Well, here we are with a new day ahead of us. You have had time since I last left you, I assume, to consider what it would be like to have complete, unbridled freedom for every man, woman and child on this Earth; so, let’s just take a little stroll outside and see what the neighborhood looks like.
I am not going to get too graphic here because I would like this book to receive a PG-13 rating so it can at least be allowed in the library. I am going to be describing what it was like to live back in those early days of recorded Bible history however.
There are no written documents such as newspapers and no recorded news programs to give us a detailed description of daily life for the average person who lived during the time of the patriarchs. We do have a good idea by looking at a few of the details that a lot of people seem to overlook when they think about the “wrath of God” being poured out on “innocent” men, women and children of the Old Testament Bible.
Sodom and Gomorrah are two rather famous names. During the time of Abraham and his nephew Lot, they were at the peak of their “civilization”.
In Genesis 18 Abraham saw three strangers passing through his property. As was his custom, he invited them to stop for a moment, have something to eat, and to rest up for a bit before continuing on their way. Abraham came from a good family. He was taught to respect other people. He was also generous and caring. When he saw three travelers passing by he was just naturally friendly to them. He did not yell at them, or call the cops because they were trespassing.
During the course of the meal that had been prepared for them, Abraham learned that the three travelers were on their way to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. He had a nephew, Lot, who lived there, so I am sure that he told them to look him up when they got into town. That way they could be assured of a safe, comfortable place to stay.
After the meal and conversation were over the three travelers went on their way. Abraham, according to his nature, walked with them for a while to see them on their way. Just before they parted, the one who appeared to be the leader of the three asked the two who traveled with him, “Should I tell Abraham what I have to do?” It was at that time that this “person” revealed who he really was. He was Christ, the son of God, only for Abraham’s sake he had taken on the form of a human. The two who traveled with him were angels who had done the same. You can do things like that when you are God...or spirit. Cool, huh?
The Lord decided to tell Abraham what he was going to do and said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave, I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to Me; and if not, I will know.” - Genesis 18:21. The Lord told the two who were with him to go on ahead to Sodom and Gomorrah. He was going to stay and talk with Abraham for a little while longer.
Evidently the word had "gotten around" that you were in great danger if, as an outsider, you decided to visit the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Abraham knew what Sodom and Gomorrah were like. The reason he lived out in country was because of the lifestyles of the people who lived in those cities. He did not want to be a part of what went on there, or even be a witness to the savagery and vicious human condition that the people of those cities had turned themselves into. However, his nephew Lot and his family did live there and Abraham was concerned for his brother’s son.
The Lord told Abraham that he had “heard” about the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah and He had come down with two of his angels to see if what he had heard was true.
I emphasized the word heard because God, being omniscient, did not have to hear anything. What he was doing however, was visiting this Earth with two of his angels in order to verify, or document, the moral condition of those two cities. If what he had “heard” was true and documented, then he was going to destroy both cities.
The Lord had said that the "outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah was great", which tells me that there must have been a great amount of people who's only misfortune was to have simply visited those two cities. While there they had evidently been completely used, abused, treated as inhumanly as possible and then most likely "taken care of" by being tossed out of the city like so much human garbage. If they were "fortunate" they had escaped with their lives.
Let’s not forget, there is a controversy going on between God and a certain fallen angel who is known by the name of Satan, or the devil. You might call this controversy a trial by another name. The devil has made some serious accusations against his creator. He has claimed that God’s laws are restrictive and because of the limitations he places on his creation, that includes you and me, we can not reach our full potential as individuals. He has claimed that life would be much greater for all intelligent life in the universe if the laws, or restrictions of God, were removed and all intelligent life was allowed to do as they please.
Because of the accusations the devil has leveled against his creator, the creator has made sure that anything he does is well documented by at least two or more witnesses. That is one of his laws, by the way; you can look it up in Deuteronomy 19:15. If anyone was ever accused of doing something wrong there had to be at least two and sometimes three witnesses.
God had "heard" about the lifestyles of the people who lived in Sodom and Gomorrah and how they treated those who were not a part of those cities. He was now on a fact-finding mission for the benefit of the rest of his creation who did not have omniscient powers. In other words, he was going to have it verified for all the rest of his created universe who lived on other planets. The condition of those two cities was going to be witnessed and placed into evidence for the time when the inhabitants of this world would be judged for their actions and the results of unrestricted freedom were shown.
God does not want there to be the slightest doubt in anyone's mind when the verdict is read and when he pronounces the results of the judgment of those who decided to follow their own ways and live their lives contrary to what they considered the restrictive laws of his government. That, as we will see later, is exactly what is going to happen.
Abraham might have had his character flaws, just like anyone else, but one thing he was is fair. He wanted to see if what he had been told about God had really been true. He knew that God was a God of his word. He always said what he did and did what he said. Abraham had also learned, through life, that God was merciful. Because of this Abraham decided to see how merciful by bargaining with God for the lives of those who lived in Sodom and Gomorrah.
Remember, Abraham had family who lived in those two cities. It was not just his nephew Lot that he was concerned for; it was also for Lot's wife, children, grandchildren and any other innocent people who might be living there. To save as many people who lived there as he could, he bargained with God until he had God's assurance that he would spare the cities if he could find ten innocent people living there. Abraham felt confident that the Lord could find at least ten people out of a couple of cities estimated to have contained as many as 1,200 people.
It was near evening when the two angels, who had been with the Lord when they visited Abraham, arrived at the gates of Sodom. Abraham's nephew Lot was sitting by the gates of the city as the elders of the city used to do in those days and he welcomed the strangers. "When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground. And he said, 'Here now, my lords, please turn in to your servant's house and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise early and go on your way.'" "The men said, 'No, but we will spend the night in the open square.'" - Genesis 19:1, 2.
Lot urged them to come to his house because, although he most likely did not tell them, he knew that it was dangerous to walk or sleep in the city; they finally agreed.
When they arrived at the house, Lot asked his servants to make some fresh bread and to prepare other food for his guests. They sat and talked until the meal was ready, then they ate what had been prepared for them.
Not long after they had finished eating and before Lot's guests went to bed for the night, the men of Sodom surrounded the house, all the men, young and old, from every part of town. They called for Lot to come out. When he did they said, "Are your guests staying with you tonight? If they are, tell them to come out. We want them to join us so we can have sex with them."
When Lot heard that, he shut the door behind him, hoping that his guests had not heard what had been said. He told the men of Sodom, "Friends, listen to me. Do not try to force these visitors to have sex with you. That is an evil thing to do. I will tell you what; I have two young daughters who are still virgins; I will bring them out and you can have sex with them if you like. Do not make my guests go with you, because I urged them to come to my house when they did not want to, so I feel I need to honor their wishes."
The men of the city evidently had a code of "honor" that they adhered to. They did not want to be considered as disrespectful to the other inhabitants of the city they lived in so they would not consider forcefully sexual abuse against another inhabitant of the city. They did have standards after all. These men told Lot, "Get out of the way! You have not always been a part of these cities. If we want these men to join us, and you do not give them to us, we will take them by force. If you do not get out of the way we will take you along too."
They then stepped forward to pull Lot out of the way and break down the door to get in. At that moment the two men inside the house opened the door, pulled Lot in and quickly shut the door. They then blinded all the men outside, both young and old alike.
I underlined the part saying that all the men of Sodom surrounded the house, young and old, from every part of town. This was not some little private party that just a few of the men of the town were going to have; everyone was involved. There was "fresh meat" to be had here and they all wanted some of it. I am sorry if that sounds a little crude, but I am being honest here. I could be a little more honest, but that would really be crude. You get the picture. If the men of the city had been allowed to have their way, they would have violently raped, "sodomized", two of God's angels and then, more than likely, they would have murdered them when they were done just to close the book on their activities. Now you have just a little insight as to what unrestricted freedom turned the cities of the plains into.
Another example of human nature can be found in the book of Judges and is a demonstration of what the "children of God" had eventually become. If these were the children of God, then what were the people of the other nations like?
On four different occasions in the book of Judges we are told, "And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel…"; it then goes on to tell what the people of the land were capable of when there was no leadership, no law for them to be concerned with. The fourth instance of that phrase being used is found in the very last verse of the book of Judges. "In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in their own eyes." - Judges 21:25.
Do yourself a favor and read through the book of Judges and see what the human condition was like when people did what was right in their own eyes. Judges also says, on eight different occasions, that "the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord."
The laws of this Earth, especially the laws of the United States, are the same laws given to all of humanity in the Book of the Law, the Bible. To do evil in the sight of the Lord and to do what is right in your own eyes would be following the same example of the people of Sodom, Gomorrah and those who lived during the time of the Judges.
Think about this for a moment; if we were to do away with those who enforced the laws of the land and allowed everyone in this country to just do what was right in their own eyes, what do you think the results would be? Like Abraham, I would definitely move out of the city. I am not a violent person but there would most likely be a lot of people who would end up spending their time sitting on the porch, in a rocking chair, with a shotgun on their lap; protecting what is theirs.
Next, I want to take you to a movement of people, the likes of which has never been witnessed since that time. I am talking about the exodus, when millions of Hebrews left the Egyptian kingdom behind to follow the God of their fathers into a land that was promised to them by the God of all creation. It is his to do with as he wishes. I'm not going to argue with him. Pharaoh tried and we can see what happened to him.
Let me take just a moment to describe to you the "civilized" people; the chosen ones God had led out of Egypt. When he had led them into the wilderness where they were to camp for a while, he first gave them instructions for their own health. Those instructions had to do with personal cleanliness, sanitation, taking care of their normal bodily functions throughout the day, what to do in case of any medical emergency, how to cook and prepare their food and what they should and should not eat. He then told them how to live together as a people and what to do in case of public unrest or disagreements of any kind. The list is rather comprehensive and you can read it in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.
I only want to point out a few things in the list to give you something to think about. I want you to remember, these are God's "chosen" people. This is the best of the bunch and these are some of the things he had to tell them not to do. I will list just a few things for you. They are: 1. Do not have sex with animals. 2. Do not let animals have sex with you. 3. Do not have sex with your neighbor. That includes him, his wife, his children and their animals. 4. Do not have sex with your mother or father. 5. Do not have sex with your sisters, brothers or any of their children. 6. Do not have sex with your children. 7. Do not have sex with your grandchildren. 8. Do not have sex with your spouse's parents.
The list does go on, but you get the picture. As I said, these were God's chosen people. These people had to be taught the most basic rules of civilized living. They had to be retrained in their thinking, and if they wanted to be a part of God's plan they had to follow the rules of his plan. They all knew what they were getting into when they decided to follow God out into the wilderness. They could return to Egypt if they wished, but they agreed to do it God's way.
The original generation of people who had come out of Egypt never made it into the Promised Land. Because of the way they were raised, they really had an uphill battle when it came to obedience. These people were used to doing whatever they wanted. To suddenly have to change all of their personal behavior sounded easy at first, but as they were put to the test a few times they were found extremely short of the mark. God did not want to take them into a land that was just like, if not worse than, the one they had just come out of.
The original generation died while still living in the wilderness. Their children, who had been raised since birth with the laws of God, raised in obedience and discipline to his ways, followed the path their parents kept wandering away from. However, even they were not as prepared or disciplined as they could have been, for the land they had to enter.
They were going up against a people who thought nothing of taking a young child by the feet and smashing its head to a pulp against a tree or rock. It was "birth control" to them. If they did not want any out of the litter they just crushed the life out of it and threw it away like so much trash. Sounds sadly familiar to what goes on around us today.
When God gave his people rules that forbid certain practices, it was because the people who lived in the land he was going to settle his chosen people into had written the book on improper and immoral behavior. They were capable of doing and actually did anything and everything they ever wanted.
No rules, no restrictions. The men, the women and the children were immoral to the extreme. Even the animals they owned were sexually used by those same people. There is nothing they would not or did not do. If they thought it, they did it.
God's original plan was to use nature to drive out the people who occupied the territory where he wanted his people to live. It is God's world and the creatures that inhabit this world belong to him so he can do with it whatever he wants. I'm not going to argue with him. In Exodus 23:28 God told his people that he would send hornets ahead of them to drive the people out of the land. Could you imagine trying to live in an area infested with hornets...aggressive hornets? God has his ways.
The people of God however, wanted to do it their way. They wanted to go into the land just like conquering warriors and take things by force. That is the way a great people did things as far as they were concerned; that is the way they had always been raised anyway. What did God do? Just what he always does whenever any of his children want their own way; he lets them have it. He is not a God of forced obedience. He is a God who will respect your every wish. If you want privacy, you get privacy. If you want to do things your own way, it is all yours, go ahead.
When I was young and being impressed to do something that could have resulted in pain my mom used to say, "Go ahead, just don't come crying to me when you get hurt."
What would have happened to the people that God drove out of the land if he had done things his way with the hornets? They would most likely have gone into another territory and taken by force whatever cities they felt like they could overcome. People who do not have a plan just do what they want...and that is scary.
The children of God were going to have to learn some tough lessons when it comes to doing things their own way and taking something away from someone else. God's only stipulation for them doing things their way was that they were supposed to do what he said. Again, they didn't always follow God's ways and they eventually discovered the consequences for doing it their own way.
Is God just a bloodthirsty psychopath? What about those times where he told his people to kill everything that breathed when they went into a city? Why would he do something like that?
A little over 430 years earlier God had promised to give the land of the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites to Abraham and to his descendants. The time had come for that promise to be fulfilled.
God did not want the people who were called by his name to live among a group of people who had no concept of morality, as God defined morality. The people who were occupying the Promised Land were just as I have already described. They had no love or compassion in their hearts. They had no desire to treat others as they would want to be treated and they most definitely did not love the God of creation, or want to be anything like him.
If the Hebrew people had taken over any of the cities God had promised them and allowed the people who lived in the land to remain there with them, those people would have been a continuous thorn in the side of those Hebrews who wanted to live the kind of lifestyle that God wanted them to live. The cities where God's people lived eventually became like the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, if not worse. In just a few generations the Hebrew people would eventually become the people described in the book of Judges and it was all because they were influenced to become like the people they were suppose to drive out of the land.
God wanted his people to be an example of what life would be like for those who lived according to his laws. Even non-Christian people can understand the intelligence of not being unequally yoked together with someone else.
Living with someone who you have nothing at all in common with is very difficult for both parties involved. If your desire is to live a clean, sober, healthful and physically active lifestyle, then you will find yourself constantly at odds with someone who wants to drink, do drugs, eat nothing but junk food and sit on the couch watching TV all the time.
Just the opposite is true as well if you think about it. If you are the one who is living the unhealthy lifestyle then you will find it uncomfortable living around a fitness freak. You would rather be with those who are like you.
God had called those people out of Egypt who wanted to be a peculiar people. As I mentioned earlier, if they wanted to be the people of God they had to be willing to change their lifestyle and follow the healthful ways of their creator. God was very aware of how difficult it would be to live a life that "crucified the desires of the flesh" while living among people who allowed their basest passions to run free.
Those who chose to stay and fight for the land that the Hebrews were told inhabit, fought to the death. If they stayed to fight, they were to be completely destroyed. They did have the choice of leaving before the battle had begun, or of sending their children out of the area, but they chose to stay and fight and ended up losing their lives and the lives of those who were with them as a result.
If God had done it his way, the people he wanted to dispossess would not have stayed around if they had to continuously battle vicious and aggressive hornets; those people would have left the land with their lives.
The "chosen" people of God were a group of people who had just become civilized themselves forty years earlier. They were raised by parents who had once lived by the law of the jungle, in the land of Egypt. These people did not have the compassion we are capable of today; even though we can also be a very uncompassionate people. Many of the people of God could not have cared less if someone was dying from some strange disease. They could have easily walk away and let them die. They were not into hospice and dying with dignity or any of that caring stuff. God had only just begun to teach these people the basics of living a civilized life. It would not be until the time that Christ walked this Earth that he would really be able to start getting through to the people and be able to teach them things like unconditional love and compassion. Even then, the majority of the ones who Jesus tried to teach ended up having him beaten to a bloody pulp and hung on a tree to die a slow and tortuous death.
No, we do not have the freedom to go into the archives and read about the conditions of city life in places like the land of Canaan in the early days. Speculation can probably fill in quite a few gaps though.
We are aware of what happens when people have unprotected sex among themselves...and animals. The diseases that are the result of that behavior are painful and cruel in their stages as they ravage the human body. As far as we know, the people living during the time of Moses did not have the greatest of disease eradication programs in effect. They could not just go down to the local clinic and get a shot or have a prescription filled to take care of what was ailing them. Whatever natural medicines they had were probably rather inadequate for the diseases that were spread when they refused to behave themselves sexually, or refused to follow healthful eating habits; especially when they were having sex with anyone or anything they could get their hands on and eating whatever they could stuff down their throats.
Another reason why God did not want any of the inhabitants of the lands to remain there with his chosen people, and why it might have been necessary to destroy them, was to prevent his people from becoming infected with the same diseases that the people of the land, even their children, were infected with; and to prevent their own animals from becoming infected by the diseased animals that lived in those cities.
We can argue the reasons why God chose the way he did to deal with the problems that were encountered as his people entered into the land that had been promised to them. We can also wonder why God let the Hebrew people have their way instead of insisting on it being done his way with nature. Whatever the reason, I believe it was the best way considering the life and times that people lived in back then. He knows the end from the beginning and he knows what is best.
Do not think me cruel or inhuman just because I am looking at it this way. I still have a hard time wrapping my head around some of the things that happened back then. Although it goes against my nature to be like those who had left the land of Egypt, it was still an improvement for those who had chosen to make that journey. I do not understand it all but I am learning to trust the God who created it all. The God who ordered the eradication of anyone who chose to remain and/or fight in the cities he was giving to his people is also the God who, with the complete understanding and agreement of the rest of the universe, is judging those who live on this planet called Earth. You are aware now of the controversy that so completely envelopes this world of ours and how we are such a very real part of that battle.
God has shown himself to be the God of creation. In a little while he will also show himself as the God of the resurrection of the dead. Death is simply a period of sleep for the righteous and the innocent ones who have died on this planet of ours. Soon, those righteous and innocent ones will be returned to life and will have the privilege of living in peace and perfection for all eternity.
The God who led the children of Egypt into the Promised Land is also the same God who walked the streets of Nazareth and Jerusalem until he was killed by evil people. Evil hates God and sometimes God has to destroy evil to keep it from destroying those he loves.