Having delivered that good word, the angels headed east toward the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah down in the Jordan River valley.
Verses 18 and 19 are most unusual. Here we find God actually talking with Himself. Indeed, if you have ever been caught talking to yourself, here you have a divine precedent. God ponders whether or not He ought to share with Abraham what He is about to do down at Sodom and Gomorrah. God decides that, yes, He should tell Abraham. Indeed, God usually does His work in collaboration with the faith community.
God tells Abraham that the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah are so great that heaven’s alarm bells have been ringing. God built this world on a moral foundation. When His moral standards are flaunted, judgment and punishment follow as surely as the night follows the day. God tells Abraham that He is going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.
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Notice Abraham’s reaction to this sad forecast concerning the cities in the valley. Abraham feels a deep compassion for these thousands of people, even though he knows personally only one family living there. He pleads with God on their behalf. In Abraham you see nothing of the pathetic, callous spirit of the so-called pastor and his followers who try to disrupt funerals of armed forces personnel, almost celebrating those deaths as fit punishment for America’s immorality.
In verse 24 Abraham starts pleading with God on behalf of Sodom. “If 50 righteous persons can be found in the city, will you destroy the city?”
“No,” says God, “if 50 can be found I will not destroy it.”
Then Abraham starts bartering with God. “What if 45 can be found, what if 40 can be found, what about 30, what about 20, and finally, what if only 10 can be found?”
The Lord, full of grace, replies, “If 10 righteous persons can be found, I will not destroy the city.”
The tragedy was that not even 10 faithful, righteous persons could be found in this large city. Therefore, God rained down fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah. So complete was the destruction that even today archeologists cannot pinpoint the exact location of these ancient cities.
What does this sad story tell us? God is not an indulgent, permissive ruler who winks at sin. “God cannot be mocked,” the Bible says. “A man reaps what he sows” (Gal. 6:7, NIV). As the writer of Hebrews told us, “It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31, NIV). God wants to be the Savior of all persons and nations, but any person who is unwilling to receive Him as Savior will surely encounter Him as Sovereign Judge.