What Was the Sin of Sodom?

One of our readers poses the following dilemma: “Ezekiel 16:49 says that the sin of Sodom was pride, fulness of bread, idleness, and not helping the poor and needy. Yet Genesis 19 clearly teaches its sin was homosexuality.” We understand the question to be: “What was the sin of Sodom?”

Ezekiel 16:49 reads, “Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.” God is speaking to Judah and comparing her sinfulness to that of Sodom. In this chapter, Sodom is described as the younger sister of Jerusalem and Samaria, a horrifying commentary on their wickedness.

The next verse, Ezekiel 16:50, says, “And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.” The reference to committing “abomination” must be a reference to the sin of homosexuality: “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them” (Lev. 20:13; cf. 18:22). The word “abomination” is used here and elsewhere in Scripture to describe the vilest of sins, including the sin of homosexuality. Sodom’s sin was the sin of homosexuality.

Genesis 19 does not say in so many words that the sin of Sodom was homosexuality, but it is clear from the story of Lot’s two visitors, the two angels who came to rescue him before the city was destroyed, that Sodom’s sin was indeed that sin condemned in Romans 1:26-27. Read Genesis 19:1-11, especially verses 4 and 5, and note the references to knowing a person sexually (5, 8). No wonder that male homosexuality has long been known as “sodomy.”

Jude 7 is further confirmation: “Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”

There is, therefore, no conflict between Ezekiel and Genesis. Sodom’s sin was that condemned in Romans 1:27, God’s recompense or judgment on those who worship and serve the creature more than the Creator.

Ezekiel speaks of pride, gluttony, idleness and disregard of the poor, because those sins lead to the sin of homosexuality, as the moral decay of our own society proves. Our high standard of living with its resulting idleness, indulgence and selfishness have led once again to a rapid increase of the sin of homosexuality, to its acceptance in Western nations, and to the widespread political influence of the “gay rights” and LGBTQ+ movements. Our society, therefore, is ripe for judgment, as were Sodom, Jerusalem and Samaria, as Ezekiel 16 points out.

It is to the shame of many nations that certain cities or neighbourhoods are hotbeds of homosexual living and activism. It is to the shame of our society that such activism has made it increasingly difficult for Christians to speak out against this sin without suffering for their forthrightness. It is to the shame of the Western world that homosexual relationships are now legitimized by the civil government as “marriage.” It is to the shame of our decadent age that those who condemn this sin are often persecuted for doing so.

A well-known case in Northern Ireland involved the parents of our children’s schoolmates. These parents owned a bakery in Belfast and refused to make a cake with a message promoting same-sex “marriage.” They were vilified by many, and were accused of discrimination and fined, though eventually the Supreme Court ruled in their favour, saying that they could not be forced to promote a message with which they did not agree (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_v_Ashers_Baking_Company_Ltd_and_others).

Our societies fit the Word of God in Romans 1:32: “Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.” Our Western nations are, and will be, under God’s judgment for such sins.

In Ezekiel 16, it should be noted, God is speaking to Judah, the church of the Old Testament (Acts 7:38), which had become like Sodom and is called Sodom’s sister. Today, (much of) the church is Sodom’s sister in that she not only approves and promotes the sin of homosexuality, but even blesses homosexual “marriages” and appoints homosexuals to office in the church. What a warning Ezekiel 16:49-50 is to the church in our own day!

There are several things that need to be emphasized about this sin.

(1) Scripture not only considers homosexuality sin but the vilest of sin. It is, Romans 1 says, unclean and dishonourable (24), “against nature” (26), “unseemly” and shameful (27). It is the result of God’s just judgment in giving men and women up to their sexual lusts (24, 26). Those who commit this sin have been given over by God to a “reprobate mind” (28). It is God’s “recompense” on those who turn away from Him (27). As with the citizens of Sodom, it brings men and women under the fiery judgment of God.

(2) The church may not tolerate this sin and must speak out against it, no matter the consequences. Silence is as wrong as approving of this sin. Romans 1:24-32 and Jude 7, for example, may not be ignored in the preaching and teaching of the church, or else the church is not preaching the righteousness and just judgment of God, not condemning sin as sin against the Holy One of Israel and not keeping herself separate from the world, but compromising with the ungodly.

(3) By condemning this sin as sin, God’s people will obey the injunction of Revelation 18:4-5: “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.” They must separate themselves from those sins as much as possible, not reluctantly, as Lot did, but immediately, willingly and forcefully, or else they will suffer, as Lot did, terrible loss. They must condemn this sin without hesitation and refuse to have anything to do with it, standing on principle as many have done, especially when condemnation of homosexuality is more and more likely to bring fines, imprisonment, charges of discrimination and other more serious consequences.

(4) That the sin of homosexuality was the sin of Sodom shows how close we are to the coming of Christ and the final judgment. Sodom and the surrounding cities did not only suffer destruction but “the vengeance of eternal fire” (Jude 7), as “an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly” (II Pet. 2:6). Nothing at all is left of those cities and even their location cannot be pinpointed. So it will be with the kingdoms and cities of this world—cities like San Francisco, London, Berlin, Amsterdam and Toronto, and nations such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands and Canada, where these sins are openly practised, tolerated, praised and promoted.

What is especially important for us, however, is the admonition in Ezekiel 16:49 against selfishness, self-indulgence, idleness and pride. We may not be inclined to the sin of homosexuality, but these other sins are sins against which we all must fight and they are the sins that lead to the sin that Ezekiel 16:50 calls an “abomination.” These sins must be acknowledged and confessed, and the grace of the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ sought as the only remedy for sin.

What is more, we must see that this sin, according to Romans 1, is the end of those who do not glorify God, who are not thankful (21), who are self-wise (22), who change the truth of God into a lie, and worship and serve the creature more than the Creator (25). We must not be like them.

Romans 1 ought to force us to examine ourselves. Am I truly thankful, always thankful, for all that God has given me and especially for His saving grace? Do my life and words glorify Him? Am I wise in my own conceits? Do I, in my beliefs, change the truth of God into a lie? Do I, holding such teachings as man’s free will, faith as a work of man, and salvation by grace and works, worship the creature more than the Creator? Do I, by putting my feelings, my desires, my comfort and my happiness before God and spiritual things, serve the creature more than the Creator who is blessed forever?

Scripture’s condemnation of the sin of Sodom is not there to make us feel self-righteous. The Bible does not refer to homosexuality so that we can condemn the wicked world in which we live without a thought of our own depravity and sin. We must see that, except for the grace of God, we would easily put ourselves in the same danger as Lot. We must see that, except for God’s grace, we are not better, or less liable to commit the worst of sins, than the ungodly who perpetrate them. We must find in Sodom’s sin another reason to flee always and again to Christ and His cross, for all of our redemption and deliverance from sin. Rev. Ron Hanko