Intercession (Genesis part 33)
Text: Genesis 18:16-33
By: Ken McKinley
(Read Text)
In the UK they have these things called boot sales. Now that’s probably not what you’re thinking. You see; in the UK, they call the trunk of a car the “boot” and what they do is… on certain days a community will gather up all the things they want to get rid of, put them into the trunk (or the boot) of their cars and meet in an open area. They’ll open up the trunks of their cars and begin selling the items out of them. Now in and of itself, it’s a pretty interesting affair, but it gets really interesting if you go with someone who really knows how to bargain and haggle with people. Now when we were in the UK 5 years ago, my uncle went with us, and that’s exactly the kind of person he is. There have been several times when he’s found something at a garage sale for a couple of bucks and then turned around and sold it for a couple of hundred. And the reason for that is because he understands bargaining. He understands that if two people really want something, then all sorts of arrangements can be met. In-other-words; if you have something that is valuable to another person, and that person has something that’s valuable to you, then eventually you can reach an agreement that is suitable to both of you.
But it’s a different story when you don’t have anything to offer, or when you’re not in a position to bargain, but that’s exactly the situation described for us in our text this morning. Abraham and his heavenly visitors have just finished eating and they get up to walk off the delicious meal and they find themselves looking towards Sodom. And in verse 17 God says, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I’m doing…” Now the language used here is what we call anthropomorphic, which means that it was written with us in mind. It was written for the purpose of helping us relate to the divine thoughts and actions of God. Basically it’s letting us know what God is planning and doing. And there’s a couple of reasons that God does this. First of all, Abraham has a special relationship with God. Remember; he’s called a “friend of God” by James in the NT. But I want you to notice what God says in verse 18 (Read). God says that He’s going to let Abraham in on what He is planning since “Abraham will become a great and mighty nation and all the nations of the world will be blessed in him.” In-other-words the Lord is saying that He’s going to let Abraham know this, so that Abraham has a right understanding of what’s about to happen, because of the influence Abraham will have upon the generations that follow. Now think about that for a minute. If you or I as a parent have a wrong view of God, then most likely we’ll teach that wrong view to our children, and they will teach it to their children and it will go on and on down the line. We know that’s what’s being said here because of what God says in verse 19 (Read). He says, “For I have known him…” Why? “in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the LORD, to do righteousness and justice, that the LORD may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.” So God is saying here that He wants Abraham to understand what’s about to happen.
You see; what’s about to happen in Sodom and Gomorrah is going to be an eternal object lesson about the righteousness and justice of God. And if God doesn’t make it clear to Abraham (and to us) then he (and we) wouldn’t understand exactly why judgment comes upon those wicked cities.
So God sends the two angels on ahead after explaining to Abraham that He is going to examine the cities and judge them. Now I hope everyone understands that God doesn’t have to send angels to check things out here on earth. He is all knowing, and omnipresent. He already knows what’s going on. Again; this is anthropomorphic language. It’s written this way so that we can understand it better.
So in essence; what God is doing here is letting Abraham and us know that His judgments are righteous. God doesn’t just blast entire cities with fits of uncontrolled rage. Instead; God’s judgments are always a measured, controlled, justifiable response of a Holy, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient God, and they are always in response to real evil and ungodliness.
And so God sends the angels on ahead, but He waits. Now let me just tell you; God doesn’t just “hang out” for any reason. There is always a reason and purpose for everything He does. So we’ve got to keep in mind that this is a teaching moment. It’s like I said… an object lesson. And it begins in verse 23 (Read). Now Abraham is concerned because his nephew Lot is in Sodom, and even though they’ve gone their separate ways, Abraham still loves his nephew and is concerned about him. And so he starts to ask, “God will you destroy the city if there are 50 righteous people there?” And I believe that this is what God was waiting for. You see; God not only wants Abraham to know what’s about to happen to Sodom, but He wants Abraham to see how merciful He really is, and that “IF” the cities are destroyed, that God was just in doing so.
So by sticking around, God sort of invites this dialogue with Abraham, and again, the purpose of it is to help Abraham understand how just God is.
So Abraham starts with 50 righteous people. Now we’re not sure why he picks 50. Maybe he felt like there would surely be 50 good people in the city. So he asks, and God says that He will spare the city if there are 50 good people there. Then Abraham goes on down to 45, then 30, then 20, and finally 10.
Now one thing we can’t get from just reading the Bible is the tone that’s used here. And sometimes our tone can be just as important in our communication as what’s being said. Let me give you an example. Usually sometime during the day my girls will come up to me and ask, “Daddy, can we have a snack?” And I’ll say, “Yes.” The problem is that sometimes they ask, and they don’t pay attention, and so 5 minutes later they come up and again ask, “Daddy can I have a snack?” And I’ll say, “Yes…” And then 5 minutes later they’ll come up and ask, “Daddy can I have a snack?” And I’ll say, “YES!” But the growl in the tone of my voice is also saying, “If you ask me one more time you’re going to be in trouble!” So a lot can be communicated just by the tone of our voices. Sometimes even things we don’t want to communicate are being communicated by our tone, even more than the actual words we’re saying.
So when I read this, I would love to know what God’s tone of voice was like when He was answering Abraham’s questions. Maybe that’s why Abraham stopped at 10 instead of 5. Maybe the tone in the Lord’s voice was saying, “That’s enough Abraham…”
Or maybe Abraham just thought that there would surely be 10 good people in such a large city. You know… the law of averages. I mean, if there were 10,000 people living there, surely at least 10 of them would be decent folks… right?
So for whatever reason, Abraham stops at ten, and now he knows that if the city is not spared, that God was right to send His judgment.
And that’s where our text ends, but there’re a few other things I want to point out real quickly.
You see; this is a story about God’s righteousness, His holiness, His judgment and wrath. It shows us that God is holy, and His holiness demands judgment. But it also shows us that He is merciful, and that He will show mercy, even on the wicked for the sake of the righteous. God would’ve spared those evil cities if only 10 righteous people were there. Now that’s important to understand. It was important for the Israelites when Moses by inspiration of the Holy Spirit wrote it, and it’s important for us as well. It was important for them because, remember? They were told to go into the Promised Land and drive out the inhabitants and so this story no doubt gave them assurance that God had already looked down on the Canaanites and the Philistines, and the Hittites, and all the others and had already seen their wickedness spread across the land. It would help them to understand that God’s command was just. It would also help them to know that God is concerned for the righteous, and that He would go to great lengths to spare them. And we can learn the same lessons. The judgments of God are just and right and they aren’t just an outburst of uncontrolled, un-thought-out rage. God doesn’t fly off the handle. Now when I tell people that, sometimes they like to bring up the story in John chapter two when Jesus drove out the money changers, and they say, “That sure seemed like a fit of rage to me.” But if you look at that story you’ll see that in John 2:15 it says that Jesus made a whip of cords, and then drove out the money changers and turned over the tables. In-other-words, Jesus didn’t just walk into the temple and see what was going on, and then lose His cool. He took the time to braid a whip together before He ever drove out the money changers. It was a holy and righteous anger, but it was controlled. God’s judgment is always true, and good, and right.
Now the other thing I think we can learn from this is a lesson on intercession. Most of the time, when we think about prayer, we’re thinking about talking with God; and that’s exactly what Abraham was doing here, and actually, what Abraham is doing here is interceding for the righteous. And believe it or not, we as Christians have the same obligation today. We live in a world that is full of wickedness, and in a country that has institutionalized and legislated evil into every aspect of our culture. Ruth Bell Graham, the former wife of Billy Graham once said, “If God does not judge the United States of America, then He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.” Now I don’t think that God will ever have to apologize to anyone, but the point she was trying to make is that if Sodom and Gomorrah, by their wickedness merited God’s attention, then our own culture deserves the same attention.
And as Christians, we know that a day is coming when the Lord will return in judgment. Not born in a manger, but as a the conquering King of Kings and Lord of Lords. But we’ve been given this inside information for the purpose of praying for God’s mercy. Because even as Christians, we are so intertwined with the wickedness of our culture, sometimes its hard to tell who we serve. According to George Barna, that’s one of the biggest complaints unbelievers have against us. They say, “Why become a Christian and why go to church? The people in the church are no different than we are.” And so we need mercy and grace. We need revival, and we need Christians who will intercede for those things.
Let’s Pray.
