# 19 - Abraham Prays For Sodom - In this episode of The Chosen People with Yael Eckstein Abraham boldly intercedes with God on behalf of Sodom, challenging our understanding of justice and mercy. Through this powerful dialogue, we explore the profound impact of prayer and the compassionate heart of God.
Episode 19 of The Chosen People with Yael Eckstein is inspired by the Book of Genesis.
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Today's opening prayer is inspired by Romans 9:22, “What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction?”
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Previously on the Chosen people.
So close to Sodom, Are you sure? I think, eh?
I think the proximity of the city would prove useful to me.
Yeah, useful. Be careful near those cities. I fear the influence of their culture is more dangerous than their spears.
Through the haze, Abraham saw them, three figures, distant but distinct, moving along the outskirts of his encampment. Abraham leaped to his feet, electrified by a sense of impending significance. These were no ordinary travelers.
My lords, Please, if it pleases you, I would invite you to rest here before you continue on your journey.
As they ate and drank, a connection began to form in Abraham's mind. He could always send when the presence of his God was near, and sometimes it would prompt thoughts or ideas that were not his own.
Let me ask you, this is anything impossible for God Almighty? Is anything too hard or too marvelous for him to achieve?
In the shadows of twilight, a solitary man bargained with God, wrestling with justice and mercy, shalloh, my friends from here in the holy land of Israel i'm ya l extein with the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. Welcome to the Chosen People. Each day we'll hear a dramatic story inspired by the Bible, stories filled with timeless lessons of faith and love and the meaning of life. Through Israel's story, we find this truth we are all chosen for something great. If this podcast has added value to your faith, we'd love it if you could share it with a friend or a family member. And if you're interested in the work that we do for the vulnerable and needy around the world, you can visit us at IFCJ dot org. Now let's begin in the twilight of an ancient world, where the stars shined bright and shadows grew deep. A man walked in communion with God, a patriarch named Abraham, standing at the precipice of mercy and judgment. In our last episode, Abraham welcomed three mysterious men, perhaps not men at all. And now, in an unexpected twist of faith and faith, Abraham speaks with God himself. A threat of judgment comes, and Abraham's compassion ignites. What will we learn about prayer and communing with God from this interaction? Listen to this dramatic story which is inspired by Genesis eighteen twenty two to thirty three.
After hours of talking and eating together, Abraham's three mysterious guests decided to take their leave. Abraham extended an offer for them to stay the rest of the evening, as well as a place to sleep, but they were determined to continue their journey.
If you are sure you must continue, at least, let me walk with your ways and send you off.
You may do that, Abraham.
The men walked together to the edge of Abraham's encampment. As they cleared the tents, the vast expanse of land unfurled before them, a tapestry of earth and sky. The day was clear, and from their advantage point, they could see the salt sea glistening in the east. The city of Sodom lay in the distance, a shadow on the horizon where Abraham's nephew Lot resided. Abraham noticed the men's gaze fixed on Sodom, their eyes narrowing with a weighty contemplation. Suddenly, their leader turned to the other two and spoke, his voice carrying the gravity of a celestial decree.
Tell me what you think should I hide what I am about to do from.
Abraham Abraham blinked, startled by the directness of the query. What could this possibly mean? The other two men exchanged glances, their brows furrowing as they considered the leader's words. Yet they waited for him to continue.
Abraham is to become a great and powerful nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him. He has been chosen so that he will command his children and his house after him to keep the way of God Almighty. Their legacy will be one of honoring their God by doing what is right and just, and that legacy will fulfill to Abraham what he has been promised.
Abraham was struck in you by the depth of this stranger's knowledge, knowledge of his destiny, his covenant, his God. Her sense of divine familiarity washed over him. A whisper of recognition in the recesses of his mind. It was as if his God was here, speaking.
My Lord, tell Abraham what you want him to know. Yes, my Lord, you must do as you see fit. Abraham, listen to me, Yes, Ah, I am here. The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is immense. The victims of this terrible wickedness plead for justice the sin of both Sodom and Gomorrah is extremely serious. I am to go down to see for myself if what they have done justifies the cry that has come up to me. If not, I will find out.
Abraham did not know what to make of these words. He stood dumfounded. The guest he had welcomed into his home appeared to be his God, The God Almighty had broken bread with him, drank his wine, and listened to all of his stories for hours. Abraham was amazed. But then there was the matter of what he had spoken about the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. The other two men nodded gravely at God Almighty's words.
Yes, my Lord, your judgment will be carried out according to your will. My Lord, would you have us continue on our way? Yes, go ahead of me and scout out the city. See what you make of it in its inhabitants. I sensed that my chosen one, Abraham, has more to say.
The two others bowed their heads in reverence to their God. They then turned to Abraham and acknowledged him as well, before departing in the direction of Sodom.
Abraham, tell me what's on your mind.
Abraham swallowed and considered all that was racing through his mind. He wasn't sure where to even begin. He had seen his God's power in Egypt, how he had brought plagues upon the household of the pharaoh, but nowhere else he had seen how his God had guided his hand in battle and brought them victory against King Cadelaeama and his allies, even when it defied all odds. Countless men had fallen at his hands, and their deaths were warranted. They had been locked in battle, and Abraham committed to rescuing his nephew Lot. But the destruction of a city, a city filled with thousands of people, including innocence and civilians, was another matter.
In time, My God, will you really sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city, will you really sweep it all away instead of sparing the place for the sake of fifty righteous people who are in it. I could not possibly imagine you doing such a thing, killing the righteous along with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. You couldn't possibly do that, right, I just don't understand. I know that it is your place to bring justice, and you are the judge of the whole earth. But how could this be just?
Abraham was a descendant of shem Ancient tales told by the fire emerged from the caverns of his mind. Would God judge the innocent? Was anybody truly innocent? Abraham paused, realizing again how little he knew of this God before him.
It made him uneasy. Abraham, I hear your concern. Your compassion makes you a worthy leader to your people. I will make you this promise. If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.
Relief coursed through Abraham's body as he sighed his God would spare the righteous. That was fair. He could live with that. But Abraham then began to consider his nephew Lot and his household. Surely they would be among the righteous, He hoped. He had certainly done his best to impart all he knew and encourage Lot to walk the righteous path. Yes, he felt confident that would be enough to save Lot and his household, But what of their friends and neighbors. He knew his nephew had built a life in Sodom, gaining back the wealth and stability he had before the raid of King Cadelaoma. He wondered if Lot had shared the ways of their God with them. Abraham hoped the number of the righteous in Sodom, influenced by Lot himself, would be larger than fifty, but he feared that it might not.
Be, since I have ventured to speak and even suggest anything at aught you, my God. And even though I am dust and ashes, suppose the fifty righteous lack five, will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?
I will not destroy it if I find forty five.
Suppose forty are found there.
I will not do it on account of forty.
But then the stories of Sodom's depravity surfaced in Abraham's mind, stories of depraved sexual abuse and immoral acts, unsavory deeds like thievery and extortion, lying, cheating, and killing without conscience.
Men and women alike.
Hobbled out of Sodom, forever scarred by the cruelty of its residence. None were safe or sacred within the women, children, the elderly. Every one was vulnerable to the cruel and debased culture of Sodom. Just thinking about The stories made Abraham's palms sweat with unease. Surely the judgment of his God was needed against those partaking in such savagery and brutality. But yet he had gone to battle and fought to win back his nephew Lot and the others who were held captive along with him. Surely they deserved to be spared. Many of them were women and young children, and still many more were slaves. They did not have the same autonomy as a man of a great household or high standing might have. If they had been led astray by the society around them, how could they be held responsible. He couldn't imagine abandoning these innocence to whatever terrible fate awaited the wicked in Sodom. Perhaps some of them would have found a way to a righteous path. He would have to hope that it was so, Even if the number of righteous few than he hoped, would they be spared on account of the few?
My God, please, please do not be angry. But I will speak further. Suppose only thirty are found there.
I will not do it if I find thirty there.
Abraham then considered the people he had lived among and even fought alongside to win back, the stolen from Sodom, the Amirits, his friend's memory, Anna, and Eshko. They had grown distant. It was true. The longer Abraham walked with his God, the less he could tolerate some of their differences. They were men who neither understood nor embraced the God Most High. They had dined with a mysterious high priest and seen the God most High delivered them from certain death time and time again in battle, Yet they still had.
Not come to believe.
Abraham knew in his heart of hearts that they probably never would. But they had once been his allies. They had honored allegiances and been guests in one another's homes. Could Abraham stand by and watch them meet a fate like the one that awaited the people of Sodom? Abraham was not so sure. Compassion again surged in his heart when he thought of his lost friends. He also considered how many more were lost in a city like Sodom. With a heavy heart, he wondered how many sinned without truly understanding the damage it would do or what it would cost.
I do not have already spoken my concerns would please my God? Suppose only twenty are found there.
I will not destroy it on account of twenty.
Abraham had traveled the length and breadth of Canaan for several years before finally settling in Hebron. In his wanderings, he met hostiles, of course, but mostly they were men and women who simply did not know his God. They did not know what was right and blindly deceived themselves into wickedness. Even before Canaan, the peoples of Haron and Or were similarly ensnared in their own sin and following false gods. Tears sprang to Abraham's eyes as he imagined a lonely future for himself and his family. Were they to be alone in pursuing righteousness while the world writhed in its deception and devious deeds in a place like Sodom, should even association with sinners be enough to condemn? Maybe even more were lost there than he knew. But for those who would stand strong, would such a minority of righteous people be enough to spare themselves from the judgment of the masses?
My God, please do not be angry, but I will speak one final time. Suppose only ten are found there, I will not.
Destroy it on account of ten.
After Abraham's God departed to see about Sodom. Abraham walked for a long time on his own, processing what was to come. He knew his God was right in his authority and right in his judgment. But when he thought of those who were oppressed and abused by the wickedness of Sodom, for this was the need for justice, Abram had to acknowledge that his heart was still broken. It was complicated these feelings. Loving justice and having compassion was no easy task. He longed for a world in which everyone knew and understood what it was to walk the path of the righteous.
He longed for a world in which.
Everyone knew and understood his God. Abraham did not regret or question his decision to answer the call of his God. It was not always straightforward, but it was far better than anything else he had known. Abraham walked and walked until the early morning hours and wondered when judgment for soldom would come.
Wow, what an incredible story. Here we have an ancient saga, a great man, the patriarch of the Jewish people, standing before God himself, the almighty creator of the universe, and the two haggle over human lives like they're in the shook in the marketplace in the Holy Land, battering over a produce or chotchkeiz. Abraham starts with fifty righteous people fifty, then he goes down to forty five, forty, thirty, twenty and finally hen But what gets me is how God responds. Because God that doesn't disregard what Abraham is saying. He's listening patiently and willingly. There's no smiting, no thunder from the heavens, there's no reprimand like an indigenan king or an impatient parent, No, Abraham doesn't find a distant, unapproachable deity, but a loving God, willing and needing and enjoying to engage. A God who hears the please of his people, A God who is open to conversation, even bargaining. A God who listens. And it makes me wonder how often do we think of God as someone who we can talk to like that? How often do we relate to God as someone who actually listens. This story shows us a God who values justice but is moved by compassion. The story also sets up the story of Jacob, which we'll soon hear, and its concept of wrestling with God. And this story also gives us the first prayer in the Bible. Of course, back in the story of Cain and Abel, we learned of the first prayer mentioned in the Bible. But here, as Abraham speaks to God, we read the first text of a prayer found in scripture. Let's take a look at Abraham's prayer. As this story begins, the cities of Sidom and Gamara are under judgment for their grievousins. But Abraham, our patriarch, the father of many nations, does something that we haven't explicitly seen someone do yet. Abraham prays to God. He steps forward, and he asks, will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked. Abraham is not passive in this dialogue with God. He begins a negotiation, seeking mercy for the cities. If righteous people can be found within them, why should righteous people be penalized for the evil? He asks, Well, this is what he says in the scriptures. Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not forgive it for the fifty righteous who are in it? Then the number drops forty five, forty, thirty, twenty, and finally ten. The first interesting insight that Jewish tradition gives us here is that it's okay to argue with God. In fact, doesn't that describe many of our prayers? We say to God, Hashim, I understand that this is your decree, but I'm asking you to change it. That's what prayer is, arguing with God. And the first time we see this is through Abraham right here. And even as we argue and plead in our prayers, God, with his infinite patience, listens just as he does here as Abraham in this story, Each time Abraham negotiates, God agrees, revealing a heart that tends towards mercy. Abram's prayers also teach us something else very important, the preciousness of human life. Abraham doesn't want to see human life destroyed, even those who did evil things, and he works actively to preserve life, to save lives. That's very similar to our call today. And after all of that, the negotiating, the back and forth, the divine communication, Abraham's prayer appears to go unanswered as a dome and Gemara are destroyed. Wouldn't it have been more I don't know, inspirational If this first prayer ever documented in the scriptures brought about a miracle. But you see, that's the lesson here. The lesson is that there's no such thing as an un answered prayer. God hears each and every one of our prayers, and he answers them at exactly the right time, in exactly the right way. Jewish tradition explains that Abraham's prayer was answered hundreds of years later when the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt. The people of Israel had descended to such a low spiritual level that they were barely worthy of God's salvation. And right then, hundreds of years later, and right then, hundreds of years later, it was Abraham's prayer that God saved. When he was praying for the wicked majority for the sake of the righteous minority. It was in this instant that God saw that prayer, saw what was happening to the Israelites in Egypt, and tapped into that prayer, answered it at last, exactly when it was needed. Even today, as I see the amazing miracles that hasm continues to do for Israel and the Jewish people every single day, I think about all of the prayers of the Jewish people over millennia, those prayers which very well might have seemed to go unanswered for so long, through enslavement and exiles, through progromes and persecution, are being answered today in just the right way, in just the right time. No matter how many times I hear Israel's national anthem called hatikva i moved. I've lived here for twenty years, and every time I hear children, soldiers, families at any event, the singing of hatikva i cry, these are the final words of the national anthem. We have not lost our two thousand year old hope to be a free nation in our homeland. In Hebrew odlo avdatik vaateno. This reminds me that my life here in the Holy Land, my children's lives here in the Holy Land, is the answer to millions of prayers over thousands of years of exile. My children were blessed to be born in the sovereign state of Israel. That's the answer to my ancestors prayers. And how powerful is that prayer is powerful? Prayer is heard, not a single word of prayer is wasted, and every single prayer to God brings blessings and miracles and hopes into the world. Maybe not in the way we would expect to see it, but according to God's perfect plan. Now, for a Christian perspective finding shadows of the Gospel in Abraham's story is Bishop Paul Linier.
And now we come to one of the most fascinating passages of scripture you could ever find in your Bible, in the Hebrew scriptures, all the Christian scriptures. This person or angel or theophony says that the stench of Solom's sin has reached heaven and he has come personally to deal with it and to address it. Abraham steps into one of the most astounding conversations to be found in all the Bible, and he moves from this navigating discerning to actually negotiating with God about the salvation of a city. But why why is Abraham so concerned about what happens to that city? Well, you know the answers because his nephew Lot and his family live in that city. And this person, this angel or theophany of God asks Abraham, do you want me to hide from you, Abraham, what I'm about to do? Would you like for me to judge them without you fully knowing what's going on? This is absolutely astounding. Why would God consult Abraham about the life of death or the future of a city. It's because in the heart of God he's already given that space to Abraham. He's already devid it to him. So what you're witnessing here is God is consulted the owner. Wow Neighbraham asks the Lord, Almighty God.
If there's fifty if there's fifty righteous souls living in that city, are you really going to judge them? Can you really destroy everything if there's fifty righteous souls yet living in that space? And God says no, if there's fifty righteous people living in that city, I will withhold judgment.
But the conversation's not over, and Abraham knows it there's not fifty righteous so he whittles away. What about forty five? What about forty five?
God?
What if there's forty five righteous souls living in that city? Are you really going to destroy it? God says no, there's forty five.
What about thirty souls?
Gott what about twenty souls? And he keeps whittling because it becomes obvious there's not forty five or forty or thirty or twenty righteous souls till we get to this number of ten righteous people. You know, that's a big point. I'm talking right now, probably to thousands of souls. And you're concerned about your city. God says something profound here, and that is he will spare a city, a wretched place, a hopeless place. Seemingly he will withhold judgment for the sake of ten righteous people. Wow, that speaks to you and speaks to me. But why ten? Why is that that number? For God? Have you ever been in an airport and perhaps you saw an Orthodox Jewish man standing there, and he gets up, and perhaps see he makes eye contact with someone else who is obviously Orthodox, and may tap another on the shoulder, And before long they start getting in a little group. And before long you see others who are not dressed in an Orthodox way, but they must be Jewish because they're joining this conversation. And before long they have at least ten adults coming together. And it's a minion, it is a congregation, it is a quorum. That's what's required for a certain prayer to be offered unto the Lord. And you see that that same thing in the Book of Numbers, chapter fourteen, where Moses sent twelve spies into the land of Canaan. But ten of them come back with a faithless report. But that ten, that word there is the same. It is. It is a numerical equation here and it is a quorum, a congregation. And here was his last hope. What if there's ten people, Oh God, what if this ten righteous in that city? Will you spare it? Abraham realized there weren't even enough people there to form the smallest unit or congregation of faith, and he humbly stepped back and bowed to the judgment of God. Oh this hurts, this is painful. But I'm believing God is going to use you strategically to be part of a ten, a righteous ten that can cause the heavens to be withheld in its judgment, and that the grace of God, the power of God, the mercies of God will be extended, and that hearts and lives will change and turn to know the one God of the one Israel, and it's one capital city of Jerusalem.
Abraham's prayer teaches us to be open and honest to God, to speak to him respectfully but like a friend, to share our hearts with him. We can come to him with our deepest concerns and our boldest requests. We don't need to hold back. Abraham didn't. He stood before God and pleaded for mercy, showing a bold faith, showing God that he is a man who cherishes righteousness.
God likes that.
He wants our prayers to be bold, and our prayers can be bold. That boldness shows our trust in God. The God who listened to Abraham is the same God who listens to us. Let me conclude with the blessing to you. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine upon you. May he be gracious to you. May the Lord turn his face towards you and give you peace.
Amen.
You can listen to the Chosen People with the Isle Eckstein add free by downloading and subscribing to the Prey dot Com app today. This Prey dot Com production is only made possible by our dedicated team of creative talents. Steve Katina, Max Bard, Zach Shellabarger and Ben Gammon are the executive producers of the Chosen People with Yile Eckstein. Edited by Alberto Avilla, narrated by Paul Caltefianu. Characters are voiced by Jonathan Cotton, Aaron Salvato, Sarah Seltz, Mike Reagan, Stephen Ringwold, Sylvia Zaradoc and the opening prayer is voiced by John Moore. Music by Andrew Morgan Smith, written by Bree Rosalie and Aaron Salvato. Special thanks to Bishop Paulinier, Robin van Ettin, Kayleb Burrows, Jocelyn Fuller, and the team at International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. You can hear more Prey dot com productions on the Prey dot Com app, available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. If you enjoyed The Chosen People with Yeile Eckstein, please rate and leave a review,