DON’T FORGET | Daily Devotion
“And don’t forget Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring towns, which were filled with immorality and every kind of sexual perversion. Those cities were destroyed by fire and serve as a warning of the eternal fire of God’s judgment.” Jude 7 NLT
Here, Jude continues to remind Christians of the historic instances of God’s divine wrath on direct defiance and rebellion – specifically the defiance found in sexual immorality and sexual perversion found in Sodom and Gomorrah that took place after the flood which displayed God’s cataclysmic wrath removing evil mankind.
Therefore, after God’s divine judgment of evil mankind witnessed in the flood, human defiance continued to choose an unrighteous path devoid of submission to God, turning away from Him and His love – a path refusing to fear the Lord, suppressing the truth with their carnal desires, refusing to renew their minds, their wrong thoughts, and their wrong actions with the word of God. A defiant rebellion believing they had the power to stand in God’s eternal light with that heart and behavior.
Thus, Jude continues to exhort Christians to be a holy nation, defending the Christian faith, by reminding them of the evil history and God’s divine judgment dealt.
Habitual sin is not found in a child of God – 1 John 3:6.
The history of Sodom and Gomorrah is recounted throughout Scripture as a warning – the immorality and sexual perversion so severe, hearts completely hardened to the voice of the Lord, leading God to destroy the cities by fire to serve as a warning of the eternal fire of God’s coming judgment – the lake of fire.
What we all need to remember is defying God, sinning habitually – behaving in ways God clearly declares is not holy – ends eternally in the lake of fire – eternal punishment devoid of hope, love, peace, joy, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, goodness, and self-control.
Thus, we see Jude once again sharing a historical account of God’s divine judgment. He first shared about the Israelites, God’s chosen people, and their contempt for God – God’s chosen people thought the worst of God’s character and love – resulting in them not being able to enter the Promised Land, they did not receive their inheritance so to speak. Then Jude shares about the angelic beings, God’s created messengers, who not only defied Him along with Satan and became demonic, but they defied their position as spirit being and indwelt mankind, procreating with human women, producing offspring with unnatural strength – this brought about God’s divine wrath and He bound the demonic angels in the bottomless pit – a placed feared by other demons, and there they await the final judgment.
Now we see God’s divine wrath aimed at mankind and their chosen path of immorality and sexual perversion.
God takes sexual immorality seriously. There are specific details stated in Scripture that spark God’s fierce wrath where He states, “I will take vengeance;” and stealing someone’s spouse sexually is one of them as Paul states in a solemn warning in 1 Thessalonians 4:6.
Fornication is always stealing from someone’s spouse, even if they are not married yet.
As we Christians know, marriage is symbolic of Jesus Christ’s relationship with the church, thus the union is representative of becoming one with God so that the world will believe God sent Jesus Christ to this earth to save people from their sins – Ephesians 5:23-24, John 17:21.
This union, this oneness – this intimacy, this personal knowledge of another – is not found in any other relationship and is sacred to God.
Today, we see the destruction and damage on humanity with the increase in sexual immorality. It destroys humans’ psychosocial well-being – their whole person. We see their spiritual well-being, psychological well-being, physical well-being and social well-being ruined and thus, makes many question God and His love. When in fact, this is not God’s will for mankind emphasized in the 10 commandments where God says “Do not commit adultery.”
This “Do not” safeguards love – love that sustains mankind.
People experience years lost to depression, anxiety, paranoia, insecurity, sadness and anger due to these sins of sexual immorality. We see a loss of hope and joy. We see individuals struggling with worth and their value, an increase in social comparison and thus an increase in pride. We see a hardness of hearts as people seek to safeguard themselves from being hurt in the same way again. We see a loss of life, as people fail to grow and move forward but become almost immobilized due to the lack of love.
For many, the act of sexual immorality, the carnality of the desire, is seeking satisfaction, defying God who created satisfaction – it seeks to satisfy its sinful desires and yet never experiences obtainment but continues its quest. Lost.
Sexual immorality only brings about negativity and a lack of satisfaction.
Romans 1:18 NKJV states, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.”
The wrath of God is saved for those who refuse to fear the Lord.
With Sodom and Gomorrah, God displayed His wrath with fire. Throughout Scripture, fire is symbolic for God’s wrath and we see it as a preclude of the coming eternal punishment found in the lake of fire.
This does not mean every fire experienced on earth is God displaying His wrath at mankind. Many fires are started by people who want the power of God to destroy.
What every Christian needs to remember is that God corrects us verbally today with His words of truth. He does correct circumstantially, however it is never a guessing game. God is so incredibly clear when He is correcting people of sin. There is no question on the heart of the sinner, there is no wondering. It’s not up for interpretation.
Sodom and Gomorrah were completely unrighteous, and Lot who was righteous was saved. This tells us today that God does not destroy the innocent in His wrath of fire.
Whenever we experience a circumstance that leaves us questioning whether we are being disciplined by God or not – first ask yourself if God verbally corrected you with His word because that is God’s first step. He addresses the sin verbally. There is no confusion with the ways of God because there are many today who desire to be God. This delineates between God and His creation.
If you have defied God, the situation may be opening your eyes to your need to get right with God. Once again, always best to simply ask God. God desires a relationship with His people and the relationship is built on communication – namely prayer.
Prayer: Abba, thank You for Your love witnessed in Your righteous judgments. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
DAILY DEVOTION YOUTUBE
