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The Real Terror Of Sodom

Sodom - a name shrouded in infamy, haunting the annals of human history for millennia. Even those who haven’t opened a Bible recognize it as a city that received Divine judgment for its extreme degeneracy. But most people have never considered the true terror of Sodom. You are about to learn this unrecognized danger that can pull your life into a spiral of disaster.

Our focus is often on the out-of-control sexual passions of Sodom’s inhabitants. As you recall, two angels, disguised as ordinary men, strolled into Sodom one day. Knowing the sinister horrors of the night, a man named Lot convinced these human-looking angels to stay the night in the protection of his home. Yet his home was no protection. That night, all the men of Sodom, consumed with unquenchable lust, besieged Lot’s house, demanding he bring out the strangers so they could homosexually rape them.

In an act of Divine intervention, the angels struck these men blind. Picture it - they are consumed with their goal, and suddenly, their world is swallowed in darkness. How would you react if you suddenly went totally blind without warning? With terror, confusion? Not these men! Not even being struck blind fazed them. Their addiction to forbidden pleasure overrode their fear of never seeing again. In a rage, they stumbled around, trying to find Lot’s house to fulfill their vile passions.

Addiction is a terrible, ruthless force. It shatters marriages, destroys careers and has driven some to terrible criminal acts like murder, rape and theft. If addiction has its chains around you, act now. Seek help before it consumes you as it did the men of Sodom, for whom nothing mattered but to satisfy a passion that can never be satisfied.

The Real Terror Of Sodom

But the true terror of Sodom swims below the surface, waiting, like a shark, to strike the unaware. Will that be you?

The actual danger lies in the story of Lot, whom the Bible calls a righteous man. Disaster wraps itself in many different attractive costumes. Lot, nephew of Abraham - the great patriarch, an intimate friend of God - walked away from a glorious destiny to wallow in a pig pen. His life became a tapestry of missed opportunities and misplaced priorities. Are you making the same mistakes?

Prosperity and pleasure became Lot’s snare, which would destroy his life. It began as he and Abraham’s flocks grew so large that the land could not support them both. Selflessly, Abraham let the younger Lot choose where to go first. Greedily, Lot claimed a lush, green plain, leaving Abraham with a desert in comparison.

But Sodom was in that plain, glittering like an irresistible diamond. It was filled with the latest discoveries, fabulous luxuries and lively nightlife. It had everything to attract a young man with an eye to the good life. When Lot moved into the plain, he pitched his tent close to Sodom. He heard rumours about what it was like in the city and curiosity is a silent serpent. Occasional visits turned into residency as, step by step, he was drawn into the abyss.

Soon, Lot sat at Sodom’s gate, the place for judges or city councilmen to do business. With an air of superiority, he would settle disputes among the poor sinners around him while enjoying the benefits of their lifestyle. Little did he realize they despised his self-righteousness and laughed behind his back.

So what is the real terror of Sodom? Track Lot’s life. He was a relative and associated with the greatest man to live in the 4,000 years of the Old Testament. Instead of his priority being knowing God and building a solid life, he ran after a sinful world for the cheap thrills it would give him. He was forced into a no-win situation by his evil neighbours when he tried to protect the men in his home, as was his sacred duty, by offering his daughters to the sex-driven crowd. Fortunately for him, the men in his home were angels and supernaturally protected him and his daughters.

Then, Lot had to leave all his possessions and his married daughters to the judgment of God as he ran for his life. He had instilled his love of the world into his wife. She looked back with yearning for Sodom’s lost pleasures at the wrong time and died. But still, the craving for pleasure gripped his heart. Instead of fleeing to the mountains like the angels wanted, he begged to be allowed to live in a small nearby city. After Sodom was destroyed, fear that the city people would blame him consumed him, and he ended up in a mountain cave with his two single daughters. His two daughters, afraid that they would never have children, got their father drunk and committed incest with him. What a tragic end to a man who had so much potential!

Will The Terror Of Sodom Overtake You?

The terror of Sodom is that even a righteous person can be corrupted and have his life destroyed by dancing with sin. The great apostle Paul was aware of the subtle nature of the deceitfulness of sin when he told Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:19 that he should be “holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith.” Imagine. Just a little, hardly noticeable compromises or sinful indulgence, and your life can be on the trajectory to ruin. This is not referring to losing your salvation but to devastating your life on earth and losing your eternal reward in heaven.

Examine your heart. Examine your priorities. Are your feet on the Solid Rock, or have you started to slip down the slope to the terror of Sodom - a terror wrapped in pleasure but which will consume you in the end?

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