A Sermon by Pastor Malcolm G. Smith, 7 May 2017
Introduction
The story that we’re going to focus on here comes right before one of the more terrifying stories in the Old Testament -- the story of when God made it rain fire and brimstone down on Sodom and Gomorrah and completely destroyed everything and everyone in the whole area.
It’s a terrifying story because, on the face of it, it seems to suggest that, if you manage to anger God badly enough, He will burn you off the face of the planet! This is the kind of story that makes you understand why some people don’t want to believe in God. They don’t want to believe in a God who could do that and they certainly don’t want to try to follow Him.
But, when we look at the story that comes just before it, and when we have the help of the teachings of the New Church we get an entirely different picture of God — one that actually shows His incredible love for each and every person. And it can also help us with times when we look at other people who seem to be in a really bad place and stuck in some really destructive behaviours.
This is the second sermon in a series called “Finding Jesus in the Life of Abraham”. Last week, our Assistant Pastor, Joel Glenn, talked about how Jesus, on the road to Emmaus explained to two of His disciples how the whole Old Testament was about Him. In the New Church we take that to be true and believe that “if we read [the Word] correctly then we will discover the loving mind of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Every page, every sentence, contains insight into how He thinks and what it is that He loves and cares about.” If you want more explanation of that concept, go back and read or listen to that sermon.
Today and next week we’re going to focus on using this approach to try to find Jesus in two of the more troubling stories in Abraham’s life. And we’ll be drawing a lot from a book called Secrets of Heaven that goes through Genesis and Exodus and explains the inner meaning, verse by verse.
The Story: The men gaze upon the face of Sodom
Let’s get into the story for today. In chapter 18 of Genesis Jehovah comes to Abraham in the form of three men and Jehovah tells Abraham something that ends up being true: that Sarah will become pregnant and have a son within the next year.
That seems to be the main progression of the story. But then, before the end of the chapter, we read this, in Genesis 18:16-21 (NKJV, modified):
16 And the men rose from there and gazed upon the face of Sodom; and Abraham walked with them to send them on.
17 And Jehovah said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing?
18 And Abraham shall be a great and numerous nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.
19 For I know him, and because of that he will command his sons and his household after him, and they will keep the way of Jehovah, to do justice and judgment, so that Jehovah may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about him.”
20 And Jehovah said, “Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah has become great, and because their sin has become very heavy,
21 I will go down now, and see whether they have made a complete end of it, according her cry that has come to Me; and if not, I will know.”
"Secrets of Heaven" explains that, in this chapter, Abraham means the merely human part of the Lord that He got from Mary (Secrets of Heaven 2264-2265) and, perhaps obviously, Jehovah means the Divine within Him.
The Lord went back and forth between two states: times when He was connected to the Divine within Him and times when He was connected with the merely human part of Him from Mary.
In the story when Jehovah comes to Abraham or talks to Him it means the Lord in His human aspect gaining perception or a deep understanding about something from the Divine within Him.
Here the men “gaze upon the face of Sodom” and that’s symbolic of when the Lord, from the Divine within Him, realized just how badly off the human race was — how stuck they were in evil.
Jesus was born into the world when He was, precisely because people were so stuck in evil but, until this point, He hadn’t realized the full extent of it. So when Jesus understood the full extent of people’s evil, He didn’t like it and didn’t want to think about it.
Listen to this explanation of the meaning of the phrase “… and Abraham walked with them to send them on” (Genesis 18:16).
From Secrets of Heaven 2222: “to send them on” means that He wanted to withdraw from that perception.... The reason is also evident, namely that the perception from the Divine, and the thought from it about the human race that that was what they were like, struck Him with horror, for the Lord’s love toward the human race was so great that He willed to save all people to eternity....
Like a parent hearing about something bad that their child has done, part of Jesus didn’t want to know about it. I don’t know about you, but I like knowing that the human part of Jesus was — for a little while at least — overwhelmed by the evil in people and didn’t want to know about it.
It’s also significant to me what happens in the next verse. It says, “And the men turned their face from there, and went toward Sodom, and Abraham was still standing before Jehovah” (Genesis 18:22).
Part of Jesus didn’t want to know it but then He still chose to stand before Jehovah to learn more. You know from the previous verses that He could have just focused on the good people -- those verses about how Abraham will become a great nation and teach his sons in such a way that they always follow Him.
Jesus could have chosen to just think about the obviously good people but instead He stood there and bargained for every last good person who could possibly be in the city.
Abraham Bargains for the Just People
We’ll now read the next part of the story. In this section it contrasts “just people” and “wicked people.” Just people mean good, decent, ethical people who embody justice.
As we read it, instead of hearing it just as being Abraham talking to Jehovah, listen to it as being the human part of Jesus spending time reflecting on the depraved state of the human race, and Him turning to the Divine within Him, trying to get clarity about who could possibly be saved. Listen particularly for the feeling behind the words that Abraham speaks. In the urgency and concern behind the words, we can feel Jesus’ urgency and concern (Secrets of Heaven 2275).
Genesis 18:23-33 (NKJV, modified):
23 And Abraham came near and said, “Would You also consume the just people with the wicked people?
24 Suppose there were fifty just people in the midst of the city; would You also consume the place and not spare it for the fifty just people who are in the midst of it?
25 Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to cause the just people to die with the wicked people, so that the just people should be as the wicked people; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do judgment?”
26 And Jehovah said, “If I find in Sodom fifty just people in the midst of the city, then I will spare all the place for their sake.”
27 And Abraham answered and said, “Indeed, I pray, I want to speak to my Lord, and I am dust and ashes:
28 Suppose there were five less than the fifty just people; would You destroy all of the city for the five?”
And He said, “I will not destroy it, if I find there forty and five.”
29 And he added to speak to Him still, and said, “Suppose there should be forty found there?”
And He said, “I will not do it for the sake of the forty.”
30 And he said, “I pray, let my Lord not be angry, and I will speak: Suppose thirty should be found there?”
And He said, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”
31 And he said, “Indeed, I pray, I want to speak to my Lord: Suppose twenty should be found there?”
And He said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the twenty.”
32 And he said, “I pray, let my Lord not be angry, and I will speak only this time: Suppose ten should be found there?”
And He said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the ten.”
33 And Jehovah went His way because He had completed speaking to Abraham; and Abraham returned to his place.
Jehovah would have spared the city to save even only ten good people. We don’t have the time today to go into the details of what this all means, but can you hear Jesus longing to save every single person who possibly could be helped?
In the story, there aren’t even ten good people in Sodom; there are sort of three. And two angels of Jehovah go down to Sodom to rescue even them. One of them is Abraham’s nephew Lot. The angels tell Him that Sodom is going to be destroyed and so he tries to get his son-in-laws who are engaged to his two daughters to leave but they just mock him. Then the angels tell him to hurry up and take his wife and two daughters and get out of there. But Lot lingers and delays until eventually the angels take him and his wife and his daughters firmly by the hand and bring them out of the city. Then the angels tell them to escape towards the mountain and to not look behind them. And, of course, famously, Lot's wife does look behind, and becomes a pillar of salt. So the only people who escape are Lot and his two daughters and they end up living in a cave and the daughters eventually decide to have children by getting their father drunk and sleeping with him.
The point of all this is that these people that Jehovah saved were not particularly good or cooperative people and yet, because they had even a little bit of willingness to follow, Jehovah went to the effort to rescue them.
I think that’s a beautiful picture of how the Lord God Jesus Christ was when He was in the world, and how He is still. It doesn’t matter what a person has done, the Lord still loves them and cares about them and will still be doing everything He possibly can to rescue them from the hell they have gotten themselves into, if they have even the slightest glimmer of willingness to cooperate.
We can see this principle in words that Jesus spoke, in John 3:1719:
17 For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
19 And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, because their deeds were wicked.
This is the reality that underlies the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. In the literal text it says that Jehovah caused the destruction but the spiritual reality is that destruction and pain are inherent in evil and the Lord is perpetually protecting us from so much of the awful onslaught of hell. But when we consciously choose to do evil and harmful things then we remove ourselves from His protection and experience the brimstone and fire that He was able to protect us from before (Secrets of Heaven 2395, 2447[4]).
For example, whenever someone does something against what I want I can choose to let it go or I can choose to hate them and burn with rage at them.
In the sermon on the mount Jesus says, “I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother rashly shall be in danger of the judgment. …. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire” (Matthew 5:22).
We put ourselves in danger of hell fire, not the Lord. Can you see how these teachings and this way of finding Jesus in the story of Abraham gives us a very different understand of God and His response to people in evil?
What This Means For Us
I want to shift gears now and talk about what this means for us. Our understanding of who God is and what He cares about and how He thinks about and treats other people can have a big impact on how we think about and treat other people. I was struck by this part of a passage from this section of Secrets of Heaven 2284[5]:
"The life of charity consists in thinking what is good in regard to another, and in willing for him that which is good, and in feeling joy within oneself that others as well are saved. But those people do not possess the life of charity whose will is that no others should be saved than those whose beliefs coincide with theirs…."
Knowing that the Lord loves everyone and wants everyone to be saved makes me realise that, if I don’t want a particular person to be saved or a particular group of people to be saved, then that’s a clear sign that I am not actually following the Lord.
We sometimes find ourselves in a frame of mind somewhat similar to the one in which Jesus found Himself, reflecting on the evil state of the human race. It might be in thinking about people or the world in general or, much more painfully, it might be in thinking about people we know and love who seem to be dealing with some evil or other.
Like Jesus, our first reaction might be to want to pull away - to not think about it, not accept that it could be reality that hell has taken hold in someone’s life. But, in those times, we need to follow Jesus’ example and remain standing before Jehovah, and have a conversation with Him. Hold that person in Your prayers and ask the Lord for insight.
When we think about someone else who seems to be in evil we can tend to want to oversimplify the situation and resolve it. We tend to do that in one of two ways:
1) We either say, “Maybe this person is doing some not so great stuff or doing things that don’t technically follow the Lord’s laws but the Lord loves everyone so it’s all fine. Who am I to judge?”
2) Or we say, “This person is evil. God hates them or at least hates what they’re doing. And so this person is dead to me.”
Notice how both of these “solutions” absolve us of any responsibility. The other person is either totally fine or totally hopeless — they don’t need me or I can’t do anything. I think it’s a lot harder to hold another person’s life with its complexity and contradictions — to see good in them and also the influence of hell in them. And it’s certainly a lot harder to try to figure out how to help or do something in response than it is to sit back and do nothing. But what a loving and merciful person would do sometimes is to take action.
Secrets of Heaven 2417[7]: Charity and mercy are present with a person who exercises justice and judgement by punishing the evil and rewarding the good. Charity resides within the punishment of the evil, for he who imposes the punishment is moved by a strong desire to improve the one who is punished and at the same time to protect others from the evil he may do to them.
Conclusion
It’s not simple to figure out how to think about and act towards someone who seems to be in evil. But I do find this story and the perspective it gives on our God very helpful and I do find that it changes how I hold things. It helps me to see that it’s OK for me to be upset when I see someone or a group of people who seem to be in evil. It helps me to see that it is never OK to be happy about someone else maybe ending up in hell. If I’m glad about a person going down or being worse than me then I am not loving the Lord or my neighbour, plain and simple. It helps me to see that sometimes the Lord does want me to take action, even if it’s a messy, frustrating process like what the angels went through to get Lot out of Sodom.
But the main thing that this story does, with the help of the teachings of the New Church, is that it helps me understand my God a bit more and see that He holds nothing but love for every single one of His children. That He is not looking for reasons to punish people or keep them out of heaven. That He is looking for and working for any possible opportunity to save each and every one of us. And that’s a God I can believe in and a God that I want to try to follow. Amen.
(Read the next sermon in this 3-part series, about Belief)
(Read the first (previous) sermon in this 3-part series, about Beginnings)
