Bible Text: Genesis 18-19 | Pastor: Eric Danielson | Series: Abraham

One of the heaviest subjects for Christians to think about is divine judgment and hell, especially when those thoughts involve people we love and care about who are rejecting Christ. These thoughts can lead us to a negative view of God – that he is too severe, cold and condemning. Those who struggle with these thoughts need to see the view of God that is portrayed in Genesis 18-19.

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Mercy and Judgment
Genesis 18-19

We’re studying the life of Abraham and how he lived a life of faith and today we look at the time in his life when God brought divine judgment upon the two ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. One of the most difficult issues we have to grapple with in living the life of faith is the issue of divine judgment. Many aspects of Christianity are joyful and uplifting, but some are sobering and heavy and the one that’s probably the heaviest of all is divine judgment. We believe that there are two eternal destinies: heaven and hell, and every person that exists will end up in one or the other.

This realization probably confronts us most directly when we attend a funeral. For those who have died in Christ, there is rejoicing in the midst of grief because we know that person has gone on to be with the Lord in heaven and they are experiencing greater joy than this world has ever known. But have you ever been to a funeral of someone who rejected Christ? For those who die apart from Christ, there is really nothing to rejoice in. There’s only the faint hope that maybe somehow before they breathed their last, they turned to Jesus so that they won’t have to face judgment.

We don’t ever like to think about divine judgment and hell, but what makes it even more difficult is when those thoughts involve people we love and care about. It’s one thing to think that people we don’t know will face judgment if they don’t turn to Christ, but it’s another when it involves your son or daughter, or your mom or dad, or your neighbor or friend. It’s those kinds of thoughts that really make us struggle.

How can the Lord we love be responsible for the judgment of the people we love? It’s understandable if people like Hitler or the Nazis who did really terrible things end up in hell, but the people we love aren’t that bad. They’re not perfect, but they’re good people for the most part; they just haven’t decided to follow Jesus. The thought of divine judgment becomes very disturbing and can even lead us to a negative view of God: “Why does he have to be so severe? How can he be so cold and harsh?” It doesn’t seem right.

Well today we reach the point in Abraham’s life where he has to grapple with these same kinds of thoughts. God shows him a view of divine judgment for the first time and it’s very disturbing to him. He responds in much the same way that I think we would in his situation, but the thing I want us to see is how God responds. The story of Sodom and Gomorrah is often used to highlight the wrath and judgment of God. When people hold up the signs: “Turn or Burn,” the idea comes from what happened to these cities. But what we’ll see today is that kind of message is really a misrepresentation of God in this story. The way that God responds will give us a view of him that we need to see.

We saw last week how God established a covenant with Abraham and his descendants and it was soon after that that God appeared to him again to confirm his promise that Sarah would have a son and show him what he was going to do to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Read Genesis 18:1-15.
And the LORD appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. 2 He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth 3 and said, “O Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. 4 Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree, 5 while I bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” 6 And Abraham went quickly into the tent to Sarah and said, “Quick! Three seahs of fine flour! Knead it, and make cakes.” 7 And Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to a young man, who prepared it quickly. 8 Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them. And he stood by them under the tree while they ate.
9 They said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” And he said, “She is in the tent.” 10 The LORD said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. 11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. 12 So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?” 13 The LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.” 15 But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. He said, “No, but you did laugh.”

This is a one-of-a-kind experience for Abraham and Sarah. God had appeared to Abraham several times before, but it was always in some kind of vision where Abraham would hear him, but not see him. But on that day, God appeared to him in the form of a man. And this wasn’t just a vision; these were real men standing in front of him. There were three men and as you read through this chapter you see that two of them were angels and one was God. So this was a very rare occasion and you can see from Abraham’s response that he knew it was extremely important.

These three were on a mission and it wasn’t primarily to meet with Abraham; it was to respond to an outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah. But before they went there, they stopped by Abraham’s tent. Apparently Abraham hadn’t told Sarah the big news yet, so they stopped by to tell her she was going to have a baby boy. She responded the same way that Abraham did when he first heard the news – she laughed. She was 90 years old and no longer able to conceive; so she couldn’t have a baby! But God told her she would – in about a year. And after delivering this news the three men got up to leave and Abraham went with them to send them off when he heard some very troubling news.

Read Genesis 18:16-21.
Then the men set out from there, and they looked down toward Sodom. And Abraham went with them to set them on their way. 17 The LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, 18 seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? 19 For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.” 20 Then the LORD said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, 21 I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know.”

So God is speaking to the two angels about why he should tell Abraham what they were going to do. In the English translation it sounds like he’s asking if he should hide the information from him, but when you look at the context you can see he’s making more of a statement about why he won’t hide it. And he gives two reasons. The first is because of his significant position as father of the Jews and father of the people of faith. And the second is because of the vital role that he played as head of his household who had just become God’s covenant people. God wanted him to know about the coming judgment of these wicked cities so he would know how important it was for him and his offspring to not become like them.

You don’t see God tell him about what would happen directly in the text, but based on how this chapter ends it’s obvious that he told him he was going to destroy the cities and put every person in them to death. Now if it was just the Canaanites that would be destroyed I don’t think Abraham would have been overly disturbed because he knew they were thoroughly evil people and they weren’t close to him. They had the reputation throughout Abraham’s 25 years in Canaan of being great sinners against God. So their destruction was expected and just. Kind of like the way we’d think about Hitler and the Nazis.

But if you remember from a few weeks ago, it wasn’t just the Canaanites that lived in those cities. When Abraham’s nephew Lot and his family separated from them they went east to the Jordan River Valley and eventually settled in Sodom. So Abraham’s very own family was there and they too were facing divine judgment – people he loved and cared about – and that was very alarming to him. And I think it’s that concern that leads him to do what we read about next.

Read Genesis 18:22-26.
So the men turned from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the LORD. 23 Then Abraham drew near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” 26 And the LORD said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”

So when Abraham faced the reality of divine judgment that would also involve people that he loved, it was very disturbing to him. And he made some strong assumptions about God and his family, and these assumptions turned into some pretty strong accusations. You can see that he assumed that there were several people who were righteous in the cities – he throws out the number 50 to begin with – after all, were not his own family members there? Certainly there must be at least 50 people who would be following the Lord? And with this assumption he also assumed that God was going to then be pouring out judgment on the righteous along with the wicked. That would be wrong and unjust and because of his assumptions about the situation, he accuses God of wrongdoing.

So Abraham is thinking some pretty negative things about God – the same kinds of things it’s so easy for us to think when it comes to divine judgment and the people we love. “How can God just lump everyone together and punish the people that we love and care about along with murderers and rapists?” It’s not fair! It’s not just! And we can have a pretty negative attitude toward God that can be hard to overcome. How do we deal with that?

Well, notice how God responds to Abraham – a response that I think stopped him in his tracks. He said, “Yes. If I find fifty righteous people in Sodom, I will spare not only them, but the whole city for their sake.” Wow, that doesn’t sound like a harsh, cold-hearted and condemning God… It actually sounds like a God who is quite generous and patient… So, in hearing that kind of response, it gets Abraham thinking, “Maybe I’d better settle down a bit and think this through. I know I said fifty, but what if I overestimated?” So he goes back to the Lord with a different attitude and listen to the conversation that happens…

Read Genesis 18:27-33.
Abraham answered and said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. 28 Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking. Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?” And he said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.” 29 Again he spoke to him and said, “Suppose forty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of forty I will not do it.” 30 Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak. Suppose thirty are found there.” He answered, “I will not do it, if I find thirty there.” 31 He said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it.” 32 Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.” 33 And the LORD went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.

What kind of God do you see in those verses? Do you see a God who is bent on judgment and condemnation? A God who can’t wait to punish people who don’t follow him? A God who is cold-hearted and harsh? Unjust and unfair? Do you see the kind of God that is portrayed by the people who hold up the “Turn or Burn” signs? No way.

Realize we’re dealing with Sodom and Gomorrah here – two cities who are mentioned throughout the Bible as the epitome of evil; two cities who had a reputation among all the pagan cities in Canaan as being the worst sinners and most wicked. Two cities that God had heard an outcry against for decades if not centuries because of how grave their sin was. Their wickedness was so severe that when the two angels left Abraham’s tent and went to them all the men in the city gathered together to try to gang-rape them. And that was in public. People call Las Vegas “Sin City,” but something like that would never be allowed to happen there. In Sodom and Gomorrah that kind of thing was their evening entertainment.

Yet what was God willing to do? He was willing to spare them if there were but ten righteous people living there. Who knows? If Abraham kept going, God might have spared them for the sake of even 1. The truth is that there was not one righteous person living in those cities, not even Abraham’s family members. (2 Pet. 2:7-8 says Lot was righteous, but that was in comparison to the people around him, not because he was a follower of Yahweh.) Only 4 people escaped before God poured out judgment on those cities and they didn’t leave willingly. The two angels had to literally drag them out of there, because they didn’t want to leave. One of them was Lot’s wife who died because she turned around and tried to go back. The other three were Lot and his two daughters and as their story continues you find it’s a twisted tale of drunkenness and gross sexual immorality. But God spared them because he knew Abraham loved them.

When you see the full story of Sodom and Gomorrah you don’t see a cold-hearted God of hellfire and brimstone, vengefully pouring out divine judgment on the wicked. You see a God of mercy who patiently endured their wickedness for decades as he gave them time to turn from their evil ways and repent. You see a God willing to spare them and endure their rampant wickedness even longer if any righteous people were dwelling in their midst. In the end he did pour out divine judgment upon them, but I don’t think any of us would question his decision to do so.

Yes, divine judgment is truly a troubling thing, especially when it potentially involves the people we love and care about. But, it doesn’t mean that God is a cold, harsh and condemning God. He is a holy and just God, but he is also a God full of mercy and patience even beyond what we can imagine. 2 Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

So rather than responding to divine judgment like Abraham did, and accusing God of being who he is not, we need to come to him – the merciful and patient One – and ask for mercy on behalf of our loved ones who are still rejecting him. He’s already showing them mercy and he will continue to do so as he gives them more time to turn to him. Because of his mercy, God went so far as to send his Son to die on the cross for us, even when we were still sinners. And it’s in view of that mercy that we come to him to intercede on behalf of those we love who have not yet turned to him.