Genesis 18:23-33 - Exposition

Abraham's intercession.

I. THE OBJECT OF HIS INTERCESSION . Not simply the rescue of Lot from the doomed cities, but the salvation of the cities themselves, with their miserable inhabitants. A request evincing—

1. Tender sympathy . Though doubtless the righteous character of the impending retribution had been explained to him, its appalling severity was such as to thrill his feeling heart with anguish, which would certainly not be lessened, but intensified, if he allowed his thoughts to dwell upon the future into which that overwhelming calamity would forthwith launch its unhappy victims.

2. Unselfish charity . Not blindly shutting his eyes to the miseries of the Sodomites, as many would have done, on the plea that they were richly merited, or that they were no concern of his, or that it was little he could do to avert them, he actively bestirs himself, if possible, to prevent them. Nor does he say that, having delivered them once from the devouring sword of war, without their having profited by either the judgment or the mercy that had then been measured out to them, he will now leave them to be engulfed by the approaching storm of Almighty wrath; but, on the contrary, he rather seeks a second time to effect their rescue.

3. Amazing catholicity . Not content with asking Lot's deliverance, or the rescue of the righteous, he aims at nothing short of the complete preservation of the cities. He solicits not a few of their inhabitants only, but their entire population. One wonders whether to admire most the greatness of the love or the grandeur of the faith herein displayed.

II. THE SPIRIT OF HIS INTERCESSION .

1. Holy boldness . Abraham "drew near." The expression intimates confidential familiarity, earnestness of entreaty, unrestrained freedom of discourse, almost venturesome audacity in prayer; all of which characteristics should be found in a believer's prayers, especially when interceding in behalf of others ( Hebrews 10:22 ).

2. Reverent humility . Three times he deprecates Jehovah's anger, and acknowledges personal unworthiness; and that this self-abasement was not affected, but real, is apparent from the circumstance that the more his supplication prospers, the deeper does he sink in self-prostration. Gracious souls are ever humble under a sense of God's mercies: Jacob ( Genesis 32:10 ), David ( 2 Samuel 7:18 ; cf. Luke 7:6 ).

3. Fervent importunity . With a sanctified dexterity he, as it were, endeavors to shut up the heart of God to grant the deliverance he solicits. Nor does he rest contented with the first response to his entreaty, but with greater vehemence returns to the charge, increasing his demands as God enlarges his concessions (cf. Matthew 15:22 ).

III. THE LOGIC OF HIS INTERCESSION .

1. The argument . The principle on which the patriarch stands is not the grace of the covenant, but the righteousness of the Judge. His meaning is that in moral goodness there is a certain dynamic force which operates towards the preservation of the wicked, and which the Divine righteousness itself is bound to take into its calculations. Where this force reaches a certain limit in intensity, a regard to judicial equity seems to require that it shall be allowed to exercise its legitimate sway—a principle which God admitted to the patriarch when he said that the Amorites were spared because their iniquity was not full ( Genesis 15:16 ), and which he here endorses by consenting to spare Sodom if even ten righteous men can be found within its gates.

2. The application . The patriarch conducts his case with singular directness, going straight to the logical issues of the principle with which he starts; with marvelous ingenuity pitching the hypothetical number of pious Sodomites so high as to insure a favorable response, and gradually diminishing as grace enlarges, and with unwearied assiduity refusing to discontinue his holy argument so long as a chance remains of saving Sodom.

IV. THE SUCCESS OF HIS INTERCESSION .

1. He got all he asked . He did not crave the unconditional sparing of the city, but only its preservation on certain suggested conditions. Those conditions too were of his own framing; and yet against them not so much as one single caveat-was entered by God.

2. He ceased asking before God stopped giving, It may be rash to speculate as to what would have happened had Abraham continued to reduce the number on which he periled the salvation of Sodom; but for God's glory it is only just to observe that it was not he who discontinued answering the patriarch's petitions, so much as the patriarch himself, who felt that he had reached the limit of that liberty which God accords to believing suppliants at his throne.

Lessons:—

1. The liberty which saints have to approach God in prayer.

2. The Divinely-taught art of wrestling with God in prayer.

3. The great encouragement which saints have to pray without ceasing.

4. The profound interest which saints should ever take in the welfare of their fellow-men.