HEBREW WORD STUDY – PRIDE & ARROGANCE – GA’OWN   גאון  Gimmel Aleph Vav Nun 

Ezekiel 16:9: “‘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.” NIV

If I were to ask the average Christian why God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah they would quickly respond it was because of their homosexuality. Yet, when Ezekiel talks of the sin of Sodom sexual orientation is not even on the list. Instead, we have four items on this list as to the reasons why God destroyed Sodom and to look at them you could almost see a mini-United States in Sodom – I say almost.  Let me explain.

The first thing on the list was arrogance.  This is ga’own in Hebrew.  It is rendered in our translations as pride or arrogance which is it indeed, but this is speaking on a national level. It is nations that grow to be proud of their achievements, their majesty, military, and economic might, and their magnificent buildings.  No, I am not making this up to fit our country, look up the word in the BDB lexicon, that is all I did.

Then is says they were “overfed.”  In Hebrew that is literally three words sive’ath lechem veshalevath – fullness and abundance of food.  That not only means that they ate to excess where they could just not take another bite but then they had an abundance of food leftover. Again sounds like our nation. That is not bad, it is what they did not do with that abundance of food.

We find the third item to be that they were unconcerned.  That is the word shaqat which means to be undisturbed, with no sense of conscience.  Violence, hatred, abuse, they were not moved. Well, the United States doesn’t really fit that.  In some respects, we have seen this over the past summer where we have witnessed good being called evil and evil being called good, but for the most part, Americans are compassionate people.  Last year the United States gave over 47 Billion dollars in foreign aid.  However, individual Americans and private corporations gave over 427 Billion dollars to charities.  We still lead the world in charitable contributions, we are still a giving nation.  That is very unlike Sodom who were unconcerned about the plight of anyone outside their city.  The Talmud in Sanhedrin 108-109 teaches that Sodom had become so rich that they isolated themselves from the rest of the world to keep all the riches for themselves. One was not even allowed to have a foreign guest.  When Lot invited the men into his home the residents of Sodom staged a violent protest. They had a policy that any new strangers guest or not were to appear before a judge to make sure they would not touch their goodies.  The Talmud goes on to say that it was against their law to feed a pauper.  If anyone was caught sharing food with a hungry person they would be burned at the stake. Whether this is true or not we do not know.  The Talmud is only trying to describe what their hearts were like. In their heart, they would rather put a generous people to death than use their prosperity to help someone in need. As we would say, there was just no humanity left among the Sodomites. Again, the United States has not fallen that far.  

Finally, they did not help the poor and needy.  The poor is anah which also includes those who are afflicted, disable, and unable to care for themselves.  These individuals were not welcomed in Sodom. Our treatment of the disabled has been improving in this country, I know that from just driving a disability bus.  Governmental grants and private donations pour in to help those who are in need, we have programs to help those who cannot afford medical care, although not perfect, we are working hard to improve.  We are not pushing them off a cliff when they can no longer contribute to society.  Then the needy is the word abah which means those who have been abused.  Again, Sodom not only did nothing for the abused, they contributed to it. Clearly, Lot offering his daughters to the protesters was a clear indication that abuse was not only legal it was acceptable.  In our country organizations are growing to help the abused women, children, and elderly. 

To conclude it would be very unfair to compare the United States today to the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah.  We are a long way from that. This brings me to the point or lesson I want to present. Abraham loved these wicked people, he prayed for them and pleaded with God to spare them.  “Lord God, what if there were 50 righteous would you spare them.”  He continued to bargain with God, plead with God, actually, for the sake of these people. The fact that Sodom accepted Abraham’s nephew into their city and allowed him to become a city official testifies to the love and compassion he had for the Sodomites. He didn’t condemn them he prayed for them and sought to put the name of God on their lips. Abraham was probably the only outsider they accepted because he did not condemn them only prayed for them.

Now let’s do some more contrasting.  There are wickedness and evil in our nation. How do Christians respond?  Like Abraham?  That is not what I am hearing from many Christian corners. I am hearing hate responding to hate. “Give me ten minutes in a room with one of those punk looters and I will show them a bit of righteousness.”  That was not Abraham’s way. It was for Noah, he warned of destruction, he warned of the evil but after 120 years of warning, it was just him and his family that entered the ark. He had no converts.  The Talmud teaches Noah did not care or have compassion for the people.  He did his duty, he warned but he did not pray for the people.  He just continued to watch out for his own gizzard.  Abraham prayed for these wicked people, he loved them and many joined him in his encampment and were spared destruction.

I read about a group of young Christians who went into Portland and moved among the protesters.  They were young Abrahams who loved God and loved those violent, hate-filled people. They simply walked among them and up to them and asked if they could pray for them.  If not, they walked away. Most, however, agreed. Many even got on their knees, and many invited Jesus into their lives. 

The hate, the violence, and the wickedness we see do not mean we hide our heads in the sand or like Noah just condemn and warn them that God will punish them. We need to be like Abraham and see this as an opportunity to pray and share the power of the Love of God.

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