Locations of God's Judgment

Welcome! Although we had planned to wrap up our series “Even the Stones Cry Out,” we decided to do one more message in this series before starting our new series on the book of Acts next week. Today we are going to look at two sites where God judged people who lived ways that were detestable to God. Some may think that it was not fair for God to judge people who were not given more information about how to live in a way that please Him, but I disagree for several reasons.

One reason I disagree is what we are told in Romans 1, which speaks to this very topic:

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. – Romans 1:18-20

Have you ever seen someone suppress the truth by their wickedness? You certainly have.  This is what happens whenever someone lies. We are made in the image of God, and God has put in our hearts a basic sense of right and wrong. God describes the decision to ignore this, and instead do what we want to do, as wickedness. And in addition to putting this sense of right and wrong into our hearts, God confirms His nature by the world around us.  

For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. – Romans 1:21-23

Images and idols are “safe.” They are the original version of the prosperity gospel. I really want success in my fishing, so I will make a fish idol, and offer sacrifices to it, so that the fish god will give me success. When (by pure randomness) I have success, I tell all my friends who are then impressed with me, and then I tell them that unless they too make sacrifices to fish idols (which I will provide for them for a reasonable fee), the fish god will be angry with them and curse their experience. When (by pure randomness) someone without a fish idol has a bad experience, I will point this out. Hopefully you see the wickedness in this – and the ultimate wickedness is that you are drawing people away from the truth, the knowledge and experience of following the true God.  

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. – Romans 1:24-25

One thing leads to another. Once you choose to worship a lie, once you choose the way of selfishness, it begins to affect all areas of your life. And Satan is oh-so happy to lead you to more and more actions that satisfy self but are not the life that God created us for.

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. – Romans 1:26-27

I think little needs to be said. These behaviors have always been associated with pagan religions and idol worship. The “taboo” is exciting and people, led by their deceptive hearts and by Satan, are eager to explore them, bringing as many people as possible to join them.

Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. – Romans 1:28-32

God sees all of this, all these people bringing entire communities to live selfishly, cruelly, and depravedly, and calls it wickedness. And He does not withhold His judgment forever.

And so we are going to look today at two examples of God’s judgment, two examples from the Old Testament. The first example is Sodom and Gomorrah. Our story begins with Abraham, entertaining heavenly visitors at Mamre, the first location we explored in this series. Abraham has been told of the incredible promise of a son, a son to people who are far too old to have children.

When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way. Then the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what He has promised him.” Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached Me. If not, I will know.” – Genesis 18:16-21.

Abraham then asks the Lord if He will really do this if there are fifty people who are righteous there, and then forty-five, forty, thirty, twenty, and ten. In each case, God replies that no, He will not destroy the city if this is true. But the conversation does not go beyond this – the implication is that God does not expect good news. The “outcry” means that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah are doing evil things to people, visitors and the vulnerable who live there, oppressing them materially, emotionally, physically – and that this behavior is occurring all the time. Now I believe God already knows exactly what is going on, but He is sending His heavenly representatives there as a kind of setup for judgment. It is a trial. If they treat His representatives the way He knows they treat others, that will serve as the “example” crime that has proof they can all see, and God’s judgment will follow.

And so they went to the city, to Sodom, and at the city square, Lot saw them and invited them to his home. They said that they were fine with spending the night in the square, but Lot insisted, strongly, and so they came to his home, where he provided them a meal. The account in Genesis 19 tells us that all the men from every part of the city, both young and old, surrounded the house, insisting that Lot give them the two men so they could do whatever wickedness to them as they pleased. Lot refused, saying that they were under his protection as guests, and in an action that is very difficult for us to understand, offered his daughters to the men if they would leave his guests alone. This is an unthinkable behavior to us today. But Lot viewed his responsibility for the guests as superseding even his responsibilities to his family. This is not how we operate today, and I am not going to suggest that we should. But we need to be careful not to commit eisegesis, that is, interpreting the text in such a way as to introduce our own presuppositions, agendas, or biases. Do the men accept this offer? No. They threaten to do to Lot, whom they still see as an outsider, the same that they want to do to the two visitors, and they begin to take physical actions to get the three men.

But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door. Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door. The two men said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here—sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here, because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the Lord against its people is so great that He has sent us to destroy it.” – Genesis 19:10-13

The angelic messengers easily protect Lot and then tell him that destruction is imminent. They warn him to tell any sons-in-law, sons, or daughters to get out immediately.

So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters. He said, “Hurry and get out of this place, because the Lord is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking. – Genesis 19:14

What a tragic verse. These future sons-in-law cannot imagine that the God of the Universe is real and that His judgment is about to be carried out. The same is true in our day – many people scoff at the gospel, that God will judge sinners, and that you have only this short life in which to repent and trust in Christ.

With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.” When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them. As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!” – Genesis 19:15-17

So the destruction was for more than just the city that Lot was in – it was for the entire region, the entire plain.

But Lot said to them, “No, my lords, please! Your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die. Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it—it is very small, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared.” He said to him, “Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of. But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it.” (That is why the town was called Zoar.) – Genesis 19:18-22

It is tempting to judge Lot; if the representatives of God told him to flee to the mountains, it was certainly possible to do. But listen to the profound perspective of Peter:

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment; if He did not spare the ancient world when He brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if He rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment. – 2 Peter 2:4-9

I would not say that Lot had the faith of Abraham, but Lot did not abandon God while living in an entirely ungodly and evil place. And Lot had to also be overwhelmed by all that was going on: how well would we do when hearing of such an immediate and total calamity coming to, say the entire Upstate, being given only minutes to leave? Losing your house, losing your place of work, losing everything you have known since you have settled down? Lot was at least a middle aged man. I was getting worn out just going up from the main building to our cabin at the Faithwalkers conference this week. Fleeing to the mountains on foot, at night, sounds pretty overwhelming to me, too.

Notice God’s great mercy – he spares the town called “Small” just for Lot.

By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens. Thus He overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land. – Genesis 19:23-25

And so God’s judgment unfolds, just as it did in the days of Noah, and just as it will again. Burning sulfur is a fascinating detail, and we will look at this when we look at the archaeological evidence. Also note that the scope of destruction is the entire plain in which Sodom, Gomorrah, and other smaller towns are situated, all but Zoar. Even the vegetation is destroyed.

But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. – Genesis 19:26

We know next to nothing of Lot’s wife. We aren’t told how she became a pillar of salt – all we know is that she looked back. I wonder if this means that she did more than look – it seems very possible to me that she went back for something, and because of this, she did not escape. One reason I think this is that Jesus speaks of Lot, Sodom, and Lot’s wife in Luke 17:

“Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. On that day no one who is on the housetop, with possessions inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. Remember Lot’s wife! Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it.” – Luke 17:26-33

Lot’s wife is mentioned immediately after Jesus says that no one in the field should go back for anything. Jesus more importantly tells us that Noah and Lot are examples for us – that a time is coming when once again God righteously enacts His judgment, and that day will be a lot like those past judgments.

As for Lot, we are told a few verses later that he eventually did go to the mountains with his daughters, because he was afraid to stay in Zoar. Presumably the people of Zoar were as unrighteous as those that God had destroyed.

Continuing with Genesis 19, we have the following haunting image:

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

Now let’s talk about what we know about Sodom and Gomorrah from archaeology. First of all, we can determine the approximate location of these cities from verses including Genesis 10:19, Genesis 14, and Ezekiel 16:46. There is a region that borders the Dead Sea that works with these verses.

In this region, which is a plain, there is a persistent ashy layer. In this first image, you can see this layer. The additional black material on the ground is a result of Joel Kramer loosening the earth.

The next image shows a wall from the largest settlement, believed to be Sodom.  The burn layer again goes through the entire region. Notice the complete lack of vegetation in this and the other images. This is a combination of soil that doesn’t any longer support plant life and dry desert conditions. Note that a sulfur layer would cause excessive soil acidity which would make it unable to support plant life.

Adjacent to one of the former cities is a surprisingly large cemetery. It is estimated that half a million people are buried here. The pits in the image are a result of raiders excavating the remains looking for treasures. The entire cemetery was burnt as well. The cemetery and its many dead were there prior to the event that produced the ash. This means that some of the cities on the plain were large, and in existence for a long time prior to the destructive event. Note that the burnt cemetery is evidence that whatever happened here was not a military attack, because there is no military reason to burn a cemetery.

The next image shows an excavation from a site believed to be part of Gomorrah. Note that none of these sites were ever rebuilt. Note the bone fragments by his feet. These are human bones.

Now, there is a museum near the site that has little balls that were claimed to be sulfur. Joel Kramer went looking for these balls at the excavation sites at Sodom and Gomorrah and could not find any. He happened to be talking with a geologist who said that if such balls existed and fell from the sky, they would be highly unstable, and one would not expect to find them. This is consistent with the passage which describes the dense smoke rising from the whole plain.  The geologist mentioned that the Dead Sea has receded, and a place to look for these sulfur balls would be in the receded areas. When they fell from the sky, they would have been extinguished by the water. Joel went to these areas, and there he found countless numbers of these sulfur balls, appearing to come from one particular layer.

The final image for Sodom and Gomorrah shows Joel Kramer lighting these balls on fire. They melt quickly as they burn and produce a very smoky black tar. It’s pretty amazing to see these.

Our second location we will look at today is Jericho. Jericho’s time of accounting had come. They had been exactly like what we had read of in Romans. Ironically, the only person with a bit of righteousness was Rahab, a prostitute. In a society that is evil through and through, it is impossible to survive without doing many things a righteous person would not do. For a Christian in such a place, martyrdom may be the only favorable outcome.  

Then the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days.  Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in.” – Joshua 6:2-5

To do this required Joshua to be strong and courageous – as God called him to be. But this is not what we normally think of when we hear of someone being strong and courageous. This is strength and courage to believe God when what you are told sounds impossible, even ridiculous.

So Joshua son of Nun called the priests and said to them, “Take up the ark of the covenant of the Lord and have seven priests carry trumpets in front of it.” And he ordered the army, “Advance! March around the city, with an armed guard going ahead of the ark of the Lord.” – Joshua 6:6-7

It took courage to even call the priests to this action. Would they follow him? Or would they rebel as happened in the time of Moses?

When Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets before the Lord went forward, blowing their trumpets, and the ark of the Lord’s covenant followed them. The armed guard marched ahead of the priests who blew the trumpets, and the rear guard followed the ark. All this time the trumpets were sounding. But Joshua had commanded the army, “Do not give a war cry, do not raise your voices, do not say a word until the day I tell you to shout. Then shout!” So he had the ark of the Lord carried around the city, circling it once. Then the army returned to camp and spent the night there. – Joshua 6:8-11

To their credit, the priests, the forward guard, and the rear guard all obeyed. Did anything happen? No. What was it like to be in Jericho and observe all this? They were probably quite nervous at the beginning, but when nothing at all happened, they probably breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Joshua got up early the next morning and the priests took up the ark of the Lord. The seven priests carrying the seven trumpets went forward, marching before the ark of the Lord and blowing the trumpets. The armed men went ahead of them and the rear guard followed the ark of the Lord, while the trumpets kept sounding. So on the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. They did this for six days. – Joshua 6:12-14

Day after day, and the same results. The Israelites knew this was only part of the instructions, so I do not think they were discouraged by the lack of change, although perhaps some had their doubts. But the people of Jericho probably now just viewed the Israelite actions with ridicule, seeing each day as failure upon failure. They probably viewed the Israelite God as weak, powerless against their gods. Yes, they were surrounded, technically in a siege. But it had just been harvest, and they were well supplied.

On the seventh day, they got up at daybreak and marched around the city seven times in the same manner, except that on that day they circled the city seven times. The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the army, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city! The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the Lord. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she hid the spies we sent. But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it. All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the Lord and must go into His treasury.” – Joshua 6:15-19

When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city. They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys. – Joshua 6:20-21

Although they took the silver and gold for the Tabernacle, they did not take anything else, including things that might have been truly useful, such as the animals. They did not even take the grain or other food. I mention this because, for forty years, the Israelites had depended on manna. But upon crossing the Jordan River, the manna had ceased. It must have been a temptation to take the food rather than destroy it.

Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, “Go into the prostitute’s house and bring her out and all who belong to her, in accordance with your oath to her.” So the young men who had done the spying went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother, her brothers and sisters and all who belonged to her. They brought out her entire family and put them in a place outside the camp of Israel. – Joshua 6:22-23

Then they burned the whole city and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the Lord’s house. But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho—and she lives among the Israelites to this day. – Joshua 6:24-25

At that time Joshua pronounced this solemn oath: “Cursed before the Lord is the one who undertakes to rebuild this city, Jericho: “At the cost of his firstborn son he will lay its foundations; at the cost of his youngest he will set up its gates.” So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout the land.  – Joshua 6:26-27

Let’s talk about the archaeology. The tel of Jericho has been found. The first picture shows a portion of this tel.

The next image shows a depiction of what is believed to have been the wall structure at Jericho. At the bottom was stone retaining wall, 12-15 feet high. This wall held in place massive amounts of sediment. The combination of stone wall and sediment made it absolutely impossible to use a ramming device to enter the city.

On top of the retaining wall was a mudbrick wall estimated to be six feet thick and 20-26 feet high. The mudbrick wall was safe from ramming because of its height above the ground. Following this was a sloped embankment, and at the top of this embankment was another mudbrick wall whose top was roughly 46 feet above the ground level outside the retaining wall. Between the two walls were houses. These houses were less safe, and thus, less desirable than the greater number of houses and government buildings inside both sets of walls. The Bible says that Rahab’s house was built against one of the walls, so it was likely in between the two sets of walls.

The next image shows an artist’s reconstruction of the north side of Jericho, based on German excavations of 1907-1909. Note the houses built against the city wall. Rahab’s house would have been one of these houses (Joshua 2:15).

Excavations have shown that both sets of mud brick walls indeed collapsed and fell outwards (downward). Notice the very specific way that the Biblical account says that they entered the city after the collapse: “Everyone charged straight in.” That is, they went straight up. How did they do this? By walking up the collapsed ruins of the mudbrick walls, which had basically been turned into ramps by their collapse.

An excavation on the east side of the tel verifies the complete burn – they found a level in the dig containing ash about three feet thick.

The next image shows a portion of the retaining wall. In this image, the mud bricks have been excavated and removed so that the retaining wall can be highlighted.

The next image shows the burn layer apparent in the dig.

And the final image shows burned grain left behind. A lot of this grain was found. It would normally be unthinkable for a conquering people to leave grain behind.    

It may seem a bit dark to talk about God’s judgment on the beginning of a new year, but it is good for us to remember God’s holiness and the fact that every person will have to face God. Jesus taught that the judgment of the Lord can come at any time, when you least expect it. In fact, Jesus frequently taught on the judgment of the Lord. As Christians, we know that Jesus has paid the price for our sin, and by professing our faith in Him and positionally submitting to His Lordship, God will see the righteousness of Christ when He looks at us, and we will be spared the coming judgment, much like Rahab the prostitute. My prayer for us this year is that God would keep the plight of those who are not in Christ on our hearts, and that we would be sensitive to the Spirit as He leads us, as He led Peter in Acts 2:40:

With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” – Acts 2:40

And let us remember that God redeems and does amazing things with those that do turn to God – remember that Rahab has the incredible honor of being in the family line of Christ.