A Nugget Of Grace – Talking To A God That We Can Reason With!

Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the LORD. And Abraham came near and said, “Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there were fifty righteous within the city; would You also destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous that were in it? Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” So the LORD said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.” . . . Then he said, “Let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak but once more:   Suppose ten should be found there?” ‘ And He said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of ten.” So the LORD went His way as soon as He had finished speaking with Abraham; and Abraham returned to his place. Genesis 18: 22-26, 32, 33, NKJV.

Dear God, how grateful we are to You for being the kind of God You are, a God that invites His creatures to engage in dialogue with Him. As we study Your Word, please teach us how to make the best use of this privilege. In the name of Jesus Christ we humbly pray. Amen.

Have You ever sat down and imagined listening to this dialogue between God and Abraham? Were you shocked, or amused, or startled, or all three? Who, but the God who was “in” His Son “reconciling the world unto Himself” (2 Corinthians 5: 19) would carry on such a conversation as this? Who, but the God, who was willing to give His “One and Only” Son as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, would engage in a conversation in which His creature could say something like, “Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

But that is not all. He continued  to listen until His child was through! It was Abraham who ended the conversation, not God! The following thought had never entered my mind, until I heard someone say that Abraham stopped pleading too soon. The person was wondering what would have happened if Abraham had gone as low as five. We know, after the fact, that there were not even five, because even though four left the city, only three made it to safety!

But God was willing to have His grace and justice, proven! For it is at the Mercy Seat, that justice and love meet, and kiss each other! As long as Abraham was willing to plea – God was willing to listen! It was as if God was saying, “I know you love them Abraham, but I am sure that you can never love them more than I do! If there was but one, I would have been willing to save the city for him or her.” Oh what matchless grace! We can never deserve it. But it feels wonderful to have it offered to us!

This conversation is similar to the conversation God had with Moses. Listen:  “Then Moses pleaded with the LORD his God, and said: ‘ “LORD, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, ‘He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to Your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven; and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ” ‘ So the LORD relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people” ‘ ” (Exodus 32: 11-14).

Can you fathom this? A feeble mortal asking God to remember His people, when God Himself has said, ” ‘ “ Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; your walls are continually before Me” ‘ ” (Isaiah 49: 15, 16, emphasis provided).

On both occasions God allowed His children to prove His grace. No matter how much we love a soul,  the love, and grace of God, is greater by far! For “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Romans 5: 20, emphasis provided).