Sodom & Gomorrah 1 - Genesis 18:16-33

The men that have visited Abraham and Sarah “rose up from thence, and looked toward Sodom.” It’s important to note that Abraham and Sarah have been incredibly hospitable to these visitors as illustrated by the fact that what Abraham offered and presented to these visitors was described in detail. It seems like the visiting men have a debate among themselves whether to “hide from Abraham that thing which I must do,” which seems like an interesting event considering that they are probably having this conversation within ear shot of Abraham. They consider telling him because they believe that he will “command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, and to justice and judgment.” The IM comments, “This verse records one of the keys of Abraham’s righteousness. Not only did he keep the commandments but he taught his household to do so too. Of this fact President Kimball said: ‘Abraham’s desire to do God’s will in all things led him to preside over his family in righteousness. Despite all his other responsibilities, he knew that if he failed to teach and exemplify the gospel to his children he would have failed to fulfill the most important stewardship he had received.’” Apparently they decide to tell Abraham their next move which is to check out Sodom and Gomorrah (S&G from now on) to see if those cities are really as wicked as the prayers “which is come unto me.” The JST reiterates that “the angels which were holy men, and were sent forth after the order of God,” were the ones visiting Abraham and that’s important for the reasons we discussed yesterday. Abraham lives in the area and has a nephew living in Sodom, so when he hears that S&G are about to be evaluated by holy men for their righteousness, he gets a little bit nervous knowing what they are going to find there. Abraham starts doing a little bit of investigating of his own to determine just what their intentions are with the city and its people. He asks, “Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?” This is a fair question, and Abraham points out that if there were even just 50 righteous people there, it would not be just to destroy them with the wicked. It appears that Abraham is talking to God at this point and not the holy men, because the Lord agrees with him and answers, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.” Abraham and the Lord do a little back and forth negotiating, where Abraham asks if God is willing to spare the city if there are 45 righteous, 40, 30, 20, and 10, and all of these questions are answered in the same way, that if there are found even ten “I will not destroy it for ten’s sake,” and the Lord leaves after promising the city will be safe if there are even ten righteous, which one of the articles that I read note that this is the minimum requirement for a community. The IM makes a significant statement entitled, “The power of a righteous life,” saying that one righteous person really can make a difference. The IM continues, “Alma told the people of Ammonihah that ‘if it were not for the prayers of the righteous, who are now in the land, that ye would even now be visited with utter destruction.’ He then warned them, ‘If ye cast out the righteous from among you then will not the Lord stay his hand.’ Like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, the people of Ammonihah refused to repent or recognize that the few righteous among them were their only protection, so they killed them and cast them out. Therefore, a short time later the entire city was destroyed. The Lord also indicated that the United States would bring judgments upon itself for driving out the Saints.” I personally believe that the American civil war was the result of the saints being expelled from the country and also the murder of the Prophet Joseph Smith. A society generally starts to be too wicked to repent when they start killing the prophets, and that’s what happened so it makes sense to me.