LET’S MAKE A DEAL

Each time I read the story of Abraham and his worthless, conniving nephew Lot in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, I am amazed and shocked. First, it is Abraham the Negotiator. In Genesis 18:22ff is the Let’s Make A Deal with the Lord over the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave.”

Once Abraham heard this he asked the Lord: “Will you sweep away both the righteous and the wicked? Suppose you find fifty righteous people living there in the city—will you still sweep it away and not spare it for their sakes? Surely you wouldn’t do such a thing, destroying the righteous along with the wicked. Why, you would be treating the righteous and the wicked exactly the same! Surely you wouldn’t do that! Should not the Judge of all the earth do what is right?” (18:23-25) The story goes from Abraham asking for 50 people to 45, 40, 30, 20 and finally 10 “righteous people” and the Lord said, “Then I will not destroy it for the sake of the ten.” (18:32)

Abraham was not unlike an auctioneer, or a hostage negotiator, conflict resolution specialist or classic music radio announcer on Public Radio. How did he pull that off? He really pulled off nothing… he pulled on the grace of the Father.
(Tomorrow we will see even further… the grace for Lot and his family in Genesis 19)

“And the world will be as it was in the days of Lot. People went about their daily business—eating and drinking, buying and selling, farming and building—until the morning Lot left Sodom. Then fire and burning sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. Yes, it will be ‘business as usual’ right up to the day when the Son of Man is revealed.” Jesus