Abraham Argues with God

Dei Break

Genesis 18:16 through 19:29

After dinner and fellowship God revealed His true identity to Abraham, and His plans for the evil cites of the plain (18:17).

Then God allowed Abraham to plead for the people living there (18:23). Could Abraham argue God out of His plan, or was the discussion a learning opportunity? Teachers know that allowing students to think through a problem on their own will result in a well-learned truth. God knew what He would do, but how much did Abraham learn about God's mercy and his own love for people through his pleading?

Unbelievably, Lot thought that hospitality demanded that he offer his virgin daughters to a mob in exchange for his guests (19:8). After seeing a miracle in the night (19:11), and hearing that his city would be destroyed, Lot and his family still had to be dragged from Sodom (19:16). His sons-in-law chose to stay and die. Why did they hesitate? Could it be that they just grew comfortable living in the midst of great sin? What do you think? Even though we sometimes know that sin is dangerous to us, do we hesitate to separate ourselves from its influence? Why?

Jesus mentioned Lot's wife in Luke 17:26-33. It sounds as though her heartfelt wish was to return. She was suddenly overtaken by the destruction when her heart caused her to slow her flight (19:26).

Did the cities of the valley ever exist? For centuries historians claimed that they were fictional, created by the writer to teach a moral lesson, but it turns out that the cities did exist! Though no physical trace of them has been confirmed (backing the Bible's description of their absolute destruction), trade records containing their names have been found.

God's mercy saved Lot, even as he argued with his rescuers. Today, God still calls us to avoid sin and to stand for Christ, but He also pours out His love and grace upon us, forgiving us for our failures and enabling us to try each day to live out His love.

Next time: He Does It Again!

Comments

[Claude Mariottini]

Thank you for your post on Abraham. You will be interested to know that today in my blog, I have a brief study on Abraham and God in Genesis 18:22, "Does God Wait On Us?"

Thank you for linking my blog to your blog. In a few days I will link your blog to mine.

Claude Mariottini

[Sue]

As you said, Carole, homosexuality is a sin, as is adultery, gossip, lying, stealing, murder, etc. It's pretty hard to read the story of Sodom in context and deny that one of the evils in the city was rampant homosexuality.
The argument that homosexuality is not a sin is generally based on the idea that since today's society has determined that being gay is not a sin, it isn't; that it may have been a sin in ancient culture, but not now. After all, wouldn't we all like to believe that our sin is really not sin?
I think that two major problems face Christians today in witnessing God's love to homosexuals. First there is the idea that the lifestyle is not sinful. The second is that many Christians go into attack mode when it comes to homosexuals.
The Gospels make it pretty clear that Jesus loved sinners into His kingdom. The hostile attitude of some homosexuals, and other groups, toward Christianity does not excuse Christians from presenting a loving, as well as honest, witness to all people. We witness the truth of our salvation by God's grace through His Son by being Jesus to those around us. As you said, Praise God for His grace! Without it, we would all be lost. Without His love in our witness, we are merely clanging cymbals.

[carole]

I've always thought that the fate of the two cities was God's punishmnent for the sin of homosexuality - not that this sin is greater than any other or more deserving of condemnation. But it IS a sin. How can one argue otherwise given this passage or 1Cor 6:9, etc? People practising homosexuality are people God loves and wants to redeem, just like all other sinners, myself included most definitely. Praise God for His grace! Care to broach the topic of homosexuality as a sin?