Sodom and Gomorrah

[JaredR]

What was unique about Sodom and Gomorrah that led God to destroy them with fire from heaven? I think that God was just in doing this, of course, but I am wondering why this is the only time we have record of God destroying a city this way.

Thank you.

 

[Claire_from_DE]

As I recall it was rampant sexual immorality and abuse of hospitality. Lot’s neighbors intended to sodomize his guests. I suppose that Lot was being affected by living there because I think he offered to send out his daughters to the crowd in order to save the visitors.

 

[kentuckyliz]

In ancient desert hospitality traditions, male guests had the right to have sex with the host’s wife. (Sarah’s laughter is part relief.)

So, they are acting exactly opposite in two ways: the hosts are demanding to have sex with the male guests. The relationship is backward and homosexual and thereby wrong on two counts.

 

[JaredR]

As I recall it was rampant sexual immorality and abuse of hospitality. Lot’s neighbors intended to sodomize his guests. I suppose that Lot was being affected by living there because I think he offered to send out his daughters to the crowd in order to save the visitors.

Right, but I’m wondering why God has never sent down fire from heaven on other immoral cities? I’m sure there have been some rivals to the debauchery of Sodom and Gomorrah.

I found this commentary on Genesis 19:24. It’s from A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture:

1. On the direct attribution to divine action of the effects of natural causes see on 2:5. The cause of the disaster was probably the escape through earthquake action of compressed gases and petroleum from the subterranean deposits in the neighbourhood of the doomed cities. Spontaneous combustion is apt to occur in such circumstances and domestic fires would quickly ignite the escaping gases and oil. Such a fire would cause immense heavy clouds of smoke, 28. The district is also rich in sulphur (brimstone) and I have picked up pellets of it and pieces of bitumen lying on the shore of the Dead Sea. That the destruction of the cities was caused by these natural forces does not mean that it was not a divinely sent chastisement. God can obviously make use of the agencies he has created.

If Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by natural causes (directed by God of course) rather than some kind of inferno descending from the heavens, this would make much more sense to me because it would fit the pattern of other times God has judged cities and nations in the OT. Not that God couldn’t have brought down an inferno, but in other incidents He brought judgment through natural causes. While reading the story it just struck me as out-of-character.

 

[Shin]

What was unique about Sodom and Gomorrah that led God to destroy them with fire from heaven? I think that God was just in doing this, of course, but I am wondering why this is the only time we have record of God destroying a city this way.

Thank you.

Hmm, searching the Douay for ‘fire from heaven’ you get interesting results.

Because the particular sins of that city were the worst kinds…

So the brimstone being something that stinks as bad as it gets, being a sign of this.

 

[Spirithound]

What was unique about Sodom and Gomorrah that led God to destroy them with fire from heaven? I think that God was just in doing this, of course, but I am wondering why this is the only time we have record of God destroying a city this way.

Perhaps we can put this into a little perspective in remembering that this is not the worst thing that God could have done to them. Maybe some had a chance to repent in the midst of the fire, a chance they would not have received if they were allowed to continue in their sin, unchecked.

 

[JaredR]

Perhaps we can put this into a little perspective in remembering that this is not the worst thing that God could have done to them. Maybe some had a chance to repent in the midst of the fire, a chance they would not have received if they were allowed to continue in their sin, unchecked.

I’m not struggling with the justness of it. I think God was completely in the right to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. My only difficulty was with how uncharacteristic the method seems (if we posit that the fire and brimstone came from above and not from natural causes).

 

[Spirithound]

I’m not struggling with the justness of it. I think God was completely in the right to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. My only difficulty was with how uncharacteristic the method seems (if we posit that the fire and brimstone came from above and not from natural causes).

Ah, I understand the question better now. I thought you might be asking “Why would God kill them, even though there were others who must have warranted it equally?”, instead of “Why would God kill them with fire from above?”

Maybe the reason is just as simple as God wanting Lot and family out of there. Abraham and family certainly are favoured.

 

[JaredR]

Ah, I understand the question better now. I thought you might be asking “Why would God kill them, even though there were others who must have warranted it equally?”, instead of “Why would God kill them with fire from above?”

Maybe the reason is just as simple as God wanting Lot and family out of there. Abraham and family certainly are favoured.

That’s my bad, I should have worded the OP more clearly.

That’s true. Perhaps it’s not that Sodom and Gomorrah were unique but that Abraham was unique. Thanks for that insight!

 

[Pug]

Perhaps God did it because of the effect he knew it would have on those who would hear of the tale in later years. Lot hung around with Abraham, so the story would pass around. After all, I can think of Elijah calling down fire from heaven on a bunch of soldiers. Twice in fact. Then the third set of soldiers behaved differently as a result. I’m amazed they managed to approach the prophet at all!