I’m sure most of you have heard this story before, but I’ve gotten a lot out of these old stories as I looked at them again. Hopefully, the same will happen to you.

This is right after The Lord Jesus Christ and the angels with Him told Abraham and Sarah that they were going to have a baby.

Genesis 18:16-20

16 Then the men rose up from there, and looked down toward Sodom; and Abraham was walking with them to send them off.

17 The LORD said, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, (which is to wipe these cities off the face of the earth!)

18 since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed?

Basically the Lord reveals His plans to Abraham because of Abraham’s spiritual status. Wouldn’t you like for God to clue you in on His plans?

19 "For I have chosen him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about him."

20 And the LORD said, "The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave.

Their outcry is their exceedingly great sin. Make no mistake about it; God judges sin! The Lord is about to execute judgment, and Abraham has a problem with this. He is worried about his brother Lot, and he also is concerned about whether the judgment is really just. But God has been giving warnings to these cities. GRACE ALWAYS PRECEDES JUDGMENT!

Genesis 14:2-4

2 that they made war with Bera king of Sodom, and with Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, and Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar).

3 All these came as allies to the valley of Siddim (that is, the Salt Sea).

4 Twelve years they had served Chedorlaomer, but the thirteenth year they rebelled.

They were already serving another king, and had lost their autonomy. Also,

Genesis 14:10-11

10 Now the valley of Siddim was full of tar pits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and they fell into them. But those who survived fled to the hill country.

11 Then they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food supply, and departed.

They had been militarily defeated, which is warning discipline from God. We’ll skip the part where Abraham bargains with God, but you may want to read it if you haven’t before. It’s Genesis 18:23-33.

Genesis 19:1-13

1 Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground.

2 And he said, "Now behold, my lords, please turn aside into your servant's house, and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise early and go on your way." They said however, "No, but we shall spend the night in the square."

3 Yet he urged them strongly, so they turned aside to him and entered his house; and he prepared a feast for them, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. (Lot probably urged them strongly because he knew what would happen to them if they had stayed in the square!)

4 Before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter;

5 and they called to Lot and said to him, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have relations with them."

Yes, this is exactly what you think it is! The Hebrew is YADA, and it means to repeatedly have sex with. Did the previous warning disciplines from God have any affect on the people of Sodom? Nope!

6 But Lot went out to them at the doorway, and shut the door behind him,

7 and said, "Please, my brothers, do not act wickedly.

8 "Now behold, I have two daughters who have not had relations with man; please let me bring them out to you, and do to them whatever you like; only do nothing to these men, inasmuch as they have come under the shelter of my roof." (Don’t worry, Lot pays for this attitude about his daughters later, but that’s another story!)

9 But they said, "Stand aside." Furthermore, they said, "This one came in as an alien, and already he is acting like a judge; now we will treat you worse than them." So they pressed hard against Lot and came near to break the door. (They even tried to break in!)

10 But the men (the ANGELS) reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them, and shut the door.

11 They struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves trying to find the doorway.

12 Then the two men said to Lot, "Whom else have you here? A son-in-law, and your sons, and your daughters, and whomever you have in the city, bring them out of the place;

13 for we are about to destroy this place, because their outcry has become so great before the LORD that the LORD has sent us to destroy it."

When that outcry of sin becomes so great, and the nation ignores the warnings from God, then He executes judgment.

Genesis 19:24-25

24 Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven,

25 and He overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.

Here’s the principle – God judges a nation for the collective sins of the people when those sins become rampant. Rampant means something that has become widespread and common. Notice that Lot was not shocked by the behavior of all the men of Sodom, and verse 4 tells us it was all the men!

Their sin had become common, widespread, and ACCEPTED behavior!

Is there a lesson for us to learn in the story of Sodom? Make your own application.