MORE TOLERABLE FOR SODOM AND GOMORRAH


In Matthew Chapter 10, Christ issues a severe and frightful warning of judgment against those who reject the Gospel proclaimed to them by His disciples. We read there:

And whosoever shall not receive you nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. (Matthew 10:13-15)

Why did Christ issue so stark a warning, and what makes it so serious?

First, Sodom and Gomorrah were completely destroyed in the days of Abraham and Lot (circa 2068 BC) when God rained fire from heaven upon them, turning them into ashes, as a result of their wickedness. We read in Genesis 13, 18 and 19:

But the men of Sodom [were] wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly. (Genesis 13:13)

And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know. (Genesis 18:20-21)

Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground....And he (Abraham) looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace. (Genesis 19:24-25, 28)

This historical event became an infamous account that all were keenly aware of long before Jesus' day. In fact, God used this destruction, along with the flood of Noah's day, as a prime example of judgment day upon the world for its pagan violence and wickedness:

For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast [them] down to hell, and delivered [them] into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth [person], a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned [them] with an overthrow, making [them] an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: (2 Peter 2:4-7)

Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. (Jude verse 7)

Then we read about judgment day itself:

[Seeing] then [that] all these things shall be dissolved, what manner [of persons] ought ye to be in [all] holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? (2 Peter 3:11-12)

So the end of time will arrive with a much larger version of the fire that rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah, encompassing the entire creation. And thus we see that the focus on the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by fire was of enormous importance. It was a terrible destruction of incineration for wickedness that foreshadows that of the end of time.

Sometimes in the Old Testament, God spoke about the wickedness of Israel as though they were as Sodom and Gomorrah. Additionally, God spoke of Gentile cities that would be destroyed as Sodom. But now, in Matthew 10, Jesus is saying that it will actually more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than it will be for the cities He is preaching to.

A few parallel verses to Matthew 10 are found in Matthew 11, Mark 6 and Luke 10:

And you, Capernaum, which are exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works which have been done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you. (Matthew 11:23-24)

And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when ye depart thence, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment than for that city. (Mark 6:11)

But into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you not, go your ways out into the streets of the same, and say, Even the very dust of your city, which cleaves on us, we do wipe off against you: notwithstanding be ye sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city. (Luke 10:10-12)

So God underscores this fact in several places in the Bible. If you hear the Gospel and reject it, it shall be worse for you than for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment. And since the Gospel has been published in all the world since Jesus' day, judgment for the entire world that has heard something of the Gospel will be worse than it was for Sodom and Gomorrah.

An immediate point here is that it's far worse to refuse the light of the Gospel message, to despise the Good News of the forgiveness of sin and of redemption in Christ unto eternal life, than it was for Sodom and Gomorrah to spurn what little knowledge they had of God. We'll see this presently.

But what does Christ mean when he says that judgment will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah? Jesus was very likely referring to Lamentations 4, which was written during the captivity of Israel after the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the Babylonians (circa 587 BC) for their rebellion against God. We read in verse 6:

For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her. (Lamentations 4:6)

Like the cities that Christ is preaching against, Israel had rejected the counsel of God to their own destruction. So Christ is actually looking back into this Old Testament reality in declaring such a warning in Matthew 10. But notice that God speaks here of "the daughter of my people" in the context of this terrible punishment. God is speaking of the Israelites, of those who were His people. This is parallel to Christ's warning to the cities of Israel (and to anyone who hears the Gospel and rejects it) that the day of judgment will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for them. So this wasn't actually a new principle or a new warning that Christ was giving -- He was effectivly giving us the same warning that God demonstrated long ago in Lamentations, that those who have come under the hearing and instruction of the Word but repudiate it are sadly far worse off than had they not heard at all. This is just the nature of God's Law, if we are not covered by the blood of Christ the guiltier we stand and the more we are condemned by it's light and perfect righteousness.

But how can it be more tolerable to be incinerated by a rain of fire like Sodom and Gomorrah? For the answer to this, we must look at a few other verses in Lamentations 4 to give us the larger context. We'll start again with verse 6 and then pick up again at verse 9:

For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her. (Lamentations 4:6)

[They that are] slain with the sword are better than [they that are] slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for [want of] the fruits of the field. The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people. The LORD has accomplished his fury; he hath poured out his fierce anger, and has kindled a fire in Zion, and it has devoured the foundations thereof. The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem. For the sins of her prophets, [and] the iniquities of her priests that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her, They have wandered [as] blind [men] in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood so that men could not touch their garments. (Lam 4:9-14)

The anger of the LORD has divided them; he will no more regard them: they respected not the persons of the priests, they favoured not the elders. As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation [that] could not save [us]. They hunt our steps that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come. Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven: they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness. (Lam 4:16-19)

This is enormously ugly language here. God does not specifically refer to the rain of fire upon Sodom, but He does say that to be slain by the sword is better than to be slain by hunger. This is a similar idea. When God destroyed Sodom by fire, they were quickly destroyed and gone. There was not a long, drawn-out punishment or torment involved and there was never any expectation that they would receive the eternal blessing of God. God says of Sodom in the latter half of verse 6, "[Sodom] was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her." It's similar to the mercy of putting an animal down so as not to prolong its misery. There is a point where death is more tolerable compared to a life of misery, a quick death to a slow, agonizing one where one is weary of life itself. So God uses the awful language that they (the daughter of His people) were so hungry, "The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people."

So the daughter of His people, that is, Israel, those who represented the very people of God but had turned aside from Him in this terrible situation, languished in agony and grief of mind, pining away in darkness, weariness and evil, with no remedy from God Who had now cast them off. God no longer regarded them to deliver them from the hand of the enemy who oppressively ruled over them as they wished without restraint. God had fully given them over to destruction, and a worse destruction that that of Sodom.

Again, judgment for rebellion against God is intensified given the more light received from God that has been spurned. Sodom and Gomorrah had very little Gospel witness, they likely only knew what they saw and heard through righteous Lot in their midst long before the Old Testament was even written. He was their main, and perhaps sole, testimony to the goodness and righteousness of God that they despised. We read how Lot was vexed continually by the wicked behavior of the Sodomites in 2 Peter 2:

[God] turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned [them] with an overthrow, making [them] an example unto those that after should live ungodly; And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conduct of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed [his] righteous soul from day to day with [their] unlawful deeds;) (2 Peter 2:6-8)

Lot's vexation was a testimony against them as they became incensed against him (and ultimately his association with God) as they threatened his life in Genesis 19:9:

And they said, Stand back. And they said [again], This one [fellow] came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, [even] Lot, and came near to break the door. (Genesis 19:9)

So, for certain the people of Sodom received witness to the fact they were wicked before God through Lot and violently abhorred him. Nevertheless, it was very limited in comparison to those who are part of the kingdom of God and are exposed to the Word of God.

Nearly 15 centuries later, by the time Israel was in captivity to Babylon and the Lamentations were written, Israel had much of the Law of God in their possession. They were closely identified with the kingdom of God but had been destroyed for their rejection of and rebellion against God. And it is in that context that God speaks of their punishment being worse than that of Sodom and Gomorrah in Lamentations 4:6. They had far more knowledge and light of the Word of God than Sodom and Gomorrah ever had, yet they continued down the path of wickedness.

Another 6 centuries later, when Christ came on the scene and preached to the cities of Israel, the Old Testament had long been completed and the King Himself had come, preaching the Gospel of salvation and forgiveness of sins through faith in Himself. To now reject His message was far greater sin and rebellion than what Israel had committed when the Lamentations were written:

Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let [them] slip. For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard [him]; (Hebrews 2:1-3)

So all the more could Christ declare that judgment would be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for those in His day and beyond.

Still yet, when Christ was preaching to the cities of Israel, the New Testament was not yet written. Today, we have the grand benefit of having the entire Word of God, all that's needed for faith and life to serve God in Christ through the complete Word of God, the Bible. So everyone alive in the world during the New Testament age who know at least something of Christ and the Bible are recipients of this striking warning.

Sadly, given the context of Lamentations 4, this warning is still not issued chiefly to the people of the world "out there" who hear a little of the Gospel and reject it, although it is nevertheless much worse for them than for Sodom and Gomorrah. Rather, as with Israel in the days of their captivity, it is very particularly focused on churches throughout the New Testament age that have fallen away from the Word of God or have distorted and corrupted the Word of God with their own ideas, following after idols and man-centered theology. That is, Lamentations 4:6 was written concerning Israel in their grievous captivity to Babylon as a figure, so it is now directed to those who are outwardly called the people of God in the New Testament who have turned aside to falsehoods. These very words from Scripture are in their possession, warning them of the judgment against them for going their own way. They are effectively in spiritual bondage to the spiritual Babylon, the kingdom of Satan, as God forsakes them from being His own, as He removes His hand of protection from them unto spiritual oppression by the enemy, and, ultimately, unto eternal death.

Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Therefore let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. (I Corinthians 1:10-12)

It is a grievous thing to be finally and fully cast off by God Himself, particularly by those who should be the people of God with the expectation of His protection and salvation. This is why it's far, far worse for them than it was for Sodom as they languish under the hand of the enemy. God removes the Gospel light from them, that is, He removes their candlestick from its place:

Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. (Revelation 2:5)

This is why we read in Lamentations 4:9:

[They that be] slain with the sword are better than [they that be] slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for [want of] the fruits of the field. (Lamentations 4:9)

To be slain with hunger and to pine away means that the Bread of Life (Christ), the Meat of God's Word, has been taken away so that they starve and wither away in spiritual hunger:

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD: (Amos 8:11)

This is of itself a far greater judgment than Sodom and Gomorrah experienced. We can see that this speaks to God's rejection of them unto captivity, it is what God has in mind in verses 12-14 of Lamentations 4:

The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem. For the sins of her prophets, [and] the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her, They have wandered [as] blind [men] in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments. (Lamentations 4:12-14)

This is what happens when the very people of God (in name) are overrun by the world, overrun by strangers, overrun by the kingdom of Satan, overrun by all enemies as they selfishly turn away from the Gospel in favor of worldly pursuits and false religion.

And this becomes so terrible that Christ finally speaks of the Final Tribulation as a period far worse than at any previous time in history, which would include the judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah by fire:

For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. (Matthew 24:21-22)

So there's another aspect as to why judgment is greater for those who have rejected the Gospel than for Sodom and Gomorrah. Not only does God highlight the grief and misery of those who continue to live in an unredeemed state to the exhaustion of the soul, but those who hear the Gospel message are effectively "called" by it to repent and to turn to Christ. So in a sense, they are those who should have been redeemed by the Gospel, they should possess eternal life in Christ by the Word of God -- but they stubbornly go their own way in spite of having the infinitely gracious benefit of the Word of God proclaimed to them. This is particularly bad for those who presume upon God that they are safely in Christ when sadly, in reality they continued in the broad way to destruction. Those who have a false expectation that they are under the blessing and guidance of God but have neglected the Word of God for their lives, so that even the salvation they hope and expect to have in Christ, the hope of eternal life, will be denied them:

Not every one that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Matthew 7:21-23)

As this passage indicates, there are many, many who presume they are saved but are following their own path, or the path of a false gospel, or the ways of the world, and will thus be sadly shocked when it turns out they never knew Christ, nor He them. This, again, is in itself a worse judgment than that suffered by Sodom and Gomorrah, who wantonly lived as they wished in darkness and were quickly destroyed without the Gospel proclamation. But as far as these people knew, they were the people of God, they were safe in the arms of Christ and had been given eternal life in Him. That was their false expectation that they banked their whole lives on without proper self-examination. Their heart was not truly in Him, it was in their own interest and the interest of the world or some other false way. And so, they rejected the Truth of the Gospel proclaimed to them. Jesus warns us about this in Matthew 7:

Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide [is] the gate, and broad [is] the way, that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait [is] the gate, and narrow [is] the way, which leads unto life, and few there be that find it. (Matthew 7:13-14)


2.12.2023