In the Beginning: Reading Through GenesisSample

Sodom and Gomorrah

Read: Genesis 17–19

Here is the first use of a very important biblical word: covenant. God makes a covenant, a contract, between himself and Abraham in which he makes certain promises to Abraham and commands faithful obedience on Abraham’s part. The Old Testament is the story of the old covenant that God made with Abraham and his descendants. The New Testament is the story of the new covenant that God made with the church of Christ.

Names have great significance in the Bible. Abraham’s name (which up to this point was actually Abram, meaning “exalted father”) is changed to emphasize God’s promise to him that he will have many descendants, even though there was then no evidence present for this.

The three men who appear to Abraham are apparently two angels and God, who takes upon himself human form to relate more meaningfully to Abraham, even as he later took upon himself human form in Jesus Christ. God revealed to Abraham that he was planning to destroy Sodom because of its sin. For the sake of Lot, Abraham pleaded with God to spare Sodom if enough godly people are found there.

The sin of Sodom is great, and one of its sins was the practice of homosexuality. Because of such great sin, God destroys Sodom after warning Lot to flee. Sadly, his wife loves Sodom so much that she perishes with it. Though rescued from Sodom, Lot’s daughters show that Sodom’s sinfulness clings to them by inducing their father’s drunken incest with them.

Prayer: Father, have mercy upon our sinful world and keep us from sharing its spirit. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.