Our word for today is closely connected to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah חַטָּאת sin, sin offering, expiation. It is used 293 times in the Old Testament. The root of this word is חַטָּא miss the mark. It is used 235 times in the Old Testament. A good example of this is Judges 20:16 Among all these soldiers there were seven hundred select troops who were left-handed, each of whom could sling a stone at a hair and not חַטָּא miss. And Job 5:24 You will know that your tent is secure; you will take stock of your property and find nothing חַטָּא missing. And Genesis 40:1 Some time later, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt חַטָּא offended their master, the king of Egypt. These verses help us understand this word better because missing with a sling could be said to fall short. And having everything in order or secure could be said to not fall short of what is expected. And offending the king would be because you fell short in his expectations. So with this in mind lets go back into our chapter for today. Genesis 18:20 Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their וְחַ֨טָּאתָ֔ם sin so grievous. God uses three words to describe their sin. The first word is great to describe their sin has to do with the size in the sense of growing in number or populous. So their falling short was continually adding up. And the next word to describe it is grievous in the sense of being heavy, grave or deadly serious. And the third word very or strongly it was very heavy, very grave, very deadly serious. So much that YHWH decided to come down to look into this in a personal way. Now Abraham knew that this was not going to turn out well for his nephew Lot so what does he do when YHWH starts to head toward Sodom and Gomorrah? Genesis 18:22 Abraham remained standing before the LORD. We will look more at the details of Abraham standing before YHWH for his nephew’s well being in the next couple of days. For now it is significant to say that Abraham would have to rescue his nephew once again because sin is that bad even when you are not necessarily the one sinning against God directly just being around it everyday can have serious consequences on you. This we will also see in the days to come. For today let’s look at how sin separates us from God. Isaiah 59:2 But your חַטָּאת iniquities have separated you from your God; your חַטָּאת sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. Let’s look at how sin affected King David personally. Psalm 32:3-5 When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my חַטָּאת sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD.” And you forgave the guilt of my חַטָּאת sin. And God was able to forgive David’s sin when he confessed it to him because Jesus would come around a thousand years later. Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
