The City

The city has long represented a place of vice and corruption in the Western mind. There are countless stories that entail the young country innocent encountering the Big City for the first time, and in many of those stories, it isn’t long before the young innocent encounters someone who takes advantage of him. Pinnochio is an excellent example of such a story. A movie entitled The Village is another, although in that story it is the fear of “the towns” rather than the reality that is more harmful. The story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15) is a biblical example. The moral of these types of stories generally has something to do with appreciating the love, security, and goodness to be found at home and hearth.

Genesis 19:18-29
“But Lot said to them, "No, please, Lord!   19 Your servant has found favor with you, and you have shown me great kindness by sparing my life. But I am not able to escape to the mountains because this disaster will overtake me and I'll die.   20 Look, this town over here is close enough to escape to, and it's just a little one. Let me go there. It's just a little place, isn't it? Then I'll survive."  21 "Very well," he replied, "I will grant this request too and will not overthrow the town you mentioned. 22 Run there quickly, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there." (This incident explains why the town was called Zoar.)  23 The sun had just risen over the land as Lot reached Zoar.   24 Then the Lord rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah. It was sent down from the sky by the Lord.   25 So he overthrew those cities and all that region, including all the inhabitants of the cities and the vegetation that grew from the ground. 26 But Lot's wife looked back longingly and was turned into a pillar of salt. 27 Abraham got up early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before the Lord. 28 He looked out toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of that region. As he did so, he saw the smoke rising up from the land like smoke from a furnace.  29 So when God destroyed the cities of the region, God honored Abraham's request. He removed Lot from the midst of the destruction when he destroyed the cities Lot had lived in.”

Even though Lot was fairly hypocritical in his involvement with Sodom and Gomorrah, including his shabby treatment of his own virginal daughters, God still rescues him and his family from destruction. More than this, Lot actually bargains with God so that they will not have to flee as far in order to escape. Lot and his daughters escape (although considering the next part of the story it might have been better for them to have been destroyed). Lot’s wife, however, disobeys the angels’ orders and looks back toward the cities. The implication is that it was more than a mere curiosity to see what God was doing that prompted her to turn around – it was a spiritual longing for what Sodom and Gomorrah had to offer – pleasures and entertainments and high society.

Today in America, most people live in or near cities. The current culture lifts up the city as a place of tolerance and diversity, as opposed to the supposed small-mindedness and bigotry of the country folk. But not much has changed since Sodom and Gomorrah; there are the same men wandering the streets and bus stations and airport bathrooms, waiting for some hayseed fresh from Sticksville.