Good Parents, According to the LORD God – Part 3
Ruy Miranda (He is not a religious person)
 Bible Quotes Science Info
Nowadays, there is a great deal of controversy surrounding the issue of
how to raise children. The article that follows, as well as others
found in the archive index of this site, arise from the
biblical concept of God as Father. As God can only be thought of as
being a good Father, His behavior toward His children should serve as a
model for those who wish to be good parents. It will show how God acted
and then extrapolate this conduct for human parents, without making
value judgments. It should be noted that this series of articles is
confined to Old Testament passages so as to reach both Jewish and
Christian readers.
God Killed His Own Children Because They Were Sinning
God killed His own children, who dwelt in Sodom
and Gomorrah, because they were sinning, as the Bible tells in chapters
18 and 19 of the Book of Genesis. But just what sin were they committing,
in order to generate such a violent action? How can this episode be
applied to children’s education?
Prior Events
Death poured down from the heavens through a
God who sent a storm of sulfur, fire, and brimstone. Lot alone and two of his
daughters were spared. Lot was Abraham’s nephew, having followed his
uncle ever since they left Ur, a Chaldean city. There, God contacted
Abraham for the first time.
Though not descendants from Abraham, the dead inhabitants were God’s
children, inasmuch as they could be traced all the way back to Adam and
Eve. They had thus been created by God. This concept that all human
beings are God’s children is anchored not just in the story of creation
but also in explicit manifestations from God in other biblical citations,
including in the Book of Genesis.
A natural phenomenon – A volcano erupts due to natural geophysical
phenomena and lava–soaked copper in the region wherein the two cities are
sited. Time goes by and this natural phenomenon is interpreted as God’s
punishment.
The concept that a volcano’s lava would be described as God–sent sulfur,
fire, and brimstone raining down from the skies would likely be passed on like other information conveyed by word of mouth. If a chain is repeated often
enough by people, any episode ends up distorted. What if such a
repetition goes on and on for centuries?
Does that mean that this story was transmitted by word of mouth for
centuries? Yes. Knowing how many centuries is impossible, but one can
deduce how many based on the episode itself and on its recording in the Book of
Genesis:
-- It is believed that Abraham was born around 1,750 years before Christ. Thus,
this episode took place not too long after such a date.
-- It is also believed that the Book of Genesis had many authors, for
centuries, and was completed only in the 4th century before Christ.
Therefore, quite some time elapsed between the episode and its written
recording.
-- Many believe that Genesis and four other initial
biblical books were written by Moses or, at least, formatted by him.
-- The Book of Genesis dwells on the creation and on a four-generation
saga of Abraham’s family. An unknown length of time transpired between
the last generation and Moses’ appearance. Yet, it is a matter of
certainty that at least five generations elapsed between the destruction
of Sodom and Gomorrah and Moses’ appearance. These would have been the
four generations of Abraham’s family and at least one more, related to
Moses.
At these end of this time, the natural phenomenon – an erupting volcano – is described as sulfur, fire, and brimstone sent by God and raining down
from the heavens.
Literal biblical information – God decides to destroy the two
cities and kill its inhabitants because they have sinned. But what was
their sin? Way back at that time, there was no doctrine or code of
conduct to benchmark right and wrong, righteousness and wickedness, sin
and obedience to God. The ten commandments, establishing norms of
conduct, would only appear some centuries after the two cities were
destroyed. A rampant worldwide version is that the inhabitants of Sodom
and Gomorrah committed sexual excesses. There is indeed a viblical
basis, albeit a tenuous one, for such conclusions—as we shall see
shortly.
God Informs Abraham About the Destruction
Abraham was sitting in front of his tent, during the day’s
warmest period, when three men approached him, and he, at once, identified
God. The text even suggests that one of them was God himself and the
other two were angels. Abraham offered them water to wash their feet and
asked them to rest under a shady oak tree. He also told his wife to prepare them a
hearty meal.
When the men headed towards Sodom, God informed Abraham, who was following
them:
And the Lord said, 'Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is
great, and because their sin is very grave, I will go down and see whether
they have done altogether according to the outcry against is that come to
Me; and if not, I will know.'
The Bible does not say who raised an outcry to God, informing Him about
the sins rampant in the two cities. Regardless, God wished to see for
Himself what is going on and—if the information was confirmed—to carry
out the destruction. Dialoguing with Abraham, He promised that if He
found at least ten righteous people among the dwellers of the two cities,
He would spare the whole population. After the dialogue, Abraham headed back
home.
The sins are of a sexual nature – The two angels arrives in Sodom
in the late evening (the Bible now no longer refers to three men but, rather,
to two angels) and met Lot, Abraham’s nephew, at the city’s gate. Lot
took them to his home and fed them dinner.
Before going to bed, they
were taken aback by the presence of all the men in the city—bar none—from the youngest to the eldest. Gathered around the house, they callrf out
Lot and asked him:
"Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we
may know them carnally."
Lot begged them to leave the two men alone and even offered them, in vain,
his two virgin daughters:
"See now, I have two daughters who have not know a man; please, let me
bring them as you wish; only may do to them as you wish; only do nothing
to these men, since this is the reason they have come under the shadow
of my roof."
The two men suddenly pulled Lot inside the house and struk the men outside
in their eyes, so that they were no longer able to find the door.
The next morning, Lot left the city with his wife and two daughters:
"When the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, 'Arise, take
your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the
punishment of the city."
Lot’s wife died during this escape.
-- It is evident that the sins committed by the people of Sodom and
Gomorrah were sexual.
-- Apparently the two angels did not bother to check whether there were
at least ten righteous people in Gomorrah.
Good Parents
Thus, one may conclude that good parents must:
1. Decide, pursuant to their own criteria, whether a child’s fault is
serious or not.
2. Punish their child who commits a serious fault.
3. Use a maximum punishment (in severity) once the fault has been proven.
December, 2004
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