Genesis
18:21-25:
I
will go down to see if what they have done justifies the cry
that has come up to Me. If not, I will find out.”
22 The
men turned from there and went toward Sodom while Abraham
remained standing before the Lord.23 Abraham
stepped forward and said, “Will You really sweep away the righteous
with the wicked? 24 What
if there are 50 righteous people in the city? Will You really sweep
it away instead of sparing the place for the sake of the 50 righteous
people who are in it? 25 You
could not possibly do such a thing: to kill the righteous with the
wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. You could not
possibly do that! Won’t the Judge of all the earth do what is
just?”
In the evenings my daughter Abigail likes to play the role of
negotiator. When I walk into her room and tell her it is time for
bed, she automatically begins the negotiations, “10 more minutes
please!” When I tell her no, it becomes “Five more minutes,
please!” If I again say no, “Two more minutes please!” She
reminds me in a sense of Abraham in our text. Here we find Abraham
negotiating with His heavenly Father to show grace to the righteous
people of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Verse 21 served the important function of showing the One True God is
not capricious but is a careful and just Investigator. He never acts
on a whim. His judgments are perfect (Psalm 9:8). Before God passed
sentence, He would confirm the indictment.
The language of this verse is anthropomorphic, assigning human
qualities to God to enable people to understand God's actions. In
reality, God did not have to go down to see if what the people of
Sodom and Gomorrah had done justified the cry that had gone up to
Him. Neither did God have to find out in the sense of discovering
something he did not know. Our God is omniscient; He knows all
things.
The term cry (“outcry,” ESV, NIV) is synonymous
with the “outcry” in 18:20. The term could refer to
a number of specific things. It could refer to the call for help
expressed by victims of serious crimes, a cry for justice arising
from victims' families, or a cry from the righteous few asking for
God to intervene to change an increasingly immoral society. However,
we need to be careful not to think an ever-loudening cry was required
to finally get God's attention. God is aware of the most seemingly
insignificant sins at the moment they are committed. The emphasis
expressed through the anthropomorphic language is on the gravity of
sin in Sodom and Gomorrah.
The term justifies seeks to make sense in English of a
difficult construction in Hebrew. The Hebrew text places the adverb
“completely” after the phrase “they have
done.” The issue expressed is whether the inhabitants of
Sodom and Gomorrah had sinned so often and in so many ways as to have
reached the completion or saturation point. We saw a similar concept
in the Lord's statement to Abram that “the iniquity of the
Amorites” had not “reached its full measure” (Gen.
15:16). The fact that God was stirred to “go down to see”
indicates Sodom and Gomorrah had reached the saturation point. The
final statement, “If not, I will find out,” served
as assurance the divine wrath would not be unleashed unless
absolutely warranted.
II. Abraham's Intercession (Gen. 18:22-25)
V.
22, “The men turned from there and went toward
Sodom while Abraham remained standing before the Lord.”
The same visitors who brought Abraham the great news he would at
least become a father had additional work to do in Sodom. Their
departure left Abraham “standing before the Lord.”
He used the opportunity to intercede for the few righteous people of
Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham had Lot and his family in mind, but he
spoke for all the righteous people.
The phrase, “standing before the Lord” refers to
having a heightened awareness of God's presence. Though the Lord is
always present, people often are distracted by their circumstances,
focused on urgent matters, or tune out altogether. To stand in the
presence of the Lord meant to be focused on conversing with Him and
being attentive to what He said. Abraham likely had heart the stories
of Sodom's sins. After all, if the outcry could reach heaven, surely
it could reach nearby Mamre where Abraham resided (Gen. 18:1).
V.
23, Abraham stepped forward and said, “Will You really
sweep away the righteous with the wicked?
Abraham stepped forward, meaning he initiated the
dialogue. The Hebrew verb means “to draw near,” reminiscent of
one person moving closer to another person in order to facilitate
conversation. Abraham's question revealed his concern for his family
and should not be taken as an insinuation that God's judgment was
unfair. The verb “sweep away” is graphic and brings
to mind images of vast floodwaters forcibly removing everything in
the way. Abraham was not questioning whether Sodom and Gomorrah
deserved to be judged; rather, he did not want Lot and his family to
get swept away in the process. The terms “righteous”
and “wicked” are used as antonyms. “The
righteous” were all who deliberately lives their lives
according to God's instructions. “The wicked”
referred to workers of perversion and iniquity.
V.
24, “What if there are 50 righteous people in the city?
Will You really sweep it away instead of sparing the place for the
sake of the 50 righteous people who are in it?”
Abraham sought to understand God's intentions while still wrestling
with the conflicting emotions of the day. The extreme happiness he
felt upon hearing he would become a father was followed immediately
by the overbearing sadness that his nephew's city was about to be
destroyed. Truly faithful people do not rejoice in the death of the
wicked (Ezekiel 33:11). Moreover, they struggle with the apprehension
that judgment could “sweep...away” innocent people.
Thus, Abraham appealed to God's justice, calling attention to the
possibility of some righteous people suffering as a result of the
destruction earmarked for the unrighteous. Abraham was not trying to
chide or correct God. Rather, as a faithful follower concerned for
his family he did the only thing he knew to do; he humbly approached
God. He interceded on behalf of the righteous.
Abraham began his intercessory prayer by referring to the possibility
that Sodom contained 50 righteous people. The number was
significantly large enough for Abraham to make his case, but he
obviously doubted that many righteous people could be found in the
city. Thus, he gradually reduced the number to 45, 40, 30, 20, and
finally 10, before his intercession ended (Gen. 18:24-32). Taking all
these numbers into consideration, we see the heart of a man who
interceded for Lot's family, praying for a postponement of judgment
for the sake of a righteous few.
As the father of God's covenant people, Abraham set the example for
his descendants to follow. The covenant community was to become the
kingdom of priests interceding on behalf of all the families of the
earth. Abraham approached the Lord precisely because of the nature of
the relationship between the two of them and because of the purpose
of the covenant people to be an intercessory community.
V.
25, “You could not possibly do such a thing: to kill the
righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked
alike. You could not possibly do that! Won’t the Judge of all the
earth do what is just?”
Abraham's words, “You could not possibly do such a thing,”
seem to reprimand God for His impending judgment of Sodom and
Gomorrah. Yet, taken in context, the words were not intended to
denounce God or to disparage His judgment at all. Rather, they reveal
Abraham's anxious desire to see his nephew's family spared along with
other righteous people.
Abraham did not understand how God could judge an entire city without
having the collateral damage of killing righteous people (thus, his
comment to kill the righteous with the wicked.) The verb “to
kill” is literally “to cause to die.”
Abraham did not debate whether Sodom and Gomorrah deserved divine
judgment; rather, eh struggled with the notion that God's judgment
would cause righteous people to die. So he interceded.
At the crux of Abraham's plea was the idea that God's treating the
righteous and the wicked alike was incomprehensible. The patriarch's
attendant question reveals the inner workings of his mind: “Won't
the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” The question
involves a wordplay: the Hebrew words for Judge and just are derived
from the same root term. The wordplay could be preserved in English
by translating the question as follows: Will not the One
establishing justice in all the earth establish justice?
Abraham did not know the Lord's plans for Lot. Through humble,
impassioned intercession, Abraham asked God to spare Sodom if as few
as 10 righteous people were found. Though his knowledge was limited,
Abraham's intercession was as appropriate as it was impassioned.
Applying the Scripture:
How would you describe how Abraham appealed to God? How did he balance humility and boldness in his approach?
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