| A CATASTROPHE SENT FROM GOD |
| Sodom: a city that earned destruction. |
| "Do you have anyone else here - sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here, because we are going to destroy this place. 19:12-13 |
| Should a catastrophe be read as a punishment from God? Do floods, famines, earthquakes fome because God is angry? The Bible's answer is, "Sometimes, and sometimes not." In Genesis, several catastrophes seemed to "just happen" - they were not a punishment or a warning, though God used them to advance his plans. These included several famines such as the one that brought Joseph to power (chapter 41), a war (chapter 14), a rape (chapter 34). But a few catastrophes God took full credit for - like the one at Sodom and Gomorrah. As usual, the Bible shows little or no interest in telling us the scientific facts about the destruction. Was it a volcanic eruption like Mount St. Helens, for instance? The Bible doesn't say, and the area, now apparently at the bottom of the Dead Sea, cannot easily be investigated. The Bible stresses not how it happened, but why. Gang Rape Sodom was a wretched place. The whole town saw the coming of strangers as a chance for homosexual gang rape. Sexual violence was not the town's only problem. Ezekiel 16:49 says that Sodom was "arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy." God would have let the city stand if Abraham could have located just ten righteous men. Apparently, ten such people did not exist. God's great patience finally ran out. Years earlier, Abraham had refused to accept even a well-earned reward from the government of Sodom (14:21-24). |
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