Prayers of Intercession
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We are continuing on with the sermon series, Great Prayers of the Bible, in order to learn from those saints of old and to strengthen our prayer life. So far, we have examined how to effectively pray for the Church - and we have been doing just that. For the past week, the Church has been praying for discernment, seeking direction from the Lord as to how we are to live into our vision of being a healthy, loving, vibrant and bold Church. Last Sunday, we explored the question: Does Prayer Change Anything? In case you missed it, let me summarize the message for you: Yes, prayer changes things.
Today, the lesson is on intercessory prayer. Praying on behalf of others. And we are going to start by considering the first prayer of intercession recorded in the Bible - Abraham interceding on behalf of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah.
First, a bit of context. God had made a covenant with Abraham - a binding agreement - literally a contract - that consisted of making his name great, he would be the father of a nation of people, counting his offspring will be like counting the stars in the night sky, and giving his people a promised land that extended from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, and from the desert north of Egypt to the Euphrates River near modern day Turkey. The covenant also included a promise of blessing and redemption. All the earth would be blessed through Abraham. Why Abraham? Because Abraham had great faith. He believed God and because of his faith, he was accounted righteous.
Abraham took God at his word, but you can imagine his concern when he and his wife Sarah found themselves far beyond the years of retirement and using a worn-out AARP card to get 10% off their tab at Denny’s - and yet they still did not have a child of their own. Abraham was 100 years old, Sarah was 90.
This is the background for the scene we see play out into today’s reading. Three mysterious “men” visited Abraham and Sarah near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron. The context of the story reveals that these men are powerful angels - and one is the angel of the Lord - when Abraham speaks to him, he is speaking to God. Theologians refer to this as a theophany - that is a manifestation of God that is tangible to the human senses.
The Lord tells Abraham that by the time he returns in a year, Sarah will have a son.
This has nothing to do with today’s focus, but I love the interchange between Sarah and the Lord.
One of them said, “I’m coming back about this time next year. When I arrive, your wife Sarah will have a son.” Sarah was listening at the tent opening, just behind the man. Abraham and Sarah were old by this time, very old. Sarah was far past the age for having babies. Sarah laughed within herself, “An old woman like me? Get pregnant? With this old man of a husband?” God said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh saying, ‘Me? Have a baby? An old woman like me?’ Is anything too hard for God? I’ll be back about this time next year and Sarah will have a baby.” Sarah lied. She said, “I didn’t laugh,” because she was afraid. But he said, “Yes you did; you laughed.”
I can imagine Jesus smiling when he said, “oh you laughed alright.”
What is relevant for us today is that Abraham knew who he was entertaining. He knew that he was talking with the Lord.
So when the visitors finished their lunch with Abraham and Sarah, they set out toward the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham followed. The Lord spoke so that Abraham could overhear Him - reiterating his promise to Abraham that he would be a mighty nation and all the nations on earth would be blessed by him - and that he would keep “to the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice.” The Lord let Abraham know about the impending judgment on Sodom, Gomorrah and the other cities of the plain. As the other two angels proceeded toward Sodom, Abraham stayed alone with the Lord and engaged in the first instance of intercessory prayer we find in the Bible.
So what was the issue with Sodom and Gomorrah? We read in Gen. 18:20-21
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.”
In case it is not obvious, God did not have to physically walk to these cities to know it reports about them were true. He is all knowing - but for the sake of Abraham, he demonstrates the seriousness of which he administers justice. “I will go down and see…I will know.” The Lord is fair and just. The outcry that has gone up to His throne were the desperate pleas and prayers of the victims of that wicked society - those who were oppressed, who suffered greatly, those who lived in fear.
We know from other passages of scripture that Sodom had become a disordered society that brazenly organized itself against God. Picture a people flipping off God and you get an idea the kind of cities they had become. It was not one thing that they did - it was a complete breakdown in morality.
In the book of Isaiah, the prophet compares the wickedness of Judah to that of Sodom and Gormorrah.
Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom! Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah!
He goes on to describe a city once full of justice now full of murderers. Everyone loves a bribe - and the widows and orphans are denied justice.
In Jeremiah 23:14 we read:
But in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies; they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from his evil; all of them have become like Sodom to me, and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.”
In Ezekiel 16:49 her sins are described as such:
Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.
and in Jude 1:7 we read that this society’s wickedness expressed itself through sexual immorality.
just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.
The outcry of the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah called for judgment and the Lord had determined to wipe out those evil cities. Their destruction would serve as a warning to all future generations of God’s coming final judgment.
Consider Luke 17:29-30
but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all— so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed.
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;
So this is the situation. One one side we have a holy, just and righteous God and on the other side, we have a wicked and lost people facing complete destruction under God’s wrath. And right in the middle, we find Abraham standing in the gap.
Abraham’s nephew Lot, along with his wife and his daughters and their husbands, lived in Sodom. Abraham had also personally rescued some of the people of Sodom during a previous battle when they had be abducted by their enemies. He knew these people.
Abraham, a man of faith to whom justice was important, humbly, reverently and boldly made his intercession.
As Allen Ross comments, He prayed that all in the cities—the wicked as well as the righteous—be spared for the sake of the … righteous
The Bible Knowledge Commentary 18:22–33
It was for justice that he pleaded: deliverance for Sodom if there were as few as 50.… 45.… 40.… 30.… 20, or even 10 righteous people there
Abraham’s prayer is grounded in justice.
Remember what the Lord had said about him:
English Standard Version Chapter 18
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.”
Abraham would teach justice - which means interceding for just judgment to preserve the righteous, knowing that in doing so God may preserve the wicked for the sake of the righteous.
The Lord had promised that Abraham would be a blessing to the nations.
This served as an important lesson for the people of Israel, and for Christians as well. We are to pray for all people. Pray for protection over those living in difficult environments. Also pray for those opposing God, that their hearts would be changed.
God agreed to Abraham’s plea - but sadly, not even 10 righteous persons could be found in all of Sodom and Gormorrah. Now that is bad!
But Lot and his daughters were saved by Abraham’s intercession.
What is the relevance for us?
We are to be intercessors for our generation! We are to stand in the gap and pray for brothers and sisters in the faith, for our neighbors, for those who do not know God, even for those who have turned their back on God.
God’s ultimate judgment will be just and fair - He is the judge, we are not. Our role to go before the Lord is reverent humility and pray for the people.
Listen to what the Apostle Paul instructed Timothy:
First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.
And our ministry of reconciliation is effective because the One we follow, Jesus Christ, intercedes for us. We can stand in the gap for others because Jesus stands in the gap for us.
For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
The Lord is interceding for you right now. Jesus is praying over you. He takes you case up to the Father and says “this one belongs in our family - his sin, her sin, was covered by my blood.” The Spirit of God works in us, convicting, strengthening, encouraging, teaching, guiding because Jesus stands in the gap.
Knowing that - how can we not in turn “stand in the gap” for others.
Make no mistake - we are part of a wicked generation. God is patient and merciful - but he will not be mocked and He hears the outcry of the oppressed.
And he calls on the Church to intercede.
So let us pray.