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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way.
Then the Lord said, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him."
Then the Lord said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached Me. If not, I will know."
The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord.
Then Abraham approached Him and said: "Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?"
The Lord said, "If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake."
Then Abraham spoke up again: "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city because of five people?"
If I find forty-five there," He said, "I will not destroy it."
Once again he spoke to him, "What if only forty are found there?"
He said, "For the sake of forty, I will not do it."
Then he said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?"
He answered, "I will not do it if I find thirty there."
Abraham said, "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?"
He said, "For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it."
Then he said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?"
He answered, "For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it."
When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, He left, and Abraham returned home."
Genesis 18:16-33
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
At the beginning of Genesis, chapter 16, we find Abraham receiving a visit from three men. By his reaction, we sense that he knew he was in the presence of the Lord and two of his angels as he hurried to show them his best hospitality, using his best flour and choice meat to feed them.
As we move into our passage for today, we gain complete affirmation that God had come to Abraham in human form as we find the two have a fascinating dialogue that not only reveals God’s incredible sense of justice and mercy but His deep patience as well.
We see in the scriptures that the Lord turns His attention toward the evil cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, deeply aware of the evil that was happening there. We read where He knew that the sin of the people there was "so grievous" that He dispatched the two angels, also in human form, to Sodom and Gomorrah to check things out.
Now, we immediately get a suspicion that Abraham was fully aware of the evil reputation of the cities because he approaches God as to whether or not He would exercise discernment over who He would or wouldn’t destroy. It was a bold ask by Abraham, one immersed in a form of interrogation that we find the Lord willingly permit.
We should remember that in showing concern over what was to happen, Abraham doesn’t question God bringing judgment on the sinners of Sodom and Gomorrah. He was well aware that there would be negative consequences for those who would blatantly disobey the Lord’s will and way. Abraham wasn’t worried about what would happen to those who chose iniquity over righteousness. Rather, he was concerned about the matter of justice and whether or not any people would be punished who didn’t really deserve it.
And so Abraham gets right to addressing his unease, asking God point blank:
"Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?"
Through his words, we find Abraham refusing to believe that the God he served would be unjust and kill the righteous along with the unrighteous. He knew his Master and held Him as being merciful and just in character. In His reply, we find God not only confirming Abraham’s belief by expressing the degree of mercy that He was willing to put in display, saying:
"If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake."
In other words, God was willing to withdraw His judgment and spare every other person in Sodom and Gomorrah because of the righteousness of 50. This is even more impressive when you consider it’s believed the population of these two cities was about 1.5 million people at the time.
Well, as we continue through this passage we see Abraham continue to ask God if He would indeed spare Sodom and Gomorrah’s population if a number of righteous people were found, counting down from 50 to cover 45, then 40, then 30, then 20, and finally 10. In each instance, we find God promising that He would spare everyone if He was able to find that many righteous people.
Unfortunately, this whole exercise was one in futility because the reality was that there weren’t 10 or more righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah, and as a result, the future doom of the two cities was sealed as we will soon see as we continue our study of this book.
Before I close, I believe there are two important points to take away from this passage:
First, our God is just and merciful.
We see in our passage for today that He won’t punish the righteous like He will the unrighteous. In fact, we learn that there’s a good chance that the unrighteous are actually being preserved for the moment by the righteous people living alongside them. With this, maybe we truly don’t ever realize how close we are to being destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah. Definitely food for thought.
The second takeaway for today is that our God is willing to listen to those who intercede for others.
Abraham cared deeply for anyone who walked in the Lord’s way and will obediently, those who actively sought to be righteous or right with God. In fact, Abraham felt such a passion for the righteous that he was willing to boldly stand before God and ask Him questions that caused Him to openly reveal how He deals with the righteous and unrighteous.
In the end translation, we, as believers today, need to remember that God listens to the intercessors and so we should never hesitate to come to Him on behalf of someone else, even in matters where we need to ask for His mercy to fall on others.
Friends, through our scriptures today, we see that our God is indeed just and merciful, ever ready to listen when we come before Him with our petitions. Today, and every day, let us give Him thanks as well as our deepest sense of honor, glory, and praise.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
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