seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Genesis 18:20 Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous 21 that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.”
I got this from the easy English site.
The Lord probably spoke in such a way that Abraham could hear.
The Lord has to be completely sure that somebody really deserves a certain punishment. He does not punish any group of people before he is sure about that. God ‘went down’ to the earth before the flood. And he ‘went down’ to the tower at Babel too. And here also, he ‘went down’. In each case, God had heard protests that the people were sinning very much. So he went to make sure that the people really had sinned as much as that.
In the original Hebrew text, the writer mentions ‘the protests that have come to me’. That is a closer translation. It may mean the sufferers’ cries. It may mean that God cannot leave sin without punishment, because he is holy. In Genesis 4:10, we read this. ‘Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.’ God knows when someone has sinned. He knows it as certainly as if the sufferer has told him about it. God wants all people to ask him for help. Then he would save them. But if people do not want his help, he has to punish them because of their sin. He does not want to punish people, but he has to do it.
God thought that Sodom might still have a slight chance to avoid punishment. If they had not sinned so badly, then he would know it (verse 21).
Abraham understood that. So he asked God to save the city if he (God) could find a few ‘good’ people in it (verses 23-32). Maybe God was testing Abraham. Maybe God wanted to discover whether Abraham would ask that thing. Abraham was not asking just for his own family. He did not mention Lot. Abraham trusted that God would do the right thing.
The Lord has to be completely sure that somebody really deserves a certain punishment. He does not punish any group of people before he is sure about that. God ‘went down’ to the earth before the flood. And he ‘went down’ to the tower at Babel too. And here also, he ‘went down’. In each case, God had heard protests that the people were sinning very much. So he went to make sure that the people really had sinned as much as that.
In the original Hebrew text, the writer mentions ‘the protests that have come to me’. That is a closer translation. It may mean the sufferers’ cries. It may mean that God cannot leave sin without punishment, because he is holy. In Genesis 4:10, we read this. ‘Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.’ God knows when someone has sinned. He knows it as certainly as if the sufferer has told him about it. God wants all people to ask him for help. Then he would save them. But if people do not want his help, he has to punish them because of their sin. He does not want to punish people, but he has to do it.
God thought that Sodom might still have a slight chance to avoid punishment. If they had not sinned so badly, then he would know it (verse 21).
Abraham understood that. So he asked God to save the city if he (God) could find a few ‘good’ people in it (verses 23-32). Maybe God was testing Abraham. Maybe God wanted to discover whether Abraham would ask that thing. Abraham was not asking just for his own family. He did not mention Lot. Abraham trusted that God would do the right thing.
Well, that explains a lot.
When I was a kid, I always wondered why my dad would ask me if I did something or not.... like did I "make that mess" while standing right there over the mess, knowing I was the only kid in the room. My dad wanted me to tell him the truth, to "fess up" so he could make sure I did it before I got the punishment.
I have to admit.... sometimes when I wandered into a mess that I knew one of my sisters made.... I would "fess up" for them because the punishment was sometimes more that I figured they could endure. I'd take the spanking and clean up the mess....
I'm certainly glad Abraham didn't do that....
