Have you heard of the phrase: “One person can ONLY do so much”?
• This is only true without God. With God, we have to take the word ‘ONLY’ away. “One person can do so much!”
• With God’s help, one person can make a lot of difference.
I came to Gen 18 in my reading and saw the courage of one person who cares to intercede; one person who is willing to stand in the gap and plead for God’s mercy.
• That one person makes a big difference because God responds to him.
• And in responding to this man, he comes to understand the character of God.
Let’s read Genesis 18:20-33.
• The Lord announces what He has in mind in verse 20. Look carefully. This is the revelation of God’s intention. And it wasn’t a judgement.
• God did say at the outset that He will destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. God says He will inspect the cities.
• 18:21 the Lord (angel): “I will go down and to see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me.”
The LORD is compassionate and gracious. He is slow to anger and not quick to judge. That’s the refrain that we have been hearing from the OT.
• God did not plan to destroy. He wasn’t determined to exterminate. In fact, you can sense here that He was finding some reasons not to destroy them.
• Abraham prays and latches on God’s willingness. What if there are some righteous ones there? You wouldn’t be so unjust, right?
Abraham pleaded for Sodom to be spared and persevered in asking God to spare it for a few righteous people.
• He started with 50, then 45, 40, 30, 20 and right down to 10. Spare the city if you can find 10 righteous people!
• The picture did not come across correctly for most. We tend to see a willing man begging a somewhat unwilling God, who is only eager to destroy the city.
But this is an incorrect picture. If you study the discourse carefully, God is actually not keen to destroy the people.
• For every line that Abraham had for Him, God’s answer is: “I will not destroy it, I will not do it!”
• Yes, if there are some righteous people, I will not do it. I do not want to do it, if possible. Find me some righteous people!
You can sense that God is delighting in Abraham’s persistent asking. Keep asking, keep asking. Abraham was echoing what is in God’s heart.
Martin Luther: “Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance.
It is laying hold of His willingness.”
In asking, Abraham got to hear God’s answers, and came to understand His character. In praying, Abraham got to know God MORE.
• This is interesting if you look at how the conversation started. In vv. 20-21 God tells Abraham about Sodom.
• Verse 22: After that “the men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord.”
He does not want to leave. It’s like there is something he wanted to say, after hearing what the Lord said.
• There seems to be a pause here, and then verse 23: “Then Abraham approached Him and said…” He remained standing and then he approached the Lord.
• It’s like this, we have something to ask or tell our boss. He is standing there. But we hesitated. We want to be sure we get this down well and say the right words. We waited momentarily for the right moment.
Abraham seems to be wrestling within himself: “How can God do this? Can I ask Him? Is this the right thing to do? How should I say it? Will God be angry?”
• We sense this when we hear how he speaks to God.
• 18:27 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…”
• 18:30 Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak…”
• 18:32 Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more...”
Do we not sometimes think that way? We don’t DARE TO ask God because we feel that we may OFFEND Him? We are not sure if God likes it.
• We feel that way because we do not know Him well enough.
Thank God, Abraham eventually mastered the courage to APPROACH Him.
• And he got to know that God is more merciful and gracious than he thought.
• Prayer brings us closer to God. It does not change God; it changes the way we see God. It helps us understand Him.
Abraham knows God MORE after the dialogue. God is NOT willing to destroy the city if He can find 10 righteous people in it.
• God is not only righteous and just, He is also full of mercy and grace. For each request he made, God’s answer was YES, I will not destroy it!
• Archaeologists tell us that Sodom could well have about a quarter of a million people in Abraham’s day. That’s 10 out of a quarter million of people.
This is how Abraham sees God. How does God see Abraham right from the start?
• 18:17 Then the LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?”
• James 2:23 says [Abraham] “he was called God's friend.”
God sees him as a friend. The Lord treats us as His friends (cf. John 15:15). PRAYER IS A DIALOGUE between two good friends!
• The discourse here is a genuine portrayal of a conversation between man and God. It is not a dry ritual, a prayer recitation of some sort, or a religious ceremony.
• There is a real sense of give and take between Abraham and God. We do not know where the conversation is going, and waits to see where it will end.
• In reality, this is what prayer is. We see a God who interacts and responds. And we discovers on our part, new things about Him and His will.
God can surprise you very often. Let me share with you this testimony. Over at the retreat, I mentioned to SY one afternoon that I would like to get to sit with this particular couple over meal-time. That night, we reached the dining area earliest, just the two of us. We picked a table and waited for the buffet to start. You guess who came next? The couple that I said I wanted to sit with and get a chance to chat.
The next morning, I mentioned to SY I wanted to sit with Rev Hoon, to get to know him more, but more importantly, to reassure him about how his messages were going. That breakfast, he was alone at a table with two vacant seats. It’s like they were prepared for us. And we had a timely chat about that morning’s session. He said in his sermon that God SMSed us to tell us the same thing that morning and we sat at the same table for breakfast.
These are not coincidences to me, but the Lord’s response to my desire. Interactions with God can be so amazing, spontaneous, and real. Abraham experienced it and so can we. God responds to the cries of your heart.
Therefore Heb 4:16 “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
Some people SEE things happen. Some people MAKE things happen. Be like Abraham. Dare to ASK GOD to MAKE things happen.
• We don’t always know His plan, but we can TALK to Him about His plan.
• One can make a difference. Abraham got what he asked for, that God would spare the city for 10 righteous people.
The city was eventually destroyed because they could not even find ten.
• It was no fault of Abraham. He did what he wanted to do and interceded for the city. He set his mark and God met it.
• James 5:16 “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”
In Ezekiel’s time when the Jews were exiled into Babylon, the Lord said to the prophet: “I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none.” (Ezek 22:30)
• It is like God trying to find a reason not to punish Judah, but He failed to find one. No one seeks Him. No one honours Him.
Let us be the ones that stand in the gap.
• In the Scriptures we see the emphasis of this ONE MAN God is looking for, one who is willing to INTERCEDE on behalf of the people.
• ONE can make a difference. Prayer can’t be answered unless SOMEONE offers it. You and I can be the one.
This passage also makes one thing clear. It is not the presence of evil that destroys Sodom. It is the absence of good.
• The presence of a few righteous men can bring about a change to the city. Even ten would have saved Sodom.
• It seems to me that God is prepared to use the few righteous to bring hope to the city. It will be through these righteous few that the fate of the city be turned around.
Don’t undermine your presence in the city, in the marketplace, in the campuses.
• We are the light that will dispel the darkness and lead the people back to righteousness.
