Are you guilty of the sin of Sodom?

I was reading in Ezekiel while away at a family reunion.  I have read this before, but it stood out to me this time more than ever before – I think because of the commission God has placed on my heart.

When you think of Sodom, what comes to your mind? 

Let’s take a look at what God thinks of when He thinks of Sodom.

Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom:  She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned: they did not help the poor and needy.  They were haughty and did detestable things before me.  Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.  (Eze 16:49-50)

Please read that again.  Do you see yourself in that indictment?  God destroyed Sodom, not for the homosexuality that we normally associate with it, but because the people of Sodom were selfishly living for themselves.

Are you overfed?  Most of North America suffers from weight problems and the increase of obesity is staggering.  I am 30 to 40 pounds overweight and very convicted at this moment.

Are you unconcerned?  This is shown by how much you help the poor and needy.  Do you spend more on pet food than on feeding the poor?  Do you enjoy your television system and all the cable or satellite channels, but quickly switch the channel when you see images of the poverty that most of the people in this world face every day?  Do you spend more on entertainment than on helping those who have lost their homes to storms or fire?  Again I ask: are you unconcerned?

There is a small team of teenagers from our church on a missions trip in Nicaragua.  This is an excerpt from their blog.

After lunch, we set to delivering six of the ten widow baskets that we prepared yesterday. We divided into three groups.
Group One:
Ours went to a woman who was very thankful to it. We talked with the help of a translator and communicated to her. We shared the grace of God and she said over and over how blessed she was to receive this. Though the first widow was amazing to deliver this to, it was the second that got to everyone. She suffers a sort of disability. We brought to her, along with the widow basket, a new mattress for her. When we brought the mattress in, she started crying with happiness. Before, she had been sleeping on a simple cloth-like thing stretched like a hammock. She described to us the pain that she feels each day and that she was so thankful for this mattress. She had been praying for a long time for a new mattress and the fact that we were the ones to answer her prayers is amazing. Her grandchildren hugged us all as we left.

This poor woman, suffering from a painful disability, had been praying for a long time for a mattress!  When you get up in the morning feeling achy and perhaps sore, do you ever wonder how sore you would be after sleeping on a dirt floor instead of your comfortable mattresses?

Are you arrogant and haughty?  Do you think you deserve the wealth you have?  Do you think it is your right as a Canadian or American (or wherever you live) to enjoy all the wealth of these countries?

God destroyed Sodom because they enjoyed their wealth without caring about those who were poor and needy.  That sounds so much like the North America I live in today.

Do you ever wonder why God allows so many people to live in such horrible poverty?  I believe God has a perfect plan to provide for the poor: he has blessed the Christians of the “West” with incredible wealth, so they can use that wealth to help the poor, and share the light of Christ.  There is more than enough wealth to provide for the needs of everyone.

Are you going to step up and use your wealth as God intended, or are you destined for destruction like Sodom, and like Jerusalem to whom the above Scripture was addressed?  There has been a huge increase in the number of natural disasters of devastating proportions in North America.  God is bringing the poverty closer to home – perhaps to wake us up.  Let’s open our eyes and live as God would have us live – humble and actively concerned for those who are less fortunate by sharing the wealth God has blessed us with.