History Repeats Itself

Rev. Sudha Mehta©

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Luke 17: 26 And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so will it also be in the days of the Son of Man: 27 people were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, and they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. 28 It was the same as happened in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, and they were building; 29 but on the day that Lot left Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. 30 It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed. (NASB)

Jude 1:  7 In like manner, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, who indulged in sexual immorality and pursued strange flesh, are on display as an example of those who sustain the punishment of eternal fire.(BSB)

God had to make an example and set on display the bitter ending of those that rebelled so egregiously against Him. Sadly, we humans never seem to learn from history, so history repeats itself:

Ecclesiastes 1: 10 Is there a thing of which it is said,
“See, this is new”?
It has been already
in the ages before us.(ESV)

Jesus saw this pattern in humans. Yet Sin does have it’s consequences so we find ourselves facing Judgment again and again.  God’s patience runs out and judgment results in a forever tragedy for many.

Last post we looked at Noah’s time, now we will look at Lot’s time. It too is said to be a sign of the end times and a marker for the Rapture.

The issue in Noah’s time was the preservation of the Human DNA which was being  altered by cross mingling of species. The fallen angels were taking human women as wives and having children with them. Amazingly the World accepted this “new normal” and sin abounded. Their rebellion against God became so outrageous that God needed to obliterate all but eight humans and pairs of the animal /bird species thus preserving just enough to restart with proper procreation the way He originally intended.

Luke 17: 28 begins with “It was the same . . . “ indicating this was a repeat of what had happened before. When Noah and family along with the land animals and birds disembarked the ark, God made a promise to them all, that He would never ever flood the whole Earth again. His promise in Genesis 9: 2-17 was not just to Noah and family but also the animals!

Gen 9: 8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9 “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, 10 and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” (ESV)

And He didn’t!

In the case of Sodom and Gomorrah God contained the sin before it grew bigger by judging these twin cities with the surrounding areas obliterating them completely. The sin was gross, yet His desire for mercy was so great that the Lord had to come Himself and verify.

Jesus visits abraham from iamthewordthecomforter

Jude 1:7 states their sin also had to do with going after “strange flesh,” forbidden by God, just as it was in Noah’s day. So, what exactly is “strange flesh” in this case? It was sex with same gender humans . . . and perhaps it was more than that! Their sin was compounded yet in that they approved of and insisted upon having sex by raping these two “men” whom they found attractive.  Some have conjectured that they must have known these two were angelic beings and not normal men.  scripture doesn’t indicate this at all. 

Gen 19: 4 Before they had gone to bed, all the men of the city of Sodom, both young and old, surrounded the house. 5 They called out to Lot, saying, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Send them out to us so we can have relations with them!”(BSB)

Romans 1 lends further clarity:

Romans 1:24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, . . . 26b For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.(ESV)

Lot’s house surrounded by men frpm pinterest

There were heterosexuals in the cities, after all Lot and family were examples of heterosexual families living in Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot had four daughters, two were married to men and no longer living at home. These two husbands laughed at Lot when he told them of the impending doom. 

Genesis 19: 14 So Lot went out and spoke to the sons-in-law who were pledged in marriage to his daughters. “Get up,” he said. “Get out of this place, for the LORD is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.(BSB)

Lot and family had immersed sufficiently in the culture so that these two daughters had found local husbands, while the other two still lived at home and were unmarried. The two virgin daughters were offered to the sex crazed men surrounding their home by their own father, to be raped/defiled! Strange . . . who does that?! In any case, it did not work for the men outside were not in the mood for a tryst with women, they wanted those two handsome strangers who had just arrived in town. Forget hospitality! Lot was willing to sacrifice his own daughters in order to protect his guests, while the townsmen were willing to destroy the honor of the guests in order to satiate their own lusts!!

This was the “strange flesh” in this case . . . their own lust was paramount so that absent the fear of God, aberrant behavior and appetite was simply too enticing to pass. 

I will add more: the stench of the sin of these cities was raised to high heavens by the “tolerence” and “acceptance” of these behaviors by the citizens. It became the norm. Truth became relative, there were no absolutes, no morals, “Want it? Get it!” became the attitude. I wonder if they had parades downtown showing off their Pride like the ones we see today. I speak of the same Pride that makes you your own god with the little “g.”  

Simply put this is the way it goes:

1 Pride makes you think you know better than God.

2 This leads you to believe yourself wiser than God.

3 Next you decide you can choose who your God is.

4 You make your own idols, whether they be objects of wood/stone/ gold/silver/ or anything else. You make them in the likeness of anything you want including yourself. Today, in the age of high tech the favorite God I see most often is a selfie. People love to share these on social media.

5 Then you relegate God to an old fashioned idea of the past, a superstition, a crutch for the weak, a curse word to throw around in fun and in anger.

6 His Word is no longer seen as important. You retire it to a dusty shelf in a corner.

7 Now you are free to make all rules yourself. At will you decide what is is right and wrong. However, basic wrong and rights are embedded in your soul by God, so you try really hard to dull your senses enough to not listen to them.

8 Once everyone else does the same, truth and morals become relative and order in society goes downhill. Crime escalates/ the quality of life goes down and in the end no one wins.

God is patient, but He is not blind. He is slow to anger but He does not wink at sin. It always come to an end. The person who dies in his sin does end up in hell . . . it comes to an end.

Society that tolerates a breakdown of all rules does breakdown itself . . . it comes to an end.

Nations who allow anarchy to prevail do cease to exist . . . it comes to an end.

Mankind that forgets and rebels against God will face His judgment . . . it will come to an end.

As Jude says, people in Sodom and Go-mor-rah indulged in sexual immorality and pursued strange flesh. 

Lot and family from pinterest.es

One more very important point to be made:

Genesis 6: 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and afterward as well—when the sons of God had relations with the daughters of men.(BSB)

So we know this activity from fallen angels did not stop with the deluge. Even after the flood, fallen angels, who cannot die, continued to do this and have children with human women.

We know when God brought them out of Egypt, the Hebrews faced “Giants in the Land of Canaan.” before whom they were as “Grasshoppers”.  David went against Goliath, a giant. Sihon, king of the Amorites and Og, King of Bashan were giants. The Amalekites were to be destroyed for they were infested with giants. All in all it makes sense that the presense of Giants was not that foreign to the people, and hence the presense/ or knowledge of women being taken for sex was not that unheard of in that age.

So, how much was that an issue of strange flesh at this time . . . one can only guess. Did that play in? You decide!

Sodom location from ceifadores.com.

One thing stills us in uncertain times of our lives:

God never changes! Never!! AND He NEVER makes mistakes, is NEVER confused!!! 

If you know this, the rest of His Word, and your world falls into place. What He said 6 thousand or 4 thousand years ago is not old fashioned, but still holds true/steady and safe today. When He made Adam and Eve God did not make multiple partners for them to have sexual interplay with. It was one man, one woman, monogomy for life. Loyalty and faithfulness for life. There was no gender/partner/species choice presented. No gender/species confusion.

During the time of Noah people ignored the warnings given by Noah. Peter addresses both Noah and Lot just as Jesus had already done, adding that Noah was a preacher of righteousness, and that Lot was a righteous man who found the sin around him hard to tolerate.

 2 Peter 2: 5 . . . did not spare the ancient world, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example of what is coming for the ungodly; 7 and if He rescued righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the perverted conduct of unscrupulous people 8  (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them,  felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds), 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from a trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt passion, and despise authority.(NASB)

God in each case was rescuing the “righteous” from a trial yet to come upon the ungodly. In Noah’s case He brought Noah and family through the trial, and in Lot’s case God brought Lot and family out before the trial. Either way, He rescued and kept them from the hour of trial.

The Rapture will do exactly that! It is a rescue of those that are “born again” and walk according to His way, keeping themselves holy while waiting for their King’s return.

Rapture from christianforums

My friends, please heed this warning I present to you, and follow Jesus!

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