(Written
by Sheila Gail Landgraf)
After
The Lord and the angels had given Abraham and Sarah the good news that they
were soon going to have a son, they turned toward Sodom and Gomorrah. The glad tidings for Abraham and Sarah had
been the pleasant part of their journey.
They had a mission and The Lord thought maybe He should explain this mission to His
friend Abraham who was now walking them to the road.
Perhaps
the visit with Abraham and evidence that he had truly repented and turned and
was not caught unaware or unprepared for The Lord Himself to visit his home had
pleased God. Perhaps it had given God
enough hope that He did not feel the need to destroy the whole earth again. Isn't it amazing to think that God too needs hope? How tragic that He must look for it in people. Only God living inside of people can bring this about. Fortunately, God saw His Spirit living inside of Sarah and Abraham. It must have made His heart glad. It had brought enough hope that God had
granted them a son and a way to increase the people who followed God in the future.
The
things that were being reported from Sodom and Gomorrah were in total contrast
to the godly way that Abraham was living. Satan had been hard at work stealing souls in the land.
The
Lord pondered the fact that Abraham was a righteous man and he would raise his
family to be righteous and nations would come to the earth that were righteous
from them. He was pleased with the state
of Abraham’s life. Yes it gave God
pleasure; but He also thought it would be good for Abraham to know the
consequences of grievous sins and what became of those who chose that
path. He had shown these things to Adam and Eve after the fact, He would show them to Abraham BEFORE the fact. He spoke to Abraham telling him
that the cries of the prayers of the people in the cities around Sodom and Gomorrah
had risen to heaven. The people of Sodom
and Gomorrah were very wicked and their sin was great. So great was their sin and so hopeless was
the state of their hearts that they must be destroyed and not exist on the
earth anymore.
What
were these horrible sins? Abraham didn't even have to ask. He had probably seen first hand from visits to Lot how this was going. Greed was
probably the most evident and prevalent. They were
greedy, selfish people living wasteful and unproductive lives. They gave no thought to the future generations. Homosexuality, adultery and fornication were
everywhere. There were no morals. The hope of a strong family unit living under
the ways of God was virtually impossible in the area of Sodom and
Gomorrah. Everywhere you turned there
was the stench of filth and evil. People
idolizing themselves and their own bodies, with no respect at all for God or
God’s ways. They had each chosen their
own paths and those paths were taking humanity straight to self
destruction. It was all an abomination
to God. He detested seeing the good
creatures that He had created become evil and perverse. He knew the father of all lies was the cause of it and God knew that these people had chosen to follow the greatest liar of all time. They did not believe in God, not one of them. Lot had possibly tried to talk to them, but not one had listened or turned. They chose their evil. They cherished it actually, even above their own lives.
God would not let the earth be completely covered with
evil again. He would remove the cancer
before it grew this time. The fire and
the brimstone that would burn up every trace of these civilizations was being
held back until God could personally examine the circumstances and see for
Himself that they were true. He is a righteous judge. He calls evil evil and good good. He saw more
evidence than He had ever wanted to see.
It must have broken His heart.
He sent
the two angels ahead of him and he spoke longer with His dear friend Abraham. Abraham had questions:
“But
Lord, will you destroy the righteous with the wicked?” he asked. “What if there are 50 righteous men
in the city? Will you not spare the city
for their sake?” Abraham’s greatest gift
was his compassion for others. Perhaps
too, he was thinking of his hopeless nephew Lot who never made the right
decisions in spite of all of Abraham’s persuasions. Abraham had rescued him so many times
now. Need he have to do this again? And how many times after this? Perhaps Abraham understood a taste of how God
could become impatient with mankind because of his dealings with his nephew
Lot. Still he loved him and still he
stood up for him. Abraham kept trying to
persuade God to be merciful to these sinners.
Abraham
was even bold enough to say: “Shall the
judge of all the earth do not righteousness?”
He was implying that God had commanded righteousness and perfect justice
and if he destroyed the righteous with the wicked that it would not be fair at
all.
The
Lord knew and understood what Abraham was saying. He had already pondered this question and had
already made the decision. He was
God. He knew what He was going to find,
His going was simply to display his righteousness to mankind who has such a
limited understanding sometimes. “No Abraham, if I find 50 righteous men, I
will not destroy the city for their sake.”
Maybe
Abraham sighed a small sigh of relief here.
Dare he question the Lord further?
Fifty was a pretty big number, he very cautiously asked about 45, then
40, then 35, then 30, then 25, then 20.
The Lord must have been very amused at Abraham trying to whittle away at
saving the lives of hopeless men. God
must have also been pleased at the love and hope and compassion that Abraham had
for his fellowman. How God must have
WISHED to find 50, or 45 or even 20. He
patiently told Abraham each time he asked that he would not destroy the city if
he could find even 20 righteous men.
Then
Abraham questioned God one last time and asked if he would save the city if He
could only find 10 good and righteous men.
God assured Abraham that he would spare the whole city even if He could
only find 10 good and righteous men.
Perhaps
this is where the Hebraic people came up with the idea of a minion. A minion is a count of 10. It takes 10 or more people (a minion) to form
a proper synagogue. Jewish families were
based on using rules formed by a minion of 10 or more respected family leaders
that made up the governing of the family affairs. The oldest righteous father was always the head of the minion.
The sons followed the wisdom of their
fathers. The children and the wives
responded to the headship of godly men, and the input of the women was welcomed
and respected.
I had a
personal epiphany here. I counted up the
members of my immediate family, my husband and me, our four children, their
mates and their children. We are now
10. We are now a minion! In pondering this I got the concept of how
many families left on earth that believe in God and how many of them could bring
their families to righteousness before God if each family started with their own
home. I think this is truly God’s
intention. It all starts with the family sanctuary and spreads into the world that way. We have 10. Once God spared cities if only 10 godly people were living in them. This gives me great hope when I look around our evil world. How many in your family? Every soul counts! Each saved soul that is living for the Kingdom of Heaven is part of a number that adds up to 10 that spares judgement for a city! Consider this! It is amazing to think about.
It is not about random acts of kindness folks; it is totally about the intentional following of God. There is NOTHING random about this. It is a choice. This was
what Abraham and Sarah had done. They had brought themselves first, then their whole household under the submission of God. This is
what pleased God so much that He PERSONALLY visited the tents of Abraham. Can you imagine how awesome that is? It is totally possible for you today. All you have to do is turn, repent, believe and follow. God never leaves His own stranded or alone. He will always be there for you, just as He was there for Abraham and Sarah.
There
was no minion to be found in Sodom and Gomorrah. Except for the home of Lot, the family units living in that area were completely broken and perverted. When
the angels arrived on the scene it was obvious there was not one godly man left
in these cities, except for the weakened state of the one called Lot who was
Abraham’s nephew.
It was Lot that the
angels greeted first. They were probably thinking
of Abraham and approached Lot with mercy and grace. Lot, after all, had not fallen into the
numerous evil sins that surrounded him on all sides, though they probably
affected his family and his lifestyle more than he realized. This was counted to him for righteousness. He simply loved the lush area where he
lived. He was a city dweller and did not
do well in the countryside. Lot had a
lot of flaws, but he was not totally evil like those that lived on all sides of
him in this awful city. I guess you could say God still had hopes for Lot. He could go one way or the other, but he had not completely given himself over to evil. Lot was a lot like our watered down Christians today. He knew what was right, avoided extreme evil but did not worry too much about it as long as it wasn't under his own roof. There is a difference in foolishness and carelessness and evil. Lot was not evil, like those around him, but he was careless and foolish. God can help the careless and the foolish if they chose to turn. God cannot help those who consistently chose evil.
This simple fact was what saved him from destruction, but it was a close escape, and there were
consequences from living in a sinful place that Lot could never go back and undo or change or correct, even after he fled with an angel on each side of him. His bad choices would bring him grief and loss. It was his choice just the same. Once again the righteousness of Abraham prevailed over the foolishness of Lot. The angels looking out over the lush city ruined by depravity urged Lot to escape.
