Links for today’s readings:
Read: Genesis 18 Listen: (4:59), Read: John 17 Listen: (3:40)
Links for this weekend’s readings:
Read: Genesis 19 Listen: (5:33), Read: John 18 Listen: (5:16)
Read: Genesis 20 Listen: (2:39), Read: John 19 Listen: (6:23)
Scripture Focus: Genesis 18.25-26, 32
25 Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
26 The Lord said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
32 Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?”
He answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.”
Reflection: How Righteous?
By John Tillman
Culture thinks of Jesus as the nice God and God in the Old Testament as the mean God. It’s true we see more direct acts of divine violence in the Old Testament but the “mean” label ignores that God is responding to victims’ cries.
There was an outcry against Sodom. God answered with localized destruction, eliminating the wicked city.
Just because the city was “wicked” doesn’t make it easy to think about its destruction. It’s a serious matter. Abram shares our concerns. We wonder how God can do this without harming the innocent. Will the judge of all the Earth do right? Yet how can he not do it when the innocent are already being harmed?
Who were Sodom’s victims and what was happening to them? Scripture clues us in.
One group of victims was the poor. Ezekiel was direct about Sodom’s sin: “…arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.” (Ezekiel 16.48-50)
Other prophets compare Jerusalem to Sodom because they gave power to evil leaders and were proud of all their sins, doing them flagrantly. (Jeremiah 23.14; Isaiah 3.5-9)
Another victimized group were travelers. If God assigned you to determine if there were 10 or more righteous people in a large city, how would you do it? The angels posed as vulnerable travelers. They intended to spend the night in the square, as those with little money or no connections would. Lot, however, seemed aware this was not safe and convinced them not to do so. Lot risked his own safety to protect those who, like himself, were “foreigners” in the city and vulnerable to attack and abuse. He showed righteousness by interfering with evil, even if he couldn’t stop it.
How evil does a person or city have to be to deserve destruction and how “good” to be spared? God challenged Jeremiah to find just one righteous person in Jerusalem and he failed. (Jeremiah 5.1)
Are our cities righteous? Ask the vulnerable who cry out to God. Listen to them.
Abram shows us that even the most wicked cities deserve our care and prayers on their behalf. Lot shows us that even even at risk of our home and safety, we must interfere with evil in our cities.
The judge of all the earth will do right. Will his servants?
Like Abram, intercede for the city and like Lot make a practice of interfering with evil.
Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Righteousness shall go before him, and peace shall be a pathway for his feet. — Psalm 85.13
Listen to The Sins of Sodom
Can we conclude that Sodom was destroyed for just one type of sin? The text prohibits that conclusion. Sodom was a web of evil.
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