Interceding for Sodom

Genesis 18:22-33

Immanuel – 2/26/23

Abraham had very recently taken upon his body the sign of covenant with God – circumcision. Then, just a short time later, another theophany. God reappears to Abraham with pronouncements of salvation and judgment; a pattern when God visits humanity.

Last week we looked more closely at the elements of salvation. This week the elements of judgment will come in to focus. But even mixed within the judgments is found a theme of salvation. And that salvation is bound to the justice of God.

Purpose

1. God reveals the interplay of His justice and mercy, an interplay that proves His righteousness.

2. God provides a pattern of justice for His people.

Read Genesis 18:16-33

Earlier in chapter 18, Abraham demonstrated humble, caring, eager hospitality towards his three heavenly visitors: the Lord and two angelic beings appearing like men. After assuring Abraham, and especially Sarah, of God’s promises, they set off on the road headed towards the Valley of Siddim – the valley where Sodom and Gomorrah were located.

Ever the hospitable servant, and likely wanting to spend as much time with his Lord as possible, Abraham walks some distance down the road with the three heavenly visitors. Then, as verse 16 says, they stop and look out towards Sodom, likely on some prominent point of road.

Remember the area of Hebron is on a high plateau between the Dead Sea and Mediterranean Sea. It sits at 3,366 feet. Roughly 30 miles to the southeast, the Valley of Siddim is about 1,300 feet below sea level. This means that Hebron is roughly 4,700 feet higher than the Valley of Siddim. When Abraham and the Lord stop, perhaps they cannot actually see Sodom, but they are certainly able to see the valley in its direction.

And as Yahweh, the two angels, and Abraham look down towards Sodom, the Lord brings Abraham in on His plans. As I said last week, God is not like a man, that His mind changes or that He is uncertain about what to do next. Rather, God is revealing that those He has chosen are His friends; and like a friend, God invites Abraham to hold council with Him.

First, even though He did not have to, the Lord discloses His plans to Abraham.

Read vs 20-21

Come to Verify the Outcry

In these verses we are given two details that set up our passage.

1. Sodom and Gomorrah’s sins have resulted in an outcry that the Lord has heard.

2. The Lord has come to verify the claims of that outcry.

Let’s take these one at a time.

Verse 20 says the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah are very grave. The more literal translation may render, their sin’s weight is exceedingly heavy. And because of such a weight of sin, the Lord – Adonai – has heard an outcry.

There is an implication of injustice here. Perhaps He has heard the outcry of the oppressed, the injured, those grieved because of the cities’ great wickedness. Perhaps a cacophony of all these has reached the Lord’s ear.

To be sure, it’s not like God was sitting far off on His heavenly throne, and the outcry of Sodom’s sins became loud that God was willing to pay attention. Like, “I guess it’s finally time to do something about that.”

No! God is not like a man. He is omniscient, or all-knowing. Adonai was entirely aware of the sins of these cities, and every individual within them, and He needed no one to tell Him of their injustices. But we are given this image – of God hearing the outcry of injustice – because God wants His people to know that He is entirely aware of the evil and injustice done upon the earth.

They deal falsely; the thief breaks in, and the bandits raid outside. But they do not consider that I remember all their evil. Now their deeds surround them; they are before my face. -Hosea 7:1-2

God remembers all the evil of the wicked: every lie, every injustice, even – as Scripture testifies – every sinful thought. When He sees a sinner, He sees a person surrounded by a swarm of their every evil thought and deed.

So it is in the Valley of Siddim. When He sees Sodom and Gomorrah, He sees the swarm. He sees the exceeding weight of their sins. And the Bible describes for us what exactly was the weight of sin about to drag Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction.

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. They were haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed them, when I saw it.

-Ezekiel 16:49-50

Sodom and Gomorrah were arrogant, gluttonous, lazy, and selfish. If the poor and needy were desperate for help, the people of Sodom turned away their face. They regarded their comfort and pleasure as more important than those who suffer. This is about as anti-god as you can imagine. Did not God step down from glory, sacrificing His very life, to rescue the poor and needy like us?

By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?

-1 John 3:16-17

Indeed, the love of God did not abide in Sodom and Gomorrah, but only a wicked, arrogant, love of self. But adding to the already heavy weight of pride, gluttony, laziness, and selfishness; the passage in Ezekiel also said that these cities did an abomination before the Lord.

Ezekiel doesn’t come right out and say what that abomination was because every Jew knew the abominable sin of Sodom. Remember back in Genesis 13:13 we read this:

Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord.

The men of Sodom were wicked. Though it is hard to see in the English, the Hebrew is using a high degree of precision here. “The men” is not a generic term referring to the people of Sodom. It is very specifically saying “the males of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord.”

Again, Ezekiel referred to an abomination perpetrated by Sodom. So, the men of Sodom engaged in some type of exceeding sin of Sodom – or abomination.

You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.

-Leviticus 18:22

Using Scripture to interpret Scripture, we know exactly what was going on in Sodom and Gomorrah: rampant homosexual behavior. Old and New Testaments affirm that homosexuality is an abomination before the Lord.

What was true for Sodom is true for us. The Bible leaves no room for a gender spectrum, there is no sexual fluidity. In the clearest of terms, God denounces these as abominations. God created male and female to gloriously bear His image and freely express sexuality within monogamous, life-long, male-female marriages.

Next week in chapter 19, we will see just how abominable these practices had become in Sodom and Gomorrah; just how heavy was the weight of their wickedness. Such wickedness cares little for its victims – which we will also see next week – and it is little surprise that the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah was ringing in the Lord’s ears.

And so He had come, with two of His angels, to see for Himself. Once again, God did not need to travel to Sodom to know its sins. He is revealing something about Himself and something about His moral law.

In verse 22, the two angels leave to check out the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah. They will act as two witnesses.

On the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses the one who is to die shall be put to death; a person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness.

-Deuteronomy 17:6

When God sends two witnesses, it is not to discover the evils perpetrated in the Valley of Siddim. It is to show that He is a just judge. He is not capricious, flinging judgments based on unpredictable whims of preference. That’s how a tyrant rules. No! By sending these witnesses, God demonstrates that His judgments are verifiably just.

And when we come to chapter 19, we see that the angel’s experience is not evidence that God needed, it is a testimony for us. Sodom and Gomorrah were verifiably, undeniably, overflowing with wickedness. God is just in His judgments.

But even before the angels reach Sodom, Abraham knows what they will find. Immediately he thinks of the righteous who live in Sodom. He thinks of his nephew Lot, and Lot’s family.

Read vs 22

As the Lord speaks with Abraham His two witnesses, the angels, head off towards the Valley of Siddim. The Lord does not go with them, though He could have. Instead He intentionally remains, allowing His friend to stand before Him, interceding for the righteous of Sodom. Here Abraham truly embodies the covenant: looking to extend blessing to others.

Read vs 23-25

The Righteous Judge

In this scene we see Abraham acting as a mediator of the covenant as he intercedes for wicked Sodom. We see him again acting as the rescuer of Lot. We see him approach his Creator with a boldness only faith can provide. We see him set a model for God’s people through all time. But this episode is less about Abraham and far more about Adonai, the Righteous Judge.

See how Abraham rests his appeal on God’s righteous justice.

Righteous are you, O Lord, and right are your rules. Your righteousness is righteous forever, and your law is true. -Psalm 119:137,142

Righteousness is righteousness. Since God is perfectly right, His laws are perfectly just.

According to the justice of God, Abraham knows the wicked must be destroyed. Their allegiance to evil reaps corruption throughout God’s good creation, existing as contradictions to God’s image, and offending His awesome holiness. Even though the Lord has not rendered His judgment, Abraham knows the evils of Sodom, and God’s justice would demand the city be destroyed.

But justice would also demand that God separate the righteous from the wicked. Giving the righteous the same consequences as the wicked would be a terrible injustice indeed!

For the Lord is righteous; He loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold His face…The Lord preserves all who love Him, but all the wicked He will destroy.

-Psalm 145:17,20

Abraham, placing his faith in the righteousness of God, calls for justice in verse 25 saying, Far be it from you to do such a thing, put the righteous to death with the wicked…Far be that from you! Such a thought rightly (justly) repulses Abraham.

Abraham’s appeal pulls on another attribute of God’s; something also inextricably linked to God’s righteousness and justice: mercy. Abraham asks that if fifty righteous people be found in the city, that God would spare everyone in the city. In other words, if there are fifty righteous then spare – or have mercy upon – all the rest.

At no point does Abraham try to define who the righteous of Sodom might be. He doesn’t argue with God over certain individuals. He wholly and completely trusts that God will know who is righteous and who is not. God will not make a mistake about this, there will be no mistrial. God’s righteousness is perfect and therefore He will perfectly judge who is righteous and who is wicked. And whatever judgment God renders, it will be just.

In every way, the righteousness of God is the bedrock of Abraham’s appeal.

Read vs 26

God’s righteousness and justice and mercy in a sentence. He is just to destroy the wicked. He is supremely merciful to spare the wicked on behalf of the righteous.

Mercy triumphs over judgment. -James 2:13

The Lord needs no arm twisting. Abraham’s appeal is perfectly in line with God’s sense of justice and mercy. If 50 are found, God will spare everyone in Sodom.

We need to be careful here. Abraham is not changing the Lord’s mind. God already knows the exact number of righteous and He already knows what is about to happen.

God is not man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not fulfill it?

-Numbers 23:19

God is not changing His mind as Abraham speaks with Him. Instead, God is revealing His mind to His people for all time afterward; simultaneously revealing greater depths of His righteousness, justice, and mercy.

Yes, God is righteous in all His ways, ready to withhold judgments, to pour out mercies, equitably dividing the righteous from the wicked, preferring mercy to triumph over judgment. God’s justice is perfect! And He brings in Abram to participate in that justice.

But fearing that fifty might be too large a number, Abraham begins stepping down the proposed number of righteous.

Read vs 27-32

Abraham demonstrates great boldness when he asks to lower the number from 50 to 45. But his boldness is not motivated by pride, for he essentially says, “Who am I but dust and ashes?” He knows his place before God, and that he has no right to ask for anything.

But two things motivate Abraham’s boldness.

1. Though he is but dust and ashes, through covenant God has elevated him to a position of friend.

2. Abraham feels a great sense of compassion.

His compassion is not for the wicked, their injustices cannot be swept under the rug. Abraham’s compassion is for the righteous, that they would be saved. And his profound compassion emboldens him to ask once more for the Almighty Judge of heaven and earth to lower the number of the righteous.

Commentator Everett Fox writes, “Without this story Abraham would be a man of faith but not a man of compassion and moral outrage, a model consistent with Moses and the Prophets of Israel.”1

Each time Abraham asks for a lower number, the Lord grants Abraham’s request. What grace is on display! Grace towards the wicked, that they would be spared if the appropriate number of righteous be found. But even more amazing than that is the incredible grace that God allows Abraham to question Him!

What right does this living pillar of dust and ash have, to question the Creator of the universe?

Not so long ago Abraham was a wicked, moon-god worshiping pagan. Then, after following God to the Promised Land, his faith faltered and he chased lesser promises into Egypt. There he abdicated his role as protector, lied about his wife, made Sarah lie, and created a scenario where she was taken as a sex-slave. Later, out of impatience and ungodly reasoning, Abraham committed adultery with his servant to force God’s promise.

A man of dust and ash! But how gracious our God to lift Abraham from the dirt, call him a friend, and hold council with him. What grace to give ear to Abraham, ready to spare the wicked for the sake of the righteous.

But who is righteous? Only God! But God chooses for himself some of the wicked, lifts them from the dirt, makes covenant with them, and they trust in God’s work, then God counts that wicked person as righteous.

Notice that as Abraham lowers the number, his appeals become shorter and shorter. At 10 he stops asking. It seems he stops not because he has reached the exact number of righteous in Sodom, but because he realizes that it doesn’t matter what the number is; the Lord will always spare the righteous, His judgments will always be just, and His mercy is perfectly dispensed.

Additionally, if even 10 cannot be found in Sodom, then Abraham knows, and we know today, that such a place is truly and entirely corrupt. Its judgment is just. It’s destruction, righteous.

That is precisely what we will see in chapter 19, even 10 cannot be found in Sodom. Judgment will come. And yet another city, set to be destroyed with Sodom, is spared. While Sodom burns, the wicked of Zoar are spared for the sake of Lot and his family.

Read vs 33

In this entire passage, God has not learned of new things and He has not changed His mind. God was revealing His will and delivering a pattern of justice for His people. As theologian Bruce Waltke writes. “The Lord investigates accusations thoroughly, ensures two objective witnesses, involves the faithful in His judgment, displays active compassion for the suffering, and prioritizes divine mercy over indignant wrath.”2

A Pattern of Justice

God expects the same from His people. If an accusation arises, we must not take it on face value.

1. Unlike the cancel culture of our day, God has given us a pattern of thorough investigation.

2. We need at least two corroborating and objective witnesses before a judgment is delivered.

3. Where compassion is warranted, we should eagerly and freely dispense it.

4. We should always desire that people experience mercy rather than judgment.

Let this pattern of justice mark our lives. How wise we would be! And let us work to see this pattern inform the justice systems of our land. Let us also be like Abraham, pleading the case of the righteous – or, you might say, innocent – that they not be treated like the wicked and condemned.

But even more urgently, let us proclaim how God’s mercy has triumphed over judgment. The wickedness in our hearts was very grave, a weight driving us into the eternal abyss. But Christ shouldered that weight on our behalf and bore our judgment. We have been forgiven, rescued from destruction, and counted among the righteous who shall receive mercy.

Let us, as ambassadors of Christ, tell all people how to be reconciled to God, how they too can receive mercy rather than judgment.

This is the prophetic pattern. A pattern set right here in Genesis 18.

Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that He may have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.

-Isaiah 55:6-7

When we see the wicked perishing, let us not blame God. His judgments are just. Let us, instead, go to them while there is still time. Let us proclaim the gospel of the kingdom of God!

And in so doing we follow the model of Abraham, rescuing the righteous from a coming judgment.

1Fox, E. (1983). In the Beginning: A New English Rendition of the Book of Genesis. Pg 67. New York: Schocken.

2Waltke, B. (2001). Genesis: A Commentary. Pg 271. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic