“And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar,
Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of
nations, that they made war with Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of
Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela
(that is, Zoar) (Genesis 14:1-2).” I have never given it much thought, but it
struck me that in this list of kings mentioned in Genesis 14, that Sodom and
Gomorrah had kings. How often, for obvious reasons, do we jump right to God’s
judgment of these two cities for their sins and never once consider that they
were led by kings? What this says to me is that the actions of the people of
these cities was either promoted by the king or permitted by him. Regardless of
which one it was the king was okay with the actions of his people. This got me to
thinking about the world we live in today and specifically the United States. A
king is someone who generally inherits their position by right of birth.
Whereas the President of the United States is voted into office by the people
of the country. In both instances the way the people behave is either a
reflection of what their leader believes or the leader is a representation of
what the people believe. We know that the Lord would eventually destroy Sodom
and Gomorrah because, “the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and
because their sin is very grave… (Genesis 18:20)” We don’t know everything that
was going on within these cities, but we do know that the sexual immorality was
so bad that from God’s perspective there were less than ten righteous people in
the city of Sodom alone. That included the king.
Fast forward to today. What do we see in our country, but
the rise, promotion and endorsement of sexual immorality and everything it
touches? I have talked before about sins
like abortion which has taken the lives of nearly 60 million unborn children in
the US alone in my lifetime. Many of these unborn children were the byproduct
of promiscuous sexual activity which once used to be taboo, but now is
mainstream. And now one of the first declarations of God that a “man shall
leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife (Genesis 2:24)” has now
been changed to include any two consenting adults regardless of gender. Only
God knows what’s next? There have been eight Presidents in my lifetime and none
of them have really attempted to stem the tide of all this sexual immorality.
In fact, some of them have been embroiled in their own sex scandals and emerged
with little or no damage to their reputations. Other Presidents have pledged
their allegiance to those who fight for the “right” to kill their unborn
children or call their godless relationships marriage. But, what is worse is
that many of these Presidents, if not all of them, have claimed to be or have
been thought to be Christians. Plus, they have been voted into office by the
people of this country where over 80% claim to be Christians themselves. It
gives new meaning to what the Bible says about the End Times; men will be
“lovers of themselves” and “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.”
Thankfully, while I don’t believe God will destroy us like He destroyed Sodom
and Gomorrah, there is nothing stopping Him from allowing us to destroy
ourselves. We need to look no further than our kings and Presidents to realize
they are only a reflection of what we believe and what we desire. Our only hope
is not in our leaders, but in our God and Savior Jesus Christ. May we come to
the end of ourselves and fall into His loving hands before it is too late.
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