Genesis 18:17 - Homiletics

Sodom's doom revealed.

I. THE REASON OF THE REVELATION .

1. Abraham's new position . Having been lately taken into covenant with God, allied by the holy tie of a celestial friendship to Jehovah, the patriarch seemed in the Lord's eyes to occupy a footing of intimacy before him that demanded the disclosure of Sodom's impending doom. That footing the patriarch no doubt owed to Divine grace—sovereign, unmerited, free; but still, having been accorded to him, it is, by a further act of grace, represented, as laying God himself under certain' obligations towards his servant. So the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will show them his covenant" ( Psalms 25:14 ).

2. Abraham's new prospects . About to become the head of a great nation, it was natural to suppose that Abraham would be profoundly interested in all that concerned mankind. As the head of the Old Testament Church too, which had just been constituted ( Genesis 17:1-27 .), there existed a special reason for his being properly instructed as to the impending judgment of Sodom. Upon him would devolve the interpretation to the men of his day of the significance of that event. Rightly viewed, this is one of the proper functions of the Church on earth—to explain God's judgments to the unbelieving world. Hence "the Lord God doeth nothing but he revealeth his secret unto Ms servants the prophets" ( Amos 3:7 ).

3. Abraham's new responsibilities . These were the cultivation of personal and family religion, which devolved upon him with a new force and a heavier degree of obligation than they did before in consequence of his new standing as a Church member. God having graciously assigned this position within the Church in order that he might command his children and his household after him, by means of religious instruction as well as through the influence of personal example, to fear God, it was needful that he should be informed as to the ground, at least, of the coming judgment on the cities of the plain.

II. THE REASON OF THE RETRIBUTION . This was the wickedness of Sodom, which was—

1. Exceedingly heinous as to its character . Minutely detailed in the ensuing chapter, it is here only indirectly mentioned as something grievous in the sight of God. All sin is inherently offensive in the eyes of the Almighty; but some forms of wickedness are more presumptuously daring or more intrinsically loathsome than others, and of such sort were the sins of Sodom ( Genesis 19:1 ).

2. Exceedingly abundant as to its measure . It was "multiplied" iniquity of which the Sodomites were guilty; and this not simply in the sense in which the sins of all may be characterized as beyond computation ( Psalms 19:12 ; Psalms 40:12 ), but in the sense that their hearts were set in them to do evil ( Ecclesiastes 8:11 ), so that they worked all manner of uncleanness with greediness ( Ephesians 4:19 ).

3. Exceedingly clear as to its commission . Though God speaks of making investigation into the sins of Sodom, this was really unnecessary. The moral degeneracy of the inhabitants of the Jordan valley was one of the "all things" that are ever "naked and manifest" unto his eye. So nothing can hide sin from God ( 2 Chronicles 16:9 ; Proverbs 15:3 ; Amos 9:8 ).

4. Exceedingly patent as to its ill desert . This was the reason why God employed the language of Genesis 18:21 . He meant that though the guilt of Sodom was great, he would not let loose his vengeance until it should be seen to be perfectly just. Nothing would be done in haste, but all with judicial calmness.

Lessons:—

1. The impotence of anything but true religion to purify the heart or refine a people.

2. God is specially observant of the wickedness of great cities.

3. When great cities sink to a certain depth in their wickedness they are doomed to perish.

4. When God's judgments overtake a nation they are ever characterized by justice.