AS OPENLY AS SODOM
W. Carl Ketcherside 

One wonders why Sodom became so wicked. Other cities were given over to sinning as most cities were. But few places in the world were so wholly given to transgression. Even the name has been given to a grievous sexual sin that is still prevalent today. The name has the literal connotation of "a place of lime." It is mentioned 49 times in the Bible, ten of which are in the new covenant scriptures. Always there is about it an air of crime and utter disappearance. The first time we hear of it, all the men of the city, young and old, surrounded the house of Lot. They yelled out for him to bring the men out to them who had come to spend the night. The Good News Version says, "The men of Sodom wanted to have sex with them." Isaiah refers to it in chapter 3, verse 9.

The chapter begins with the prediction that the Lord is going to take away from Jerusalem and Judah "everything and everyone that the people depend on." He will take away their food and their water. Nebuchadnezzar led three assaults against the city. The first was in 606 B.C. The last was in 587 B.C. The siege had become so intense that the people sought to eat their own children. The record literally says "the people had nothing left to eat."

The record goes on to say that God took away "their heroes and their soldiers, their judges and their prophets, their fortunetellers and their statesmen, their military and civilian leaders, their politicians and everyone who uses magic to control events." It would be hard to administer a city with all of the administrators taken away from it. I am thinking how difficult it would be to maintain order in Saint Louis with all of the governors and pseudo-governors having been removed from it. I am sure Jerusalem was no better off. They were told that the Lord would let the people be governed by immature boys.

The earth now has 5 billion people. It is growing by 87 million each year. That seems a little incredible to former history students like myself. But even more astounding is the fact that 90 percent of this growth is occurring in countries the least able to support it. Every year the farmland supports fewer people. And every year more of them crowd into the cities. Often they are forced to live like animals in the warrens of towns incapable of supporting them. In the filth and refuse of such cities men live like beasts of the field. Humanity is crushed out of them. Degradation takes its place.

Heroes and soldiers disappear. When there is nothing worth defending or fighting for, they are no longer needed. Judges and prophets are forced out of existence. When all are in the same unbridled mess there is no use of a judge to determine the right or wrong of things. Prophets are not required to speak glowingly of a coming age, or of a time of plenty. Fortunetellers who are so hungry they cannot speak, or so thirsty their tongues grow silent, will be allowed to perish in the calamitous state of things. Statesmen who have no state to rule and regulate can say farewell. It is that way today in many places.

That is an apt portrayal of conditions in Ethiopia and the Sudan. And every year the desert encroaches upon land which was fertile but a few years ago. Some there are who blame the Russians for it. But it seems that rather than point the finger of accusation it would be better by far to make known ways of reclamation. Lebanon, Pakistan, Iraq and Iran need help. Raw wounds need to be healed. Starving bodies need to be filled. A great mass of gold trickling through manicured fingers will avail nothing if pitiable cries are uttered from the perishing throats of boys and girls.

Most of you will recognize at once that I am writing about things as described by the evangelical prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz. He points out that doom and collapse are the two-fold fate which result from doing things against the Lord and openly insulting God himself. He says that their prejudices will be held against them. He declares that "your leaders are misleading you, so that you do not know which way to turn."

If you read the daily newspaper regularly, or if you watch television news daily, or listen to the newscasts over radio, you are generally wandering around in a daze. I know of one elderly person who watches the soap operas with avid interest. She says she does not listen to the news because it confuses and confounds her. She chooses the liaisons and bedroom scenes and fills her mind with such contamination and filth.

God still rules. He knows exactly what is going on. He knows what is happening in the already over-crowded world. He knows every nook and cranny of the earth's surface, every cave and mountain vastness. He knows what is in your heart and mine as I write these words. And God is saying again to all of us, You have no right to crush my people and take advantage of the poor. One thing can be certain. The poor have a defender. There is someone who counts. And one of these days things will be made right.

I get to thinking occasionally as I read that it is no mere accident that the poor are cared for. It is not the work of politicians or statesmen. It is not the work of governors or mighty men. It is the work of little people. They do not expect to leave thousands of dollars to be spent by others. They do not postpone their sharing until death, when someone else will take over and apportion it out. They realize that God sees, knows and understands.

What a magnificent power is invested in those who realize what a blessing is afforded to be able to work, to make enough upon which to live and provide for the helpless. How they cheer my heart. How they make my soul rejoice. It can never be said of them, "The city gates will mourn and cry, and the city itself will be like a woman sitting on the ground stripped naked." That is the fate of a city whose people "sin as openly as the people of Sodom did." Fretting gates and a city sitting on the ground naked! What a price to pay for open sin! — 4420 Jamieson 1-C, St. Louis, MO 63109