Sodom’s Sin

Ideas are not as important as the words used to convey them. We all have ideas as to what caused the destruction of Sodom, but God gave Ezekiel the words to explain the reason for that destruction.

Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good. (Ezekiel 16:49-50 KJV)

We need to take a very close look at our use of the word “pride” and be certain how we apply it. We say we are proud of our children’s scholastic achievements, proud of our sports teams, proud of our home, proud of our nation. Do we take pride in these things? Have you looked at the first few definitions of the word “pride”?

“A sense of one's own proper dignity or value; self-respect. Pleasure or satisfaction taken in an achievement, possession, or association”. “[A] high or inordinate opinion of one's own dignity, importance, merit”. Most of the web’s definitions also include words such as disdainful, ostentatious, conceit, insolence, arrogant – which clearly are not complimentary.

The Bible doesn’t take a good view of pride, either. God told Israel:

And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass: (Leviticus 26:19 KJV)

David recognized it in others:

The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts. (Psalms 10:4 KJV)

Solomon wrote of it in Proverbs 8:13, 11:2, 13:10, 14:3, 16:18, 29:23 – all admonitions to stay away from pride. John tells us, in the Bible’s last reference to pride:

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. (1 John 2:16 KJV)

How close are we to the next two things that brought condemnation to Sodom, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness? Does your pantry hold enough food for your family to last several days? If that runs out, does your bank account hold enough to buy some more? Are there multiple markets, grocery and convenience stores. That’s fulness of bread.

Let’s talk about idleness, too. Suppose out of your 168 hours each week you spend 40 working and you sleep eight hours each night. That leaves you with 42% of your entire week available for – what? Leisure. How do you spend that 42%?

If you attend Sunday School, morning and evening worship, choir practice and Wednesday services, that’s only 3.5% of your entire weekly hours, or only 8.3% of your leisure hours. Appears to me we have an abundance of idleness. Any of that time spent with the poor and needy?

Look beyond the sin we think of when we hear of Sodom and look for the sin in our own lives that destroyed the city. We are guilty of pride, material wealth and an abundance of leisure time. What will be done to change that? If not from changes within through God’s mercy, do we face His displeasure as did Sodom?

How did you reach the conclusion that it doesn’t apply to us?