Genesis
18:20-33
August 3, 2014
Then the Lord said,
“How great is the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah and how very grave their
sin! I must go down and see whether they have done altogether according to the
outcry that has come to me; and if not, I will know.” So the men turned from
there, and went toward Sodom, while Abraham remained standing before the Lord.
Then Abraham came
near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?
Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will you then sweep away the
place and not forgive it for the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from
you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous 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?” And the Lord said, “If I find at Sodom fifty
righteous in the city, I will forgive the whole place for their sake.” Abraham
answered, “Let me take it upon myself to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust
and ashes. 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.” Again he spoke to him, “Suppose forty are found there.” He
answered, “For the sake of forty I will not do it.” Then he said, “Oh do not
let the Lord be angry if I speak. Suppose thirty are found there.” He answered,
“I will not do it, if I find thirty there.” He said, “Let me take it upon
myself to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there.” He answered, “For
the sake of twenty I will not destroy it.” Then he said, “Oh do not let the
Lord be angry if I speak just once more. Suppose ten are found there.” He
answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.” And the Lord went his
way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham; and Abraham returned to his
place.
I’ve always found our passage to be fascinating for so
many reasons. First off, it’s not the kind of conversation we would imagine ourselves
having with God. We would be much more formal. Abraham’s pretty gutsy. He
really challenges God to not do what God had decided to do. Second, it suggests
that Abraham knows more what’s right than God. Who is he to second-guess God? That
takes courage.
I also find the passage fascinating because of what it
says about our relationship with God. It shows a deep part of what our
relationship with God is supposed to be like.
To put it bluntly, we are supposed to
bargain, beg, and befriend God. Often our prayers lack passion. They lack zeal.
They lack intensity. I suppose that part of the reason for that lack is the
church’s fault. For centuries church prayers have been so formal, so flowery,
and so poetic that many people wonder if our prayers much match up. The fact
that we pastors are basically professional pray-ers makes it difficult for non-clergy
to believe that God listens to amateurs. But God does, and Abraham is the
proof.
What amateur prayers offer that professional prayers
often don’t is a passion that binds us to God, like Abraham’s did. Too often we
clergy don’t prayer with passion. And the story of Abraham begging for Sodom is
one of passion and zeal.
The passage is part of a larger story. God has just told
Abraham and Sarah that, despite their old age, they will have a son. God then
has to leave to lay judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah. Both have been terrible
places of sin. Abraham apparently accompanies him because he is there to beg
and bargain with God over Sodom’s fate. Abraham has a vested interest in Sodom.
His nephew, Lot, lives there with his family. Lot is a good and righteous man,
and his family is good. The problem is that Sodom is like an ancient Las Vegas.
What happens in Sodom may stay in Sodom, but God is ready to permanently lay
waste to Sodom as a result. I suppose this means that there are at least ten
righteous in Las Vegas. Sodom is a vile place where people give into their most
base appetites, desires, and urges.
So Abraham begs: “What if there are 50 righteous people
there. Will God spare it? What about 45? 40? 30? 20? 10?” God agrees not to
destroy it if ten righteous men are found. Angels go to Sodom to test the city.
When they appear, the men of the city want to brutalize them. Lot protects
them, and in the end the angels offer to help Lot, his wife, his daughters, and
their husbands and fiancés to escape.
Unfortunately, this passage often gets misused by
Christians caught up in our culture wars. They use the passage to make their
case against homosexuality, but that’s not the passage’s point. Sodom isn’t
destroyed because it is filled with homosexuals. The problem of Sodom and
Gomorrah was the same problem cited in the Noah story. The people had ignored
God, and had devolved into people living at an animal level. They are all about
power, satisfying desires and urges, and living at the beck and call of their
instincts. They have no desire to transcend their animal nature to open up to
the spiritual.
The men of Sodom didn’t want to rape the angels because
they were homosexuals. They wanted to rape the angels for the same reason men
are often raped in prisons. It’s a way to get people to submit to the alpha
male’s dominance. The men of Sodom wanted to brutalize the angels because they
saw them as threats. They were animals trying to make these unwelcome visitors
submit. God destroys Sodom because it has become a place where people focusing only
on satisfying their passions, their desires, their lusts, and their dominance,
not on God. What it shows is that this kind of selfishness and the brutal need
for power is an age-old problem.
The key to understanding this passage, and to the story
of Sodom and Gomorrah, is not so much a moral lesson, but a spiritual one. Like
much of the Bible, it is a story about our relationship with God, and on how to
bind ourselves to God. And within the story are a number of important lessons
from this passage.
First, Abraham’s
focus was on others, not himself. This is really important because it says
something about how and what we pray for. Often our most passionate prayers are
just for ourselves. We pray with passion for our needs, our desires, and our
dreams. Abraham is mostly praying with that passion for people he doesn’t even
know, and who would brutalize him without thought if he visited them. He’s not
just praying for Lot because he knows that Lot can leave the city. He was
praying with passion for people who were reprehensible and terrible. Abraham
truly incarnated God’s love, and this is what made him great. He was passionate
about what was right for others, not just himself.
Second, Abraham was
persistent with God. Too often we aren’t. When our prayers aren’t answered
right away, we give up and take it upon ourselves to do what needs to be done.
Abraham is like a pit bull. He won’t let go: “what about 50? 45? 40? 30? 20?
10?” That’s a model for us. Just because our prayers aren’t answered quickly
doesn’t mean God doesn’t answer. Only half of our prayers’ purpose is to get us
to get God to answer. Another half is that when we pray persistently, it binds
us even more to God in the same way that pursuing a loved one binds us more
that that person.
Finally, God works
in God’s ways, not ours, to ultimately achieve what we want. If you look at
this passage on its surface, Sodom’s destruction either means there weren’t ten
righteous men, or that God decided to destroy it anyway. That’s not actually
the case. In the end, God didn’t save the city, but God did try to save the ten
righteous. If you count up Lot, his wife, his daughters, and their
husbands/fiancés, they come to about ten. And the angels tried to usher them
out of the city. The three husbands/fiancés decided to stay, and Lot’s wife
didn’t follow the instructions of the angels, but God tried. God may not answer
just how we want, but God always answers at the deeper levels to what needs to
happen. So God didn’t save the city on behalf of the ten righteous people. God tried
to save the ten righteous people.
The wisdom of this story is a wisdom that says that when
we are passionately connected to God, our lives are saved and safe. The
question I’d like to have you reflect on is this: How passionate is your
connection?
Amen.
