The Harsh Reality of Genesis Anonymous College

God’s lesson for Abraham through his destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is simple; a nation without God that falls entirely into sin will be punished, but one that is good and loyal to Him will be saved. In other words God will be harsh, but completely fair with the people of His nation in how He treats them. Those who follow Him will be rewarded and those who abandon Him will be punished. As the father of God’s nation and the leader of his people, God wants Abraham to understand this, so he uses Sodom and Gomorrah as an example of what not to allow his nation to become. God throughout Genesis has benefited Abraham and others whenever they have obeyed him, and brought evil upon those who have not. The story of Sodom and Gomorrah brings this from the individual level to a larger scale as God tells Abraham (although he has already amassed a few hundred followers) that his nation is about to become “like the dust of the earth; so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring can also be counted.” (13:16). Sodom and Gomorrah is significant to Abraham’s nation specifically because it is God’s way of showing Abraham what can happen to an entire nation that becomes sinful, whereas before his past examples have mostly been...