Who is the first intercessor in the Bible? Abraham! He went to bat for the people of Sodom, appealing to and reasoning with God’s mercy over His sense of justice. This makes him very different from everyone who went before Him–especially Noah!
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Hi! I’m Miss Tyler! Welcome to this week’s episode of Context for Kids, where I teach you guys stuff most adults don’t even know. If this is your first time hearing or if you have missed anything, you can find all the episodes archived at contextforkids.podbean.com, which has them downloadable, or at contextforkids.com, where I have transcripts for readers or on my Context for Kids YouTube channel, where I usually post slightly longer versions. All Scripture this week comes from the MTV, the Miss Tyler Version, which is the CSB (Christian Standard Bible) tweaked a little or a lot to make the context and the content more understandable for kids.
Last time, we saw the beginning of the story of Abraham being a prophet because the Lord was sharing His plans with him. People have been crying out against the city of Sodom—and in the Bible, crying out is what you do when you are being oppressed, brutalized, and abused. God really hates those things and so at Mt Sinai, He warned the children of Israel to be kind to people who were weaker, poorer, strangers, widows, and orphans. God said that if they cried out to Him about being abused, that He would most certainly hear them and do something about it. God saved His people from being abused and so they weren’t allowed to do it to anyone else. Of course, that’s over five hundred years in the future! But God has always cared about big people picking on little people. He’s the biggest of all and if He isn’t a mean bully then we can’t be either. Now, God doesn’t say exactly what He plans to do to Sodom if the reports are true but Abraham seems to know anyway. Let’s read the rest of chapter 18, starting in verse 22:
The men (who we will find out are actually angels in chapter 19) turned from there and went toward Sodom while Abraham remained standing before the Lord. Abraham stepped forward and said, “Will you really get rid of the people who are doing what is right along with the wicked? What if there are fifty people in the city who do what is right? Will you really destroy the city instead of sparing the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people who are in it? You could not possibly kill people who are righteous along with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked the exact same way. You could not possibly do that! Won’t the Judge of the whole earth do what is just and fair?” The Lord said, “If I find fifty people doing what is right in the city of Sodom, I will not destroy the whole place for their sake.” Then Abraham answered, “Since I have dared to speak to my lord—even though I am nothing at all—suppose there are forty-five instead of fifty people doing what is right. Will you destroy the whole city just because of five more wicked people?” God replied, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.” Then Abraham spoke to God again, “What if only forty people are doing what is right?” God answered, “I will not do it if there are only forty.” Then Abraham said, “Please, Lord, don’t be angry at me; I am going to ask you another question. What if you find out that there are just thirty people doing what is right?” God answered, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.” Then he said, “Since I am already talking to you, suppose there are just twenty doing what is right?” God replied, “I will not destroy it if there are twenty.” Then he said, “Please Lord, don’t be angry at me, and I will say one more thing. Suppose there are only ten doing what is right?” God answered, “I will not destroy it if there are ten.” When the Lord was done speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned to his camp. (Gen 18:22-33)
That was a lot of verses, I know, and many of them are saying pretty much the same thing over and over again but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot to learn this week. First of all, the two angels take off and leave God (disguised as a human) alone with Abraham. There doesn’t seem to be any conversation about it and so I assume that God is more than capable of talking to His angels without saying anything at all and somehow, they know His will or maybe they just knew it all before they ever arrived at Abraham’s camp. They arrive in Sodom at the beginning of chapter 19 without God with them and God Himself isn’t part of that chapter. The angels will find out what is going on and they seem to be in charge of what happens to Sodom. But for the rest of this chapter, they aren’t involved at all. And even though we don’t understand any of that, I suppose if it was important, then the Bible would tell us. What is important is Abraham’s conversation with God and so today we are going to learn a new fancy word called intercession.
Intercession is what we call it when someone needs help and another person steps in to make sure they have what they need. Think about if you needed a special kind of doctor for something but that doctor doesn’t take new patients—if your regular doctor was a friend of that doctor, they might make a call and see if you can get in anyway, as a personal favor. Your regular doctor would be interceding for you because he can talk to someone whom you can’t talk to. Or maybe a teacher who knows you can see that you would really do well in a certain teacher’s class next year and they pull some strings and get you into that class. Maybe you are really good at sports or music and someone else makes sure that you get the lessons you need to be even better. In the ancient world, the people who did this sort of thing were called patrons, but priests also did it. Patrons were powerful people who did favors for other people—they might get them seed for their fields or a new ox if they couldn’t afford it. Patrons were people with power and money who did favors for people who didn’t—but the gifts weren’t free. No, the person didn’t have to pay them for the ox but they were expected to give gifts in return and to tell everyone how amazing the patron was or they wouldn’t be welcome to ask for any more favors. If you think about the disciples of Jesus, they were given the power of the Holy Spirit for free but in return they were expected to spend their lives preaching about Him. No one in the ancient world thought that a free gift meant that you didn’t owe the giver anything in return. In fact, they would be ashamed not to do anything in return. Making sure that people have what they need is one type of intercession. And although it is very important for understanding the Bible, it isn’t the kind of intercession we need to understand for today’s lesson.
The other sort of intercession is what we see from priests and prophets. Priests in the ancient world were believed to have special access to the gods and people would go to them when they wanted something. Later, when the children of Israel are with Moses at Mt Sinai, we will see that God wants to make them a kingdom of priests where all of them can hear from God and they all have the responsibility to teach people about their God but they were so scared of His loud, thundering voice that they told Moses that they couldn’t bear to listen to God. So, God made priests out of Moses’s brother Aaron and all his sons, and grandsons forever. They had special jobs that no one else could do—they offered sacrifices at the altar at the Tabernacle, and kept the big lampstand, called the Menorah, lighted, and they offered incense on the golden altar near the Menorah, and baked bread for the special Table. When they offered sacrifices and incense, the Bible tells us that they were making intercession for the children of Israel. That means that they were bringing the people closer to God after they sinned, and God would smell the sacrifices and the incense (which is like a solid perfume) and he would be happy about it. There are many times in the Bible where priests had to act quickly to stop people from sinning so that terrible things wouldn’t happen or would stop happening. It was always their job to go to God and make things right with Him again and to tell the people what God wants. When they had good priests, things went pretty well but when they had bad priests, very bad things happened. One of the important things that happened when Jesus came and sent us the Holy Spirit is that God’s original plan went back into action. Everyone who says that Jesus is their king and follows Him and obeys Him gets filled with the Holy Spirit and becomes part of the Kingdom of priests that God wanted to make back at Mt Sinai, when the people were too scared to listen to His voice. So, that’s great because we don’t need to go to a priest so that he can talk to God for us—we can do it ourselves.
So, we can talk to God, pray to Him, listen to Him, and ask Him to help the people who don’t know Him and also the people who do know Him. God listens to us because His Son Jesus is our King. We are special and precious to God because even though Jesus was killed like a terrible criminal, we are saying that was wrong and that we believe He came back from being dead because He was innocent and perfect, and that now He is with God until He comes back to rule over the whole earth as our King—and we’ll be able to see Him and hear Him talk out loud just like His disciples did! That will be amazing—the best thing ever. And because we believe Jesus, we have a Covenant with God of forever promises and one of His promises is that when we talk to Him, He listens to us. That’s a super big deal, you know. God who created the Heavens and the Earth, the Universe and everything in it no matter how big or small, is paying attention to you. He cares about what you have to say, so make sure you don’t waste your time not talking to Him. You don’t have to go to a special place, like a Temple or a Church or a Synagogue for Him to hear you. You can even talk to Him just in your head and He will hear you—which is nice when you don’t want to be rude and wake other people up or when what you have to say is so private that you only want God to hear.
Abraham could talk with God too just like us, and listen, and obey Him because God had made a Covenant with Abraham all the way back in chapter 15, which was about thirteen years ago now that Abraham is ninety-nine years old. Abraham did a lot of things that priests would do later and that we take for granted now because we can do them ourselves or because without a Temple they aren’t done anymore. Because Abraham could talk with God, it meant that He had a say in what God was going to decide to do. That’s why God came to Abraham to tell him what His plans were for Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim. There are different times in the Bible where we see God discussing His plans with His angels and asking them what they think and asking how they can help. God is interested in what His people and His angels have to say about things. Isn’t that amazing?! That means that God cares about your opinion when you think that something is wrong or unfair. He might not agree with you because He knows more than we do, but He does care. So, let’s look at what Abraham and God are saying here and why.
The first thing Abraham says is, “Will you really get rid of the people who are doing what is right along with the wicked?” Abraham isn’t doing anything to deny the fact that the people of Sodom are incredibly wicked, but Abraham is worried about the people who live in those cities—through no fault of their own—who are doing what is right and good. Abraham counts on God to be the kind of god who cares about the people who are innocent and who haven’t done anything wrong. It isn’t like they can get into a car and go someplace else. Leaving a place was dangerous and especially if the people there don’t want them to leave. Abraham wants to know what kind of god he has followed into Canaan—is God like the pagan gods of the other nations who would just kill everyone for something as simple as being too noisy?.
What Abraham says next is the most important so we will have to pay close attention: “What if there are fifty people in the city who do what is right? Will you really destroy the city instead of sparing the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people who are in it? You could not possibly kill people who are righteous along with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked the exact same way. You could not possibly do that! Won’t the Judge of the whole earth do what is just and fair?” When you think of Sodom, I don’t want you to think of a huge city—it wouldn’t even qualify as a small town nowadays. Fifty doesn’t seem like a big number but maybe it was like five or ten percent of the population or even more. Any bigger than that and the four Kings wouldn’t have been able to carry them off as slaves because there would be too many. Abraham hasn’t ever dealt with something like this before but he knows that talking to God is a privilege that is also a big responsibility. If there are righteous people in Sodom, he has a responsibility to try to save them. We all still have that responsibility today—we shouldn’t ever be glad when innocent people are being hurt. But does God agree with Abraham? Is God willing to kill innocent people just because He wants to stop the wickedness going on in Sodom and the other cities?
What’s super interesting here is that Abraham seems to be just as concerned with God’s reputation—with Him doing what is good and right and fair—as he is with the lives of the innocent people living in Sodom. Two times, Abraham says that God couldn’t possibly do something so bad as to treat innocent people the same way He is going to treat guilty people. Abraham points out that God is the judge of the entire world, and so He has to be the perfect and good judge. No good judge would treat the innocent and the guilty the same way—no one could trust Him! Abraham is telling God that if He does that, then it’s just as bad as what Sodom is doing because they hurt innocent people too! How can the Creator and Judge of the whole earth be no different than the wicked people in Sodom who have been hurting people? That would make Him as bad as or worse than all the false gods of the Canaanites. In fact, in Hebrew, these phrases mean that God would be desecrating His own character and that He would have no integrity to judge anyone. But what does that even mean?
We talk about character a lot, because God calls us to be like Jesus and Jesus had perfect character. That means that Jesus always did what was right no matter the cost, He was honest and trustworthy—and He still is now too! Integrity means that we can be trusted to do what is right no matter what. Abraham was telling God that He had to do what is right or He won’t be able to be trusted! Abraham has been trusting in God’s character for a long time—even though he sometimes makes decisions that make it look like He doesn’t trust God at all. Abraham is so concerned with God doing the right thing that he thinks it will be a desecration of God’s character if He kills innocent people while getting rid of the guilty. Desecration is a very serious word in the Bible and in all of the world’s religions. Desecration is what happens when a Temple gets ruined, when something that is holy gets made unholy. Abraham is telling God that although He is perfect and trustworthy and everything good, that if He treats innocent people like guilty people, that He will be ruined and unholy. And it sounds kind of insulting but it isn’t. Abraham is very very upset and concerned and believes that He is protecting God’s reputation. All his life before meeting God, Abraham had worshiped gods and goddesses who were just as bad as humans and sometimes even worse. For twenty-four years now, Abraham has been learning that his God is better and different and just plain perfect and good but all his ideas of God will change and be crushed if God can’t be counted on to care for the people who are innocent. If I thought that God was okay with being unfair, then I would be really upset too and I would start complaining just like Abraham is doing. How will God react?
He said, “If I find fifty people doing what is right in the city of Sodom, I will not destroy the whole place for their sake.” Imagine how relieved Abraham was to hear that! Not only did God patiently listen to him, but he didn’t even get angry. And what’s more, He agreed with Abraham that He shouldn’t do that. And because Abraham got away with it—and that was pretty darned brave because no one in the ancient world got away with talking to their gods like that—he decides to go even lower. What if there are only forty-five people doing what is good and right? God agrees not to destroy the city if there are only forty-five. And then Abraham tries again with forty, thirty, twenty and ten and God promises Abraham that even if there are only ten, He won’t destroy Sodom. But then, God was done and He left Abraham. Abraham went back home to his camp—he didn’t send anyone off on a camel running to Sodom or anything. Abraham was satisfied that God is fair and good and that He cares more about protecting the people who are doing right than He cares about punishing the people who are evil. And I want to tell you why we should be really happy about that and what that tells us about God.
One, it tells us that when there is a big storm or something and a lot of people get killed, it isn’t because God is punishing wicked people. Too many innocent people get killed and we know from God’s talk with Abraham that He is more concerned with being merciful than with holding people responsible for the bad things they have done. Just think if God was more concerned with punishing people than with protecting them. Two, it means that God isn’t unpredictable or mean for no reason at all. It takes a lot to make God angry and He is patient for a long time and gives people many chances to do things right. God is way more concerned with saving people than punishing them. We will see that again in chapter 19 when God won’t destroy the city of Sodom until all the righteous people are out of it. Even in the worst of situations, God is trying to get people to do what is right and follow Him.
One of the things I wonder about is why Abraham didn’t just ask God to save his nephew Lot and Lot’s family? If Abraham was only concerned about Lot, then he could have asked God to save Lot and God would have done it because they are in covenant together. After all, it is Abraham’s fault that Lot is even in Canaan because he wasn’t supposed to bring him but did anyway. Everything Lot did after that is his own fault, of course—including moving to Sodom even when he knew it was an evil place and not leaving even after the four kings attacked it and took him as a slave. But Abraham didn’t ask God to save Lot—he just asked for right and fair people to be treated right by God. Maybe you remember what God said to Abraham last time we talked about them—“Abraham is going to become a great and powerful nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him. I have chosen him so that he will command his children and his whole household forever to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just.”
God said that Abraham was going to be a blessing to all the nations of the earth and we know that means Jesus. But, God also told him that He was expecting him and his children forever to do what is right and just. Which is just what Abraham was upset about with God—he wanted to make sure that God was just as right and just as He wanted Abraham to be. Abraham did that by acting exactly how God was expecting him to act—being right and just and looking out for any innocent people who might be living in Sodom. That was a great example of Abraham’s responsibility to be a blessing to the nations around him. He already blessed the people of all those cities when he set them free from the four kings and now he is looking out for them again by making sure that God won’t be killing anyone He shouldn’t kill. Abraham could have acted like it was none of his business. He could have said, “Good, those people are awful, kill them all!!! It’s their fault for living in that terrible place!” or he could have said, “Please get my nephew and his family out of there but nuke the rest of them. Show no mercy!” Maybe Abraham remembered all the times he has messed up—like when he sold his wife Sarah to the Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. Maybe Abraham realized that he was no one special and he would still be worshiping idols with his family if God hadn’t chosen to show mercy to him and choose him to start this miracle family. Maybe he knew that a God who won’t be merciful to people who aren’t guilty can’t be totally trusted.
Of course, we know God can be trusted because He did the most amazing thing of all. When Jesus died, it wasn’t just for His own relatives, the Jews, but for all the nations of the world and even for the people who killed Him. Because of Jesus, I know about God and so do you. My family from my mom and dad both came from Europe and we don’t have even a drop of Jewish blood. We’d be worshiping false gods and their idols. My husband would be worshiping the Viking gods. But God had mercy on our ancestors even though they were doing terrible things. He sent Jesus for us all. That’s a whole lot of mercy.
I love you. I am praying for you. Sometimes we get mad at people and want God to take revenge for us but we tend to forget that other people might want revenge against us too. We should be glad that God isn’t quick to kill the people who are doing bad things because none of us would probably even be born.