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Genesis
5. Sodom and Gomorrah: Intercession and Judgment |
Last
update Jan
27, 2002
PDF (Adobe Portable Document Format) and
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notes are available on the download
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Sodom
and Gomorrah: Intercession and Judgment (Genesis 18:16-19:38)
This introductory paragraph
appears in the reproducible handout for session
5 that comes with the video
series Fretheim Explores Genesis.
Luther
Productions. St. Paul.
2000:
Terence
E. Fretheim
The
fifth video session focuses on the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis
18:16-19:38. These chapters describe a devastating judgment on the cities of
Sodom and Gomorrah and Abraham's intercessions with God on their behalf. This
story begins with God's decision to share with Abraham a preliminary decision
regarding judgment on these cities. Abraham intercedes on behalf of the cities
(which includes his nephew Lot and his family), asking that the cities be saved
for the sake of the righteous. Abraham's argument is based on the issue of
critical mass, whether there are sufficient numbers of righteous in the cities
to offset the evil effects of their sins. Though God moves with Abraham, finally
there are an insufficient number (no more than ten) to do so, and the judgment
falls. The righteous few are saved, and an ecological catastrophe befalls the
cities. Moral order affects cosmic order, that is, human sinfulness can
adversely affect all aspects of the created order (including the ecosystem). But
Abraham's intercession on behalf of the wicked cities sets a standard with
respect to the prayers of the righteous on behalf of others, even their enemies.
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Topics
1.
Key Themes
2.
Background
3.
God May Have New Truths to Speak to Us.
Divine Revelation is On-going
4.
God is Slow to Anger
5.
Intercessory Prayer
6.
Will Not the Judge of All the Earth Do
What's Right?
7.
The Sin of Sodom
8.
A God who Works for Good in the Midst of
Great Evil
9.
Moral Order Effects Cosmic Order: the
Judgment of God Reflected in the
Negative Consequences of Sin
10.
Why did Abraham Stop at Ten People?
Corporate Justice: The "Critical
Mass" of Righteous People to
"Leaven" a Sinful Community
References
1.
Key Themes
-
Intercessory Prayer
-
Theme of Divine Judgment
2.
Background
3.
God May Have New Truths to Speak to
Us. Divine
Revelation is On-going
4.
God is Slow to Anger
-
God hears the outcry from Sodom and Gomorrah
-
Yet God moves to judgment slowly. He consults Abraham.
“He is eager to avoid judgment whenever possible.”
(Fretheim)
-
Ezekiel 18:32: God takes no pleasure in the death of
anyone.
-
“God will go to great lengths to find a different
future.” (Fretheim)
5.
Intercessory Prayer
-
God has not made a final decision about the fate of
Sodom and Gomorrah, and God consults with Abraham. God is interested in what
Abraham thinks. Abraham’s input is important. He brings “new ingredients” into
God’s thinking.
-
“God has so entered into relationship with us that God
is not the only one who has something important to say. What human beings
think, what human beings say will contribute in a genuine way to the shape of
the future. God has determined that people’s insights are important for the
shaping of the future.” (Fretheim)
-
When we pray, We give to God our insight, our energy
and passion, our decisiveness. We bring new possibilities to God’s thinking.
6.
Will Not the Judge of All the Earth Do What’s
Right?
7.
The Sin of Sodom
-
A common notion: the sin was homosexual behavior.
-
Furthermore:
-
Ezekiel Chapter 16:48-55: speaks of a wide range of
sins of Sodom and Gomorrah: neglect of poor and needy, greed, luxury.
-
God uses language of outcry when speaking of the sins
of Sodom: this is language used for those oppressed.
-
The sins of Sodom and Gomorrah are thus wide-ranging
and complex, sins we ourselves cannot say we are free from.
8.
A God who Works for Good in the Midst of Great Evil
-
Lot’s offers his own daughters to the mob to spare the
young men
-
Lot’s daughters later have incestuous relations with
Lot, which appears to be an example of how sin begets sin, “What goes around
comes around.”
-
A son results from this union: Moab, who is progenitor
of Ruth, who is a progenitor of Jesus.
-
“Even out of the worst of family situations, God can
bring goodness, life, and blessing to the world.”
(Fretheim page 476 in the New
Interpreter’s Bible)
9.
Moral Order Effects Cosmic
Order: the Judgment of God
Reflected in the Negative Consequences of Sin
-
The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was an
ecological catastrophe.
-
The text links human sin and negative effects on the
environment: “Moral order effects cosmic order.”
-
This does not mean that natural disasters are judgments
of God. Natural disaster are part of the free workings of nature.
-
The text does imply that human sin can
negatively effect the natural world and accumulate to such a degree that it may
lead to a natural disaster.
-
More generally, the fact that there are negative
consequences of sin (the principles “We reap what we sow” and “What goes around
comes around”) is a means by which God mediates the effects of sin so that sin
and evil do not go unchecked in the world. That there are negative consequences
to sin is a reflection of divine judgment against sin and evil.
10.
Why did Abraham
Stop at Ten People? Corporate Justice:
The “Critical Mass” of Righteous People to “Leaven” a Sinful Community
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Why should the righteous and the good seem to fare no
better than the wicked?
-
A number of righteous people in a community can effect
how that community lives, grows, and moves into the future.
-
Their righteousness can outweigh the accumulative
effects of sin and evil (Reverse of the “bad apple” theory). That is, a few
righteous people can mediate or “leaven” the effects of sin and evil in a
community to such a degree that the community can still move into the future
that God intends.
-
For such a critical mass of the righteous, God will
spare the wicked. (And it may appear the wicked fare as well as the righteous).
-
However, there must be a “critical mass:” of such
people. The reality is that at a certain point, the number of righteous will be
unable to sufficiently reverse the effects of sin and evil. Abraham may have
stopped at 10 righteous people in recognition of this.
-
We don’t know what the “critical mass” of righteous is
for our communities.
-
“We should pray and we should act as if we indeed make
the difference in a given situation, so that what we have to say, and what we
have to do, will help shape the future of the society of which we are apart . .
. so we act as if we truly make a difference for the future. . . And God will
take what we say and what we do into account in moving into the future”
(Fretheim).
References
-
Video
series:
Fretheim Explores Genesis. Luther
Productions, St. Paul, 2000
-
"The Book of Genesis. Introduction, Commentary,
and Reflections." Terence E.
Fretheim. In: The New Interpreter's Bible,
A Commentary in Twelve Volumes, Volume
I. Abingdon Press, Nashville, 1994.
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