Bargaining With God Series

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! As believers in Christ, we need not wait until the end of November to be thankful. You and I need to be grateful for God’s righteous goodness all the time. And as we will see over the next few minutes, you and I need to be grateful for God’s justice all the time.

If you have your Bibles, please turn to Genesis 18. Please bookmark Ezekiel 16 with me as well for we’ll be there in a minute.

We continue our series on Abraham, but we turn from the story of the promise to Abraham’s bargaining prayer for two cities. Cities are a big deal because half of the world’s population currently lives in cities and this is expected to grow to sixty percent by 2030. I love Fort Worth and the city of North Richland Hills, Bedford, Hurst, and Haltom City. How would you rate the quality of a city? Some experts will rate the size of a city, or the amount of land it covers. Others will say you judge a city by it growth rate or economic prowess. More personally, you may like a city because of the fun things there are to do in the city – Top Golf, the nearby lake, or the movie theatre. Now, you may like your city (Haslet, Haltom City, NRH, or Hurst) because it’s laid back, beautiful, or your favorite restaurant, beauty salon are near you. But God reveals a different way He measures cities. God uses a different yardstick to measure a city’s progress.

Today’s Scripture

Then the men set out from there, and they looked down toward Sodom. And Abraham went with them to set them on their way. 17 The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, 18 seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? 19 For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.” 20 Then the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, 21 I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know.” 22 So the men turned from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord. 23 Then Abraham drew near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” 26 And the Lord said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.” 27 Abraham answered and said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. 28 Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking. Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?” And he said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.” 29 Again he spoke to him and said, “Suppose forty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of forty I will not do it.” 30 Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak. Suppose thirty are found there.” He answered, “I will not do it, if I find thirty there.” 31 He said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it.” 32 Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.” 33 And the Lord went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place” (Genesis 18:16–33).

This is one of most interesting passages you will stumble over in the book of Genesis. Like an auctioneer, Abraham negotiates with God. But the two are not haggling over a car or a house, but instead, their focus is two infamous cities: Sodom & Gomorrah. Beginning with fifty people, the two dance or haggle their way all the way down to ten. If only ten good, righteous people are found, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah will be spared or rescued. Again, there are lots of ways to look at a city but God takes a searching spotlight over the city to see how many godly people are present in the city.