Vineri As I pointed out in the previous article, conquered cities, both ancient and modern, are destroyed by fire, and whether the fire is launched with bows over city walls or from laser guided bombs dropped down from airplanes, the fire does come down from haven. So, was Sodom destroyed by God or was it conquered by other cities who were as greedy and “civilized” as Sodom? Because the biblical writers assume God’s sovereignty, they often describe God as doing what God only approves or endorses. In other words, when human agents do things which comply with God’s decisions or intentions, those actions are presented as being done by God and not by the humans involved. This is true for both saving and destructive actions. For instance, God often reminds Israel that “I have brought you out of Egypt,” although the human agent who actually lead the people out of Egypt and even performed the miracles was Moses (Jeremiah 7:22; Amos 2:10; Micah 6:4). Similarly, when the prophets announced that God was going to punish Israel for her evils, they said that God would send the Babylonians to conquer the country and destroy Jerusalem. In order to make sure that no one understood that the Babylonians were God’s champions of justice, they also insisted that the Babylonians were as evil as the people they killed and therefore they would be conquered and destroyed in due time by others. God destroyed Israel and Sodom not in the sense that he actually set the fire to those cities or that he actually told those who destroyed the cities to do what they did. Evil people do not need to be told by God to kill; they do it anyway because killing is the only thing they are good at. Just as the Sodomites were watching everyone else to get more of their “values,” so did everyone else with them to get their “values.” Regardless of how the fire actually took place, the Bible wants to make clear that when such tragedies occur, God “causes” them in the sense that does not prevent evil people to rip what they sow.
Whether the fire is sent by God or not, when cities were conquered and burned, there were virtually no survivors because all inhabitants were trapped inside the city walls. The walls which were meant to guarantee security end up guaranteeing death. The only survivors were those who happened to be outside the city when the attack occurred. This is the reason the two messengers who came to Lot urged him and his family to leave the city immediately insisting that there would be no survivors because no one can leave a besieged city. Eventually Lot did leave Sodom becoming a refugee or a lucky survivor. Lucky does not mean happy. What Lot discovered after leaving Sodom was that city life had changed him and his family to such an extent that life outside the city was not conceivable or possible any more. Instead of using every second to save his life, Lot makes a strange request: “‘Oh, no, my lords; your servant has found favor with you, and you have shown me great kindness in saving my life; but I cannot flee to the hills, for fear the disaster will overtake me and I die. Look, that city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Let me escape there–is it not a little one?–and my life will be saved!" (Gen 19:18-20).The city had become more important than life itself. If he had to leave a city, he could only go to another one. As far as his wife is concerned, she preferred to turn back and die rather than live as a refugee. Lot and his family had become so addicted to the city life that when the city was gone, life had no purpose or meaning anymore. The “values” with which the city and “civilization” claims to fill life, actually empties it to the point that has no meaning, because the meaning of live is not given by the “values” which you consume, but by the “values” which you produce and create. The man who separated from Abraham because both were too prosperous, after discovering the “values of civilization” he becomes a handicapped unable to live a normal life. The end of Lot’s story would make all modern talk shows look boring. Lot became a heavy drinker to the point of getting his own daughters pregnant without knowing what he was doing. Those daughters which the evil Sodomites refused to rape, he ended up raping them himself because they were unable to find husbands and have normal families. While dunk, he probably spent the rest of his life blaming God for ruining his good life in Sodom and never blaming himself for choosing a wrong life when Abraham asked him to make a choice.
This ancient story raises the question whether abundance of material things fills life with happiness or empties it of meaning. Although the Bible never condemns wealth and always presents Abraham as being very wealthy, the illusion of happiness based on acquisition of material things at the expense of others is the fundamental basis of all civilizations, and particularly of the Christian West. Just as the abundance of material things far exceeds what was available in Sodom, so also western civilization faces Lot’s problems at greater extend. The most affluent people today do not recourse just to alcohol to create the illusion of happiness which wealth cannot provide, but to much more powerful drugs. One would imagine that someone who has won eight gold medals at the last Olympic Games would be the happiest person, but recently was pictures in tabloids smoking drugs. A strange reality is that the poorest countries like Afghanistan and Latin America are producing drugs which they do not need and consume but are needed desperately bu the most “civilized” parts of the world. Just like Lot, people with broken families, with addictions, unable to work, unable to marry or unwilling to marry, and so on, are the marks of being “civilized” and “liberated.” Just like Lot, modern Christians prefer the happiness provided by the real wine and not the wine of biblical wisdom and happiness which Jesus provided.
Aurel Ionica - Majesty.ro
Set as favorite
Hits: 624
Comments (0)
Write comment
