005. A Prayer Of Abraham For The Cities Of The Plain.
A Prayer Of Abraham For The Cities Of The Plain. The Prayer and its Answer, as recorded.—Genesis 18:23-32.
Most nobly bad Abram given Lot the choice of his home, and the fertile plain of Sodom was now his dwelling-place. Wickedness abounded there, and the Lord had made known his intention to Abraham of destroying the “cities of the plain.”
Abraham is alarmed at the intimation, and knows it is no small sin that has thus called down the terrors of the Almighty. There are precious souls in those (loomed cities, and Abram pleads at the throne of the Most High for them. Every circumstance connected with the intercession of Abraham is interesting to the believer: his unselfishness toward his nephew, his earnest affection for him after his choice of a home in Sodom, unfolds to us the heart of a humble follower of God, seeking not his own good, but the glory of the Father and the true welfare of man. Abraham comes to God in prayer, with the assurance that the great Judge of all will do right; there is a sacred ingenuity in the argument which he uses in his intercession—he does not ask the Lord to spare the wicked for their own sakes, but for the pious souls that are in the cities. The promises made by God to the successively reduced number of the righteous for whom this prayer was made, encourages us in the duty of interceding for others. The effectual, fervent prayer availeth much, and brings to our own hearts a blessing, even if in our view God has not directly answered us. While Abraham earnestly pleads with God, his soul is full of humility; I am a mortal in the presence of the great Creator, I have nothing to give but all to ask; this is his spirit, as he owns himself but dust and ashes. The intercessory prayers of Christians are destined instruments in the hand of God for bringing on the glorious time when all the earth shall know him; each one as it is breathed in the ear of God, is dearer to him than the brightest effort of unhallowed genius—although this may be derided by the world as a distraction, and the unbeliever may talk to us of mistaken zeal.