Page 54 - Gods Plan of the Ages

Yahweh did make the land of Israel a wasteland like unto Sodom and Gomorrah. The
people were blotted out as a nation. Their country was taken from them. They were
dispersed among the nations. We know, however, that Yahweh's wrath did not burn
perpetually against His people. Though He demonstrated that He would not overlook their
sins, and He proved willing to punish the evildoer, in time He showed His forsaken people
mercy onceagain. The passage continues with the following words:

Deuteronomy 30:1-6
So it shall be when all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse
which I have set before you, and you call them to mind in all nations where Yahweh your
God has banished you, and you return to Yahweh your God and obey Him with all your
heart and soul according to all that I command you today, you and your sons, then
Yahweh your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will
gather you again from all the peoples where Yahweh your God has scattered you. If your
outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there Yahweh your God will gather you, and
from there He will bring you back. Yahweh your God will bring you into the land which
your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will prosper you and multiply you
more than your fathers. Moreover Yahweh your God will circumcise your heart and the
heart of your descendants, to love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your
soul, so that you may live.

Is this not a marvelous thing? Yahweh in His wrath strikes a people, but in His mercy
He restores them to Himself. Yahweh promises that He will take the rebellious people and
circumcise their heart. He will remove ungodliness from the heart of man and write His law
where there was only rebellion. This is what brings pleasure to Yahweh - restoring the rebel
who has come to repentance.
In the passage we just viewed, Yahweh compared His judgments upon Israel to the
judgment that befell Sodom. You may ask, "Certainly the judgment of Sodom was final, was
it not? There is no room for repentance for those who died when God rained fire and
brimstone upon them, is there?" The prophet Ezekiel reveals that Sodom will indeed be
restored. Ezekiel, as did Moses, compares Yahweh's judgment upon His people to that of
Sodom. Ezekiel affirms that not only will Yahweh put away His wrath toward Judah and
Jerusalem, restoring them to Himself, He will do the same for Sodom and for wicked
Samaria.

Ezekiel 16:49-55
"Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had arrogance,
abundant food and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy. Thus they were
haughty and committed abominations before Me. Therefore I removed them when I saw
it. Furthermore, Samaria did not commit half of your sins, for you have multiplied your
abominations more than they. Thus you have made your sisters appear righteous by all
your abominations which you have committed. Also bear your disgrace in that you have
made judgment favorable for your sisters. Because of your sins in which you acted more
abominably than they, they are more in the right than you. Yes, be also ashamed and bear
your disgrace, in that you made your sisters appear righteous. Nevertheless, I will restore
their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, the captivity of Samaria and
her daughters, and along with them your own captivity, in order that you may bear your
humiliation and feel ashamed for all that you have done when you become a consolation
to them. Your sisters, Sodom with her daughters and Samaria with her daughters, will