Noah
God looked at everyone’s heart at the time of Noah.
"The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time." - Genesis 6:5 NIV -
He decided to wipe out humanity but saves one family of Noah because he is righteous by living a blameless life.
This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. - Genesis 6:9 NIV -
Flukten fra Sodoma og Gomorra Av Monsù Desiderio. License: Public domain
Sodom and Gomorrah
Long after, the same thing happens in Sodom and Gomorrah. However, this time it was a little bit different. There are two different elements that I would like to highlight today.
Abram
The first thing was that this time, God found a man who is righteous like Noah. Noah was righteous by living a blameless life. Unlike Noah, this man, named Abraham, He is righteous by believing the Lord.
Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness. - Genesis 15:6 NIV -
Believing
Let’s think about believing someone. Elli, my wife and I are wanting to wise with our holiday budget so, we invested a good tent. So, we have quite a nice tent. Sometimes people who know that we have a nice tent ask us if they can borrow our tent. Before we answer yes or no, Elli and I discuss. In our discussion, we thinking about the person's skill to take care of the tent however the deal-breaker is the person’s character. We can ask them how to clean it and fold it in a certain way but we can't teach the character which determined if we can believe the person will take care of our tent well or not. Therefore when we believe someone, we are believing their skill but more so it is their character.
I believe Abraham believe not just God almighty but the wholesome character of God. He believed who He is not only what he can! That’s the first difference. God found someone who is righteous not by blameless life because of the fear of what he might do but by believing in who God is.
God went to Abram
The second difference is that God did not go to the person who might be saved. Here is what I mean, God went to Noah who was worthy of saving. If we follow this pattern, God should have gone to Lot and their family. However, God went to Abraham and told him what is going on. Why is that?
Intercessors
I believe it is because God wants Abraham to stand up for God's people by believing who He is. He wants to teach Abram who He is. God wanted to show Abraham that He is looking for intercessors. God was waiting for this moment. He was waiting for Abram's reaction when he said:
Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous 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.” - Genesis 18:20-21 NIV -
And Abram did what exactly God would love him to do. He stood up for people. The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord.[d] Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare[e] the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” Genesis 18:22-25
God was like:
God is telling you.
This is my testimony. Every week I go out to the city to share the Gospel with people. God show me the amazing thing that He is doing in the city. But God is also showing me all the wicked things that are happening in the city. Some people's behaviour is not hard for us to see how it would end. But what if this is how God is speaking to us like Abraham. He showed me drug addicts, drunken one, a man who screamed at a helpless woman, purposeless person. God also showed me a lot of happy people who are going to hell because they don’t know Jesus. They are everywhere. I went to Bunbury for one week of outreach. Most of what we did was street evangelism.
I went where they are usually hanging out.
I gave them a cookie.
I listened.
I told them about God.
Most importantly, I prayed for them. Jack, Joy, Jacob, Silver, Dug, Morrison. So, God can save them like Lot from Sodom and Gomorrah.
Call pray & Go
I believe God is looking for intercessors to pray for people. He is looking for 21 century Abrams who is standing in the gap because they believe in who God is. God is waiting to show them who to pray for. I hope you don’t stop there because the one who greater than Abraham, Jesus came down for us and gave us a greater task, the great commission. He said:
Go make disciples of all the nations. Baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the command I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Matthew 28:19, 20
Will you?
Comments