THOUGHTS on MATTHEW 10:14 -16ff, 21, 25-38 Words of Jesus

"And whoever does not receive you, nor heed your words, as you go out of that house or that city, shake off the dust of your feet.  'Truly I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city.  'Behold I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; therefore, be shrewd as serpents, and innocent as doves.'" (verses 14-16)

If the truth proclaimed by the Apostles was rejected, then the judgment is like Sodom and Gomorrah.

Children will rise up against parents..."(v. 21)

"Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man's enemies will be the members of his household." (Micah 7:6) He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.  And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me." (verses34-38)

Adam Clarke blatantly says, "He whom we love the most is he whom we study most to please, and whose will and interests we prefer in all cases.  If, in order to please a father or mother (or child) who is opposed to vital godliness, we abandon God's ordinances and followers, we are unworthy of anything but hell."

This seems to be set against the most sinful cities on record that God destroyed as examples.  Therefore, it must be considered in this passage in comparison to the rejection of the truth.  There are some in our culture who support these licentious acts as not the reason God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, but that they were destroyed for lack of "hospitality." I first heard this argument in a conservative holiness camp meeting.  It was rightly so condemned, and the preacher was not invited to fill the pulpit again.  Yet, society likes to say that Jesus never said anything about the gay, etc., lifestyle in condemnation.  They are so wrong!  He did not throw out the Old Testament with the baby's bathwater.  Earlier in Matthew, Jesus says in 5:17-19 in the Sermon on the Mount, "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill.  For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter (jot, or tittle, or iota) or stroke shall pass away from the Law until all is accomplished.  Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and so teaches others, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."

Likewise, Romans 1:18-32 calls it what it is.  It is also in Leviticus 18:22, "You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination." It is a warning that those who practice lewdness like those alien people before them, that they too would be "spewed out." (25-30)

II Peter 2:4-9, "For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but spared Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly thereafter; and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day with their lawless deeds), then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment. and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires..."

So, we are the ones judged by the world to be unloving, unkind, un-Christlike, judgmental for not accepting this as the new normal.  Nothing is new about it.  Hey, I did not bring up Sodom and Gomorrah, Matthew did.  It is now considered hate speech.  Yet, we must not embrace sinful conduct, but call for repentance.  If they do not hear the Word, how can they be saved?

Pagan temple practice used male and female prostitutes as part of their acts of worship, some even children.  These practices are condemned in the Old and New Testament.  Missionary Amy Carmical dedicated her life rescuing children, boys and girls, from being used for sexual  "worship" in temples in India.  "None of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, not shall any of the sons of Israel be a cult prostitute." Deuteronomy 23:17, King James interprets this as, "There shall be no Sodomites..." 

The story of Sodom and Gomorrah is in Genesis 18 & 19, "Before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter; and they called to Lot and said to him, 'Where are the men (angels)who came to you tonight?  Bring them out to us that we may have relations with them.'" 

Can you think of the word that is a derivative of Sodom?  Sodom is condemned all through Scripture: Gen. 13:13; Gen. 18:20, ("And the Lord said, 'The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave."); Deut. 29:23; Is. 1:9-10; 3:9, 13:19; Jer. 49:18; Jer. 50:40; Jer. 23:14; 49:18, 50:40; Lam. 4:6; Ezekial 16:40ff; Amos 4:11; Zep 2:9; Mark 6:11; Luke 10;12, 17;29; Rom. 9:29; II Peter 2:6; Jude 7; Rev. 11:8; and others condemning Sodomites.   

The sin of Sodom is still separating individuals from their families as it did Lot's.  His son-in-law's thought it was a joke and did not escape.  Our society is trying to force it upon us.  I never quite understood the passages in Matthew 10 that spoke of families being so divided, but I do now.  When judgment comes, I will stand before the throne alone by myself.  I cannot take my family with me on my shirttails.  However, until then, I can pray.

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