We have been studying the life of Abraham in the Sunday school class I teach. On this past Sunday we came to a well-known story: the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Believe it or not, we only made it through the first nine verses.
Something has always troubled me…well, a couple of items have troubled me about this passage: the absence of women save for Lot’s wife and daughters, and Lot handing over his daughters for a probable rape.
I began to do some digging to find out a better understanding of the culture and time, because 2 Peter 2:7 records that “righteous Lot was saved.” How could he be righteous if he offered his daughters for what conservative scholarship considers to be gang rape? That’s hardly righteous in my evaluation.
Nevertheless, I stumbled upon some scholarly articles that kept referring to one article in particular, so I looked for that one article and found it. This article — along with another — is referenced in the outline from which I taught, and it provided a judicial study of Genesis 19.
This new perspective on the destruction of Sodom has been taken by some to suggest that homosexuality was not a part of the sin of Sodom and not contrary to God’s will. However, Jude begs to differ: “…Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities… indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire” (1:7). The unnatural desire was homosexuality. Moreover, I did believe that there was more to the sin of these cities than just that one sin which has been used to justify hate crimes against homosexuals as well as a larger emphasis against that sin than any other. Homosexuality is unequivocally sinful in the eyes of God (cf. 1 Cor. 6:9; 1 Tim. 1:10; et. al.), but it deserves no more treatment than any other sin listed along with it.
Click on the outline above and take a look at how I taught Genesis 19:1-9. Your feedback is always welcomed.
