Genesis 18: I Think He Should Have Kept Praying Instead of Stopping Short

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It's his word that transforms and you will find more and see more than I can ever articulate. Welcome to chapter by chapter and today's chapter is Genesis 18. We have in this chapter a rare moment of man talking to the Lord and the Lord responding to man in a prayer conversation. Abraham is asking the Lord what would it take to not destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. The prayer sounded like negotiations. The prayer even sounded like an auctioneer. Abraham was told God was going to destroy this exceedingly wicked city and something moved Abraham's heart to pray to the Lord who is in front of him. Abraham would ask God how many righteous people do you need in Sodom to spare Sodom. This is how the prayer negotiations went in Genesis 1822. Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom while Abraham was still standing before the Lord. Abraham came near and said, "Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?" Suppose there are 50 righteous within the city. Will you indeed sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the 50 righteous who are in it? Far be it from me for you to do such a thing to slay the righteous with the wicked so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from you shall not the judge of all the earth deal justly. So the Lord said, "If I find in Sodom 50 righteous within the city, then I'll spare the whole place on their account." And Abraham replied, "Now behold, I venture to speak to the Lord, although I'm just but dust and ashes." Suppose that 50 righteous are lacking five. Will you destroy the whole city because of five? And he said, "I will not destroy the five-fine 45 there." He spoke to him again and he said, "Suppose 40 are found there." And he said, "I will not do it on account of the 40." Then he said, "Abraham said, "Oh, may the Lord not be angry." And I shall speak, "Suppose 30 are found there." And God said, "I will not do it if 30 are found there." And he said, "Now behold, I venture to speak to the Lord." Suppose 20 are found there and he said, "I will not destroy it on the account of 20." Then he said, "Oh, may the Lord not be angry." And I shall speak only this once. Suppose 10 are found there and he said, "I will not destroy it on the account of 10." As soon as he had finished speaking to Abraham, the Lord departed and Abraham returned to his place. The prayer of Abraham was to spare Sodom from judgment. So he started with if there were 50 righteous men, could judgment be stopped? And God said, "Yes." Then it went to 45, then to 40, then to 30, then to 20. And the last number was 10. Were there more numbers that should have been presented to the Lord? What if Abraham got down to one? I'm not trying to bring condemnation onto Abraham, but I do want to think out loud for a moment. Think of these words for just a moment in Genesis 1820. So the Lord told Abraham, "I've heard that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah are utterly evil and that everything they do is wicked. I'm going down to see whether these reports are true or not, then I will know." And then I thought of these words in Genesis 1832. And God said, "For the sake of 10, I won't destroy it." And the Lord went on his way when he had finished his conversation with Abraham. My question is, did God destroy Sodom because of its utter evilness, or did he destroy it because Abraham stopped asking, should he have gotten down to one righteous man? Why is the number one so important? Well, I thought of a New Testament passage. And second Peter chapter 2, this story is recounted and we see one huge word in this passage. Let me read second Peter 2 6. And if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter. And if he rescued righteous lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprinciple men, for by what he saw and heard, that righteous man while living among them felt his righteous soul three times, tormented day after day by their lawless deeds, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment. The Bible says God rescued righteous lot. We know for sure lot was flawed and had his problems, but we are told here he was righteous. We now know there was one righteous man in Sodom. I think maybe, just maybe, Abraham should have kept praying instead of stopping short. I can't get these words out of my mind in Genesis 1833 and the Lord went on his way when he had finished his conversation with Abraham. Was the conversation really finished? Should it have gone from 10 to 5 to 1? I kind of have a pit in my stomach that it should have, because it wasn't that God did not stop answering. It seemed that Abraham stopped asking, oh God, don't let me stop short in prayer. God don't let me miss asking for more compassion on renegades, backsliders, atheists, and those who are opposed to Christianity. I am haunted by the sentence of one of my favorite Christian writers from the 19th century, F.B. Meyer, when he said these words, "The greatest tragedy in life is not unanswered prayer, but unoffered prayer." Thank you for joining chapter by chapter. Every chapter from the greatest book of the Bible, the Word of God, seven minutes a day, seven days a week. We'll see you tomorrow.