced the land of Canaan, God told them to enter in, and to possess the land. Then, said God, “I will be with thee.”
We fail to receive from God, because we refuse to undertake for God. He who sits still, and never ventures, in faith, will find God waiting for him to step out, instead of working for Him.
The eyes of the Lord are looking for men ready to leave father, mother, brother, sister, houses and lands, that they may go forth to reap.
Do you see the ripened fields? Do you hear the voice of God saying, “Who will go and reap?” God grant that you may say, “Here am I, Lord, send me.”
When the Lord commanded Joshua, saying, “Arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people,” there was no time for fear, no time to weigh the difficulties of the wilderness. What mattered if there were difficulties ahead; God had commanded, “Go!” They dared not hesitate.
The Lord told Philip to go in the road which was desert. Immediately Philip arose and went. Can we not even now hear the voice of God saying to us, even as He said to Israel of old, “Go forward”?
The Lord Himself has promised, “I will be with thee.” We must not cease to go until we have preached the Gospel to every creature; until every stock of ripened grain has been harvested home.
If barriers lie across our way, they will disappear before our march of faith.
‘Tis the voice of the Master, “Press forward today,
The fields are all ripened with grain”;
‘Tis the voice of the servant, ‘I’ll haste to obey,
Not counting the cost, but the gain.”
III. CONFLICT, THE INWARD LOOK (Rom 7:18-24)
When we look within and view our human heart, in its sinful estate, we are crushed, even to despair. Paul said, “I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.” Do you marvel that Paul then cried, “O wretched man that I am”? The vision of his own sinful self was enough to cause him to bemoan himself.
It is always true that when we look within and see the contumely of our old man, we are disturbed and disheartened. What then shall we do? Let us reckon the old man as dead. Let us refuse to listen to its voice, to walk in its ways, or to fulfil its desires.
On the contrary, let us look away to the Holy Spirit, remembering that He, likewise, dwells within. If we walk in the Spirit, we will not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. If we walk in the Spirit, our moans of despair will be changed into paeans of victory. Instead of self-condemnation, we will have “no condemnation.” Instead of the works of the flesh being made manifest, we will bear the fruit of the Spirit.
The believer must guard against being overwhelmed by introspection. He must remember that Jesus Christ is stronger than self, that the Holy Spirit will give deliverance from the dominion of the self-life.
It is unwise for the Christian to boast in the flesh, or to walk by the flesh, or to pamper the flesh. Paul said, “I die daily.” There is only one place for the self-life and that is on the Cross, to be crucified with Christ. It we live the life of victory, we must not walk by the old man, but by the new man.
Christ has said, “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself.” In the Christian experience Christ must be All, and in all, and the old man nothing at all.
IV. RETROSPECTION, THE BACKWARD LOOK (2Ti 4:8)
As Paul looked backward over a fruitful ministry, and a faithful life, he could say, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” Here is a retrospective that was worth the while.
We need to look backward now and then, not with the spirit of boastfulness, but with the spirit of honest contemplation.
At the end of every day it will profit us to study what has been done, and said, and thought. Thus we can profit by our mistakes, and increase our victories. The first will cause us to be more careful; and the second will bring us encouragement by the way.
In retrospection, however, we must never be overwhelmed or discouraged by reason of our failure; nor, must we be satisfied with our successes. We must watch against resting upon our past accomplishments. We should use what God has done through us in the past, as an incentive to renewed and enlarged undertakings in the future.
If we would make our final retrospective, at the close of life’s day, a cause for thanksgiving and praise, we must be very careful to fill in each day, as it passes, with faithful service; with fidelity to the faith; and with holy living.
When the Lord Jesus approached the end of His earthly ministry, He said, “I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.”
V. THE PERSPECTIVE, THE ONWARD LOOK (Hab 2:3)
We like the word spoken by Habakkuk: “For the vision is yet for an appointed time * * though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.”
As we look at present world-conditions we are disheartened. We are walking through a valley of the shadow of death. Sin and sorrow are wreaking out misery everywhere. Satan is renewing every effort against the race.
The Word of God promises no relief. Unto the end wars are determined. Evil men are to wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. Iniquity will abound. God paints no roseate picture of the last days. He tells us, rather, that “perilous times shall come.”
What Habakkuk saw, however, was a vision that looked on far beyond the present hour, far beyond the hour of Jacob’s trouble. We know that Habakkuk saw the overthrow of Israel, and the cup of sorrow which she must drink; but he saw also the Lord coming, with His glory covering the Heavens, and he saw the earth full of His praise. He saw Christ coming in judgment against the nations that had despoiled Israel. He saw the sun and moon standing still as the Lord’s arrows went forth. He saw the Lord marching through the land in indignation, threshing the heathen in His anger. Then, he saw the salvation of God’s people, with the head of the house of the wicked cut down.
We need a similar vision. We would not be blind to the day of wrath that is about to fall upon the earth, but we would see also another day,-a day of peace, a day when men shall beat the swords into plowshares, and the spears into pruninghooks; a day when Christ shall reign in righteousness.
If we see nothing but the present hour, heading up in the reign and rule of the antichrist, we will become discouraged; but, if we see beyond that hour, the day of “the Lord seated upon His throne,” we will become encouraged and full of blessed anticipation.
VI. DISCOURAGEMENT, THE DOWNWARD LOOK (Gen 4:5-6)
Sin had entered into the Garden, and man had been expelled therefrom. Cain and Abel had been born with the ravages of sin upon them. Abel had placed his faith in the blood of a sacrifice, which anticipated the Cross of Christ. Cain had rejected the atonement, and had placed his faith in a bloodless sacrifice-art ethical conception.
In jealousy Cain rose up and slew his brother. When Cain had seen that God accepted Abel and rejected himself, he was wroth, and his countenance fell. The result of sin is always a downcast look-a fallen countenance.
God made man an “uplooker.” He placed his head on the top of him. He gave him as his realm of his contemplation and vision, the things which were high and holy. Sin changed man’s perspective; it turned his face from the skies, where God rules; to the earth, where man dwells.
The sinner looks at the things seen, not at the things unseen; he centers his affections upon the things of the earth, not upon the things of the sky.
Saints are “uplookers” and not “downlookers.” We are looking for that Blessed Hope, and the Glorious Appearing of our Lord. We are building our treasures in Heaven, not upon the earth. We are strangers and pilgrims, journeying toward a City, whose Builder and Maker is God.
The man who, Cain-like, has his countenance downcast, and is living for this present world, is blind and cannot see afar off. The god of this world hath veiled his eyes lest the light of the Gospel of the glory of God should shine in upon him and convert him.
VII. ENCOURAGEMENT, THE GOD-WARD LOOK (2Ki 6:17)
Gehazi must have trembled with fear as he saw the enemy closing in upon Elisha, Then it was that the Prophet prayed, and said, “Lord, I pray Thee, open his eyes, that he may see.” What Gehazi saw was the mountain full of God’s horses and chariots, giving protection to His Prophet.
We need the vision which God gave to Gehazi. We need to see all Heaven working in our behalf. When this is before us, we will lift up the hands that hang down and find strength for our feeble knees.
Instead of looking at our emergencies, we should look beyond them, and above them to God’s provision and power. When the Children of Israel saw the mountains on one side, the sea before them, and Pharaoh’s hosts coming upon them and closing them in, they needed to look away to God.
The hosts of the Lord are an innumerable multitude, and they are all working in our behalf. The Lord, Himself, has placed at our disposal all of the power invested in Him, as He sits enthroned above.
Retreat should never be found in the Christian’s vocabulary. We should not even try to go around our difficulties. We should press through them.
The ten spies came back, saying, “We saw giants.” Joshua and Caleb said, “Let us go up at once”-they saw God.
There are giants at every turn. They are in our family life; they are in our business careers; they are in our spiritual walk; they are everywhere. If we see the powers of God around us, we will say, “They be bread for us; we will eat them up.” Without the opening of our eyes, and the faith which the vision of God instills, we will be eaten up by our enemies.
Our God is a God of infinite power. Our battle, therefore, is a battle with a sure conquest at its close. We will prove more than victors, through Him who loved us. We may experience a continuous fight, but we will have a glorious conclusion.
AN ILLUSTRATION
BIRDS ON THE WING
“Birds are seldom taken in their flight; the more we are upon the wing of Heavenly thoughts the more we escape snares.” “O that we would remember this, and never tarry long on the ground lest the fowler ensnare us. We need to be much taken up with Divine things, rising in thought above these temporal matters, or else the world will entangle us, and we shall be like birds held with limed twigs, or encompassed in a net. Holy meditation can scarcely be overdone; in this age we fear it never is. We are too worldly, and think too much of the fleeting trifles of time, and so the enemy gets an advantage of us, and takes a shot at us. O for more wing and more use of the flight we have! Communion with Jesus is not only sweet in itself, but it has a preserving power by bearing us aloft, above gun-shot of the enemy. Thoughts of Heaven prevent discontent with our present lot, delight in God drives away love to the world, and joy in our Lord Jesus expels pride and carnal pleasure: thus we escape from many evils by rising above them.
Up, then, my heart. Up from the weedy ditches and briery hedges of the world into the clear atmosphere of Heaven. There where the dews of grace are born, and the sun of righteousness is Lord paramount, and the blessed wind of the Spirit blows from the everlasting hills, thou wilt find rest on the wing, and sing for joy where thine enemies cannot even see thee.”