The Prayer of Abraham for Lot
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
1. The Lord appeared unto Abraham. As we approach this remarkable 18th chapter of Genesis we do not find the first time that the Lord ever appeared unto Abraham. The norm of Abraham's life was "walking with God." This constant fellowship with the Lord, made possible the special occasions where God came down and talked to Abraham as one talketh face to face.
2. The Lord appeared unto Abraham as he sat in his tent door. Had Abraham been a city dweller, as was Lot, it had been, perhaps, an impossible thing for the Lord to thus have come to His servant. As we become entangled with many things we become too much engrossed for speaking to the Lord.
3. The Lord appeared unto Abraham in the plains of Mamre. Mamre, means "fatness." It is always a fat place where the Lord appears to us. The old song says, "A sweet perfume upon the breeze, Is borne from ever vernal trees." That is always so it is a place of fatness and of fragrance when the Lord walks with us. Our winter is turned into summer and our thorns into roses when He is there.
4. The Lord appeared unto Abraham as a welcomed Guest. In all eagerness Abraham ran to meet his Heavenly Visitors, for two Angels accompanied the Lord. Abraham bowed himself to the ground and said, "Pass not away, * * from Thy servant: let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash, * * and rest, * * and I will fetch a morsel of bread."
Are we always glad to entertain the Lord? Many saints never seem to know that He is near. The Holy Spirit is our Holy Guest (Guest is the old thought in the word "Ghost"). If He is our Guest, is He a recognized, honored, acceptable Guest; or is He left forsaken and alone among the cobwebs of the basement or garret of our lives neglected and alone?
5. The Lord appeared unto Abraham and renewed His covenant with him. The Lord told Abraham that Sarah should soon have a son. Sarah, who was in the tent, laughed. Her laugh was unlike the laugh of Abraham who in our last study laughed with joy and anticipation over the anticipated birth of Isaac. Sarah's laugh was the laugh of doubt. Therefore, the Lord said, "Wherefore did Sarah laugh?"
Beloved, we may smile at Sarah's incredulity, but we assure you that our "laughter" in no way pleases the Lord. When God speaks we should be willing to accept His Word as true, without any skeptical doubtings. Unbelief is black with the frown of God. Faith is His pleasure. God honors faith and welcomes those who trust Him.
I. TO WHOM GOD SHOWS HIS SECRETS (Genesis 18:17)
1. God tells His plans to those who are His servants. There is a verse in Revelation 1:1, which reads: "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to shew unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass."
God shows to His servants. The word, is "bondslaves." If we then would know God's will and way we must be His recognized and obedient followers. Why should God tell the world what He has told us? In Matthew, chapter 13, Christ said, "It is given unto you to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but unto them it is not given."
2. God tells His plans to those who obey His voice. Here it is, "Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord." What good is there in telling your will to one who will reject to follow? That would be no more than casting pearls before swine.
The call of the Lord is, "Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." Then with the body and its members presented, ready to do God's will, what will happen? Here it is: "That ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."
3. God tells His plan to those who seek His face. Abraham welcomed his Lord. He walked with Him. He delighted in the most intimate fellowship with Him. Abraham was a friend of God. To him, therefore, God told what He was about to do. If we expect God to tell us His things we must walk in His presence.
II. GOD'S STATEMENT OF ABRAHAM'S COMING GREATNESS (Genesis 18:18)
1. God foresaw Abraham's national prowess. God said, "Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation." The future lay before God in just as clear a profile as the past could ever lie before us. God sees that which shall be as though it were.
The great architect plans every detail of some uplifting skyscraper that will catch the admiring gaze of thousands of human eyes. I, for instance, could not see that tremendous building all completed before the first spade has started to remove the dirt for its foundation. However, the architect could and does see it as it will stand completed before the plans for the building are ever turned over to the contractor.
Cannot God, with far more accuracy than a human builder, see His masterful purposes and plans as though they were already a historical fact, millenniums before they are actually realized? Certainly He can.
2. God foresaw Abraham a world-wide blessing through Christ, his Seed according to the flesh. God knew that out of the loins of Abraham Christ should come, so far as His human genealogy was concerned. God knew that Abraham, in Christ, and by Christ would be a blessing to every nation tinder the Heavens. He knew that all nations would be subservient to that one nation, of which Christ should be its last and lasting King.
Now we understand greater depths to God's statement, "Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?" God seemed to be saying, "Why not tell Abraham inasmuch as he is so closely related to those great and matchless purposes of Mine which shall eventually bring the Eternal Son down to earth?"
Beloved, let us stop and wonder! We mere worms of the dust are yet twined and intertwined into the eternal purposes of God for all ages. Let us reverently bow the head and worship.
III. GOD'S STATEMENT OF ABRAHAM'S IMMEDIATE FAMILY LIFE (Genesis 18:19)
1. God knew Abraham's parental integrity. God did not alone take cognizance of Abraham's far-flung future greatness, and of Abraham as he was related to the human lineage of Christ, as Son of Mary. God also knew the personal fidelity of Abraham to his immediate relationship as father to the family from whom those future blessings would flow. God even entered into Abraham's personal family life, and said, "I know him, that he will command his children * * after him."
Does God not likewise enter into our own individual heart life, and home life? Does He not observe us on our knees as we plead for our sons and our daughters at the throne of grace? Does He not see us as we talk to them and seek to direct them in the ways of God Almighty? Yes, God not only observes these human relationships, but He is tremendously interested in them. God does not see us hall so much as we are at church and under the eye of the public as He sees its in the inner life of our own domiciles.
2. God knew Abraham's faithful dealings with his children would make it possible to bring upon him all those things which He had spoken to him. Here is a new sidelight to God's promises to Abraham. Much was dependent upon Abraham himself and upon the behaviour of Abraham's children. Sons and daughters may, by their erring ways, hinder God's blessings toward their parents. God proposes, yet, in many things, man interposes.
Man. may hinder God's workings. Where? In those places where God makes Himself dependent upon our faithfulness. There are many things which God would do for us, which He cannot do because we hinder Him by our perfidy. Listen to this Scripture: "And He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief." Who could not do works? Christ. Why could He not do works? Because of their unbelief. He could not, because they did not believe.
IV. THE INSIDE VIEW OF AN ANCIENT FAMILY (Proverbs 4:3-4)
1. The ruling passion of the home should be love. With what depth of meaning do the words sound forth, "I was my father's son." Every son is, of course, the son of his father. There is here, however, a throbbing touch on Solomon's heartstrings, as he wrote: "I was my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother."
Let us go into Abraham's home. He loved Ishmael. On one occasion Abraham cried to God, "O that Ishmael might live before Thee!" As for Isaac, the son of Abraham's old age, he was the love of his heart. Nor was that all. Isaac loved Jacob, and Jacob loved his sons. God give us love in our homes. A love that holds our household to God.
2. The father should be the teacher in the home. Solomon said of David, "He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words."
God said of Abraham, "He will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord."
In the volume of the Book it is written concerning God's Precepts: "Thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou riseth up." When parents take this command seriously and forcefully execute its instruction they will have no trouble in the future of their children.
We need family Christianity. Perhaps the greatest calamity that could have befallen our beloved country is the utter collapse of the old time Family Altar.
V. GOD'S REVELATION TO ABRAHAM (Genesis 18:20-21)
1. God's revelation of coming judgment. It was this of which God had said, "Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?" God proposed to let His servant know what He was about to do upon Sodom and Gomorrah.
I ask you to pass for a moment with me down through the centuries from that day to ours. If the cry of Sodom had come up before the Lord, has not the cry of our day likewise come up to Him? Christ said, "As it was in the days of Lot * * thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed." That our day equals the days of Lot in its wickedness and negation of God, we are satisfied. Indeed, in some parts of the country we fear that we have by far surpassed the sins of that day.
Here is what we want to ask, "If God did not hide from Abraham the coming destruction of Sodom, will He hide from us the coming destruction of this present cosmos?" We wist not.
In speaking of the coming destruction which the Day of the Lord will bring upon the ungodly, God says it will be when they say, peace and safety. God, however, also says, "But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief." At this very hour multiplied thousands of God's choicest saints are momentarily looking for their deliverance as the day of God's wrath upon a godless age hastens on.
2. God adjusts Himself to man's way of thinking. He said, "I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether," etc. God seemed to be saying to Abraham, that His decision to destroy Sodom was not hasty, nor premature. He seemed to express that He had given Sodom every opportunity to repent.
Moreover there seemed to be, to Abraham, a possibility of a reversal of judgment, providing a sufficient ground for merit might be found. This was, no doubt, the basis of Abraham's prayer which followed.
VI. TURNING THEIR FACES TOWARD SODOM (Genesis 18:22)
There were five definite looks toward Sodom.
1. There was the look of Lot. Lot's look was the look of self-advantage. He saw that the plains were well-watered toward Sodom. He saw that he had a splendid financial future by commerce with Sodom.
The result of Lot's look was that he pitched his tent toward Sodom. Where our treasure is, there will our heart be also; and soon, if we can work it out that way, our footsteps will lead us in that direction.
Lot realized the longings of his look toward Sodom. He achieved his desires and soon sat in the gate of Sodom as some great one.
2. There was the Lord's look. The Lord said I will see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it. God's look was the look of judgment, linked to mercy and opportunity.
We must remember that the cry of Nineveh also came up before the Lord. Then Jonah was sent down there to proclaim coming judgment. But that judgment was delayed when the Ninevites repented.
We have every reason to believe that if Sodom had repented upon the visit of the two Angels there had also been given to Sodom, at least a deference of judgment. When Abraham prayed for Sodom God proclaimed His willingness to spare the city if there were so many as ten righteous. However, there were not ten righteous. And, when the citizens of Sodom tried to drag God's Angels out to wreak upon them their villainy, full proof that the sin of Sodom was fully ripe was demonstrated.
3. There was the look of the angels. We read, "And the Men rose up * * and looked toward Sodom." As they went Abraham went with them to bring them on their way. The patriarch did not know the objective of that visit of the angels. Perhaps he thought it was a visit to his nephew, Lot.
However, we know that the look of the Angels was a look of judgment to be immediately executed. However, not altogether of judgment, but also of deliverance. Of judgment to Sodom, and of deliverance to Lot.
Here is a tremendous message. God does not destroy the righteous with the wicked. As we pen these words we are reminded of the "As it was in the days of Lot, thus shall it be." Truly, if God in Lot's day spared Lot, a righteous man, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked, will He not also spare saints at His Coming? The fact is, God hath not appointed us unto wrath.
There are some who think that the Church will enter the Tribulation. If that be so, they cannot pass through it, for the simple reason that when God pours out the vial of His wrath we are not and cannot be subjects to wrath.
Saints may feel the terrific onslaught of the wrath of men. In the world they do have tribulation. Nevertheless, when God judges the world and casts down His fire from Heaven, He will not suffer the world-hated and world-persecuted believer to feel the keen edge of His sword.
4. There was the look of Lot's wife. More of this will be developed in another study. Just now we wish to say one thing. Let us never allow ourselves to become so entangled in the affairs of this life that we will loath to leave it.
5. There was the look of Abraham. Here was the remorseful look of accepted conflagration and despoliation.
As Abraham looked toward Sodom, "Lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace." What feeling of pain must have filled his soul as Abraham saw everything that was Lot's swept from him. He loved Lot, and no doubt he had feared all along this very thing. Lot had been saved, to be sure, but he had been saved through the fire. He was saved, but all the work of a lifetime had gone up in the flames.
We need to remember that accompanied with the pouring out of those terrific judgments that will accompany the pouring out of the vials of wrath at the Lord's Coming, will be the judgment of the believer's works. The wicked will be overwhelmed by judgment. And, alas, how many of the saved out of the judgment will suffer the great loss of all that their life might have meant in spiritual acquisition and rewards, as they see themselves saved "so as by fire."
AN ILLUSTRATION
"' A father cannot forget how many children he hath. He that leadeth us by the hand wherever we go knoweth where and how we go.' This is a very simple statement, but exceedingly full of consolation. We, being evil, do not forget our children; we know our own, and do not omit even the last little one from our tender memory; how much more shall our Heavenly Father think upon all His own, and have them under His watchful eye! It is a pleasure to us to think of our children, for they are parts of ourselves. We could almost as soon cease to be as cease to remember them. Our Father above is all a Father can be and more: we are poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon us.
It were well if the converse of all this were true. We, alas! as children, too often forget our Father, and bear ourselves towards Him otherwise than is meet. If we treated our God as good children do a loving father, our conduct towards Him would lead us to a holy, happy life. We should long to be with Him, and to be happy in His company; we should be jealous for the honor of His Name, and feel pleased when we hear others extol Him. He would be our rest, confidence, pattern, love, and delight. Miss Havergal, in her own sweet way, has worked out the ideal treatment of a father, and we can readily spiritualize it."
'How do you love your Father?
Oh, in a thousand ways!
I think there's no one like Him
So worthy of my praise.
I tell Him all my troubles,
And ask Him what to do;
I know that He will give to me
His counsel kind and true.'