Rev. Don Campbell
THOUGHT FOR TODAY, JANUARY 17, 2019: BARGAINING WITH GOD [Gen 16-18]
Some have tried to make bargains with God, such as “If you allow my child to live, I will do such and such (a promise which is seldom kept). God does not bargain with us for our loyalty, but he did bargain with Abraham for the saving of Sodom: “So the men turned from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord. Then Abraham drew 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 spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? 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?’ And the Lord said, ‘If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.’ Abraham answered and said, ‘Behold, I have undertaken 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 and said, ‘Suppose forty are found there.’ He answered, ‘For the sake of forty I will not do it.’ 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.’ 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.’ 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.’ And the Lord went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place” (Gen 18:22-33).
Did Abraham quit bargaining at 10 because he was too embarrassed to continue, or was he confident that the Lord would find 10 righteous people? We don’t know. But we do know that the Lord did not find 10 righteous souls and Sodom was destroyed.
As bad as Sodom was it could sit in judgment on many cities, states, and nations on the day of judgment: “And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you” (Matt 11:23-24).
God judges nations and individuals according to the light given to them. But lesser condemnation is still condemnation: “For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority” (2 Pet 2:4-10).
Are our righteous souls tormented over the sins of the nation? What about our own personal sin?
CONNECTIONS
1. Have you ever bargained with God quid pro quo—you do this; I’ll do that? Recalling the words of Job, it is not the art of the deal with God. We simply trust that the judge of all the earth will do right? (Job 13:15)
2. Should we be praying, “God, bless America (or whatever country in which you may live); or, should we be praying with Ezra: “O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens” (Ezra 9:6)?
