Genesis 18.22-33-Abraham's Intercession for Sodom
Wednesday February 1, 2006
Genesis: Genesis 18:22-33-Abraham’s Intercession for Sodom
Lesson # 92
Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 18:22.
This evening we will study Genesis 18:23-32, which records Abraham’s intercession with the Lord for the inhabitants of Sodom and in particular his nephew Lot and his family.
The intercessory prayer of Abraham that appears in Genesis 18:23-32 was unlike the prayers that we in the church age are to make.
Abraham spoke directly face to face with the visible manifestation of the Son of God whereas in the church age we are commanded by the Son of God to pray directly to the Father who is invisible (Jn. 16:26-27; Eph. 3:14).
As we will note, Abraham’s intercession reveals God’s righteous and just character as well as His love for all men in that He desires all men to be saved and that Abraham shares this same attitude with God.
Genesis 18:22, “Then the men (elect angels; see Gen. 19:1) turned away from there (oaks of Mamre in Hebron, 19 miles southwest of Jerusalem, see Gen. 18:1) and went toward Sodom, while Abraham was still standing before the LORD.”
As Abraham sees the two angels head towards Sodom, he senses that the Lord was sending them to destroy Sodom since it had a reputation for evil.
So we see Abraham not heading home but staying in the Lord’s presence and interceding for the inhabitants of Sodom and in particular Lot and his family.
Genesis 18:23, “Abraham came near and said, ‘Will You indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?’”
This is the first recorded instance of a man initiating a conversation with the Lord.
Abraham was convinced there were righteous people in Sodom since he knows his nephew Lot is a believer who was living in that city and so without mentioning his name, Abraham is showing concern for his nephew.
The statement that “Abraham drew near” describes the act preparatory to prayer since it does not say that he drew near “to” God.
Abraham was bold and confident in approaching the Lord in order to intercede for Lot and the citizens of Sodom because he was confident in his relationship with the Lord and was experiencing fellowship with the Lord since he was obedient (cf. 1 Jn. 3:21-22).
Abraham was aware that like us he could approach the Father in prayer with boldness and confidence because of Christ’s death, which propitiated the Father’s holiness, which demanded that our sins be judged (see Eph. 3:12).
Genesis 18:24, “Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will You indeed sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it?”
Genesis 18:25, “Far be it from You to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?”
Genesis 18:26, “So the LORD said, ‘If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare the whole place on their account.’”
“The righteous” refers to believers whereas “the wicked” refers to unbelievers since the latter is never used in Scripture of unbelievers.
A person becomes “righteous” the moment they exercise faith in Christ as their Savior as Abraham did (Gen. 15:6; Rm. 4).
Therefore, the term “the righteous” refers to those individuals who like Abraham are in right relationship with the Lord as a result of faith in the Lord whereas the term “the wicked” refers to those who are not in right relationship to the Lord as a result of not exercising faith in the Lord.
These terms emphasize one’s relationship to the Lord and the conduct, which flows from either having a relationship with the Lord or not.
This question, “will You indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?” on the surface appears to indicate that Abraham is operating in unbelief by questioning the Lord’s character but it must be take in context with the rest of the passage.
Genesis 18:25 records Abraham appealing to the Lord’s righteous and just character, which he knew by experience through the Lord’s gracious dealings with him throughout the years (cf. Job 34:10-12).
Therefore, Abraham is operating in faith in the character and nature of the Lord and not unbelief and is well aware that the Lord is righteous and just and would not doing anything unfair to members of the human race.
Of course, the Lord would never place believers under the same judgment as unbelievers.
Abraham’s knowledge of the Lord’s just character serves as the basis for which he approaches the Lord in this intercessory prayer.
Therefore, Abraham is “suggesting” that the Lord would not destroy the righteous along with the wicked in order to open up an opportunity to intercede for the citizens of Sodom and in particular his nephew Lot.
Abraham is “not” challenging or calling into question the Lord’s character but rather he is asserting his faith in the righteous and just character and nature of the Lord.
Remember, we studied in Genesis 18:19 that “the way of the Lord” is described as “doing righteousness and justice.”
In Genesis 18:24, Abraham asks if the Lord would spare the unbelievers in Sodom on account of the believers located in that city, which demonstrates his concern not only for his nephew Lot but also for all the people of Sodom.
Now, if you recall in Genesis 14, Abraham delivered his nephew Lot and the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah from the Eastern Mesopotamian Coalition.
He risked his life to save Lot and the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah and here we see Abraham pleading with the Lord for them with the same boldness, perseverance and generosity with which he fought for them.
Notice that Abraham’s intercession for the inhabitants of Sodom teaches that God will spare and preserve the wicked for the sake of the righteous meaning believers so that the unbeliever might have every opportunity to be saved.
2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”
God spares the righteous when He judges a nation as in the case of Rahab (Josh. 2), Assyria (Jonah 3-4) and Israel (Ezek. 14:12-20).
The Lord answers Abraham’s petition in the affirmative since it was according to the will of the Lord to spare the unbeliever for the sake of believers in order that the unbeliever might change their mind about Christ and believe in Him and be saved (compare 1 Jn. 5:14-15).
Abraham was not trying to talk the Lord out of destroying Sodom but instead was seeking clarification from God as to the extent of His mercy and the fact that the Lord agreed to Abraham’s petition indicates that the two were having fellowship.
Abraham possessed the same attitude as the Lord towards the citizens of Sodom.
Abraham was bold in making this prayer because he knew God in an experiential sense in that He loves the unbeliever since Abraham himself was once a pagan idolater and the Lord saved him (Josh. 24:2).
Abraham begins at fifty since he inferred that since he knew as many as ten believers in Sodom, namely, Lot and his family then there could possibly be the same number in the other four cities of the plain (Admah, Zeboiim, Gomorrah, Zoar), which were designated for destruction by the Lord.
Of course, this was wishful thinking on the part of Abraham since Genesis 19 records that only Lot and his two daughters were saved since they were the only ones to escape the destruction of the cities of the plain.
Genesis 18:27, “And Abraham replied, ‘Now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord, although I am but dust and ashes.’”
“Lord” is the noun `adhon (/w{da*), which is a term of respect and denotes Abram’s awareness of and acknowledgement of his covenant relationship with the Lord and that the Lord is the sovereign governing authority over the entire human race.
Abraham’s statement that “I am but dust and ashes” demonstrates his profound deference and humility and awareness that he is insignificant in contrast to the Lord.
Genesis 18:28, “Suppose the fifty righteous are lacking five, will You destroy the whole city because of five? And He said, ‘I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.’”
Genesis 18:29, “He spoke to Him yet again and said, ‘Suppose forty are found there?’ And He said, ‘I will not do it on account of the forty.’”
Genesis 18:30, “Then he said, ‘Oh may the Lord not be angry, and I shall speak; suppose thirty are found there?’ And He said, ‘I will not do it if I find thirty there.’”
Genesis 18:31, “And he said, ‘Now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord; suppose twenty are found there?’ And He said, ‘I will not destroy it on account of the twenty.’”
Genesis 18:32, “Then he said, ‘Oh may the Lord not be angry, and I shall speak only this once; suppose ten are found there?’ And He said, ‘I will not destroy it on account of the ten.’”
Abraham starts off cautiously by beginning at fifty and dropping the number by five twice with each question.
The Lord grants each of Abraham’s requests to spare the cities of the plain if there were fifty, forty-five or forty believers in those cities.
Then, he becomes bolder by dropping the number from five to ten when asking the next three questions so that he goes from thirty, to twenty and finally stopping at ten.
Again, the Lord grants Abraham’s requests to spare the cities if thirty, twenty or ten believers were residing in those cities.
Abraham stops at ten since it appears because he knew of possibly ten believers in Sodom, namely, his nephew Lot, his wife, their two sons (Gen. 19:12), their two married daughters and their husbands (Gen. 19:14) and their two unmarried daughters (Gen. 19:8), which is a total of ten.
The number ten should have provided the protection of Lot with a margin of safety since it would seem that Lot’s family alone was large enough to meet this number.
Abraham seemed satisfied, and he thought perhaps, too, others had come to trust in God through Lot’s witness but as we noted, Genesis 19 records that only Lot and his two daughters survived the destruction of the valley of the Jordan.
The outstanding lesson of this section is that God desires all men to be saved and will withhold judgment in order that some might be saved.
The other important lesson is that the intercessory prayers of believers when according to the will of God can temporarily spare the unbeliever from judgment in order that they might change their minds about Christ and believe in Him to be saved from eternal condemnation.
The fact that Abraham persists in his intercession demonstrates his great faith, which was based upon his experiential knowledge of the Lord and it also teaches us to persevere in our prayers, which the Lord taught His disciples (Mt. 7:7; Lk. 11:1-13).
Genesis 18:23-32 teaches us the importance and power of intercessory prayer for all men, which is commanded of all believers since God desires all men to be saved and to come to an experiential knowledge of the Truth (fellowship), which is resident in the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Jn. 2:2; 1 Tm. 2:1-8; 2 Pet. 3:9; Jn. 3:16-17).
Abraham’s intercession for all of the inhabitants of Sodom manifested that he loved all men as God loves all men and teaches us that if we operate in the love of God, we will intercede in prayer for all men.
If we love the unbeliever, we will pray that God would bring in people and circumstances that would cause the unbeliever to have the humility to give the Gospel a hearing and that they would be “exposed” to the Gospel so that they can make a decision to either accept or reject Jesus Christ as Savior.
Nowhere do the Scriptures sanction or command believers to pray that God would save the unbeliever since God, because He is just and righteous, cannot coerce or make the unbeliever do anything against His will, thus God cannot save the unbeliever unless the unbeliever makes a decision to accept Christ as Savior.
Although God’s will is that all men be saved, God cannot force any human being to believe in His Son Jesus Christ against their will, thus people go to the Lake of Fire forever and ever not because God desires it but because they choose to.
The believer receives the capacity to pray for all men, when he accepts by faith Christ’s love for him while he was an enemy of God and responds in obedience to Christ’s love for him, and which love, the Spirit reveals in the Word of God (see 1 John 4:16, 19).
Abraham was a man who was the beneficiary of God’s mercy, which is based upon His love (see Eph. 2:1-9) and thus he seeks to secure mercy for others.
Abraham’s intercession for Sodom reflected the love that God had for Sodom.
Genesis 18:33, “As soon as He had finished speaking to Abraham the LORD departed, and Abraham returned to his place.”
The Lord has accomplished all that He purposed to do by this visit to planet earth: (1) Promise of Isaac’s Birth (2) Investigation of Sodom (3) Receive Abraham’s intercession for Sodom.