Introduction: You may find in this message some statements that sound strange but don’t make any judgment until you finish reading it.
This message begins with the 18th chapter of Genesis. “The Lord appeared again to Abraham near the oak grove belonging to Mamre.” Now if you can imagine a time before automobiles and air conditioning, men would quit working during the hottest part of the day and sit under the front porch roof to cool off and enjoy what little breeze might be stirring.
This was Abraham’s situation when all of a sudden he noticed three men nearby. The Bible doesn’t tell us that he recognized them immediately. But based on the hospitality of the day, he went to offer them some rest and refreshments. It appears that by the time he got to them he recognized the Lord Who had appeared to him before and probably realized the other two were angels.
These individuals stayed with Abraham for awhile as they refreshed themselves and ate a meal. We don’t have a record of their entire conversations, but a couple of things are brought to our attention.
First, the visitors asked, “Where is Sarah, your wife?” Now these visitors obviously knew where Sarah was, but they had a message for Abraham and were wanting his close attention. One of the men said, “I will return to you about this time next year, and your wife, Sarah, will have a son.” God’s promise that Abraham and Sarah had waited many years for would soon be fulfilled. WOW!!!
Second, as they got up to leave, the Lord asked a strange question. “Should I hide My plan from Abraham? ‘The Lord asked’.” Then the Lord gave a reason why He would take Abraham into His confidence, and the proverbial cat was out of the bag. “So the Lord told Abraham, ‘I have heard a great outcry from Sodom and Gomorrah, because their sin is so flagrant. I am going down to see if their actions are as wicked as I have heard. If not, I want to know’.” What? Was God telling Abraham He really didn’t know what was going on in those cities?
While it is impossible to read the mind of God, maybe He wanted to see where Abraham’s heart was. God may have been testing Abraham’s faith because Abraham’s nephew, Lot, and his family lived in Sodom.
Beginning with verse 22, “The other men turned and headed toward Sodom, but the Lord remained with Abraham. Abraham approached Him and said, ‘Will you sweep away both the righteous and the wicked? Suppose You find fifty righteous people living there in the city – will You still sweep it away and not spare it for their sakes? Surely You wouldn’t do such a thing, destroying the righteous along with the wicked. Why, You would be treating the righteous and the wicked exactly the same! Surely You wouldn’t do that! Should not the Judge of all the earth do what is right’?” Can you believe the audacity of Abraham to speak that way to God?
For some reason, God agreed to Abraham’s request. “If I find fifty righteous people in Sodom, I will spare the entire city for their sake.” But Abraham didn’t stop there; he went on five more times finally getting God to agree that if there were ten righteous people in Sodom, He would not destroy the city. What was Abraham thinking? When God says He will do something, doesn’t that mean it is His will?
You may remember from Scripture that Abraham wasn’t the only person who confronted God this way. In Exodus 32, we read that the people of Israel became impatient when Moses spent forty days on the mountain talking with God. They gathered around Aaron: “Come on, they said, make us some gods who can lead us. We don’t know what happened to this fellow Moses, who brought us here from the land of Egypt.”
Aaron must have feared for his life because he gave in to the people’s demand. The people followed his instructions and brought all their gold earrings. Aaron melted the gold and formed the liquid into the image of a calf. “When the people saw it, they exclaimed, ‘O Israel, these are the gods who brought you out of the land of Egypt’.” How absolutely ignorant these people were, but they had lived in Egypt for 400 years where people worshipped these kind of idols.
God saw all this going on, and He was outraged. “Then the Lord said, ‘I have seen how stubborn and rebellious these people are. Now leave Me alone so My fierce anger can blaze against them, and I will destroy them. Then I will make you, Moses, into a great nation’.” Wow what a great opportunity for Moses; all these people who had been a pain in his backside would be gone, and he would experience the dream of a lifetime.
But for some reason, Moses decided to argue with God. The Scripture says, “But Moses tried to pacify the Lord his God. ‘O Lord! He said, Why are You so angry with Your own people whom You brought from the Land of Egypt with such great power and such a strong hand? Why let the Egyptians say, ‘Their God rescued them with the evil intention of slaughtering them in the mountains and wiping them from the face of the earth’? Turn away from Your fierce anger. Change Your mind about this terrible disaster You have threatened against Your people. Remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You bound Yourself with an oath to them, saying, ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven. And I will give them all of this land I have promised to your descendants, and they will possess it forever’.”
What would you do if one of your children talked to you like that? When God says He is going to do something, He does it – no excuses! What did God do? “So the Lord changed His mind about the terrible disaster He had threatened to bring on His people.” Why would God do that? I thought our God was an unchangeable God!
Let’s look at some other Scripture to see if we can understand why God changed His mind these two times. Peter tells us in his second letter to the church, “Then He used water to destroy the ancient world with a mighty flood. And by the same word, the present heavens and earth have been stored up for fire. They are being kept for the day of judgment, when ungodly people will be destroyed.
But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends; A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day. The Lord isn’t really being slow about His promise, as some people think. No, He is being patient for your sakes. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.”
John recorded what Jesus said about this. “For this is how God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in Him. But anyone who does not believe in Him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.”
So what was God looking for in Abraham and Moses? He was looking to see if they would intercede for other people. And because we are a kingdom of priests, God is trying to see if we will intercede for other people: family and friends, people we don’t know, and people we may not like.
I have to admit there was a time in my life after I had spent years talking with people about Christ until I finally gave up and took the attitude that if they don’t want Christ they can die and go to hell; I don’t care. But God has shown me a better way. The Bible tells us that Satan has blinded the minds of unbelievers so they cannot see the glorious light of the gospel. I know that I have no power over Satan; I cannot remove his spell with my words.
But Jesus gave us the answer. In His sermon on the mount, Jesus taught His disciples to pray, “Our Father in heaven, may Your name be kept holy. May Your Kingdom come soon. May Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” We have recited those words so often we don’t think about their meaning. Are we praying for that or have we succumbed to the idea the world will just keep getting worse until the Lord comes back and sends all unbelievers to hell?
Jesus also said, “And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.” (John 12:32) How do we lift Jesus up? By praising Him with our worship. We cannot draw people to Jesus, but if we lift Him up with our praise and intercede for the lost as the New Testament church did, He will draw them to Himself.