Twice Abraham challenges YHWH: “Far be it from you,” he says to YHWH in Genesis 18:25 – twice too – because in Abraham’s mind what YHWH was about to do wasn’t in tune with the YHWH he’d come to know.
YHWH was going to completely wipe out the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, because “the outcry against them was so great and their sin so grievous” (20). But that didn’t make sense to Abraham, because what if there were good people living in Sodom too? So he “approached YHWH and said: ‘Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? (23).…Far be it from you to do such a thing, treating the righteous and the wicked alike….Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?’” (25).
Strong words, but YHWH had grown Abraham’s relationship with him to the point that Abraham could express his upset – and make a proposition of his own too, because he asks YHWH in verse 24: “What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for their sake?” And YHWH listens – and agrees. If there are fifty good people, yes, he’ll spare the city (26).
It was like going to the boss with an outrageous proposal after being really upset at one of his decisions, and the boss actually listens, and agrees. Oh dear, you think, maybe I shouldn’t have got so steamed up, so, like Abraham in verse 27, you settle things down a bit, remembering who you’re talking to. Abraham admits, therefore, that “as nothing but dust and ashes” he’s been speaking very boldly, but it doesn’t stop him pressing home his point in verse 28, when he asks YHWH: “Will you destroy the whole city if there are forty five good people in it?” And he keeps bargaining YHWH down to sparing the city if just ten good people exist in it, and at each bargaining point YHWH listens, and agrees.
Can we take from YHWH’s ready agreement, therefore, that he really enjoyed listening to Abraham, and from the text we can see why too? Because Abraham did three things in his conversation with YHWH: first of all, he expressed very strongly (and respectfully) what he believed was right. Secondly, he appealed to YHWH’s own nature. And thirdly, he argued his case on behalf of other people. Moses did the same three things in Exodus 32:11-14, so did Daniel in Daniel 9, and how readily YHWH listened to them too.
And he listened to Abraham all right, because in the destruction that divine justice was about to unleash on Sodom and Gomorrah “God remembered Abraham” (Genesis 19:29)….(next blog)
