The Man Who Argued With God

When the visitors get up to leave Mamre, the Lord asks himself a question that is remarkable in itself: shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? He decides not to. He has chosen Abraham so that Abraham will teach his household to keep the way of the Lord, and so God lets him in on the judgment coming to Sodom and Gomorrah. The two other visitors walk on toward the cities. Abraham remains standing before the Lord.

Then Abraham does something no one in Scripture had done before. He approaches God and argues. Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Far be it from you to do such a thing. Will not the Judge of all the earth do right? God agrees: for fifty, he will spare the place. Abraham, aware that he is dust and ashes, presses on. Forty-five. Forty. Thirty. Twenty. Ten. Each time, God says yes. Then the Lord leaves, and Abraham goes home.

The one idea in this passage is that God wants to be asked. He did not need Abraham's arithmetic. He knew exactly how many righteous people were in Sodom, and it was fewer than ten. But he told Abraham his plans so that Abraham would pray, and he answered every request. The prayer did not change the outcome for Sodom. It changed Abraham, and it saved Lot, whom God remembered because of Abraham.

Notice the shape of the intercession. It is grounded in God's character, not Abraham's cleverness. Every step of the bargain appeals to what God is like: a Judge who does right. Abraham is not manipulating God; he is holding God to God's own nature and asking him to be himself. That is what bold prayer is. It is not presumption. It is taking God's revealed character seriously enough to plead with him on the basis of it.

Who are you standing before God for this week? A city, a family, a coworker, a church? You do not know how many righteous are in the place, and you do not need to. God has let you in on what he is like. Approach him. Keep asking. He can say yes as many times as you can find the nerve to ask.