What purpose does the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah serve?
The destruction serves as a lasting example and warning to all who would afterward live ungodly, showing God's judgment against the homosexual lifestyle. It was a disciplinary action, an instantaneous wiping out of those wicked cities, plowed under so the world would not forget and would wake up.
Les explains that the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah was not the wrath of God per se, but a disciplinary action. It was an instantaneous wiping out of those wicked cities, not prolonged suffering like the tribulation. Scripture says they were made an example unto those that should hereafter live ungodly. Les emphasizes that the reason God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah was the homosexual lifestyle, and the world is never to forget it. God is telling the world to look at what He did to those kind of people and wake up. Lot, a righteous man, was delivered, though he was vexed by the filthy manner of living of the wicked.
And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;