“And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly” (2 Peter 2:6 KJV).
Genesis 19:27-28 serves as an epilogue that will close our look at God’s judgment on the ancient cites of Sodom and Gomorrah…
“Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the LORD. He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace” (Genesis 19:27-28).
So, the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah was so great that God decided to eradicate those cities after verifying the charges against them. But what was the sin that generated the outcry against those cities? Certainly, the attempted sexual assault of God’s angelic investigators served to reflect the city’s moral climate. However, the book of the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel offers another perspective to consider…
“‘Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen” (Ezekiel 16:49-50).
Arrogance. Gluttony. Unconcern for those who are less fortunate. Pride. Conceit. Self-indulgence. Those were the internal attitudes that contributed to the action taken against the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah- and they are the same internal attitudes we must guard against today.
This brings us to a conclusion drawn from our text in 2 Peter 2:4-6…
- If God has shown that He will imprison wicked angelic beings.
- If God has demonstrated that He will punish untold multitudes of sinful individuals in the form of a catastrophic flood.
- If God has proven that He will destroy entire cities in view of their moral corruption.
…then false teachers are facing a similar judgment from which they cannot escape unless they repent.
The next two verses will provide us with an opportunity to consider what happened to Lot after he left Sodom. But before we move on from our look at the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, one commentary leaves us with something to think about…
“Peter asks us to consider Sodom and Gomorrah, which God did not spare (2 Pet. 2:6; Gen. 19:24). This and fifty other biblical references to those twin cities make two things clear: they could have been saved in spite of their evil, and God wants future generations like ours to avoid their mistakes.” (1)
(1) Word in Life Study Bible, electronic ed. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1996), 2 Pe 2:6–9.