Bargaining with God: Genesis 18:16-33

When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way.

From the heights near Mamre, Sodom was visible in the valley below—the cities of the plain, green and prosperous, watered by the Jordan's overflow. Lot lived there, somewhere in those streets.

Then the LORD said, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him."

God decided to share his plans. The friend of God would not be kept in the dark.

"The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know."

The Judge of all the earth would investigate before sentencing. Justice would be thorough, not hasty.

The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the LORD.

Two of the visitors descended toward the cities. One remained. And Abraham, realizing what was at stake, stepped forward.

Then Abraham approached him and said: "Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it?"

The negotiation began. Abraham was not demanding—he was appealing to God's character.

"Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?"

Will not the Judge of all the earth do right? Abraham's argument rested on who God was. A righteous Judge could not condemn the innocent with the guilty.

The LORD said, "If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake."

Fifty. The whole city spared for fifty righteous souls.

Then Abraham spoke up again: "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes—what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?"

"If I find forty-five there," he said, "I will not destroy it."

Abraham pressed on. Forty. Then thirty. Then twenty.

"May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?"

He answered, "For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it."

Ten righteous people. The city could survive for ten. Abraham stopped there—perhaps believing surely Lot's household would add up to at least that many.

When the LORD had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.

The intercession was over. Abraham had bargained from fifty to ten. He had appealed to God's justice, to God's mercy, to God's character. He had stood in the gap for a city he had once rescued and now tried to save again.

The Judge of all the earth would do right. But Sodom would not have even ten.