The comment has been attributed to Billy Graham (actually, his wife) that, "If the Lord God of Heaven does not JUDGE the United States of America, He will owe a sincere apology to Sodom and Gomorrah!"
We tend to think that when it comes to depravity, or "iniquity" - it just doesn't get any worse.
But I point out in this week's teaching/midrash that just maybe what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah was actually NOT a "Biblical climax" of, whatever-that-word-means.
Why? Remember that Abram (before he was renamed Abraham) was told, "know of a certainty" that your seed will be strangers in a land that is not theirs; ultimately slaves, and that, four centuries later, "I will judge that nation," He said, and take them into the land He promised.
Why not sooner? Because "the iniquity [Hebrew word 'avon'] of the Amorites is not yet full."
But this same guy SAW the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in his own lifetime thereafter!
Shouldn't that tell us something?
The answer is, "Because..." - it follows that:
We tend to think that when it comes to depravity, or "iniquity" - it just doesn't get any worse.
But I point out in this week's teaching/midrash that just maybe what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah was actually NOT a "Biblical climax" of, whatever-that-word-means.
Why? Remember that Abram (before he was renamed Abraham) was told, "know of a certainty" that your seed will be strangers in a land that is not theirs; ultimately slaves, and that, four centuries later, "I will judge that nation," He said, and take them into the land He promised.
Why not sooner? Because "the iniquity [Hebrew word 'avon'] of the Amorites is not yet full."
But this same guy SAW the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in his own lifetime thereafter!
Shouldn't that tell us something?
The answer is, "Because..." - it follows that:
Mark Call – Parsha “Ekev” teaching from Shabbat Shalom Mesa
Sometimes the Torah portion reading almost seems like it could have come from today’s news. Other times, we know the message applies, but we have to search a bit to make what later often turn…
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