And the LORD went his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham: and Abraham returned unto his place.
I would not interrupt the Reader with either references or remarks, through the whole of this sweet prayer, and now only at the end of it, beg the Reader to determine, how it was the communion broke off, since God was so gracious and Abraham so successful: Did the patriarch conclude, that if less than Ten righteous persons were in Sodom, the place ought not to have been saved: or, was it that the decree having gone forth, God restrained prayer in his servant? See Jeremiah 7:16 and Jeremiah 11:14. But what a delightful consideration it is, that though Abraham gave over interceding, Jesus never doth. And though Abraham could not find ten, nor even one righteous man in Sodom to save that city from destruction; yet Jehovah himself hath found One in the Sodom of our earth, for whose sake he hath spared, and will everlastingly spare, his redeemed. Yes! the Lord hath laid help upon One that is mighty, whose name is Wonderful. Jesus hath been found tabernacling in our nature, by whose perfect obedience and death, he hath magnified the divine law, and made it honourable, and hath brought in an everlasting righteousness, which is unto all, and upon all, that believe. Oh! blessed be God for Jesus Christ!
REFLECTIONS.
How sweet were those days of primitive simplicity, when men were in the habit of enjoying intercourse of friendship with Angels. And if (as there seems great reason to suppose), one of those celestial visitors which called on Abraham, was indeed the Son of God, in an human form; what a charming evidence doth it give of favour and condescension on the part of God, and of happiness on the part of man.
But stop, my soul! pause over the thought, and remark with suitable joy and thankfulness, the far happier state of the Church in the present hour, among those highly favoured saints unto whom the Lord Jesus manifests himself, otherwise than he doth to the world Since those days of Abraham, the Son of God hath come down, not merely in the form, but really and truly man, and dwelt among us. And his gracious visits have been, not as in the earlier ages when his name was secret, but to everyone unto whom his blessed Spirit hath made him known, and they have seen his glory: the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
In beholding the patriarch Abraham drawing near and pleading with God for Sodom, who can forbear to call to mind that precious character of the Lord Jesus; or overlook that gracious Intercessor with God for his people, whom the Father heareth alway. My soul! never, I charge thee, forget thy Jesus, in this his High-Priestly office. Only for thy comfort recollect, that though Abraham's mediation was not successful, such can never be the issue of the Redeemer's pleading. He ever liveth to make intercession. And oh! the blessedness of that assurance: he is able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by him.