Daily Lesson for January 22, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Genesis chapter 14 verses 10 through 12:

10Now the Valley of Siddim was full of bitumen pits; and as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some fell into them, and the rest fled to the hill country.11So the enemy took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their provisions, and went their way;12they also took Lot, the son of Abram’s brother, who lived in Sodom, and his goods, and departed.

The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are a byword for abusive evil. When the three visitors came to Sodom the men in the city sought to take advantage of the strangers’ seeming vulnerability. As is often said, rape is about power; and these men tried to exert their power over the visitors. It was a city given over to violence and iniquity.

You know that story.  But do you know the backstory?

Before Sodom became Sin City, it was a city held captive. In the days before the visitors there was a mighty war between the kings of nine nations. In the war, the kings and soldiers of Sodom got lost and Sodom ended up defenseless. Sodom’s enemy marched its army into an undefended city took the people as hostages and slaves. We can only imagine what kind of horror was inflicted upon the people of Sodom in those days before the city could be regained. Rape was and always has been an instrument of war; and there is little doubt that that time of terror did much to traumatize, shame, and scar, the people of Sodom.

There is often a backstory to the evils of this world. And as has been said, “Hurting people hurt people.” Victims of abuse often become abusers themselves. 

Jesus said the day of judgment will be “more tolerable” for Sodom than for some other places. I think that was his compassion speaking. Jesus was born in a town where the terror of a king — Herod — traumatized a whole generation. Jesus saw the effects. His cousins lived with the scars. Their children probably did also — and their children’s children. Jesus had compassion on them also. He felt for them. He knew the backstory and had compassion.

There is judgment for Sodom. There must be judgment against all abuse and abusers. The powerless must be defended and victims have to be reassured that abuse will never take place again.

But if we know the backstory, we can understand why the judgment needs to be not only strong but also compassionate.  For the curse is that the sins of fathers are visited upon their children and their children’s children. The purpose of redemptive punishment is to break the curse and to restore offenders to a place of human dignity once more — even the vilest offenders.

Sodom was a city full of wicked and vile people. It was also full of people who themselves had been victimized by the lawless ravages of war. 

God sees both.