October 4 Sermon: The Intercession of Abraham

Consider these questions as we look at Genesis 18:16-33:

1. How does the sitcom anecdote at the beginning of the message serve as a backdrop for understanding Abraham's relationship with God? How does this interaction reveal the depth of Abraham's connection to God and his significance in the greater narrative of redemption?

2. In Abraham's intercession for the people of Sodom, what do we learn about his understanding of God's character and justice? How does Abraham's plea for mercy demonstrate both his boldness and his humility before God?

3. How does the repetition of Abraham's pleading with God in the passage emphasize the mercy and willingness of God to spare the righteous? How does this narrative connect to the concept of intercession in our own lives, particularly in praying for the world and seeking God's mercy on behalf of others?

Transcript:

In an episode of my favorite sitcom the main character purchases a large television for himself. His logic is that the size of your TV should match your age so he wanted to have one that would last him for a few years. This purchase tapped out his bank account quite a bit so he has to start telling his closest friend, who has a tendency to mooch from him, that he can’t lend him any money. He also doesn’t want to tell this friend that he has a large TV because he doesn’t want to have him stopping over at all hours to watch TV with him.‌

As is customary with television comedies this leads to confusion and the friends starts to tell others in their small community that his friend is poor. While he is talking to the male police officer in town about this someone questions their gossiping ways and she asks them why they just don’t ask him about. The two men roll their eyes and their body language lets us know that they find the question to be rather absurd. She quickly asks what the problem is and one of the men replies “Because we’re guys. We don’t interact in a meaningful way.” I’m guessing there were a few knowing glances shared between spouses at that comment. While this sitcom moment is likely true most of the time, I think that even men have someone that they can really talk to, if it is a necessity to do so, of course.‌

In our passage this morning we see an interaction between God and Abraham. This back and forth gives us an idea just how close Abraham is to God and how significant his place is in the greater story of redemption.‌

As we land in this passage and finish up the 18th chapter of Genesis we will see three main points that will navigate our time in the text today.‌

The first thing that we will see is that Abraham has a unique relationship to God. God shares what he is going to do with him. God is about to go survey the wickedness that is going on in Sodom and Gomorrah. There is no reason that God would share this information with Abraham but we see that he does and the idea conveyed to us is that while God is sovereign and will what he wishes, he tells Abraham. The idea conveyed to us here is that Abraham is not only a king among men but he is also a prophet who God speaks with.‌

Secondly, we will see that Abraham intercedes for the people of Sodom. We don’t see in the passage that God tells Abraham exactly what he is going to do in judgment of these two city kingdoms but Abraham clearly knows of the wickedness there and is concerned and so he makes an attempt to talk God out of destroying these cities. Not only does God hear Abraham on the matter but we also see that God is gracious and agrees to the requests of Abraham.‌

​We come to this part of the passage from the interaction that God had with Abraham and Sarah. God shows up and we see that Abraham is a gracious host. Both Abraham and Sarah laugh at the notion that Sarah will give birth to a son at the age of 90 and God informs them that it will in fact happen and the name of their child will be Isaac which means laughter and last week we saw that the disbelieving laughter at the promise of God will be turn to joy by the faithfulness of God.‌

And this is the continuation of that encounter. This passage referring to the men leaving them is not ordinary men. We know from earlier in the story this is God and two angels that have manifested themselves as men to interact with Abraham.‌

Now, this story doesn’t end like we might expect it to. If you or I were writing this up to be as dramatic as possible I’m guessing that our script would have them telling they are having a child in roughly a year and then at the high point of the story we would have the poof away and we’d all know for sure that it was God who had made that promise and we’d be really impressed by it.‌

Instead, this story transitions in an interesting way. They are departing from the area like anyone else would have, they are going to continue on their journey but in the process we find out that God didn’t just appear to have supper with Abraham. They aren’t going to walk out of sight and just not be seen again. They are headed to Sodom and we get some interesting insight into this with the question God asks. Should I hide from Abraham what I’m about to do.‌

The LORD mentions that Abraham is going to become a great nation and so he should be aware of what is about to happen. Notice that it is said that Abraham has been chosen to be a great nation and that he will command his children to go in the way of the LORD.‌

What’s this about? It kind of seems like a strange thing to say but we need to understand that what God is going to make a nation out of Abraham that will be set apart. They are to be righteous and know his ways. If they are going to do that they need to understand the righteous judgment of God so that they will not turn away from him. They will need to understand that God is righteous and that he judges wickedness and so Abraham, his descendants, and even we are supposed to understand this. Yes, God is gracious and merciful but being holy he must judge sin. In this incident we are seeing that God judges and his judgment isn’t random or haphazard it is for a particular reason and it is justified.‌

There is something else that is important for us to see here. Abraham has been set up as a king who rules many people and protects them in the passages before this but now we are also seeing that he is a prophet. God reveals what he is going to do to him. Up to this point in scripture we haven’t really seen that prophetic element too much but it this interaction that Abraham has with God shows us that God and Abraham have a prophetic relationship.‌

And we see a level of intimacy with God that is amazing. God is truly blessing Abraham. He not only is going to have descendants and from that line will come the child of the promise, the messiah who will crush the head of the serpent. He is also God’s friend. They have an intimate relationship where he reveals not only his plan to bless him with Isaac but informs him that he is headed down to assess the region of Sodom.‌

We see that this is because there is great wickedness there. Notice how God describes this. The outcry against them is great and their sin is very grave. This is serious business and we see some language that if we take a minute and reflect on where we’ve been in Genesis the idea of judgment is familiar.‌

Think back to the flood. God reveals his plan to Noah and he rescues the righteous Noah from the judgment of the flood.‌

Then, remember back to the story of the tower of Babel. We read way back then that God came down and saw what was going on before he judged the people by confusing their language.‌

This another incident where God sees wickedness and he is going to do something about it. We’ve seen this since the fall. The story repeats itself because humanity is sinful.‌

And as we move on from this idea of God’s intimacy with Abraham and his prophetic role we are going to see that Abraham intercedes for Sodom in hopes that this time maybe judgment will not come.‌‌

After telling Abraham that they are headed to assess the situation in Sodom, Abraham does something rather bold. We read that he still stood before the LORD. This is interesting to contrast to what he did when they served the men the meal earlier. He stood off to the side in humble servanthood while they ate but now we see something different.

‌I imagine this as them taking off and Abraham standing in front of them and keeping them from heading east to Sodom. Essentially saying “hey, you can’t just drop that bomb on me and walk away. Can’t we talk about this?”‌

Now there is something important to notice here. Abraham knows that God going to assess Sodom is not going to end well. He assumes that the men will arrive there and they will find that the wickedness is great.‌

And so, knowing this and knowing that he has family there, he speaks up. He wants to know if the righteous will be swept away with the wicked. How is that fair? So, let’s throw a number out there God. Let’s say there are fifty who are righteous. You wouldn’t wipe out that many would you.‌

As we read this I think we know that we’ve all used this type of argumentation or we’ve had someone use it against us. I know this because everyone here was a child at some point. This type of arguing appeals to the good nature of someone and then sees how far you can push it.‌

And as we read this we see what kind of looks like a little bit of flattering language from Abraham, right? Far be it from you to do such to thing God. You aren’t the type to just wipe out those fifty righteous because a bunch of folks are unrighteous.‌

You are the holy judge of all the earth so you will do what is right and that wouldn’t be right, now would it. Now, I don’t want to give the idea that Abraham is being disingenuous to God here. He is legitimately concerned for the people of Sodom. He is hoping that the judgment of God will not sweep away these people. He is hoping that there will be mercy instead of judgment.‌

And, as we read the story, God concedes Abraham’s point. He’ll spare the city if there are fifty righteous. Now, as I read this and I’m guessing maybe you think the same thing. God is sovereign. He knows everything and judges the hearts of men. He already knows who is righteous and unrighteous in Sodom. He could cut Abraham off and show him the numbers and tell him all the details right away but the story continues as we see Abraham continue to plea for God to show mercy.‌

​And he continues by acknowledging that he is but dust and ashes. He understands as he stands before God, he is mortal and God is immortal. We are meant to see that Abraham understands that God is showing his great mercy by allowing him to speak on behalf of those who stand to be judged by God.‌

And Abraham continues to barter with God like a seasoned garage sale shopper. If you’re willing to go down to 45 God, will you wipe them out for just five. Can’t we go a little lower. And forty is a pretty good number of righteous folks to have, can’t we land on that as our number.‌

And God continues to concede. Abraham is relentless until he gets down to ten. Now, we don’t know why he stopped at ten. If you can work God down from 50 to ten, that’s pretty good, why not keep going? But the point of what we see here is that God is merciful. He is willing to spare a significant sinful majority for the sake of even ten who are righteous.‌

This is the point of this interesting story. I don’t know about you but when I read it the repetition sort of has me mentally skipping ahead to get to the point but the repetition of the pleading of Abraham has a point and it is meant to do something in us. It is to show us that God is merciful and that he hears the pleas of his people. We are meant to see that he desires to save the righteous even though judgment is just.‌

This is good news for us because when we truly evaluate our hearts against God’s law we know that we are not righteous. We know that we have not loved God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and we have not loved our neighbor as ourselves. As much as we would like to believe we are the righteous that would be spared we know that we have rebelled against God and are worthy of his just punishment.‌

But we have good news to hear and believe. Just as Abraham interceded for these people we have one who intercedes for us. And it gets even better. Jesus did not just plead that we would be spared because of a few others who were righteous, he offered himself as the righteous sacrifice in our place. He bore the wrath of God so that even though we were not righteous, we would be spared. And now we have the unbelievable gift of his perfect righteousness given to us as a gift. When we are in Christ, God looks upon us and sees us as perfectly righteous in him and we do not receive the wrath of his judgment, we are saved from death and hell on account of the Lord Jesus Christ who interceded for us. As we partake in the Lord’s Supper this morning this is an important reminder. As we take the bread and cup we remember the mercy and grace of God shown to us in Christ and that even though we are unworthy of this meal, he has made us worthy by his gracious work for us in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension.‌

In addition to remembering this glorious mercy of God this morning I believe it is important that we come away from this passage with a very important application.‌

This is an interesting passage because we often find scripture passages that are difficult to relate to. For example, last week we had God meeting with Abraham and Sarah and telling them when the child of the promise would come. Cool story. Great theological significance but it can really be difficult to relate to. Now we jump just a few verses forward and we find a circumstance that I think we can better relate to. In every age we look at the world and we see things that warrant the judgment of God and yet we are called as the people of God to pray for the world. Just as Abraham interceded for the people of Sodom we should be praying for the world. Pleading that God, by his Word and Spirit, would be merciful in bringing people to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.‌

It has been an interesting year, to say the least, and there is so much going on in the world and we are called to intercede and Abraham gives us an example here. He is relentless. He boldly goes before God, even though he knows that he is but dust and ash and makes requests to God.‌

And so may we be a people of God who prays for the world with a passion and may our desire be for the lost to be saved and rescued from the wrath of God. Trust that God hears our prayers and that his Word and Spirit will go forth in mercy and grace.