And now we come to one of the stories that we all know, or think we do, anyway: Sodom and Gomorrah.

On the other hand, I don’t remember hearing many sermons preached about Sodom and Gomorrah, because—after all—what do we learn from this event?

I’ve heard people invoke Sodom and Gomorrah when preaching against homosexuality. Granted: that’s what Sodom is most famous for, having lent it’s name to aberrant behavior which still exists today. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Sodom’s problem is the problem we read about a couple chapters ago that would eventually inflict the entire Amorite people: a complete abandonment of God and all that’s right.

God told Abraham three chapters ago that the Amorite wickedness hadn’t yet reached its full “potential”, and that potential would lead to their ultimate destruction. Sodom and Gomorrah, though, they’ve reached that point now.

Genesis 18:16-33

I want you to notice that God does something here he’s done before. Remember back in Genesis chapter 11, the people were building the tower of Babel. God went down among them to see their rebellion. Here, again, God is going to go among the people of Sodom and Gomorrah to see first hand their wickedness.

I don’t think God has to do this. He knows men’s hearts. He can see all that’s going on. He knows how wicked S&G have become. But he re-establishes a precedent for us (one that he re-affirms over and over): make sure of the facts before pronouncing judgment.

How many times have I made a snap judgment about a person or an event, only to find myself in the wrong? A wrong that could have been easily averted if I had just paid attention first.

And, while we’re admiring Abraham, check out verses 17-18.

Psalm 8:4
what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? (ESV)

Imagine being let in on God’s plans?!?!

And then, Abraham, shows himself to be one of the boldest men in history. He bargains with God. Now, maybe some of us have done that. God, if you’ll heal my child I’ll go to church all the time. God, if you’ll do this for me, I’ll do something for you.

Abraham makes an appeal that’s strictly based on the nature of God. How does Abraham know the nature of God? Because he’s been walking with him for 99 years now.

I think a lot of us would like to have the conversation with God. But we’re really unqualified. We don’t know God as well as Abraham and God does not have the reason to trust us as much as he trusted Abraham.

What does Abraham appeal to? It’s only partially to a sense of justice. Abraham appeals to God’s love of people.

Abraham knows what S&G are like. He doesn’t plea for them on the basis that they don’t deserve punishment. He knows they do. But he is also confident that God doesn’t want to punish the innocent.

And God agrees. I don’t think it’s because Abraham is such a persuasive arguer as it is that Abraham knows God’s nature. God agrees that if there are 50 righteous in Sodom, he will spare the cities of the plains. We don’t know for sure how many people lived in Sodom, but it was probably into the thousands. Thousands of wicked people, but God will commute their sentence for the sake of 50 righteous people.

2 Peter 3:9b
He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (NIV)

We’ve got enough wickedness in Dumas that God would be entirely within his rights to destroy the town. As I’ve said before, though, maybe his wrath is held back by the righteous that are here. Not righteous by our own doing, but righteous because we have been washed in the blood of Jesus.

If statistics are correct, on any given Sunday, only about 16% of the population of Dumas is in church. The same is true for most other towns in the United States. Why doesn’t God destroy the U.S. for all of our wickedness? Because of the righteous that are here. Righteous because of Jesus’s blood, not our own good selves.

Then, Abraham gets really bold! He asks God if he will still destroy the city if there are five less righteous. It’s an interesting negotiating ploy. Abraham acts like the argument is about 5 people, but really, he hasn’t established that there are 45 righteous people in Sodom, yet. This is like the guy that goes to the store where they’re having a buy one plate for $5 and get the second plate for $4 and he tries to buy the $4 plate first. God sees through the ploy and makes it clear they’re negotiating about 45, doesn’t rebuke Abraham for the tactic, and then says he will spare the city for the sake of 45 righteous.

Matthew 13:24-30
Jesus told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. "The owner's servants came to him and said, `Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?' "`An enemy did this,' he replied. "The servants asked him, `Do you want us to go and pull them up?' "`No,' he answered, `because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.'" (NIV)

Abraham’s familiar with Sodom, though. He knows there probably aren’t 45 righteous people in that down. “What about forty? … Thirty? Twenty? … Ten?”

I have often wondered why Abraham stopped there. Why not shoot for 5? Or, did Abraham know there weren’t ten righteous people in that town? Abraham knows his nephew lives in Sodom, so it’s possible he thought there were 10 good people in that town. Lot’s got a wife and at least two daughters. The reading is a little vague, though, so it’s possible that Lot had four daughters, two of whom were already married and two of whom were engaged. So Abe’s thinking there’s Lot, the wife, four daughters, two sons-in-law and two fiancés. Surely those ten aren’t completely worthless!

Or maybe Abraham figured he had pushed it as far as he could and—if there weren’t ten righteous people—maybe the town really did deserve what it was getting. So he drops the argument. He’s done what he could do.

And prayer has worked.

What?

Remember a couple weeks back when we had the silent prayer time in the worship service and I encouraged you to only say prayers of thanks? Sometimes that’s hard to do, isn’t it? We have so much we want to ask—good stuff, legitimate stuff, like sick relatives and out-of-work friends—that we forget what all we have to be thankful for. But remember when we tried it? I talked to a a lot of you, and 5 minutes turned out to not be long enough, didn’t it? Once we got rolling, we all had more to be thankful for.

What’s that got to do with Abraham and Sodom and Gomorrah? I have spent a lot of my prayer time trying to get God to do what I want. Like I say, some of it’s good and altruistic. But the ultimate purpose of prayer is not to bend God to our will.

The ultimate purpose of prayer is to shape us to God’s will!!

That’s what has happened here. Abraham’s thinking is in tune with God’s.

What do I DO with this?

We need to refocus our efforts on getting our thinking in tune with God’s. To start with, you need to know how God thinks. If you’re not reading your Bible, you won’t find out.

--Read you Bible every day
--Pray about what you read
--Seek God’s will (and not your own)