Genesis 18:16-33
Abraham the Mediator

  1. The Lord shares his plans with Abraham
    1. The Lord deliberates—Shall I hide from Abraham? (17,18)
      1. So far, Abraham has no clue why God has come down
        1. Surely, he has taken time out of his schedule to reaffirm to promise of the Isaac’s birth
        2. But last time he did that, he disappeared out of Abraham’s sight right after the announcement (17:22)
        3. This time he sticks around. Clearly he has come on another mission as well
      2. And God actually wonders to himself—for our benefit—should I keep my plans a secret from Abraham?
        1. God is wondering whether he ought to invite Abraham to sit in on the divine council
          1. This is the counsel that God takes with himself when making important decisions. God reveals himself as deliberating over those decisions, weighing the pros and cons. Should Abraham be invited to hear the Lord’s deliberations?
          2. This is why God sometimes speaks of himself in the plural (we, us) as though consulting himself and the angels who surround him in glory.
          3. This is the counsel that God took with himself when he said "Let Us make man in Our image.
          4. This is the angelic counsel that Isaiah saw in the temple high and lifted up. And God said, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?"
          5. Jeremiah asks "For who has stood in the council of the Lord so as to see and to hear his word? Who has given heed to his word so as to proclaim it?" (jer 23:18)
          6. But Amos answers "Surely the Lord God does nothing, without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets." (3:7)
          7. God revealed this counsel to Noah, telling him to build an ark since the world was about to be destroyed.
        2. But, amazingly, God is not just wondering whether it would be appropriate to let Abraham sit in on this council
        3. He’s wondering if he’s obligated to.
        4. The sovereign Lord whom no one can coerce… this one stands and thinks, Abraham may have a right to know what I’m about to do.
      3. After all, Abraham will become a great and mighty nation (18a).
        1. God is impressed by Abraham’s credentials, even though he is the one who has conferred those credentials upon him
        2. The credentials are legitimate. God doesn’t laugh and say, "Hey, I don’t have to respect Abraham, I made him what he is."
        3. Because what God made him is worthy of respect and honor. Therefore God himself must respect and honor Abraham or say that promise was a lie.
      4. And even more significant, all the nations of the earth will be blessed in him (18b)
        1. God is about to destroy a nation from off the face of the earth
        2. Sodom will be no more
        3. should he not first allow Abraham the chance to bless this nation since blessing the nations is his destiny?
      5. We know that ultimately, Abraham’s blessing the nations is fulfilled in Christ
        1. In Christ all the families of the earth are blessed for they are gathered from every nation, tribe, and tongue to bless the Lamb who blessed them, interceding on their behalf, dying that they might live.
        2. Should not Abraham, the ancestor of Christ, Abraham, a believer in the promised seed, be allowed to imitate his Savior by making intercession?
        3. Thus Abraham’s action will be a picture of Christ’s as well as a cry for Christ who will more effectively intercede than Abraham could. More on this in point II. But first….
    2. The Lord decides — No. I’ve chosen him for a purpose (19)
      1. I have known him
        1. That is, I have chosen him to carry out my purposes
        2. I have been intimate with him; he is my friend. I have loved him.
        3. I have pledged myself to him to be his God. How can I now act independently of him without at least cluing him in?
      2. That he may command children and household to do righteousness and justice
        1. What God is about to do in Sodom will become a cautionary tale for all time
        2. Abraham will tell it to his children
        3. Israelites will tell it to theirs
        4. Moses will warn the children of Israel of the dangers of disobedience using Sodom as his example
        5. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Zephaniah — these prophets will all point to Sodom as the example of God’s judgment on the wicked to turn the ungodly to the fear of the Lord and remind the faithful of the wrath they have escaped by God’s grace and mercy.
        6. Peter, over 2000 years later, will tell it to us — 2 Pet 2:4-9 — For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of deepest darkness to be kept until the judgment; 5 and if he did not spare the ancient world, even though he saved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood on a world of the ungodly; 6 and if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction and made them an example of what is coming to the ungodly; 7 and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man greatly distressed by the licentiousness of the lawless 8 (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by their lawless deeds that he saw and heard), 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment
      3. But unless God tells Abraham why he’s destroying Sodom, how will Abraham know?
        1. If he just looks southeast one day and sees smoke rising up from a destroy Sodom, will he know it is God’s judgment?
        2. After all, hadn’t Chedorlaomer and the other kings come and overrun Sodom once?
          1. And how had Abraham reacted? By seeing them as the instrument of God’s judgment?
          2. No. Rather he saw himself as the instrument of God’s vengeance on Chedorlaomer.
          3. He restored the goods and people that the king of Sodom has lost.
        3. The area was prone to volcanos and earthquakes in any event
        4. How would Abraham know that this natural disaster had a supernatural intent of judging the city for its wickedness?
        5. If Abraham is to be able to instruct his children concerning this event, the Lord must first instruct him.
    3. The Lord reveals — I am considering destroying Sodom (20,21)
      1. The Lord has heard reports of Sodom’s iniquity and is going down to investigate
      2. Just as in ch. 11 he came down from heaven to investigate the Tower of BAbrahaml. There as well he decided on and executed an appropriate judgment.
      3. In this case, God already knows there sin is "very grave." He just needs to see if it is "altogether" according to the reports he has heard. If so, there is no question. He will destroy the place.
      4. Now, clearly, this is for Abraham’s sake, and for ours
        1. God does not need to go down to investigate
        2. But his doing so gives Abraham a chance to hear what’s about to happen
        3. And it gives him a chance to respond
  2. The Lord waits for Abraham’s response (22)
    1. God does not immediately disappear
      1. The other two men, the angels, continue the fact-finding mission
      2. They turn and go toward Sodom
      3. But when they are gone, Abraham finds himself still standing before the Lord
      4. In the past, when God had said his piece, he had vanished out of sight
      5. There was nothing left for Abraham to do but trust and obey
    2. Now the Lord waits for a response
      1. Amazingly, he has not just let Abraham listen to the divine council
      2. He has given Abraham a seat on it
      3. God has, in effect, said "This seems wise to me. What do you think Abraham?"
      4. And he stands waiting for Abraham’s input.
    3. God wants someone to mediate, to intercede for Sodom
      1. He wants someone who also partakes of flesh and blood, someone who knows the weakness of men and can sympathize, to plead with him on their behalf
      2. He has appointed Abraham to that task, that Sodom might not die without a defense attorney
    4. Here the shadow of Christ emerges
      1. Don’t you see it?
      2. In order for you and me to be saved, we need a mediator. Someone who sits on the divine council who knows our weakness and sympathizes. Someone who will plead on our behalf
      3. God wants the Son to plead on our behalf, just as he wants Abraham to plead on behalf of Sodom. And he delights to hear the Son just as he delights to hear Abraham.
  3. Abraham intercedes for Sodom (22-33)
    1. God will not destroy the righteous with the wicked
      1. Abraham wastes no time pleading his client’s innocence. Sodom is guilty and he knows it.
      2. But if he is to teach his children and his household justice, he must understand what justice is
        1. Is it just to destroy the righteous with the wicked?
        2. Abraham even poses an answer "Far be it from you…. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (25)
      3. Abraham is boldly challenging God’s way of doing business
        1. After all, hadn’t God plunged the whole race into sin and misery because of the sin of one man, Adam?
        2. And hadn’t Noah cursed the entire line of Canaan because of the sin of one man, Canaan’s father Shem?
        3. Hasn’t he established this principle that one sinner outweighs much good?
        4. He’ll use this principle again with Israel if you recall
          1. When they conquer Jericho, Achan will hold back some of the silver — silver that God had said belonged to the treasury of the Lord
          2. How does God describe this? "But the children of Israel committed a trespass…."
          3. What is the result? The whole nation is defeated in battle. Because of one man’s sin
        5. Yet here is Abraham saying Is that really fair? Shouldn’t the righteous be saved?
      4. But he’s saying more than that; he’s using the possibility of righteous men in Sodom as leverage to save the whole city.
      5. He’s turning God’s method upside down
        1. Not, the presence of sinners pollutes the city
        2. but, the presence of the righteous makes it clean
        3. How many righteous do you need?
      6. What if there are 50 righteous? (a strong minority)
      7. Abraham stops at 10, but the point has been made
        1. God cannot destroy the righteous along with the wicked and be just
        2. If he finds only 8 — say Lot and his family — he can’t simply destroy them because they live in a bad neighborhood.
        3. God has conceded that he will allowed the righteousness of the few (or even of the one) to outweigh the sins of the many
      8. Here again is the shadow of Christ
        1. Abraham cannot go down and live in Sodom and be their righteous rep. So his negotiations will come to nothing.
        2. The testimony against Sodom will be the testimony of Scripture against all mankind "There is none righteous. Not even one."
        3. But if they somehow could find a righteous representative, they’d be saved.
        4. Children of God, you and I were like Sodom until Christ interceded for us.
    2. Abraham braves the wrath of God
      1. 27 — I, who am but dust and ashes
      2. 30 — Let the Lord not be angry
      3. 31 — Indeed, now I have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord
      4. 32 — Let the Lord not be angry
      5. Again, like Christ, who not only risked but endured God’s wrath
    3. Two principles of preservation established
      1. common grace
        1. You are the salt of the earth
        2. Sodom died because they lacked righteous men in their midst
        3. But the world does not; it has you
        4. God withholds his wrath because you and I walk among them
        5. Take this perspective and live in it this week
        6. You will be back here next week (unless the Lord calls you home) and God will once again not have destroyed the earth by a flood. He will not have sent an asteroid from space to kill us all. He will not have rained down fire on the earth to leave none alive.
        7. Indeed, although disasters happen here or there, mostly life goes on and people buy and sell and get married and have children and the children are healthy and they have enough to eat.
          1. Why?
          2. We take it for granted, but we ought not.
          3. It is because of you that your next door neighbors are not immediately engulfed by the wrath of God
          4. Your presence stays God’s hand. He waits and does not strike
      2. the need for a righteous representative
        1. God cannot in justice withhold his wrath forever
        2. This is the tension Abraham sets up.
          1. God cannot destroy the righteous with the wicked
          2. Neither can he withhold justice from the wicked forever
          3. He solves this dilemma in this story by removing the righteous (Lot and family) from Sodom and destroying it.
          4. So he will do with the world, removing the righteous and judging the rest
        3. In that day you will need a more powerful mediator than Abraham
          1. You will need the seed of Abraham, Christ Jesus
          2. Without him you’ll be left to suffer Sodom’s fate.

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