Sinners Suffering For The Sins Of The Saints

“Behold, the LORD is coming out of his place,

and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth.

And the mountains will melt under him,

and the valleys will split open,

like wax before the fire,

like waters poured down a steep place.

All this is for the transgression of Jacob

and for the sins of the house of Israel.

What is the transgression of Jacob?

Is it not Samaria?

And what is the high place of Judah?

Is it not Jerusalem?”

Was everyone in Israel sinful? Had all that lived in Judah rebelled against the LORD? Not all who lived in Judah were living sinful lives, but when God unleashed judgement on Israel, all then living in the nation suffered. The only thing that held back the hand of God was the presence of a few godly souls. But even their presence had dwindled to become such a tiny minority that the hand of God would no longer be stayed. The godly had protected sinners from judgement, until their lack of open commitment to the LORD allowed judgement to fall.

When God destroyed Sodom, His angels spared Lot—and they would have spared his entire extended family if those who belonged to Lot had but heeded the urgent warning that Lot delivered. Peter speaks of the Lord’s mercy to His own when he writes, “If God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority” [2 PETER 2:4-9].

The angels of God extended mercy to Lot. However, mesmerised by the position he had acquired in Sodom the deluded saint hesitated and attempted to bargain with the LORD when God warned him to flee Sodom. He sought to make only a halfway effort to obey God’s warning. Even then the angels made a concession to him, saying, “Behold, I grant you this favor also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken. Escape there quickly, for I can do nothing till you arrive there” [GENESIS 19:21-22].

We cannot know the number of souls within a nation that constitute a critical mass that is able to halt the judgement of God, nor can we know the reason God would entrust the fate of a household, the fate of a church, or even the fate of a nation to a few souls who look to Him in faith. What we do know is that in the absence of godly souls there is little to hold back the judgement that mankind brings on itself. Contrasted with that knowledge is the certainty that God is gracious, refraining from judging wickedness if some few souls intercede for those facing judgement. Though the world may not recognise God’s goodness and His gracious character, we who are the redeemed of Christ know the grace of God and the goodness with which He treats all mankind.

You may recall the account of God’s judgement of the cities of the plain, Sodom and Gomorrah. What is often overlooked is that the LORD agreed to halt judgement if even a few souls were found to look to Him. Here is the account as recorded in the first book of the Bible. God determined to destroy the cities because they were so wicked. As the angels sent to destroy the cities passed the place where Abraham was tented, they were graciously entertained by Abraham.

During that time, God blessed Abraham, announcing that despite Sarah being elderly, even well past menopause, would nevertheless have a child. After giving this promise, the men set out for Sodom, and Abraham accompanied them for a distance. We’ll pick up the account at this point. “The LORD said, ‘Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? 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.’ Then the LORD said, ‘Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, 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.’