Judge of All the Earth, Part 2

Photo by Giammarco Boscaro on Unsplash
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​God has now risen from lunch and is on His way to be personally involved in judgment. We all can think that we understand something at first glance, but we can't. God is the only one who can do that, but He is still deliberate and careful in His judgments. 

Let's get a couple potential misconceptions out of the way first. To start, God is not ignorant *at all* about what is going in in Sodom and Gomorrah. It is obvious that Abraham is well aware of what is happening in that city, because all God said was, "I'm here to see this alleged wickedness for myself," and Abraham immediately assumes that God is going to utterly destroy the city. If Abraham is aware of what is going on there, God is, too. 

Scripture is clear on God's knowledge of the world. Proverbs 15:3 says, "The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good." He is not only aware of everything but is involved in everything, right down to making the grass grow (Psalm 104:14). God knows what is going on in His world. 

The second potential misunderstanding is Abraham is the one who convinces God to be potentially nicer to Sodom and Gomorrah. I think this passage is here to actually show that God is more merciful than Abraham is. 

So, like we looked at last time, if God is neither ignorant of the situation nor being made more merciful by Abraham's interaction, then why is this passage here? 

Let's answer that question together as we finish up the outline from last week. God is personally involved in blessing and judgment, and judgement is avoided and blessing obtained by keeping the way of the Lord.

God is personally involved in blessing and judgment

God rises from lunch and sets out towards Sodom and Gomorrah with the two angels and has an interesting interaction with everyone along the way. God turns to the angels in earshot of Abraham and asks in a telling way, "Should I tell Abraham what I am here to do?" Then He gives a couple reasons for telling Abraham. The first is that the fate of nations seemed to be tied to how they interact with Abraham, so it seems fitting to let Abraham know when something big is about to happen to one of them (Ross, 350). The second reason is that Abraham has given given God's word to pass down to the following generations. He has given Him the path that everyone should walk in being obedient to God. In the next chapter, we will see what happens when people don't walk in that way. 

What should we draw from this? This is not a secret conversation. God is putting this in the Bible. If this were a movie, God would be breaking the fourth wall here. He is, as it were, staring into the camera looking at us and saying, "Do you want to know what happens when a nation spurns my covenant? Do you want to know what happens when you go your own way?" God doesn't tell you something for no reason. Warnings are real. 

Have you ever seen those videos featuring this crushing machine? It is a couple of metal drums with with dull teeth on them. You see them spinning around, and you can kind of imagine that this thing is powerful and dangerous. Then someone throws in this big metal barrel. You watch the thing for the first few seconds and nothing really happens. The machine keeps whirring, but the barrel just seems to roll along with the machine. You begin to thing that the guy is going to have to adjust the position of the barrel, but then one of those teeth get a bite. Suddenly, the barrel is flattened and squeezed right through those drums as if it was made of cardboard. Now you look at this thing with a lot more respect. You knew it was dangerous in theory, but now you know, in a visceral way, what it is capable of.  

Now, it is the understatement of the century to say that God is way more powerful than a trash shredder. In fact, we just spent all of last week saying that nothing was too hard for the Lord. That works the other way, too. There is no place to hide from God. There is no magic word or spiritual power that you can wield to stop Him. God is above all law; He is the definition of righteousness. You can't hide from Him. He already knows everything that has been done, everything that has been thought. 

And yet, God is coming down to earth in human form to look at it "first hand." Why? I think this is meant to display how God approaches justice. God isn't going on second-hand information. God doesn't have an itchy trigger finger just *waiting* to blast Sodom at the first accusation. He is not a rage monster ready to fly off the handle at the first little thing that goes wrong. He is very deliberate, considered, and, by any standard, just. 

Being deliberate and considered is key to justice. Have you ever had a situation come up that looked like you could judge it instantly? There was a video going around recently of a man who was summoned into court over an alleged suspended license. He was told to appear via Zoom to discuss this suspended driver's license. When he comes up on screen, you can see that he is driving a car while on a Zoom call to a court talking about a suspended license! Granted, he was just pulling into a parking lot when he answered the call, but still. The judge looks at the papers in front of him displaying that the man indeed is still currently suspended. The judge sits quietly for a about thirty seconds shuffling through some papers while the stunned man sits motionless in his now parked car. He tries to say something, but is cut off and told to wait. After all this the judge tells the man that he needs to turn himself in to the local jail by 6 pm that night for driving while suspended. The video went around Twitter, and everyone had a good laugh. 

Until the rest of the story came out about a week later. It turns out that the man had a suspended license in the past, but it was reinstated two years ago. Some person in the government forgot to change the paperwork to reflect that, so all the judge had to go on was the old information. And the only reason why he was driving in the fist place was he needed to get his wife to a doctor's appointment on what he believed to be a reinstated license. Perhaps if the man was allowed to speak they could have uncovered that! The whole story changes, doesn't it? 

God doesn't have details like that miss Him. He is fully aware. And yet He shows us here that He takes the time to personally witness for Himself what is happening. That is a good Father. 

Now, Abraham wants to capitalize on this and opens with a statement, "Surely you won't sweep away the righteous along with the wicked, right? That would be unjust!" And this is a principle that God agrees with. He would spare judgment on people who deserve it in order to preserve the righteous. Now, notice how high Abraham starts! I can imagine Him thinking, "Ok, in order to make sure that God agrees with this, I'll start at fifty. Surely that will be enough righteous people to outweigh the rest of the sin." And, to Abraham's surprise, God agrees! 

But I think at verse 27, Abraham realizes that there probably aren't 50 righteous people in the city. Abraham is probably thinking, "Ok, can't come down too far. Might lose the ground I have. Let's test this out by lowering it by five." Again, God agrees. Abraham keeps doing this until we are all the way down at 10 people! God is willing to stay the judgment of the most wicked city in history for 10 righteous people! As one scholar put it, "It is apparent that although he pleads with God at the beginning on the basis of justice (v. 25), he ends by appealing to the grace of God" (Belcher, 141). 

Does it surprise you that God would spare the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for 10 righteous people? If it does, than let this passage comfort you. The same God that comes to meals is the one in charge of the brimstone. 

Now, I want to be careful here. God is very merciful, but as we will see in the next chapter, God's holding back judgment has an end. Do you know why that is? It is because God is love. That may sound strange to you, as it did me when I first heard it. But listen to the logic of this thought. I first heard it from a preacher named Paul Washer who said that the most terrifying verse is "God is love." His point can be best illustrated by a bear with her cubs. How do you bring wrath on yourself from a mama bear? Mess with her cubs. What will a father do who loves his daughter? Some of the kindest, gentlest people whom you would trust your own children with can be killers if you break into their house at night and threaten their kids. 

Why? Love. The same motivation for God to withhold punishment is the same motivation to bring it. Why is God visiting Sodom and Gomorrah? Because people are crying out against it. Young men were victims in the city. It is clear as we get into the next chapter what the city is willing to do to new comers. I think what we see in chapter 19 is hardly the first time it has happened. God hears the cries of people. And He will answer. And it is terrifying when He does. 

We shouldn't take the fact that He didn't drop a bolt on them immediately as proof that God was ok with it. In fact, as we will see in chapter 19, He doesn't bring down judgment until Lot and his family are out (which ended up being Lot and his two daughters.) God spared the city for *three* righteous people.

Judgement is avoided and blessing obtained by keeping the way of the Lord.

Now, any mention of Sodom, Gomorrah, and judgment will spark in many minds our own country. Indeed, June has become a month long celebration of the homosexuality that brought on the brimstone to Sodom and Gomorrah. God promised not to destroy the righteous along with the wicked, but that doesn't mean that the righteous are free from suffering. The final third of Genesis is all about Joseph who suffers injustice after injustice on himself. But God never lost sight of him and was indeed working through those very injustices to bring about salvation from starvation. 

The same is true for us. America has committed all the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah and more. We've killed ten times more of our own citizens through abortion than Hitler did. What are we supposed to do as American Christians? What do we take away from this passage? 

Well, we are supposed to listen to Abraham in verse 19. He is supposed to pass down the way of the Lord. We are to do righteousness (upholding God's standard) and justice (acting on that standard) (Ross, 350). These things are defined for us by God, not culture. Never underestimate the power of a people obedient to God. 

In short, if you want to help America, know what God says, act on what God says, and pray for the country. If you can vote, by all means do that. If you can run for office to rule by God's standards, go for it. But all the while, live by God's standards, live not by lies, and pray to the God of justice and grace. Don't worry about God blasting you away with the wicked. Anything that happens to you during times of judgment is under God's watchful eye. Joseph had a lot of hard things happen to him, but it was all part of God's plan to bring him exactly where he needed to be and when. America doesn't need another podcast. It needs you to be obedient to Jesus. 

Above all, preach Christ crucified. That is everything God has to say.