'BECAUSE OF HIS IMPORTUNITY'
by Alexander Maclaren
'And the men rose up from thence, and looked toward
Sodom: and Abraham went with them to bring them on the way. And the Lord
said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; Seeing that Abraham
shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the
earth shall be blessed in him! For I know him, that he will command his
children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the
Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham
that which He hath spoken of him. And the Lord said, Because the cry of
Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will
go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the
cry of it, which is come unto Me; and if not, I will know. And the men
turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet
before the Lord. And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt Thou also destroy the
righteous with the wicked? Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the
city: wilt Thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous
that are therein? That be far from Thee to do after this manner, to slay the
righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked,
that be far from Thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?
And the Lord said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then
I will spare all the place for their sakes. And Abraham answered and said,
Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust
and ashes: Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous: wilt
Thou destroy all the city for lack of five? And He said, If I find there
forty and five, I will not destroy it. And he spake unto Him yet again, and
said, Peradventure there shall be forty found there. And He said, I will
not do it for forty's sake. And he said unto Him, Oh let not the Lord be
angry, and I will speak: Peradventure there shall thirty be found
there. And He said, I will not do it, if I find thirty there. And he said,
Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord: Peradventure there
shall be twenty found there. And He said, I will not destroy it for twenty's
sake. And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but
this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And He said, I will not
destroy it for ten's sake. And the Lord went His way, as soon as He had left
communing with Abraham: and Abraham returned unto his place.' -- GENESIS
xviii. 16-33.
I
The first verse of this chapter says that 'the Lord
appeared' unto
Abraham, and then proceeds to tell that 'three men
stood over
against him,' thus indicating that these were,
collectively, the
manifestation of Jehovah. Two of the three
subsequently 'went toward
Sodom,' and are called 'angels' in chapter xix. 1.
One remained with
Abraham, and is addressed by him as 'Lord,' but the
three are
similarly addressed in verse 3. The inference is
that Jehovah
appeared, not only in the one 'man' who spake with
Abraham, but also
in the two who went to Sodom.
In this incident we have, first, God's communication
of His purpose
to Abraham. He was called the friend of God, and
friends confide in
each other. 'The secret of the Lord is with them
that fear Him,' and
it is ever true that they who live in amity and
communion with God
thereby acquire insight into His purposes. Even in
regard to public
or so-called 'political' events, a man who believes
in God and His
moral government will often be endowed with a
'terrible sagacity,'
which forecasts consequences more surely than do
godless
politicians. In regard to one's own history, it is
still more
evidently true that the one way to apprehend God's
purposes in it is
to keep in close friendship with Him. Then we shall
see the meaning
of the else bewildering whirl of events, and be able
to say, 'He
that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God.'
But the reason
assigned for intrusting Abraham with the knowledge
of God's purpose
is to be noted. It was because of his place as the
medium of
blessing to the nations, and as the lawgiver to his
descendants. God
had 'known him,'--that is, had lovingly brought him
into close
relations with Himself, not for his own sake only,
but, much more,
that he might be a channel of grace to Israel and
the world. His
'commandment' to his descendants was to lead to
their worship of
Jehovah and their upright living, and these again to
their
possession of the blessings promised to Abraham.
That purpose would
be aided by the knowledge of the judgment on Sodom,
its source, and
its cause, and therefore Abraham was admitted into
the council-
chamber of Jehovah. The insight given to God's
friends is given that
they may more fully benefit men by leading them into
paths of
righteousness, on which alone they can be met by
God's blessings.
The strongly figurative representation in verses 20,
21, according
to which Jehovah goes down to ascertain whether the
facts of Sodom's
sin correspond to the report of it, belongs to the
early stage of
revelation, and need not surprise us, but should
impress on us the
gradual character of the divine Revelation, which
would have been
useless unless it had been accommodated to the
mental and spiritual
stature of its recipients. Nor should it hide from
us the lofty
conception of God's long-suffering justice, which is
presented in so
childlike a form. He does 'not judge after ... the
hearing of His
ears,' nor smite without full knowledge of the sin.
A later stage of
revelation puts the same thought in language less
strange to us,
when it teaches that 'the Lord is a God of
knowledge, and by Him
actions are weighed,' and in His balances many a
false estimate,
both of virtuous and vicious acts, is corrected, and
retribution is
always exactly adjusted to the deed.
But the main importance of the incident is in the
wonderful picture
of Abraham's intercession, which, in like manner,
veils, under a
strangely sensuous representation, lofty truths for
all ages. It is
to be noted that the divine purpose expressed in 'I
will go down
now, and see,' is fulfilled in the going of the two
(men or angels)
towards Sodom; therefore Jehovah was in them. But He
was also in the
One before whom Abraham stood. The first great truth
enshrined in
this part of the story is that the friend of God is
compassionate
even of the sinful and degraded. Abraham did not
intercede for Lot,
but for the sinners in Sodom. He had perilled his
life in warfare
for them; he now pleads with God for them. Where had
he learned this
brave pity? Where but from the God with whom he
lived by faith? How
much more surely will real communion with Jesus lead
_us_ to
look on all men, and especially on the vicious and
outcast, with His
eyes who saw the multitudes as sheep without a
shepherd, torn,
panting, scattered, and lying exhausted and
defenceless!
Indifference to the miseries and impending dangers
of Christless men
is impossible for any whom He calls 'not servants,
but friends.'
Again, we are taught the boldness of pleading which
is permitted to
the friend of God, and is compatible with deepest
reverence. Abraham
is keenly conscious of his audacity, and yet, though
he knows
himself to be but dust and ashes, that does not
stifle his
petitions. His was the holy 'importunity' which
Jesus sent forth for
our imitation. The word so rendered in Luke xi. 8,
which is found in
the New Testament there only, literally means
'shamelessness,' and
is exactly the disposition which Abraham showed
here. Not only was
he persistent, but he increased his expectations
with each partial
granting of his prayer. The more God gives, the more
does the true
suppliant expect and crave; and rightly so, for the
gift to be given
is infinite, and each degree of possession enlarges
capacity so as
to fit to receive more, and widens desire. What
contented us to-day
should not content us to-morrow.
Again, Abraham is bold in appealing to a law to
which God is bound
to conform. 'Shall not the Judge of all the earth do
right?' is
often quoted with an application foreign to its true
meaning.
Abraham was not preaching to men trust that the most
perplexing acts
of God would be capable of full vindication if we
knew all, but he
was pleading with God that His acts should be
plainly accordant with
the idea of justice planted by Him in us. The phrase
is often used
to strengthen the struggling faith that
'All is right which seems most wrong,
If it be His sweet will.'
But it means not 'Such and such a thing must be
right because God
has done it,' but 'Such and such a thing is right,
therefore God
must do it.' Of course, our conceptions of right are
not the
absolute measure of the divine acts, and the very
fact which Abraham
thought contrary to justice is continually
exemplified in
Providence, that 'the righteous should be as the
wicked' in regard
to earthly calamities affecting communities. So far
Abraham was
wrong, but the spirit of his remonstrance was wholly
right.
Again, we learn the precious lesson that prayer for
others is a real
power, and does bring down blessings and avert
evils. Abraham did
not here pray for Lot, but yet 'God remembered
Abraham, and sent Lot
out of the midst of the overthrow'(chap. xix. 29),
so that there had
been unrecorded intercession for him too. The
unselfish desires for
others, that exhale from human hearts under the
influence of the
love which Christ plants in us, do come down in
blessings on others,
as the moisture drawn up by the sun may descend in
fructifying rain
on far-off pastures of the wilderness. We help one
another when we
pray for one another.
The last lesson taught is that 'righteous' men are
indeed the 'salt
of the earth' not only preserving cities and nations
from further
corruption, but procuring for them further existence
and probation.
God holds back His judgments so long as hope of
amendment survives,
and 'will not destroy for the ten's sake.'
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