Daily Devotions
Genesis
"The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth." Psalm 34:16
Text: Genesis 18:1-33
GOD’S PLANS SHARED
What a tremendous privilege Abraham enjoyed, to have God disclose His plans to him. And what awesome plans those were!
“And the Lord said, ‘Because the outcry against Sodom
and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave,
I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether
according to the outcry against it that has come to Me;
and if not, I will know.'”GENESIS 18:20-21
Abraham’s heart must have skipped a beat or two. His nephew Lot lived in or near the city of Sodom. Long before this visit, the reputation of Sodom was already very evil. How much worse it must have become, that the Lord would personally descend to verify the complaints that went up to heaven because of the evil prevailing there.
“But the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked
and sinful against the Lord.”GENESIS 13:13
ABRAHAM’S INTERCESSION FOR SODOM
Abraham sought to retain the Lord, even though His two traveling partners had gone ahead of Him.
“Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom,
but Abraham still stood before the Lord. And Abraham came near
and said, ‘Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked?
Suppose there were fifty righteous within the city; would You also
destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous that were
in it? Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay
the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be
as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of the earth
do right?'”GENESIS 18:22-25
1. Acknowledgment of the Lord as “The Judge of the earth”
Abraham recognized the right or prerogative of the Lord as Judge of the earth to condemn the wicked. But as Judge, He also had the power to stay the execution of judgment!
2. Appealing to God’s Sense of Righteousness
In Abraham’s reckoning, God in His righteousness could and should spare the whole city, for the sake of the righteous living there! Surely God could take pity on the fifty righteous people who lived in the city!
Of course, Abraham had no idea as to how many righteous people there would be in the city. Hypothetically, he figured that there could be an enclave of fifty righteous people living in Sodom! Fifty people would not be hard to find, would it?