SCRIPTURE: Lamentations 4
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
The punishment of my people is greater than that of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment without a hand turned to help her. [Lamentations 4:6]
Sodom (and the neighbouring town of Gomorrah) were symbols of excessive sin and immorality.
They were cities in Abraham’s day that were so bad, that God ‘comes down’ to see for Himself how great and grievous their sin is [Genesis 18:20-21].
This is where Lot (Abraham’s nephew) lived, and Genesis 19 shows how bad things were, how they even infected Lot, and how God rescues Lot but destroys the city with fire from heaven.
Many prophets used Sodom as the measuring stick for evil
Speaking of Israel, Isaiah says: They parade their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! They have brought disaster upon themselves. [Isaiah 3:9]

Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near. I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town. [Luke 10:11-12]
Jesus warns that those who reject Him and His kingdom message will one day feel the weight of judgment – in a way that even Sodom did not experience.
Why is the judgment worse for those who reject Jesus, when the sins of Sodom were so bad?
The answer is in Who and what Jesus represents: if the weight of judgment hangs over every person’s life, and if Jesus is God in mercy offering to remove that judgment, then to reject Jesus is to reject God’s mercy and leave the weight of ultimate judgment waiting to be applied.
God the King has come to remove the penalty and break the power of sin; those who reject Jesus reject their only hope for forgiveness and freedom.

Jesus also compares the last day to the day when judgment came upon Sodom
It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. [Luke 17:28-30]
Isaiah compares the fall of Jerusalem to the fall of Sodom; Jesus compares the final judgment to the fall of Sodom (only worse).
Jesus is not threatening us, He is warning us – don’t wait until it is too late to discover what Jeremiah and the Israelites did – the final judgment will not be pretty, it will be awful.
God is not being mean, it is the natural, necessary consequence of sin.
But He is offering a way out, a way of forgiveness and freedom.
Will we take it, will we accept it?

PRAYER:
Lord, we so easily forget about the seriousness of sin, and are lulled into an easy, comfortable life. Thank You for reminding us that judgment is coming, and only by having it removed by Jesus can we survive it!