Story: Abraham Intercedes for Sodom
Passage: Genesis 18:22-33
Characters: Abraham, God
Summary: Thethree men who visited Abraham began to leave but Abraham stopped God and approached Him to ask if He would spare Sodom if there were 50 righteous men there. God said that He would. Abraham asked about what God would do for 45, 40, 30, 20, and 10 righteous people. God said He would spare the city in each circumstance.
Notes: Abraham was very bold. He stopped God and approached Him to ask Him to spare his relatives. He appealed to God's inability to punish the righteous. God is just and it is unjust to punish the righteous. As He negotiated with God, Abraham did some quick math as he calculated how many family members Lot probably had. Remember that Lot was living in Sodom at the time. God patiently answered each of Abraham's questions. You can tell that Abraham was embarassed or ashamed to be asking these questions of a holy God. His wording was never direct or to the point. He even made God do math at one point! However God always gave a direct answer. He showed no indication of being annoyed or impatient, but He was direct. It shows His authority in this encounter. The other two men were not indicated as being present for this encounter. Now the word righteous does not mean sinless in the old testament. Noah is described as righteous. To be righteous was to walk with God. What Abraham may not have fully realized is that Lot and his family were humans and were therefore not sinless and deserved the punishment which God was about to mete out on Sodom. Remember for tomorrow's reading that the deal was that God would spare the city if there were 10 righteous people in the city.
Questions: Where did the other two people go? How did God feel about Abraham's approaching Him? Was He amused? Annoyed? Were Lot and his family actually righteous?
Lessons: According to the new testament, we are supposed to be persistant in our prayers and petitions to God. God wants us to trust Him, to approach Him with our thoughts, concerns, praises, and issues. He wants us to beg Him to be involved in our lives. He wants us to acknowlege His supremacy. He won't get impatient with us. Abraham was asking God a silly thing to spare sinners from His punishment. But God patiently listened and we will find out that He did indeed spare Lot's family. God loves it when we stop Him and "annoy" Him for the sake of others.
prayer is very imortant!the word tells us pray for others that we may be healed also.the point is we have to pray for others to get the attention of god.when we care enough to pray for others is we give time and effort to cover others in prayer and this will get our needs met.even when we need healing.we are in the family of the household of god.so we need to pray for our brothers and sisters plus the sinners so that we can have our needs met.
ReplyDeletethe word in 2 peter tells us that lot was righteous.the main key was as it is today it states righteous lot soul was vexed day to day.why?seeing and hearing the filthy conversation of the wicked.today christian dont realize that they are vexing there own souls because of the things they watch on television.this is so important because jesus says we cant serve two masters!he said youll hold on to one and despise the other.most of us are guilty of this deception through our television that we allow into our eyes and ears and from other it will desensity the spirit within you.we are the temple of god and he states I will not dwell in an unclean temple!the world has become like sodom and gommorroh all over again.hopefully the righteous will not get under 10 righteous.
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