Lot “saw that the Jordan valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt” (v. 10). At a physical level, this landscape is synonymous with material prosperity and wealth. But there is even more symbolism to the setting. Sodom has a strong moral identity in this story. It is a moral monstrosity, being associated with both sexual perversion and (on the basis of Ezekiel 16:49–50) the indifference of a materialistic society to the needs of the poor. When we move
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