In the Days of Lot
Early Christians were required to learn “how God punished the wicked by water and fire and glorified the righteous in each generation” (Apostolic Constitutions 7.39). God punished the wicked by water when He flooded the world in the days of Noah. He punished the wicked by fire when He destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in the days of Lot.
Both stories occur right at the front of the Torah to warn us about the end of days. Both are cautionary tales about how human sin invokes divine displeasure and punishment. In both stories, God's patience with corruption, wickedness, and human degeneracy extends only so far. The day of wrath comes unexpectedly and leaves no survivors among the wicked, but God spares the righteous. The Apostle Peter remarks, "The LORD knows how to rescue the godly ... and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment" (2 Peter 2:7-9). The vivid stories of the flood and the fire preview the Day of the LORD, that future hour when God pours out His justice on the nations but rescues the righteous and the godly.
Yeshua paired the stories together to warn His disciples about the coming end of days. Regarding the story of the flood, He said, "Just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man" (Luke 17:26). He made the same statement regarding the story of Sodom and Gomorrah:
It was the same as happened in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building; but on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed. (Luke 17:28-30)
God did not punish the people of Sodom for eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, or building. The point is that they were still going about the business of ordinary life when the disaster overtook them. No one suspected the stroke of judgment about to fall. That's what it will be like "on the day that the Son of Man is revealed." He will come unexpectedly, like a thief in the night. His revelation will bring an abrupt end to ordinary life.
In light of the imminent arrival of the end of the age, Yeshua advises us not to invest our lives in eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, and building. All of those things will perish on the Day of the LORD. Yeshua says, "Do not worry then, saying, What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or What will we wear for clothing?'" (Matthew 6:31). Instead, we should "seek first His kingdom and His righteousness" by living a life of repentance and godliness, one day at a time, without undue concern for the future. Tomorrow will take care of itself (Matthew 6:34).
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Laughing with Sarah
I will surely return to you at this time next year; and behold, Sarah your wife will have a son. (Genesis 18:10)
In the days of Lot, a delegation of three angels went out from heaven. Two of them were on a mission to Sodom and Gomorrah. The other one, representing the Angel of the LORD, carried a message for Abraham. As the angel conveyed the message, Abraham's wife, Sarah, overheard the conversation from inside her tent. She heard the stranger declare to her husband, "At this time next year ... Sarah your wife will have a son." She laughed to herself, saying, "After I have become old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?" Sarah laughed because, after so many years of waiting (roughly 25 years), she had lost hope in the promised son. Likewise, after waiting on the return of the Messiah for nearly 2,000 years, it's hard to believe that it could yet happen and will soon happen.
Every sincere disciple of Yeshua at least pays lip service to faith in the coming of the Messiah, but do we really live in expectation of His imminent arrival? If we do, that conviction should be evident in the way that we conduct our lives:
If one truly believes in the possibility of Mashiach's imminent arrival, then he will constantly be in a state of spiritual preparation, through Torah, good deeds and repentance. If, however, such is not the case, then it is apparent that our talk of his imminent coming is mere lip service; in reality, our faith is quite miniscule. This is alluded to in the words told to Sarah, "No, you laughed indeed." (Chofetz Chaim, Chizuk Ha'emunah: Lessons in Truth [Shimon Finkelman, trans.; Brooklyn, NY: Mesorah Publications, 2001])
A year later, when Sarah held her baby in her arms, her laughter changed dubious skepticism to joy: "Sarah said, 'God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me'" (Genesis 21:6). Likewise, when the Messiah comes and brings the final redemption, everything will change in an instant. "Then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with joyful shouting; then they said among the nations, 'The LORD has done great things for them'" (Psalm 126:2).
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Like Sodom and Gomorrah in the Torah
Then the men rose up from there, and looked down toward Sodom. (Genesis 18:16)
The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah became a proverbial simile for the devastating consequences of provoking God's wrath. Just to get that idea firmly lodged in our heads, let's take a look at a few examples from the Torah, the Prophets, Jewish apocalypses, and the New Testament.
Moses invokes the memory of Sodom and Gomorrah when he warns the children of Israel that, if they stray from the Torah, God will pour out curses on them and on the holy land. The fertile land of Israel will be left as "brimstone and salt, a burning waste, unsown and unproductive ... like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in His anger and in His wrath" (Deuteronomy 29:23). On the other hand, the nations who make war against Israel will also pay a heavy price. Because they drink wine "from the vine of Sodom" which is planted in "the fields of Gomorrah, their grapes are grapes of poison, their clusters, bitter" (Deuteronomy 32:31-32). As the day of harvest comes near, the grapes get bigger and heavier. On the day of reckoning, God will squash those nations like grapes in a winepress are squashed under people's feet.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Sodom and Gomorrah in the Prophets
Sodom and Gomorrah are kept busy in the books of the Prophets. The Prophet Amos observes that the northern kingdom of Israel was overthrown by its enemies as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah" (Amos 4:11). After the conflicts with Assyria, the Prophet Isaiah laments, "Unless the LORD of hosts had left us a few survivors, we would be like Sodom, we would be like Gomorrah" (Isaiah 1:9). He ironically addresses the people of Judah and Israel as "rulers of Sodom" and "people of Gomorrah." He declares, "They display their sin like Sodom; they do not even conceal it. Woe to them! For they have brought evil on themselves" (Isaiah 3:9).
Jeremiah targets the unrepentant people of Jerusalem who are mired in sins like adultery, corruption, and deceit. He complains, "No one has turned back from his wickedness. All of them have become to Me like Sodom, and her inhabitants like Gomorrah. (Jeremiah 23:14)
He laments, "For the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom, which was overthrown as in a moment" (Lamentations 4:6).
At the same time, both Isaiah and Jeremiah turn the Sodom-and-Gomorrah language against the enemies of the Jewish people. Babylon will be overthrown and "will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah" (Isaiah 13:19, cf. Jeremiah 50:40). The same goes for the Edomites. They will fall "like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah... no one will live there, nor will a son of man reside in it" (Jeremiah 49:18). The Prophet Zephaniah describes the future doom of Lot's nations the same way: "Surely Moab will be like Sodom and the sons of Ammon like Gomorrah—a place possessed by nettles and salt pits, and a perpetual desolation" (Zephaniah 2:9).
Ezekiel turns the conversation back to Jerusalem, insisting that the sins of the city are worse than those of Sodom and Gomorrah. He rattles off a short list of the sins for which Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. The list omits the extravagant sexual deviancies only because the prophet focuses instead on the type of transgressions for which the wealthy and affluent people of Jerusalem were also guilty:
Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom; she and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy. Thus they were haughty and committed abominations before Me. Therefore I removed them with it when I saw it. (Ezekiel 16:49-50)
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Sodom and Gomorrah in Apocalyptic Literature
The legacy of Sodom and Gomorrah also receives frequent mention in apocalyptic Jewish literature. For example, Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs compares the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah to that of the corrupt generation of the flood and, particularly, those angels who went astray after the daughters of men. Just as the angels transgressed natural boundaries to engage in sexual immorality with human women, the men of Sodom exchanged the natural for that which is unnatural: "In like manner the Watchers also changed the order of their nature, whom the Lord cursed at the flood, on whose account He made the earth without inhabitants and fruitless" (Testament of Naphtali 3:4-5, cf. Romans I:26-27). The men of Benjamin are warned, "You will commit fornication with the fornication of Sodom, and will perish" (Testament of Benjamin 9:1, cf. Judges 20). The people of Asher are cautioned, "Do not be like Sodom, which sinned against the angels of the LORD, and perished forever" (Testament of Asher 7:I).
The apocryphal book of Jubilees directly correlates "the judgment of the giants" in the flood with "the judgment of the Sodomites," who were punished because of their "wickedness ... fornication, impurity, and societal deviancies." The people of God should beware all types of fornication, sexual impurity, and sinful pollutions "lest you make our name a curse, and your whole life a thing to be hissed at, and all your children be slaughtered by the sword, and you become accursed like Sodom, and all your remnant as the sons of Gomorrah" (Jubilees 20:5-6). Another passage from Jubilees pushes the ultimate punishment into the afterlife by declaring that idolators will "descend into Sheol and enter into the place of condemnation like the children of Sodom who were taken away from the earth" (Jubilees 22:22).
Likewise, one who maliciously plots evil against his brother shall suffer the same fate-both in this age and the age to come:
On the day of judgment-of curse, fury, and anger— he will be consumed with blazing fire, just as Sodom was burned. His land, his city, and everything he owns will be destroyed. His name will be erased from the record of humanity's instruction and removed from the Book of Life. Instead, he will be written in the book of destruction and sent away to eternal disgrace. His judgment will be constantly renewed in hate, curse, anger, pain, torment, punishment, and disease— forever. I am telling you this, my sons, and testifying to it-this is the judgment for anyone who seeks to harm his brother. (Jubilees 36:10-II)
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Sodom and Gomorrah in the New Testament
The Sodomic imagery used in the Torah, the Prophets, and the apocalypses carries into the New Testament. Yeshua compares the coming Day of the LORD to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and He warns the people that, if they do not repent, the people of Sodom and Gomorrah will fare better than them in the final judgment.
New Testament readers are sternly warned against indulging in sins like those of Sodom and Gomorrah lest they share in the same punishment. In a particularly potent passage, Jude, the brother of Yeshua, castigates the cheap-grace teachers of his day by comparing their immoral behavior to that of the Watchers and to that of the people living in the doomed cities:
Angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day, just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. (Jude 6-7)
As mentioned above, Moses compares the nations that make war against the Jewish people to a vineyard planted with "the vine of Sodom, and from the fields of Gomorrah" bearing "grapes of poison, their clusters, bitter." The juice squeezed from those ripe and heavily laden clusters will fill a cup of the bitter wrath of God in the Day of the LORD. The book of Revelation expands on that vivid imagery by depicting the nations as a vineyard ready for harvest. An angel with a sharp sickle emerges from the heavenly Temple. The angel "who has the power over fire" tells the one with the sickle, "Put in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, because her grapes are ripe" (Revelation 14:18). The angel swings his sickle earthward, gathers up the clusters of grapes, and throws them "into the great wine press of the wrath of God" (Revelation 14:19). A terrible slaughter takes place outside of Jerusalem. "The wine press was trodden outside the city, and blood came out from the wine press, up to the horses' bridles, for a distance of two hundred miles" (Revelation 14:20). This is exaggerated language to describe the catastrophic devastation of a population, like the one which befell Sodom and Gomorrah.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Sending the Twelve
Then the men rose up from there, and looked down toward Sodom; and Abraham was walking with them to send them off. (Genesis 18:16)
Yeshua foresaw that coming day of wrath. He sent His twelve disciples out as witnesses with a charge to testify in all the villages and towns of Galilee (Matthew 10:1-5). They carried an urgent warning about the impending day of judgment. He "sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come" because, according to the Torah, every matter must be established by the eyewitness testimony of two or three witnesses (Luke I0:I; Deuteronomy 19:15):
These twelve Yeshua sent out after instructing them: "Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans; but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Matthew 10:5-7)
He told them to specifically speak to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel," i.e., the sinners, the tax collectors, the prostitutes, and the sexually promiscuous among the Jewish people of the day (Matthew 10:6). In modern terms, He wanted the disciples to take the message to the secular and assimilated. By this point in the story, Yeshua has already explained to His disciples, "It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick ... for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners" (Matthew 9:12-13).
He told the disciples to testify, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." That's a shorthand version of the gospel message: The fearsome Day of the LORD is near. Therefore, repent in preparation so that you may enter His kingdom.
Yeshua told His disciples to perform miracles that could help validate their testimony: "Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons" (Matthew 10:8). Such miracles indicated that the kingdom hung within grasp. The Day of the LORD had drawn so close that the first fruits of the future age already popped out in the form of miraculous healings. The miracles that the disciples performed (healing the sick, raising the dead, cleansing lepers, and casting out demons) added credibility to their testimony that the day of judgment was at hand.
With this simple mission, the disciples went from village to village, warning the "lost sheep of Israel" to repent before it was too late. They urged the people to prepare before the Day of the LORD and thereby escape the coming wrath and enter the Messianic Era. The people only needed to turn from sin and practice the Master's teachings about the straight and narrow way that leads to life (Matthew 7:13-14). With this essential gospel message on their lips, the disciples fanned out, two-by-two, to visit the villages, towns, and cities of the Jewish people in Galilee.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
A Lost Opportunity
Compare their mission with the story of the twelve spies sent to spy out Canaan (Numbers 13). Moses sent the spies not merely to spy out the land but also to testify to the people and encourage them. Moses was telling the children of Israel, "See, the LORD your God has placed the land before you; go up, take possession" (Deuteronomy I:21). The potential of entering the land of Canaan hung right there in front of them. He sent out the spies only "that they may search out the land for us, and bring back to us word of the way by which we should go up and the cities which we shall enter" (Deuteronomy I:22).
The spies returned with tokens from their expedition. They brought back samples of enormous fruit, demonstrating the great potential of the land. The fruit added validity to their testimony about the reward that the people of Israel could anticipate if they heeded Moses, much as the miracles of Yeshua's disciples added validity to their testimony.
Moses expected all twelve spies to deliver enthusiastic and faith-inspiring reports about Canaan. That's what Joshua and Caleb did. The other ten spies, however, delivered a discouraging report that dissuaded the people from entering the land. The people heeded the evil report. They rejected the good news brought by Joshua Caleb. They forfeited their opportunity.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Recon Mission in Sodom
The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave. I will go down now, and see if they have done entirely according to its outcry, which has come to Me; and if not, 1 will know. (Genesis 18:20-21)
Yeshua cautioned the disciples about what would happen to people who did not heed their warnings. They would perish on the Day of the LORD. Their fate in the final judgment would be worse than the fate that befell the sinners of Sodom and Gomorrah (Matthew 10:14-15).
In the Torah's story (Genesis 18-19), the LORD has already received an initial report about the wickedness of the people living in the cities of the plain. However, the report has not yet been validated by eyewitness testimony. The LORD goes about gathering the necessary testimony by appointing two witnesses to act as spies. In this case, the witnesses are angels. He sends the pair of angels to investigate, assess the situation, and pull the trigger of fiery judgment if necessary. Their testimony determines the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah.
The people of Sodom mistreat the angels. They do not receive them or listen to their words. Instead, they attempt to abduct them and sexually violate them. That ugly incident provided all the evidence needed. The two witnesses could make a definitive report to the court in heaven. The heavenly rumors were true. The sin of the people in those cities was exceedingly grave, just as bad as reported.
Like the twelve disciples testifying to the villages of Galilee about the coming day of wrath, the two angels also warned Lot and his household to flee before it was too late. Lot heeded the warning, gathered his household, and reluctantly fled the city.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Praying for Sinners
Far be it from You to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly? (Genesis 18:25)
If the end of days is drawing near, we should follow the example of Abraham by interceding on behalf of the wicked for their salvation before the hour of judgment arrives. When Abraham realized what was about to happen to Sodom and Gomorrah, he immediately attempted to intercede to save the people from the day of wrath. He negotiated with God, imploring Him not to destroy the city. He argued according to God's own standard of justice, saying, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?" God should not wipe away the righteous along with the wicked. To do so would not be fair.
Yeshua warns us, "Do not judge so that you will not be judged. In the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you" (Matthew 7:1-2). Contrary to the sentiments of the secular world, Yeshua does not mean that we should tolerate sin, flatten moral truths, and withhold condemnation of wickedness. Instead, He means that we should be mindful of our own shortcomings, recognizing that the same measure of judgment we apply to others will one day be applied to us. If we intercede for the world, asking God to show mercy, we will be treated accordingly in the final judgment. If we condemn others, asking God to pour out His wrath on them, we will be judged by the same strict standard in the final judgment:
Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned. (Luke 6:36-37)
Once, it happened that Yeshua sent two disciples ahead of Him to a certain village in Samaria. The people of that village did not receive them or show them hospitality. They refused to let Yeshua enter the village because they heard that He was on His way to worship in Jerusalem. James and John suggested calling down fire on that village, just as the angels had called down fire on Sodom and Gomorrah for their failures in showing hospitality. The sons of Zebedee asked, "Master, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" (Luke 9:54).
Yeshua scolded them, "You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them" (Luke 9:55-56).
The LORD conceded to Abraham's arguments and agreed to withdraw the calamity against Sodom and Gomorrah if fifty righteous people could be found in the city. Abraham negotiated the number down to ten. This explains why fire does not fall from the sky and consume cities of wicked men routinely. Even though a society might be just as corrupt and contemptible as the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, God spares a city, a people, a country, or perhaps even the whole world only for the sake of a few righteous individuals:
Roam to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and look now and take note. And seek in her open squares, if you can find a man, if there is one who does justice, who seeks truth, then I will pardon her. (Jeremiah 5:1)
By spreading the gospel, modeling godliness, and encouraging the people of this present age to repent, we can help avert the wrath of God. The success of the gospel deters the wrath of heaven because it increases the ratio of the righteous to the wicked. By asking God to show mercy on the people of this world and by bringing them to repentance, we imitate the spirit of Yeshua. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Too Late for Prayer
Then he said, "Oh may the Lord not be angry, and I shall speak only this once; suppose ten are found there?" And He said, "I will not destroy it on account of the ten." (Genesis 18:32)
It's important to intercede for the wicked and pray on their behalf now, in this current age, because a time is coming when heaven will close its doors to such prayers. In the day of wrath, the LORD will say, "Do not pray for this people, and do not lift up cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with Me; for I do not hear you" (Jeremiah 7:16). According to the apocalypse of 4 Ezra, the LORD warns Ezra that, "No one will be able to pray on behalf of another in the Day of Judgment."
The apocryphal non-canonical book known as 4 Ezra 3-14 (also known as 2 Esdras) is a Jewish apocalypse composed around the same time that John wrote the book of Revelation. It's presented as a pseudepigraphic dialogue between Ezra the scribe and an angel. The book wrestles with the problem of evil, the suffering of the righteous, and the apparent triumph of the wicked in the aftermath of the destruction of Jerusalem. It discusses God's justice, the hidden purposes of divine providence, and the hope for the future redemption, including the coming of the Messiah and the final judgment of the nations.
In the story, Ezra objects to being told his prayers will not be heard. He reminds God that Abraham prayed on behalf of the men of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of their judgment, and his prayer was heard. He cites several other examples of the righteous praying on behalf of the wicked, such as Moses interceding on behalf of the nation in the wilderness. The LORD explains that so long as this current age endures, it's always possible to entreat Him on behalf of the wicked, but when the final judgment comes, it will be too late for prayer:
This present age is not the final one; the glory of God does not dwell here permanently. That's why the strong have prayed on behalf of the weak. But the Day of Judgment will mark the end of this age and the beginning of the eternal age to come —where decay will be gone, weakness will be eliminated, and unbelief will be cut off. In that world, righteousness will flourish and faithfulness will take root. In that day, no one will be able to help those who are condemned. (4 Ezra 7:113-115)
Repentance and salvation are possible only on this side of the final judgment. As we continue in our study of End of Days, we need to remember Abraham's reaction to the news about Sodom and Gomorrah. Our studies should not only inspire us to repent and prepare ourselves for the kingdom but also to pray on behalf of the world before it is too late for prayer.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Sending Two Witnesses
Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. (Genesis 19:1)
The LORD sent two witnesses to Sodom with the authority to call down fire from heaven. The disciples wondered if they might also have the authority to call down fire (Luke 9:54). Elijah was known for doing just that sort of thing, as well (2 Kings 1).
In the book of Revelation, the LORD sends two witnesses to testify against the people of the earth. He grants them authority to act in His name: "I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth" (Revelation II:3). The authority enables the witnesses to prophesy and perform miraculous signs, including fiery words from their mouths that can consume their enemies:
Fire flows out of their mouth and devours their enemies... These have the power to shut up the sky, so that rain will not fall during the days of their prophesying; and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with every plague, as often as they desire. (Revelation 11:5-6)
The two witnesses are depicted wearing sackcloth because they are urging the people to repent. In Bible times, wearing coarse sackcloth was a sign of mourning and sorrow. Like the prophets of old who wore sackcloth when prophesying bad news, the two witnesses wear sackcloth to indicate that they mourn for the people to whom they speak their fiery words of doom. Wearing sackcloth was usually associated with fasting, prayer, and repentance. In the Jonah story, the king of Nineveh undertook a fast, covered himself with sackcloth, and commanded everyone in the city to do so as well-even the animals:
Both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands. Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish. (Jonah 3:8-9)
The two witnesses prophesy that the Day of the LORD is at hand. They offer themselves as legal testimony to the whole world. They prophesy to the nations, urging them to repent before it is too late. Like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, the people of the last generation do not heed their testimony. Instead, they act abusively toward the witnesses. "When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them, and overcome them and kill them" (Revelation II:7). Their corpses are left to rot in the streets of Jerusalem. The nations rejoice over their demise.
At that point in the vision, the testimony of the two witnesses is complete. The LORD resurrects their dead bodies. He summons them to His presence, "Come up here." They ascend to the heavens to present their testimony. They bring the report to the heavenly court. The judgment against the people on earth is sealed. The earth shakes, the third woe begins, and the angels sound the seventh trumpet. The Day of the LORD has begun. Voices from heaven proclaim that the kingdom is at hand: "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Messiah; and He will reign forever and ever" (Revelation II:15). The elders around the throne of glory respond:
Your wrath has come. The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets and your saints and those who reverence your name, both small and great-and for destroying those who destroy the earth. (Revelation II:18 NIV)
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Mystically Called Sodom
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 who came to you tonight?" (Genesis 19:4-5)
The men of Sodom attempt to rape and murder the two witnesses sent to them. With similar savagery, the dead bodies of the two witnesses in the book of Revelation are thrown into "the street of the great city which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified" (Revelation II:8).
Why does the passage "mystically" (i.e., symbolically) refer to Jerusalem as "Sodom and Egypt"? The Jerusalem depicted in Revelation II is not under Jewish sovereignty. It's under the control of the beast that comes up out of the abyss, that is, the Roman Empire. "It has been given to the nations; and they will tread under foot the holy city for forty-two months" (Revelation II:2). Just as the Romans crucified the Master in Jerusalem, they now persecute the saints, including the two witnesses. The godly suffered abuse at the hands of the wicked in both Sodom and Egypt. On both, God poured out plagues and strokes of judgment from heaven.
He gave the two witnesses authority like that of the two angels sent to Sodom. "Fire flows out of their mouth and devours their enemies" (Revelation 1I:5). Like the Prophet Elijah, they "have the power to shut up the sky, so that rain will not fall during the days of their prophesying" (Revelation II:6). They wield the same authority that Moses and Aaron did over Egypt: they "have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with every plague, as often as they desire." Therefore, Jerusalem is compared to Sodom and Egypt, both of which were struck by teams of God's witnesses.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Shake Off the Dust
We are about to destroy this place, because their outcry has become so great before the LORD that the LORD has sent us to destroy it. (Genesis 19:13)
In anticipation of this coming day of wrath and judgment, Yeshua sent pairs of witnesses to testify to the lost sheep of Israel. He instructed His disciples to forsake any place that refused to receive them, grant them hospitality, or heed their warnings about the coming Day of the LORD. He warned that the people of such a place would fare worse in the last day than the people of Sodom and Gomorrah: "Whoever does not receive you, nor heed your words, as you go out of that house or that city, shake the dust off your feet" (Matthew 10:14).
So severe will the judgment be against those who refused the message that the disciples should shake the dust from their feet when leaving that town or village lest they suffer the same doom when God pours out His wrath on the dust. The warning to shake the dust from the feet is a hyperbolic statement that means, "Disassociate yourself from those people so that you don't share in their fate!"
You don't want to share in the fate of those who refuse to repent. That fate might have an afterlife component. The apostles taught that the fire and brimstone that fell upon Sodom and Gomorrah was an example of the punishment of eternal fire" in Gehenna:
Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them ... are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. (Jude 7)
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 lives thereafter. (2 Peter 2:6)
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
More Tolerable For Sodom
Yeshua said, "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" (Matthew 10:15). This means that, in the Day of the LORD, when the dead are resurrected, the people who perished in Sodom and Gomorrah will receive a lighter judgment than the lost sheep of the house of Israel who did not repent when they had the opportunity to do so.
Surely, Yeshua's instructions came as a surprise to the disciples. How could it be "more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for" a Jewish village in the Galilee? They must have wondered, "Why will the wicked people of Sodom and Gomorrah be treated less severely than we will be?" It did not seem to make sense.
Yeshua explained that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah sinned in ignorance. No one testified to them. No one warned them. Unlike the people living in the villages of the Galilee, the people of Sodom and Gomorrah did not have the Torah. They did not know the LORD. They had no prophet in their midst to perform miracles, signs, or wonders that might persuade them to repent. They did not have anyone to tell them to get ready for the coming day of punishment. The people of Galilee and Judea had no such excuses:
That slave who knew his master's will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, will receive many lashes, but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more. (Luke 12:47-48)
The people of Sodom and Gomorrah had already paid the price of their wickedness. They had already suffered the fire and brimstone. They already went through Gehenna when God poured out His fiery wrath on them.
Unlike the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, the people of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum had not yet suffered for their sins. As yet unpunished and refusing to repent, they stored up for themselves God's wrath for a future day of reckoning:
Then He began to denounce the cities in which most of His miracles were done, because they did not repent. "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Nevertheless I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you." (Matthew II:20-24)
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Rescuing Righteous Lot
He hesitated. So the men seized his hand and the hand of his wife and the hands of his two daughters, for the compassion of the LORD was upon him; and they brought him out, and put him outside the city. (Genesis 19:16)
Not everyone perished in the flames of Sodom and Gomorrah. Ultimately, the gospel is a message of hope. If it were only bad news, it would not be called "the good news." There is a better future coming when righteousness will receive reward. Yeshua's message brings good news, even for the wicked. The gospel offers a path of salvation from the coming day of wrath. But that path is straight and narrow. Only a few find it. The vast majority follow the broad and winding path that leads to destruction.
"God rescued righteous Lot" (2 Peter 2:7). The presence of just ten righteous men in the city of Sodom could have saved it. God would have spared the whole city for their sake. It turned out that the angels could not find ten righteous men. They found only Abraham's nephew Lot.
The Apostle Peter explains that Lot was a tzaddik, that is, a righteous man. The entire time he lived in Sodom, Lot felt "oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men." He did not join them in their licentiousness or imbibe their entertainments. On the contrary, his godly and righteous soul suffered torment "day after day" because of "what he saw and heard" in the city and because of "lawless deeds" of those people (2 Peter 2:6-8). Lot survived because he responded to the warnings of the two witnesses that had been sent to his city and fled. Nevertheless, Lot hesitated to abandon the city. The angels had to drag him away.
Lot's daughters were probably more reluctant than him. They did not share their father's convictions. Born and raised among the wicked people of Sodom, they did not have their father's godly equilibrium. They had assimilated into the culture. The lawless deeds of those people did not vex their souls day after day. Both of them were already betrothed to be married to men of Sodom. They had become part of the godless world around them and were ready to be married to it. The angels had to drag them out by hand.
Lot also tried to warn their fiancés about the coming destruction. He said, "Up, get out of this place, for the LORD will destroy the city." They thought he must be joking (Genesis 19:14). They dismissed him as a religious fanatic.
Lot's wife also had become attached to the immoral city. The lawless deeds of those people did not vex her soul day after day. She did not want to flee with her husband. The angels had to drag her out, too. She could not let go of godless Sodom long enough to get away, even in the day of wrath:
When the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven, and He overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. But his wife, from behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. (Genesis 19:24-26)
Lot's wife was unable to shake the dust of the place from her feet. "Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God" (James 4:4). Urging His disciples to prepare to let go of this current age and all of its accoutrements, Yeshua warned them, "Remember Lot's wife!"
On that day, the one who is on the housetop and whose goods are in the house must not go down to take them out; and likewise the one who is in the field must not turn back. Remember Lot's wife. (Luke 17:31-32)
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Reward and Punishment in the Jewish Framework of Scripture
When we say “a Jewish framework,” think of it as viewing the entire Bible—from Genesis to Revelation—through its original Jewish lens.
Now, within that framework, how does the Bible describe reward and punishment?
It’s actually very simple:
God rewards righteousness and punishes evil.
God’s standard of righteousness is not arbitrary or mysterious—it’s revealed clearly in the Scriptures.
Yes, we’ve all fallen short of God’s glory, but the Bible teaches that God judges each person based on the overall story of their life—their faith, their relationship with Him, and their desire to do His will.
The wicked, on the other hand, are judged not for a single act, but for a lifetime of rebellion against Him.
In this Jewish understanding, God’s justice is central to the story of redemption. It’s through His justice that the righteous receive the reward of faithfulness, and the wicked bear the consequences of unfaithfulness.
There’s an old Jewish saying:
“Be as careful with a light commandment as with a heavy one.” In other words, treat everything God says as equally important, because everything He commands reflects what matters to Him.
Contrary to what some may think, divine reward and punishment aren’t limited to the world to come. They often occur in this life as well. Yet there will be a final judgment—on the Day of the Lord, after the resurrection of the dead, when all humanity will stand before Yeshua to receive their ultimate judgment.
In the biblical Jewish worldview, resurrection means the reunion of the soul with a new, physical, incorruptible body. Until that day, the souls of the righteous and the wicked await in Sheol—a general term encompassing both Gan Eden(Paradise) and Gehinnom (Hell).
In this light, the contrast between the punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah and the judgment awaiting Yeshua’s generation becomes profound. Yeshua teaches that on the day of judgment, Sodom and Gomorrah will receive less punishment than His generation—because they had already suffered greatly in their lifetime, while His generation had received a far greater revelation of God’s will.
“To whom much is given, much will be required.”
God’s justice is perfectly balanced. He desires our hearts, and calls us to lives of humble devotion and obedience.
All of this—reward, punishment, resurrection, and final judgment—should remind us to stay alert.
At any moment, God can send His Son again, and we will all stand before Him. So let this truth not fill us with fear, but with motivation—to live lives of wholehearted love for God and compassion for our neighbors, as we prepare for the great Day of the Lord.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.