HERE COMES THE JUDGE!

Genesis 18:16-33
Bob Bonner
March 20, 2005

This week, I read the following Focus On the Family article concerning the Terri Schiavo case. Allow me to pass on some excerpts from that article. “In 1990 at 26-years of age, Terri Schiavo collapsed in her home when her heart temporarily stopped, cutting off oxygen to her brain and leaving her severely brain damaged. Terri is not dying or terminally ill; she is not brain-dead or in a coma. She is an otherwise healthy mentally disabled woman.”

Terri breathes on her own without the aid of a ventilator. Her only dependency is on a feeding tube into her stomach for liquids and nourishment. As recently as 1997, nursing staff who cared for Terri testified that she could swallow fluids and Jell-O, follow people with her eyes and even speak.

At the time of her collapse, Terri did not have a written advance medical directive. Since her disability, medical decisions have been made by her husband, Michael Schiavo. Michael Schiavo won a medical malpractice case on Terri's behalf in 1992, pledging to use the money for Terri’s rehabilitation and care for the rest of her natural life. The court awarded more than $1 million: $300,000 directly to Michael for his loss and additionally, more than $700,000 for Terri’s care.

Terri’s parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, claim that prior to the settlement a neurologist recommended progressive therapy for Terri and that Michael agreed to provide such therapy, only to deny it and confine Terri to a nursing home after receiving the jury award.

As guardian, Michael Schiavo controls the $700,000-plus trust fund awarded for Terri. As of fall of 2003, Michael Schiavo’s attorneys reported that the trust fund was down to $50,000.

Since 1995, Michael Schiavo has lived (in an adulterous relationship)with a girlfriend, Jodi Centonze, with whom he has two children. Michael remains legally married to Terri, as well as her guardian.

In 1998, Michael Schiavo petitioned the court to have Terri’s feeding tube removed. Terri’s parents have offered to take care of Terri at their own expense, allowing Michael to keep all money remaining in the trust fund. To date, Michael Schiavo has refused, insisting that Terri die from dehydration.

Florida Sixth Judicial Circuit Judge George Greer has set Friday, March 18 at 1:00 p.m. EST as “date and time” certain to remove Terri’s feeding tube —an act that will cause the painful death of an otherwise healthy disabled person whose body processes and benefits from the nutrients and fluids she receives daily.”

This present-day case illustrates an overall biblical principle that was true four thousand years ago and is still true today. And that is, when a society ignores God, or attempts to function apart from God, it loses its foundation for determining what morality and justice is. Likewise, immorality and injustice increases the further we get away from God. The obvious reason for this is we have lost our bearings and our ability to differentiate between right and wrong

But have no fear: God being eternal and just, will one day prove that He is the judge and His justice will prevail in the end.

This morning, as we continue our journey through Genesis and specifically, the study of Abraham’s walk of faith, we are not only going to see the God of justice in action, but we will also see a pattern or steps that must be followed if true justice, versus a miscarriage of justice, is going to be realized. In addition, we will uncover the center from which law and order is birthed and passed on from one generation to another.

Presently, we have come to Genesis 18:16 in our study of Genesis. Chapter 18 is made up of two incidents. In verses 1-15, we read of God’s blessing that came by way of His announcement to Abraham and Sarah, that within a year, they would have their son, Isaac. This week, we will zero in on the second incident, found in verses 16-33. In contrast to God’s blessing in the first incident, here we will read about God’s proposed judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah, their destruction.

In Genesis 17, God had promised Abraham that He would bless him and his descendants, but for them to experience God’s blessing, they had to walk blamelessly before God. The opening of chapter 18 tells us that the Lord appeared to Abraham, and carries with it the implication that indeed, Abraham was now walking blamelessly before the Lord. The evidence of his walking blamelessly was his extravagant hospitality shown to his visitors, which we looked at last week. In our passage for this morning, we also will see this evident in his compassion and concern for those who were about to experience God’s judgment. Abraham was indeed a humble man, not a self-righteous one. As we will see, he takes no joy over the judgment and damnation of the wicked.

As we continue our study of chapter 18, it is important that I remind you that here in this chapter as in Genesis 16 and 17, we have another appearance of “Yahweh,” God in the flesh, or the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ. Last time, I failed to highlight the unique parallel between God’s annunciation of Isaac’s birth, and that of the annunciation of Christ’s birth, in Isaiah 9:6. If you remember, last time we saw in verse 14, that the word “difficult” is the same word for wonderful counselor found in Isaiah 9:6, a verse that we often hear spoken about during Christmas time. I believe that the Spirit of God is giving us a signal here that just as Jesus can pronounce a miracle birth for a closed-womb mother, so He is tying it together with the announcement of His own supernatural birth through Mary.

Our passage of scripture for this morning divides into two sections. In the first, beginning with verses 16-22, we find Jesus reflecting on whether or not He should reveal to Abraham what is on His immediate agenda as it concerns the future of Sodom and Gomorrah. Then, in verses 23-33, after Jesus has revealed to Abraham what He is about to do, we have Abraham’s intercession with God for Sodom.

Let’s begin with verse 16, “Then the men rose up from there, and looked down toward Sodom; and Abraham was walking with them to send them off.” (It is very easy from this spot to see down from the hilltop into the Jordan Valley. On a clear day, you can see as far north as the Sea of Galilee and you can easily see the southernmost end of the Dead Sea, where Sodom and Gomorrah lay.) The Lord said (or thought), “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed? For I have chosen him (literally, “I have known him” or “I have an intimate relationship with him”), so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about him.”

God records His inner dialogue for us, the reader, in order to explain the following dialogue between Jesus and Abraham. This dialogue, you will see, is really for the benefit of Abraham. First, it is to help him keep a correct picture of God’s justice. If the following discussion between God and Abraham had not taken place, and God had just wiped out Sodom and Gomorrah without having talked to Abraham about it, Abraham could have come to a wrong conclusion that God is dictatorial, vindictive, merciless and not long-suffering. But by bringing Abraham into the discussion, Abraham gains an even greater appreciation for the grace of God in contrast to the rebellion and deliberate denial or ignoring of God by the human race.

This dialogue also takes place to challenge Abraham to act wisely and nobly for justice, as the model father to the future leaders of the nation of Israel. In turn, in verses 20-23, we see the Lord modeling justice to Abraham in His fair treatment of the Sodomites, giving them a chance for survival.

^“And the Lord said, “The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave. I will go down now, and see if they have done entirely according to its outcry, which has come to Me; and if not, I will know.” Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, while Abraham was still standing before the Lord.”

The two angels left Jesus and Abraham at the Oaks of Mamre and went to Sodom, hereby following a pattern that would later be established in Mosaic Law and in the New Testament, that there must be two eyewitness to the same crime, especially one that demanded capital punishment, before a judgment was made and a sentence passed.

In addition, this is the first indication of what we read about in Isaiah 41:8, that Abraham was “God’s friend.” What a scene! Christ would not hide anything from Abraham, His friend.

I’m reminded of what Jesus said to His disciples about being His friends, in John 15:14,15, “You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.”

The very term that Jesus uses here for “friend” refers to a very special kind of friend. It refers to one who lives with the king in his inner circle, one who is privy to all that is on the king’s heart. In John 15, Jesus promises to reveal His will to His friends. Although not equal to the king, the friend is an intimate companion.

In like manner, Jesus, here in Genesis 18, makes His will known to His friend Abraham. Besides being saved, what does it take to be this kind of intimate friend of Christ, one to whom He reveals His will? What are the conditions? Look at Psalm 25:9–14 and see how Abraham meets all the conditions given there. “He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way. All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful for those who keep the demands of his covenant. For the sake of your name, O Lord, forgive my iniquity, though it is great. Who, then, is the man that fears the Lord? He will instruct him in the way chosen for him. He will spend his days in prosperity, and his descendants will inherit the land. The Lord confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them.” This is the kind of individual to whom the Lord reveals His plans, His insights and His will. A friend of God is one who is teachable, humble, keeps his eyes focused upon what God says is important and keeps short accounts with God

Have you ever wished that your relationship with Jesus might be as personal, real and intimate as someone else’s obviously is? Have you wanted to experience this kind of reality and friendship with God? Then look to yourself, examine yourself: are you teachable, humble, keeping your eyes focused upon what God says is important. Do you keep short accounts with God? When you mess up, do you take responsibility for those mistakes and do what is necessary to make things right? If that is not your approach to life, then you will not experience that close intimacy and friendship with God, that He really desires for you to have.

Beginning with verse 23, we see Abraham interceding, pleading for God’s mercy along with His justice on behalf of Sodom. We read, Abraham came near and said, “Will You indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will You indeed sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it?”

That verb “sweep away” is even stronger than you might picture in English. You may be picturing taking a broom and merely sweeping out the dirt into the street. But this verb has a dual action going on at the same time. It is the picture of sweeping such that you heap up the mess into one pile, then all at once you collect it in something and throw it in the trash, never to be brought back in again. It’s not just sweeping something out onto the doorstep to be tracked inside again. It’s a sweeping that makes sure something is gone! That would be the case for Sodom and Gomorrah, erased from the face of the earth.

Such a horrible picture is this to Abraham, that he is wondering, “God are you going to ‘sweep away’ even the righteous people with the unrighteous?” Hence, we read, “Far be it from You to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?”

So the Lord said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare the whole place on their account.”

And Abraham replied, “Now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord, although I am but dust and ashes. Suppose the fifty righteous are lacking five, will You destroy the whole city because of five?”

And He said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.”

He spoke to Him yet again and said, “Suppose forty are found there?”

And He said, “I will not do it on account of the forty.”

Then he said, “Oh may the Lord not be angry, and I shall speak; suppose thirty are found there?”

And He said, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”

And he said, “Now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord; suppose twenty are found there?”

And He said, “I will not destroy it on account of the twenty.”

Then he said, “Oh may the Lord not be angry, and I shall speak only this once; suppose ten are found there?”

And He said, “I will not destroy it on account of the ten.” As soon as He had finished speaking to Abraham the Lord departed, and Abraham returned to his place.”

What are we to make of Abraham’s bargaining? Why did he keep asking for a change in the justice formula? Obviously, Abraham was concerned about Lot and his family. Abraham had already rescued Lot once, and probably for years has wondered about Lot and whether or not he was walking with God. Twenty years had passed since Lot had left Abraham and had moved to Sodom. With tender affection, many years ago, Abraham had taken in his nephew, Lot, after his father had died, and raised Lot as his own son. So, sure, Abraham’s tender affection and concern for Lot probably played a role in his questions.

However, having said that, Abraham’s argument was not laid out so much to save his relatives as it was to make sure that innocent lives were not going to be wrongly judged. Throughout his questioning, Abraham, in great humility, says things like, in verse 25 “Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?” In other words, Abraham is not challenging God, but rather he is by his process of questioning, learning about the depth of God’s mercy and justice. So that when it comes time for God to judge the wicked, Abraham wanted to know had God’s mercy and complete justice had been realized beforehand.

When he finally gets all his questions answered, God’s justice is clearly spelled out. There will come a time when an individual’s period of grace or time to repent will cease and judgment will come.

What’s interesting about the finally settled upon number 10, is that by the end of chapter 19, there are only three righteous people left alive from this major metropolitan city of Sodom. And those three weren’t anything to write home about as being men and women of God. There may have been other family members who were religious, but not righteous. Hence, the city is rightfully to be judged. Yet, with other situations, i.e. Jericho, God will still save those few individuals who seek His face, like Rahab.

There is a lot to think about in these verses. First, let’s look at the character of Abraham. As we have already mentioned, Abraham was the friend of God. That which drives the friend of God is his desire to know and do God’s will. Furthermore, that which revealed that he was a friend was his humility, his teachableness before God, and his willingness to keep short accounts with God when he was wrong.

You want to be a friend of God, having a close intimate relationship with God? That’s what it takes.

We also have learned something else about the character of Abraham. He took seriously his role as a father and the leader of a nation. And as a result, he has become a role model for fathers and leaders. Abraham was a worthy father of a nation because he prayed, or made intercession, on behalf of his children and relatives...i.e. Lot. Men, Dad’s, how much interceding or praying for your wife, children and grandchildren are you doing? Or are you leaving all of that stuff up to Mama? Whether you are attempting to be a male or female leader, how much praying on behalf of those you are leading are you doing?

We also learn from Abraham as a role model, that He taught his offspring by his words and actions, to keep the way of the Lord by one’s doing what is right and just.

Look at verse 19, again. Jesus says of Abraham, “For I have chosen him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord...” The word “command” reminds me that pedagogy, or the teaching of children in ancient Israel was always a serious and urgent objective. This teaching was never passed off to Sunday School teachers or schools, but was to be passed down through the generations within the home by the parents, primarily by the father.

Did you know that formal schools, even trade schools did not appear in Israel until the latter part of the intertestamental period or that time period just before Jesus came to earth as our Savior? That’s right! Up until then, all education, including the trades, was performed in the home.

It is not bad or wrong to have a Sunday School that supports the teaching that takes place in the home, but it is wrong if you as a parent, and especially if you as a father, relinquish your responsibility to be the spiritual leader and teacher in the home. To be an effective leader and teacher in your home, you don’t have to be a theologian or have all the answers or be perfect either. But you must be en-route learning, humble and ready to share or admit your mistakes to the family; evidence that you are still growing too.

The specific teaching that Jesus has in mind here is mentioned in verse 19 as “the way of the Lord,” an expression that points to the right behavior that leads to a right destiny and blessing due to one’s relationship with the Lord.

Furthermore, there are two terms in this verse that further clarify what God means by right behavior: “righteousness and justice.” “Righteousness” portrays a way of living in a community with others that promotes life to all its members, cognizant of God’s rule among them. “Justice” refers to the restoring of a broken community in which one member or all have violated God’s instructions. This justice is typically carried out by disciplining or punishing the offender and delivering the offended.

Hence, Godly parenting in the home teaches “the way of the Lord” practicing both righteousness and justice.

In addition, this passage reveals a great deal about the character of God. Most obviously, that our God is a God of justice. In verse 20, Jesus tells us that He hears the “outcry” from those within Sodom who are being oppressed and ill-treated. Those who have not received a fair trial. Immediately, we should be reminded of the name for God given to Hagar, back in chapter 16, Ishmael, “the God who hears and attends to.” God hears all our cries over injustice and promises to attend to it at His perfect and best timing.

By stating that He will “Go down and see” what’s really taking place in Sodom, God is telling us that true justice thoroughly investigates a crime before passing a sentence.

Through Christ’s example in verse 21, we also learn the rules of justice. When it comes to acting justly, good leadership always does its homework and does not act rashly or quickly. Like Christ, it goes and sees or thoroughly investigates.

Second, because there were two angels investigating the case, we see modeled here what Deuteronomy 19:15 and Matthew 18:16 clearly model, that there will be two eye witnesses to the same wrongdoing; not two witnesses to an investigation, before any evidence will be accepted. Don’t take in as evidence anything, unless there are at least two witnesses to the same event.

Third, God involves the faithful in His judgment. God brought Abraham along, in this case to be a witness and intercessor, as a part of the process. As it concerns the church, God says take one faithful witness to correct the wayward saint. If he does not listen, take two. If he still does not listen, bring in the assembly (elders NOT the church) to adjudicate. It is in this context that Jesus declares those words that we so often take out of context, “where two or three have gathered together in My name, there I am in their midst.” The two people are not just any two believers, contextually, they are two elders. And when Jesus says that “there I am in their midst”, He means His authority to discipline such a rebellious believer is passed on to the elders.

There is a lot here, in this passage to teach us about mercy and justice, both in the home and publicly and in the church. We live in a world that doesn’t have a clue as to how mercy and justice and righteousness are to be lived out. As Christians, more often than not, we are an embarrassment to God by how we administer justice. Many times we are rash, too quick to make a move, not allowing the Spirit of God to work. Too often, we condemn without having full knowledge of the situation. If we are going to be truly affective salt and light in our world, in our families and in our town, may we be more concerned with seeking after “the way of the Lord,” actively seeking to be men and women who practice mercy as well as righteousness and justice.

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