Genesis 18:20,21

God explains to Abraham that He is going to see if the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah is as bad as it appeared to be. There are a number of interesting things here. One is that God has heard an outcry against the city. Elsewhere in the Bible it says that God hears the cry of the poor and the oppressed. When people are victims of evil they cry out, and God hears their cry. This is true whether or not the victims know who they are calling to, or if they are just calling out in agony. Anyone who oppresses the poor runs a great risk of incurring God's wrath. We usually think of the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah as being gross sexual sin, particularly of a homosexual nature. Now this is true, as the next chapter illustrates, but Ezekiel 16:49 shows that arrogance and a lack of concern for the poor was also a major factor, indeed the prime factor.

The next thing is that God goes to investigate. Now one might immediately say that surely God knew exactly what was going on, for He knows and sees everything. This of course is true, so why did He need to go and look? Perhaps it is that God always gives people a chance, or perhaps this was just for Abraham's benefit, and that of Lot. Ie the real reason was not so He could see what was going on. On the other hand perhaps it was to see how they would respond to Him. In the parable of the tenants it says that the owner sent various messengers, seeing how they would treat them. Finally He sent His own Son. The city did indeed treat the two angels very badly, and so He knew that the sin was very bit as bad as the outcry suggested.