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2 Peter 2:6
6 And [kai] turning [tephroo] the cities [polis] of Sodom [Sodoma] and [kai] Gomorrha [Gomorrha] into ashes [tephroo] condemned [katakrino] them with an overthrow [katastrophe], making [tithemi] them an ensample [hupodeigma] unto those that after should [mello] live ungodly [asebeo]; KJV-Interlinear
6 and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly thereafter; NASB
God judged the angels for their disobedience. He judged the ancient world for their disobedience, and here Peter explains that Sodom and Gomorrha, Gen. 19, and all of the rest of the cities of that vast plain, Jude 7, were destroyed as an example to all of the rest of us, so we can know what to expect if we decide that disobeying God is the right choice for our lives.
The area that is currently known as the dead sea, was formerly a vast lush and grassy plain. In the time of Abraham and Lot, this area was occupied by several cities.
Lot chose to move to this huge valley and Abraham chose to remain on the Mediterranean side of the mountains that separated the Sodom region, from the region west of the Jordan River.
These cities were filled with corrupt people. Their sins were so great and flagrant, that they had virtually no morals, conscience or any regard or their actions.
One day, their luck, so to speak, ran out. God had been patient with them for a long while. Even Lots presence had no impact on their character. And then the cities were visited and destroyed so thoroughly, that there was nothing but ashes left.
Anyone walking through the region could not even identify their remains because the destruction was so thorough.
At some point later in history, that whole valley collapsed into one of the deepest locations, below sea level, in the world, and whatever remains of those cities, couldn’t be located even if we tried to find them. Ashes under water, don’t leave much of anything for archeologists to discover, except drilled hole core samples, if even that.
The importance of Sodom is not in finding them, but in the lesson their moral corruption, taught.
No one ever gets away with evil. No matter whether your evil is veiled in little white lies or is of a more dastardly nature, is irrelevant. Evil is evil and corruption is corruption, and all of that type of characteristic is destroyed thoroughly and completely, and as in this example, lost totally to history.
If we never had any mention of their existence, we would never have known that those cities even existed. They would have remained undiscoverable forever.
And such is the destiny of evil people. The most evil of all are unbelievers. Their evil is in their rejection of truth, which is Christ. One day, they will vanish from history, and it will be as though they never existed. They will be totally forgotten, as all believers advance into their own destiny in eternity.
Likewise, for believers who are negative in their spiritual life, their former lives, regardless of their success, will be forgotten. Evil and its production, in believers, will never be carried forward into heaven. All of the popular want-to-be’s in life will lose their popularity. Their approbations will cease, and their celebrityship, their titles, their worldly attributes, will cease.
There is no place for untruths, for mans boasting, for arrogance, for worldly standards of any kind, in heaven.
Your opinions, your attitudes, your self-defined standards for life will cease when you finally leave this life. And by the way, what was the inheritance of the citizens of Sodom? Zip.
They were not humble, but arrogance and opinionated. They were not honorable, but disrespectful. They were not open minded, but rigidly biased and prejudiced, superficial and shallow, against all forms of truth not to mention the opinions of others.
The Bible in its entirety, issues a stern warning as to what will become of you, if you discard humility and doctrine in your life.
