Sodom was destroyed through fire.
Later, God would instruct Israel to engage in
herem warfare. Herem warfare was complete and utter destruction. Every living thing was killed and the city burned completely. Only that which passed through the fire was allowed to be taken - iron, gold, silver and bronze, precious metals - and that was to be dedicated to God.
If anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, the work of each will come to light, for the Day will disclose it. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire [itself] will test the quality of each one’s work. If the work stands that someone built upon the foundation, that person will receive a wage. But if someone’s work is burned up, that one will suffer loss; the person will be saved, but only as through fire. (1 Corinthians 3:12-15)
The people of Sodom were uttlerly depraved - every single person, down to the last man, were evil.
Before they went to bed, all the townsmen of Sodom, both young and old–all the people to the last man–closed in on the house. They called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to your house tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have intimacies with them.” (Genesis 19:4-5)
In herem warfare, there is a purification by fire. That’s exactly what God was doing in Sodom - purification by fire - and Lot and most of his family escaped through the fire.
I’m not shocked that there were no miracles in Sodom. Sodom was evil, and God was beginning to purify the land for the eventual occupation by his chosen people. What we should be shocked at is that Capernaum saw the miracles and
didn’t repent.
Capernaum had the advantage of at least fifteen centuries of Biblical prophecy, telling them that the messiah would work many miracles there, but when those miracles happened, they didn’t cognize it, or rejected it outright.
***When he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, that what had been said through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled:
Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,
the way to the sea, beyond the Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles,
the people who sit in darkness
have seen a great light,
on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death
light has arisen.”
From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”**(Matthew 4:12-17)*
What is shocking to me is not that after so many hundreds of years of prophecy, after having learned so many lessons - exile and punishment and repentance and return - capernaum failed to recognize the messiah. After all the prophets were sent to tell them, Israel still failed to recognize their messiah.
And Jesus says that in spite of their evil, the people of Sodom will be recieved with more mercy than the people of Capernaum. The people of Sodom had an excuse - they had not heard of God, they had not recieved the Gospel, and they were just doing what everyone else did. The people of Capernaum however had no excuse. They couldn’t say that they didn’t know or that no one had ever told them about the messiah or warned them that he would come. The people of Capernaum knew that he would come, and rejected him outright when he did.
-Tim-
