Passionate Intercession - Abraham

Will you sweep away both the righteous and the wicked? Suppose you find fifty righteous people living there in the city—will you still sweep it away and not spare it for their sakes? Surely you wouldn’t do such a thing, destroying the righteous along with the wicked.

Genesis 18:23-25

Have you ever felt a sense of sorrow and powerlessness as a family member or someone else you care deeply about makes a life choice that you know will lead to trouble? Perhaps the son you love deeply enters into a life of addiction. A friend may decide to leave his wife and pursue another woman.

Abraham was face-to-face with such a situation.

Abraham’s heart sank when God announced that he would destroy Sodom. His nephew Lot and his family lived in that city, and Abraham possibly knew other people there as well. Abraham took this news hard and personally, so he couldn’t just stand back and watch God destroy Sodom without trying to intercede on its behalf.

Abraham knew and trusted God. He understood that he could count on God’s assessment of Sodom to be just and righteous. He also knew something of God’s mercy, so Abraham pleaded Sodom’s case by appealing to God’s righteous character. Despite the flagrant sin of its residents, Abraham asked God if he would spare the city if he could find fifty righteous people living there.

God acknowledged that he would.

Emboldened by this success, Abraham took his passionate plea several more steps. He asked God if he would spare the city for the sake of forty righteous men—then thirty, twenty, and, finally, ten.

“I will not destroy it for the sake of the ten,” the Lord told Abraham (Genesis 18:32).

As Abraham pleaded with God on Sodom’s behalf, he showed his confidence that God loved him enough to hear him out.

God didn’t want it any other way.

Are you a man of persistent, passionate prayer? God loves it when you care enough to pray with passion for those who need his love and mercy. They may never know how zealously you prayed for them, but you and God will know.