Fire and Brimstone Part 2

Published Nov 3, 2024, 10:00 AM

# 21 - Sodom, Fire and Brimstone P. 2 - In this episode of The Chosen People with Yael Eckstein, we revisit the story of Lot’s family fleeing the destruction of Sodom. The episode explores themes of judgment, obedience, and the dangers of looking back at what God has called us to leave behind. Through powerful retellings of the biblical narrative, listeners are reminded of the weight of God's holiness and the need for faith in moving forward, no matter the cost.

Episode 21 of The Chosen People with Yael Eckstein is inspired by the Book of Genesis.

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For more information about Yael Eckstein and IFCJ visit https://www.ifcj.org/

Today's opening prayer is inspired by 1 Corinthians 10:14, “Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.”

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Show Notes: 

(02:28) Intro with Yael Eckstein

(04:26) Fire and Brimstone Part 2

(23:54) Reflection with Yael Eckstein

Previously on the chosen people.

The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is immense. The victims of this terrible wickedness plead for justice. The sin of both Sodom and Gomorrah is extremely serious.

Yes, my Lord, your judgment will be carried out according to your will.

My lords, be welcome to the city of Sodom, the pride of the great cities of the plain. Please allow me to be your host while you stay here in these walls.

Lot was so unattuned to the presence of God that he hadn't noticed what Abraham noticed. He did not recognize the divinity veiled behind their handsome faces, or the authority vibrating from their voices as they spoke. What who is it you're hosting in there?

Who are those pretty men you're keeping all to yourself?

The wood of the door was immediately met with the dull funk of the blade of a dagger, followed by two pairs of fists. Just then Lot felt a pair of strong, sure hands grasped his shoulders and hurl him aside. A blinding light illuminated the street behind the door. The light that refracted through the ball frame and the front windows was brighter than even the sun at it zeneth Ah.

I've been blinded.

Can you see anything?

Where? Where is the dotal?

What?

What did your doros? What fun a saucery is this?

The evil and vile atrocities have caused a great outcry against its people.

Despite all lod had seen earlier that night, with the mob and the blinding light, and even all the acts of Abraham's God in the years since they left Haron he hesitated. The visitors watched his silent calculation, and as if in response, they swooped upon him, grabbing his hands and dragging him from the threshold of their home into the streets of the city. You need to leave now.

Or take your wife and your daughters, or you will be swept away from the punishment of the city.

With every step away from the burning city, they faced a choice look back and perish, or move forward into an uncertain grace. Shall my friends from here in the Holy Land. I'm ya l estein with the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, and this is the Chosen people. Every day we are transported into a cinematic story inspired by the Hebrew Bible. We traversed tales of faith failure, love and loss. Through the story of Israel, we'll discover what it means to live a life of purpose, what it means to step into the calling that God has for each one of us. God chose the nation of Israel amount sinai, but through their story will discover one abiding truth that we are all chosen for something great. Let's begin today. We turn to a story inspired by Genesis nineteen seventeen to twenty nine, a tale of judgment and action. Imagine a night of whispered warnings and panicked footsteps. The air is thick with dread as dawn approaches. A city is on the break, teetering between the familiar rhythms of life and an impending storm of divine judgment. The sky one serene, bears the weight to fiery clouds. I need to pour down a rain of destruction, And in the shadows, a family flees urged on by messengers from heaven. What do you clink to when your whole world seems to come to an end? And in the end, what does the Bible story teach us about justice, mercy, and the human condition.

This episode of The Chosen People with y Isle Extein contains explicit content that may be triggering for some listeners and inappropriate for young children. Listener discretion is advised.

Get up, keep moving, don't stop, and don't look back.

Lot stumbled, his knee, stinging as it met sharp gravel along the streets out of the city. The two messengers were still forcibly dragging Lot and his stunned family, pulling them up when they fumbled, and spurring them on with words and hands toward the distant gates of Sodom. As they fled, Lot's eyes caught sight of the crumbling stone structures, delicate fishes, spider webbing beneath his feet. He blinked and rubbed his eyes, but the vision remained a harbinger of the city's imminent doom. His youngest daughter, Milker, tripped on a step, her satchel spilling its precious contents, clothing, heirlooms, trinkets, tumbling down the roughly carved steps. Her cry for help went unanswered, the messenger hauling her along with a single minded determination. Lot turned to protest, but a stern look silenced him. There would be no slowing down, no stopping. A grumbling far beneath his feet convinced Lot to surrender any thought of a second appeal. The great upheaval caused Lot to stumble again, and his messenger tightened his grip on it his elbow and doubled their pace in the distance. Frightened voices began to cry out, and the sounds of panic began to rise from every valley, corner and courtyard. City guards poured through the streets. Doors rattled in their frames, and the very stones shook and fractured underfoot, ashful.

Pits out of the valley.

The oncluded the lives of so Renderson.

Lot's eyes widened at the sight of substantial cracks forming in the road. The earth groaned, and the rocks sank into the thick sulfuric clime beneath. He remembered the sidin valley where King Cadelauma's men had been swallowed by the treacherous brimstone pits. Almost impossible to detect, the acrid mud held you fast as you sank beneath its toxic depths. The pits drew in surrounding debris, so unless you knew what to look for, you could find yourself caught in its orbit before aid could arrive. The oozing slime was incredibly flammable, as the frequency of summer wildfires out in the plains had taught them. Lot had always assumed that the safety of the Stone City would protect them, but apparently the danger had lurked beneath the foundation of the city all the long. Chaos reigned around them. Looters roamed the streets, arms laden with stolen goods, while others turned to drink and debauchory, embracing the uncertainty with reckless abandoned Bloody daggers flashed in the hands of n'a duels, and lynchings took place in shadowed courtyards. The city in moments, had descended into anarchy, Its veneer of civilization stripped away to reveal the rotting core beneath. How could such repulsions have erupted so swiftly had Lot been blind to the simm of these abominations. It was as if scales were falling from his eyes as he finally viewed the horrors of the place he had come to call home off its leash. At last, in one alleyway, Lot spied a truly gruesome scene. It appeared that the blind Durac and his lackeys somehow found chavar Lot's friend, whom he had just defended mere hours earlier. They were brutally delivering their version of justice. He had been strip naked and his face had been beaten to a pulp almost beyond recognition, and he limply hung between Durac and Covin as Turban further shamed him right in the very street. Lot's stomach turned and bile rose from the back of his throat. As this horrific spectacle played out, he knew this would have been his own fate if the messengers had not intervened. The crumpled body of a city guard laid to the side, it appeared there would be no rescue for poor chavar Lot didn't look over to see whether his wife and daughters had seen. The two messengers deftly navigated Lot and his family around the deteriorating ground. They had an almost sterile efficiency in moving them through the violence exploding around them that left Lot feeling unnerved. He couldn't bring himself to look up again until they've reached the city gates.

What we said we would do, we have done. You had been delivered safely outside the.

City Now you must.

Run, for little layers, run to the mountains, or you will be swept away by the destruction that is about to before the city.

Remember, don't stop anywhere on the plane. You must keep going and don't look back.

With that final warning, the messenger, who had been holding him fast throughout their journey, gave Lot a firm push through the now abandoned city gate. The moment his feet passed the threshold, a different sort of panic washed over Lot. His chest felt constricted. He couldn't breathe, He couldn't bring himself to be that exposed, that out in the open. The terror seized his body. His thoughts raced, and his breathing came in and out in shallow puffs. Was he dying? Why couldn't he breathe? Lot had next to nothing between his pack and those carried by his family, But at that moment, he would have given it all to make this sensation, this waking nightmare, stop. Something snapped inside of Lot's mind. Sheer self, preservation, instinct and desperation bore in him an idea. Wildly, Lot squinted into the night before them. Yes, there in the foothills, just as he remembered it.

Wait, my lords, Please, I beg you whatever favor I have in your eyes, even if it's on a count of my uncle Abraham, I beg you.

I can't run to the mountains.

I can't live in the mountains.

I can't.

I can't. Oh, oh, disaster, disaster will overtake me and I'll die. You just saved my life, but now you're gonna leave me to go to my death. Please show me this kindness. I cannot be without the walls.

The stone in my back.

I need it. I need the stones.

I need the stones between me and my enemies.

Father, what do you say?

What?

Because I ah, oh, yes, yes, Please please look. There's this small town up ahead on the.

Play used to be a part of the City of the Plains Alliance Bella. It was called a small place that's close enough for me to flee. To allow me the chance to get behind its walls before you bring on the destruction.

Please take pity on us, my lords. What my father means to say has don't strip him of any chance to earn a livelihood. Surely this small place can be saved. Yes, this would surely be better than us living in the mountains. How would we survive there.

Please listen to my daughters and my wife. Let us run to this small town. Every breath was still a battle, and Lot felt as if a great beast was perched upon his chest as he watched the two other worldly men consider his family's petition. The first seemed unmoved, but after what felt like an eternity to Lot's anxiety, the second finally turned to them after receiving an almost impersonapt nod from the first.

We will grant you your request.

He will not destroy the small town you mentioned, but you must go now.

Remember what we told you.

Don't look back, and don't stop. Now go. We cannot complete our task until you get there.

Without waiting for the first man to have a chance to change his mind, Lot took off without a second look back at the two men. As the sun steadily climbed into the sky, it assaulted the sky above Sodom with its crimson glow. If they had not descended into seeing chaos and villainy, the inhabitants would have found it ominous and foreboding. But so intent on their evil deeds, they also failed to see the gathering clouds creeping over the plains like a sly predator stalking its oblivious prey. Swirming in the depth of the clouds was a crackling, fiery lightly The pent up energy of the storm moved high above Sodom, the disciplined breath before a mighty war cry that some unseen the signal. The first wave of lightning struck the ground below. The strikes ignited the exposed brimstone, causing it to melt immediately and catch fire. The dull, yellow, acrid mud beneath the surface of Sodom turned blood red as flame met sulfur. One depositive inflamed sulfur quickly met the others and spread like cracks on ice, spider webbing throughout the entire city. A ghostly blue flame sprang up and encased the burning ooze of melted sulfur, consuming everything stone, wood, and flesh in its path, animal and man alike, whence screaming to their fiery deaths. Some evil doors did not even look up from their foul deeds before the fire and awe consume them. Others hidden cellars or ran to roofs in vain. No one and nothing escaped the flames of judgment. The lightning strikes intensified a harrowing force of nature and judgment. It was as if thick tongues of flame were licking the city of Sodom. The bright white inferno of lightning from above met the blue flames from below, and all that was caught in the middle was melted into the molten mess that writhed beneath that blue, purifying fire. The flames dancing atop the melted sulphur were like the sea, the wind with the fire into waves that rippled over the landscape and lapped to charred bones and singed buildings. The smell of the acrid fumes burned their eyes and lungs, leaving their minds intact just long enough to feel the tortuous poison overcome them. Plumes of thick, black smoke sprang into the air and could be seen for miles and miles, heralding the sickening smell of rotted eggs that could haunt the land for weeks and months to come. Obeying the commands of the mysterious men, they did not look back to the streets of Sodom. Lot's wife kept her head from turning, averting her eyes from the destruction. Falling behind them. It was when they reached the outskirts of the small town of Bella that the agonizing screaming and inhuman shrieking of thousands of men and beasts being burned alive began. Even at a distance, their anguished chorus made the hair on the back of her arms rise, and she covered her ears to block it out, but to no avail, and nothing could block out the booming thunder and crackling lightning that plummeted out of the sky. It was then that the smell affronted their senses. Edith's eyes watered instantly, and she gathered at the nauseating, rancid smell of selfless smoke and burnt flesh. She pulled her hands from her ears to cover her mouth and nose, but the smell was everywhere. It seeped into her skin, clothes, and hair. She felt she may never be clean again. The clouds over the city cast dark shadows before them, and they were outlined by a bright white light every time the lightning illuminated the sky. They reached the pitiful town walls that were the once respectable town of Bella, and the horrified faces of the townsfolk told them just how harrowing the sight behind them truly was. Milker attempted to turn and look behind them now that they were nearing the city gate, but Lot roughly turned her head back to the ground for.

Them leave her alone. She just wants to see what happened. Aren't we four enough away now?

Edith started to turn around herself when Lot lunged for her and took her face in his hands.

Edith, no, you heard what they said.

Don't look. We can only go forward now.

We have to get beyond the walls of the city to safety.

Edith tore his hands away from her face and shoved him hard in the chest.

The walls of the city. You call this a city? How are we to live? Look at these people. You would have us live in squalor and poverty among these country bumpkins.

Ah, Edith, Edith, you beg these men to send us here, same as me. What are you saying?

I can't I can't do this, Lot, I cannot follow you again. We've already lost so much. We crawled our way back. I can't do it again.

Mother.

Please, we'll find a way to survive. I promise we'll find a way together. What do you know of it. I've handed you everything. I got you a husband, secured your future, and gave you stability. You would have nothing without me. Mother. Follow your sister, heed her. She's the best chance you have. See if she can provide for you as I have.

To Lot's horror, his wife kissed their younger daughter on the forehead and squeezed the eldest's hand before turning around to face the destruction of Sodom. She drew herself up to her full height, squared her shoulders, and began walking in the direction of the smoldering ruins.

Yes, wait, turn around, What are you doing? Where are you going?

Lot threw his arms protectively around his screaming and stunned daughters to keep them from following her. He hauled them forward through the final steps that led through the city gate, and together they all collapsed to the threshold. The guards had long since abandoned their posts to gape open mouths at the terrible judgment raining down on Sodom and the surrounding plain. Lot's young daughters then broke from his grip and ran to roughly human embrasures in the stone wall to peer out. Lot shakerly found his feet and followed them to the dreary lookout to see what fate had befallen his wife. She was no more than a hundred paces away, but thicks smoke polluted the air, and she was soon no more than an outline. The girls whimpered and continued to shout her name in vain. Suddenly the wind shifted and she was in full view from the wall. She gazed upward as if in provocative protest, arms outstretched, and her screen was cut short, and she stood still as a pillar. But then her body fell up. It did not fall, it began to crumble to lots from revulsion. The outline of her very body was falling in on itself and dissolving into what appeared to be sult The wind carried larger and larger chunks until there was a small pile where she once stood. Petrified, his daughters stopped screaming, their eyes wide in horror. Time stood still as the three of them watched a smoky gust carry the rest of her away on a fell wind. His daughter's keening cries filled lots he as, driving him to his knees. He couldn't bear to watch his city burn again. About thirty miles away, Abraham was walking his territory, walking stick in hand, surveying the land as he did each day. A dark spot in the sky drew his attention, and he turned off his path to climb the gentle slope of a nearby oak tree grove to get a better vantage point. Squinting in the bright sun of midday, he saw plumes of thick black smoke steadily overtaking the horizon. Even from this great distance, he could see the blurry haze of angry red flames, and their outline wavered as their heat rose. Sodom Its judgment had come at last, just as his God had promised. Though he knew this apocalypce was coming, he still stood in terrible awe at the magnitude of the destruction. It was final. Definitive generations from now would speak in hush tones of Sodom's fate, and even further into the future there would be debate as to where it actually stood. He trembled at the power and might of his God, capable of wiping an entire population off the face of the earth and obliterating its very history. Even as sick astonishment washed over him, he again felt that comforting presence in the back of his mind. He knew this was going to happen, knew it needed to happen, and he also knew with absolute certainty the Lot was safe.

Wow.

The sheer instruction and wrath of God in this story is overwhelming. People consumed by fire and brimstone, cities reduced to ash. It's a stark reminder of God's holiness and justice aside that we often shy away from. We talk easily about God's love, mercy, and grace, but here we see his judgment and it's terrifying. Yes, but it's also a call to remember his holiness and to take his word and his commands seriously. For all the love that God has to give us, he also has expectations. I can't help but feel for Lut's wife. She's a symbol of our own struggles. How often do we look back, how often do we long for what we've left behind? But this story is a call to move forward and to try God completely. In the stories destruction, there's a sobering truth that God is just, and in the story of Lot's wife there's a poignant reminder obedience matters. It's a heavy story, but this one that asks us to reflect on who God is and who He is calling each one of us to be. But now let's take a closer look at this strange and tragic story, this story of Lut's wife turning to salt. It's a story familiar to most of us, but there's a lot that we can learn from it. We've all read and now we've actually heard about Lot's wife who disobeys the angelic command not to look back at the destruction of Sadom and Gamara and is turned into a pillar of salt. But this isn't just an ancient tale of an arbitrary punishment. No, it actually has a lot of meaning and things that we can learn from it. First of all, the story of Lot's wife teaches us that we are where our minds are, not only where our bodies are. Lootz family, including his wife, have escaped the destruction being rained down by God in this city in which they've found such comfort, such luxury, such corruption. Lot's wife has escaped the city boundaries, but still she suffers the punishment of the city. Why well, it's not just because she turned round. It's because her mind and her heart were obviously still in the city, fondly remembering this sinful time she's had there and regretting those times would be no more. But this story isn't just about Lot's wife or family or regrets or repentance. It's not just about being present in your sin. It's not just about looking back at things you've done that might not have been so holy. No, their story echoes the entire narrative of Israel's relationship with God. Time and time again, we see Israel turning back and away from God in the wilderness after exodus from Egypt. They long to turn back, to return to slavery, rather than press on to the promised Land. And I'm sure you remember in the era of the Judges and Kings, they repeatedly turned back, abandoning God for the false gods and idols of the nations around them. Even after their return from exile, they struggled to fully commit to God's ways, turning back time and time again. So here's the question, why does God not want his chosen people to turn back? Turning back is returning to what is dead, to what is decayed, to what is destructive, And when you look at it through those eyes, it makes sense. God wants us to pursue life, to pursue growth, to pursue transformation, to always be growing higher and not be held back by what was looking back as a path to stagnation, to falling into old patterns of sin and rebellion. God wants us to keep moving forward toward him. So the story of Lut's wife isn't just a tale of judgment. It's a cautionary reminder of our need to trust God's direction and keep moving towards his promises. In the grand narrative, God is guiding Abraham and his descendants to the promised land that's not just for their sake, but to fulfill his godly divine plan for all of humanity. Looking beyond this story, my good friend Bishop Paulineer has some insights into what the Christian Bible says about looking forward and not looking back.

Thank you so much, child, And you've just spoken to this so beautifully, so fully that there's really not a lot for me to say. And I spoke so much last time. I simply want to address this one thing and then I'm through. It is this failed family man, And can I talk quickly about Noah. You know that the Lord spoke to Noah and said, the world is filled with darkness and corruption consequently violence, and I'm going to to use the earth to destroy the world, but I'm going to preserve you. And that God provided Noah this blueprint for constructing an arc that would be the salvation of Noah, his wife, three sons, their wives. But there's no reference in all that God approached the three sons. He never said to them the earth is corrupt before me. I've had it with them. I'm going to cleanse the earth of their debauchery.

God never did that.

But there was something about their father. They believed that if my dad, my father says to me, I've heard from the Lord, I don't have to understand it to believe him. And that had such a profound effect that the wives, the daughters in law, who were losing their own families, believed their husbands who were believing their father. And we get to this Lot. I don't really know how big this man's family was. Did he have sons, They weren't going The sons in law, the Bible says, did not believe Lot when he was speaking to them about the judgment that was impending the daughters. They went with Lot, but they still weren't where they needed to be.

Because Lot.

Wasn't No.

I've often said, live your life in such a way when someone doesn't like you anymore, they still trust your prayer life and your walk with God. And I look at this Lot, and he had made so many mistakes, starting with his uncle and dishonoring that when he didn't know how to honor his uncle, his own family didn't know how to respect him. I'm just praying, sir, to the fathers and the grandfathers and the sons and daughters, that God will touch you in such a way right now that you begin to know how who it is to honor, to esteem, to regard, to appreciate in your life, and that it becomes loose towards you.

Amen.

There's one last thing that I want to talk about before we leave behind the story of Lut's wife turning into a pillar of salt. Salt, she turned into salt. Isn't that a strange thing to happen, Even among all of the supernatural and miraculous strange things that we've seen and will see throughout the Bible, It's a little bit interesting that she turned into salt. So we have to ask why does Lut's wife turn into salt? Why that punishment of all things? Well, the Jewish sages suggests that lutz wife sinned with salt, so she was punished with salt. But wait, how does someone sin with salt?

Well?

To answer this, the sages tell us story. When guests would come to lutz house in Sadome, he would remember his uncle Abraham's famous hospitality, and he hoped to treat his own guests in the same welcoming manner. Solut asked his wife to add salt to the food that they offered guests, to spice it up, to give it more flavor. Back then, salt was something that was actually precious. But Lot's wife didn't want to keep the important and godly customs that Abraham held so dear she didn't want to adhere to the old ways, and frankly, she thought that sault was too expensive to offer to her guests. Lot's wife was the antithesis of hospitality all because of salt, and so salt is what she became. So that's all. Even as we keep from turning back to old and sinful ways, hold on to God's command to his chosen people since the days of Abraham. We have to know what to hold on to and what to let go. God's word is forever. Our sins are thin of the past. A command that holds true to us his Chosen People even today is to remain holy, to look forward in God's word, and to bless others. Here's one final blessing for you. Ivarech hashem Vi schmurecher ya heir hashempanave ileha verroncher ye sa hashempanave lehra vich.

Llon.

May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine upon you. May he be gracious to you. May the Lord turn his face towards you and give you peace.

Amen. You can listen to the Chosen People with Isle Eckstein add free by downloading and subscribing to the Pray dot Com app today. This prey dot Com production is only made possible by our dedicated team of creative talents. Steve Katina, Max bard, Zak Shellavaga and Ben Gammon are the executive producers of the Chosen People with yaele Estein, edited by Alberto Avilla, narrated by Paul Coltefianu. Characters are voiced by Jonathan Cotton, Aaron Salvato, Sarah Seltz, Mike Reagan, Stephen Ringwold, Sylvia Zaradoc, and the opening prayer is voiced by John Moore. Music by Andrew Morgan Smith, written by Bree Rosalie and Aaron Salvato. Special thanks to Bishop Paul Lanier, Robin van Ettin, Kayleb Burrows, Jocelyn Fuller, and the team at International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. You can hear more Prey dot com productions on the Prey dot com app, available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. If you enjoyed The Chosen People with Yile Eckstein, please rate and leave a review,

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