I love it when I find a new treasure in the Bible..something I know I have read a thousand times, but it is fresh and new because of where I am in my life right now.
I was reading in Exodus and came across chapter 18: 20-32. God reveals his plans for Sodom and Gomorrah to Abraham. So Abraham "bargains" with God! He asks God, "will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the unrighteous?" The men in the Bible who question God's motives or direct statements always intrigue me! Probably because I find myself doing that too! Some would say, God is God and that is just the way it is! You don't question Him. I agree that GOd is God and that is just the way it is, but I think He loves our questions when brought with the right heart! He wants us to know Him intimatly, and how will we do that without asking the hard questions?! But the next part is what is the best!
God doesn't say, "Away with you mear man! I am God and I will do as I wish whether righteous or unrighteous!" No, not my God! He responds (vs 26), "So if I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, ehtn I will spare the whole place on their account." Wow! He listened to Abraham! He agreed to spare the whole city because of just 50 (there are a month of Sundays of lessons in that one little thought!). But it gets better!
Abraham had the guts to go even farther! Verse 27-28 tells us that Abraham apologizes for talking to the Lord because his is but "dust and ashes", but he goes ahead and asks if five were missing from the city? Would God destroy a whole city because of five? And once again, God concedes! He agrees to spare the entire city if he finds only 45 righteous people. It goes on and on like this until Abraham gets down to 10! God agrees to spare the whole city if He can find just 10 righteous people!
Now the sad ending is that not 10 could be found....God allowed Lot and his wife to escape (she is the one who looked back and became a pillar of salt). Out of a whole city not 10 righteous could be found! Sadly, I wonder what God would find in our town in the US today!
That is not the part I love about this story though...the part I love is a man who would stand before God, be real, and ask the tough questions! I am off to ask some tough questions myself!
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Our bible study small group has been studying in Genesis (just did ch. 25 last night). That was something too that has struck us about Abraham-He is real with God. He also wasn't perfect but God used him and his faith continued to grow.
Julie
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