Christ mentions three names he considers descriptively appropriate for the city that gave his witnesses the ultimate dishonour. Sodom was the city where no righteous people could be found other than Lot and his family (Genesis 18:26–33; 2 Peter 2:7–8), and it was the city that rejected the faithful witness (and plague!) of the angels (Genesis 19:4–11). The prophets attached the name Sodom to Jerusalem as they described Jerusalem’s transgressions (Isaiah 1:9–10; Ezekiel 16:46–58). Egypt was the country that enslaved the Israelites for a season when evidence arose of God’s favour upon them (Exodus 1:8–14). Though Moses and Aaron for a season testified of God’s might and demonstrated his supremacy through their mighty works (Exodus 7:1 – 10:29), Egypt persisted in their stubborn rejection of God. Where their Lord was crucified
is, of course, the city of Jerusalem, that great city which had witnessed for a season the mighty testimony of Jesus Christ himself in word and deed. Yet the leaders and their people hated Jesus enough to demand his crucifixion—and so silence Jesus’ faithful witness. Those of any time and place who reject the testimony of God’s witnesses equate to Sodom, Egypt, and Jerusalem. All three of those places ultimately experienced God’s judgment as a result of their rejecting his witnesses.
8 and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified.