Genesis 18

Standing In the Breach

Genesis 18 is a chapter of two announcements. First, there is the announcement by God to Abraham that he is to have a son. God's appearance to Abraham at this point was in order to spell out the promise that had already been given; the covenant line was to be extended by means of the birth of a child. Isaac was to be the son of promise, the heir of covenant blessing, through whom God's purposes of grace would be worked out.

In spite of their advancing years, Abraham believed God. Paul takes up the point in the New Testament: "not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body already dead (since he was about an hundred years old), and the deadness of Sara's womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform" (Romans 4:19-21). The same faith that we must exercise in the promises of God, Abraham exercised, and God accounted him as righteous. The difference is that a greater than Isaac is presented to us on the pages of Scripture; Abraham was to believe that a son would be born; we are to believe that a Son has been born, in the person of Jesus Christ.

But there was another announcement here: the threatened destruction of the cities of the plain, of Sodom and Gomorrah. The sin of these places was very great, and their wickedness was an offence in the very nostrils of God. The God of all the earth was to tolerate no place on his earth for these cities any more. God threatened (v21) to visit Sodom and Gomorrah to see for himself what was going on. It is at this point Abraham steps in to reason with God. He will interceded and stand in the gap, and see if God will turn his anger away.

Abraham, the Righteous Pleader

Abraham seems to bargain with God. If there are 50 righteous people in Sodom, will you spare it?, he asks God. God promises to do so. What about forty-five? Same answer. What about thirty? Twenty? Ten? At each point God says - if I find even ten righteous people there, I will not destroy it.

Abraham believes that the church of God is the preserving salt that keeps the world safe from the putrification and corruption of sin. He knows that God has chosen the world as the theatre upon which he will enact the drama of redemption. He knows too that as God preserved Noah alive in the flood, he promised never to destroy the earth in that way again. So now he pleads for the preservation of the cities of the plain on the grounds that God's people might be there.

It is a wonderful insight into the grace and favour of God. We may imagine at times that the role of the church is becoming increasingly peripheral, and that God's people are not achieving very much. Yet the Bible says that they are the reason the world is still standing! God's work is going on, and for the sake of his people he will keep and preserve the world in order that his church might grow and the work of the gospel prosper.

Yet Abraham must stand in the gap between Sodom and God, between Gomorrah and God, and interceded and plead as if his very life depended upon it. How much we need to recover the sense of urgency that possessed Abraham! When did we last pray with this fervour and holy energy for our family? Our community? Our nation? Our world? When did we last intercede, and plead that God would spare and not destroy, build up and not overthrow? May God give us a sense of the need of the hour, that we too might plead in righteousness for those who still do not know the Lord.

God, the Righteous Judge

At last, Abraham leaves his case with God. He knew that God would not destroy his own people along with the wicked, as if there was no distinction between them. 'Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?' (v25) is the plea he addresses to Jehovah.

At last, in every circumstance of life and of eternity, it must be our plea too. God's judgement is indeed righteous. He will judge on the basis of strict justice, in love showing mercy to those who seek him, and in wrath judging those who hate and turn from him. Have we learned to praise God for days of Gospel opportunity when we can indeed pray for, and witness to, those who are still outside of Jesus Christ? And have we learned to leave our case, wholly and completely, in the hands of him who is the judge of all, and who offers us righteousness in the Person and Work of his Son, and the hope of eternal life in Him.

May God give us to see that the hope of the Gospel builds upon the very righteousness of God as the ground of our security and of our salvation!