LESSON VIII.--FEBRUARY 20.

ABRAHAM PLEADING FOR SODOM.--GEN. 18:23-33.

      GOLDEN TEXT.--In wrath remember mercy.--HAB. 3:2.
      TIME.--About B. C. 1897.
      PLACE.--At Abraham's encampment; near Hebron.
      HELPFUL READINGS.--Gen. 13:10-13; Gen. 14:1-13; Gen. 18:1-22; James 5:1-6.
      LESSON ANALYSIS.--1. Sodom Doomed; 2. A Righteous Man's Prayer; 3. The Righteous the Salt of the Earth. [59]

INTRODUCTION.

      At least fourteen years had passed since the ratification of the covenant, during which interval a son, Ishmael, had been born to Abraham by Hagar, whom he had taken at the solicitation of the childless Sarah, in accordance with an eastern custom. There is something singularly beautiful in the attachment of Abraham to the first child. He would readily have accepted Ishmael as the child of promise, but it was the purpose of God that the race of Abraham should spring from the wife of his youth, whom he had led from the Chaldean home. The patriarch, before called Abram, is commanded to assume the name Abraham, meaning "father of a multitude." The rite of circumcision was established, as a mark to distinguish the tribe and family of Abraham from the rest of the world.

      The most of this period was passed near Hebron, where Abraham's tent was pitched under the "oaks of Mamre," in almost permanent encampment. Here, one day, as he sat at noon in the door of his tent, under the shade of the oaks, three mysterious strangers appeared, whom Abraham, with the courtly hospitality characteristic of the best representatives of the Arabian race, received and entertained, "thereby entertaining angels unawares." The chief of the three, either a divine manifestation or an angel sent to speak for the Almighty, renewed the promise of a son to be born to Sarah, a promise that seemed so ridiculous to the aged woman, now ninety years of age, that she received it with concealed laughter. After the entertainment the guests set their faces toward Sodom, and Abraham accompanied, probably to a height near Hebron, that commanded a view of the valley and plain in which stood the doomed cities. Two of the strangers passed on, while the superior imparted to Abraham the knowledge that the cities of the plain were on the very eve of destruction on account of their sins. Milman justly says: "No passage, even in the sacred writings, exhibits a more exalted notion of the Divinity, than that in which Abraham is permitted to expostulate on the apparent injustice of involving the innocent in the ruin of the guilty."

      I. SODOM DOOMED.--23. And Abraham drew near and said. The student must keep in mind the circumstances. The three mysterious guests had arisen from their entertainment, and had "looked toward Sodom," and Abraham had walked with them a short distance on their way. Then the Lord, probably by means of these celestial visitants, reveals to Abraham the impending catastrophe, as well as the reason why the judgment is to be inflicted--"Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is very great, and because their sin is very grievous." The cry was a loud call for punishment for terrible wickedness. Let it be noted, 1. That God takes note of the condition of [60] cities, states and nations; 2. That their sins cry aloud to him for the intervention of the Divine Ruler and Judge; 3. That he looks closely before inflicting his extreme penalties--"I will go down and see"--language adapted to human understanding; 4. God's penalties for national sins are not always capital. He sends calamities, famines, pestilence, invasion, revolution, and it is only when other means fail and reform is hopeless, that he blots out of existence. Misfortunes, while the seeds of virtue remain, only develop new energies and life. But the hopelessly rotten must be destroyed. God destroyed Sodom, Jerusalem, Rome; 6. When a nation or city is swept out of existence, either by natural catastrophe or by war, we may be assured that it was unfit to exist.

      The announcement being made of the dread catastrophe about to befall the wicked cities, two of the strangers went on to Sodom, as if to verify the terrible corruption of its inhabitants. "Abraham remained before the Lord," probably in the presence of his representative, the superior visitant. His heart is deeply stirred over the fate of Sodom. He had been on friendly terms with its king; it was the home of Lot and his family. Cannot something be done to avert its fate? So he "drew near" in intercession, and began the most remarkable communion with the Divine Ruler that is on record. Wilt thou destroy the righteous with the wicked? Surely amid the thousands who inhabit Sodom there must be some righteous men! Is it right, is it in harmony with divine justice, that there should be no discrimination made, and the righteous suffer also? It may be noted that the righteous, from association with the wicked, are sometimes involved in the earthly calamities sent upon the wicked. Separation cannot always be made here; all will be adjusted at the great day of accounts, which comes after death.

      24. Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city. Appeal is now made that the city shall be spared on account of a righteous few. He certainly hopes that at least fifty righteous persons may be found, and names this as the number. He does not merely plead that the righteous may be saved, but pleads that the place may be saved, on account of the righteous. He earnestly desires to avert even the fate of the impenitent. It will be observed that Abraham appeals to, and the Lord admits, a principle that runs through all the government of God. The righteous are the salt of the earth. They literally save it. If it were not for the influence of the righteous, however few, mankind would become so wicked as to be delivered over to destruction. God bears with the wicked because of the righteous who are mingled among them. Were all the righteous removed from our most ungodly cities, they would then be delivered over to destruction. Had not the family of Noah stood alone the Flood would have been stayed. [61]

      25. Will not the Judge of all the earth do right? Abraham possibly may have had a vestige of doubt whether God would do right in this matter. The ancients imputed to their gods the most abominable crimes; he had been reared among idolaters, and was still surrounded by them; he had had little of our opportunities for knowing the pure, holy and righteous attributes of the Almighty, and he might have thought that in this matter Jehovah would, to some extent, exhibit the spirit attributed to the pagan gods. We must remember that Abraham had no Bible; there had been no revelation of Christ; the Almighty had revealed himself, but it was an impossible thing that Abraham should learn to know him, from a few revelations and the traditions that came down to him, as we know God since Christ revealed him. Abraham had not made up his mind, by any means, that Jehovah would do wrong by the sacrifice of the righteous, but the fear had come into his mind that this might be the case.

      There are those who insist that the distinctions of right and wrong are arbitrary, and that whatever the Divine Being decides must be the right. While we know that the will of God is always right, it is because he is supremely good. If the Omnipotent were malignant, instead of benevolent, the decisions of his will would be evil and wrong, instead of righteous. Almighty power does not insure righteous rule; we might conceive of the devil having the supreme rule of the universe; but almighty power, controlled by supreme goodness and wisdom, insures that the divine fiats will infallibly be righteous. We may not be able to fully understand the divine judgments, but we can always repose in the divine goodness, and be assured that all will be for the best.

      II. A RIGHTEOUS MAN'S PRAYER.--26. If I find in Sodom fifty righteous . . . I will spare. As far as we are able to determine, this conference passed between Abraham and the superior of the three angels--either a manifestation or the representative of the Almighty. God speaks by angels, by the prophets, or rarely by his own voice, and in "the last days by his Son." By whomsoever he speaks, it is still the Lord; and hence, whoever this personage may have been, the conference is virtually between Abraham and the Lord. The kindness, condescension and readiness to hear manifested in the replies are a strong encouragement to make our requests known to God. He loves to have us pray. [62]

      27, 28. Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous. The earnestness, and at the same time the exceeding humility, of Abraham's intercession, present a worthy example to the suppliants at the throne of grace in all ages. Encouraged by the favorable answer to his first petition, he still presses his request, with the number of the righteous made smaller. In doing this he confesses his own insignificance before God--"only dust and ashes"--dust, the lightest particles of the earth; ashes, the refuse left after fuel is burned; compared with God he means that he is light and worthless. He shows how deeply his soul is humbled before God, and therefore how high his conception was of the Divine Majesty. The more exalted views we have of God, the humbler we will feel when we go before him. When I hear a man pray who talks to God as if be was an equal, I feel assured that the man is either puffed up with conceit, or has no knowledge of the greatness of his Creator.

      III. THE RIGHTEOUS THE SALT OF THE EARTH.--29. I will not do it for forty's sake. The earnest old man keeps up his importunity. He cannot bear the thought that Sodom shall be destroyed, much less that the righteous shall be doomed with the guilty. He does not plead that the wicked shall be saved from their deserved doom on their own account, for he has already learned that the desert of sin is judgment; but he pleads the cause of the righteous, and holds them before the Lord, to intercept from even the wicked the bolts of his wrath. It will be noted in these responses of the Almighty to the appeal, "I will not do it for forty's sake, for thirty's sake, for twenty's sake, for ten's sake," that a few righteous, mingled with the wicked, are the safeguard that saves all from destruction. The eyes of the Lord are upon his saints. While there is any hope of them leavening the lump, they will be permitted to remain as examples of and to preach righteousness. When no hope remains they will be removed, and the place or nation that has become a sink of iniquity given over to destruction, ten righteous would have saved the whole city of Sodom; they could not be found, and the Lord sent Lot away before the bolts of the divine wrath fell. When it became necessary to destroy Jerusalem, the church was warned [63] and fled to Perea, beyond the Jordan. It is still true that the righteous element is the salvation of a nation. If the church was destroyed, or to become hopelessly corrupt, the day of our national prosperity would pass away.

      32. Peradventure ten shall be found there. Knowing that in the family of Lot a knowledge of the true religion had been taught, and probably ignorant of how that family, and especially his sons-in-law and married daughters, had become demoralized by residence in Sodom, he could not suppose that there were less than ten righteous persons in Sodom, and hence he carried the supplications no farther. He was mistaken. The treatment of the two men (angels) in Sodom is recorded, in order to teach the world the utter vileness of the city, and to justify the ways of God to men.

      33. The Lord went his way. Language is used that was adapted to human comprehension in the childhood of our race. It means that the celestial visitant departed.

PRACTICAL AND SUGGESTIVE.

      Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.--Heb. 13:2.

      The effectual, fervent prayer of the righteous man availeth much.--Jas. 5:16.

      The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cries.

      The righteous are the salt of the earth. Had there been a hundred Noah's [64] among the antediluvians, the Flood would never have come. Had there been ten righteous in Sodom it would not have fallen. The scoffing Ingersolls, who rail at the church and blaspheme God, are allowed to continue to exist on account of the righteous. A community that becomes hopelessly wicked is delivered over to destruction. The natural laws of God remove an offensive, pestilential carcass from the surface of the earth; the moral laws of God decree the removal of a nation that has become putrid.

      God employs as agents to execute his judgments famines, plagues, and the bolts of war. "Will God destroy a righteous nation?" He will not. When a nation is swept away a search into its condition will always reveal moral causes for its destruction.

      Every man who loves God loves his neighbor also, and will do all in his power to promote his well-being. Abraham cannot prevent the people of Sodom from sinning, but he can make prayer and intercession for them, and plead for a mitigation of their judgment. God is well pleased to have us "pray for all men," for our enemies, for sinners, for even the most wicked. If our petitions cannot be granted, God will open our eyes to see the righteousness of his judgments.

      This commercial kind of entreaty is the essence of true prayer. It is the shamelessness of faith which bridges over the immense distance between the creature and the Creator, and appeals with importunity to the heart of God, not ceasing until the point is gained.--Delitsch.

      Abraham received no denial. As far as we can see, It was he that left off, and not God. . . . It would seem that there were not even so many as ten righteous in Sodom. Probably there was only one, and he had so sinned in going there to live that he might justly have been involved in the general destruction. And yet God went further than his promise and saved Lot's family, certainly thus saving all the righteous that were there.

POINTS FOR TEACHERS.

      1. Portray the hospitality of the aged patriarch; the three guests; the primitive entertainment; the departure toward Sodom. 2. Note the revelation to Abraham--probably from a summit near his tent, the plain of Sodom in sight, Sodom in the distance. 3. Impress the reason of the doom of Sodom (see Gen. 18:20); sin will bring judgment; corruption will bring destruction. 4. Observe particularly Abraham's intercession; it is right to work and pray for the salvation of the wicked. 5. Observe the basis of that intercession--that the wicked shall be spared on account of the righteous, and that God admits the plea. 6. Impress that the righteous are still the salt of the earth; the church must save it; suppose the salt lost its savor?--then it (the church) is only fit to be cast out. 7. Note that God is ready to hear, ready to be plead with, ready to do even more than we ask. [65]

Source: Barton Warren Johnson. The Christian International Lesson Commentary for 1887. Des Moines, IA: