Today’s Scripture Reading (July 9, 2018): Genesis 18
Sometimes I wonder
if we read the Bible with the correct attitude. The Bible contains instructions
for life, but it also contains descriptions of just what happened. And
sometimes the descriptions come with little to warn us about what it is that
the Bible is really saying. The story of
Abraham and his three visitors is one of those stories.
According to the
story, the three visitors come to Abraham, and
they reveal to Abraham that God is considering the destruction of the cities of
the plain, not far from Abraham’s home. Since they revealed the information, it
is plausible that God wanted to watch
Abraham’s reaction to the holy proclamation. Abraham argues for the cities of
the plane. Starting at fifty righteous, he argues God down to ten righteous. If
there are ten righteous, then the cities would be saved.
What is important
about this story is the similarity that it has with a couple of other stories
in the Tanakh (Old Testament). Consider for a moment the story of Noah (Genesis
6 - 9). God comes to Noah and says that the word is evil and it needs to be destroyed. God then instructs Noah to build
an ark. Noah’s response? He builds a big boat. We know of no conversation
between Noah and God as we have between Abraham and God. Could Noah have
entered into the same kind of bartering as Abraham did? I do not see why not,
although it is unlikely that Noah’s bartering would have yielded a different
result than that of Abraham.
But there is
another story that we need to consider. This time it is a story of Moses. God
decides that there is too much evil in Israel. The nation needs to be destroyed, and
God argues that he is willing to start over with Moses. Moses response?
But
Moses sought the favor of the Lord
his God. “Lord,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom
you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he
brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face
of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on
your people (Exodus 32:11-12).
Essentially, Moses turns to God and asks God to have
mercy on him and his people. My question is this – is it possible that this was
the reaction that God desired the whole
time. Did God want Noah to stand up to him and ask for his mercy? Would that have changed the fate of the
world during the time of the Great Deluge?
Is it possible that God was full of hope as Abraham argued him down from fifty
to ten? Is it possible that God hoped that Abraham’s endpoint might be one? Or
even better that, like Moses, Abraham would place himself in the middle of the
plain and say to God “Have mercy on us, sinners.”
I don’t know the answer to the question. But I suspect
the answer might be yes. And that would change the way we intercede for the
world in which we live. Instead of emerging from our holy conclaves pointing
fingers at the evil world in which we live, we might just need to get down on our knees and ask God for his mercy to be poured
out on this world, the good and the bad, with the sure knowledge that we are
all sinners.
Tomorrow’s Scripture
Reading: Genesis 19
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