In Genesis 18 the Lord told Abraham that He was about to destroy the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because their sin was “exceedingly grave.” Knowing his nephew Lot was down there in Sodom, and not wanting to see him and his family destroyed, Abraham began to plead the cause of the righteous: “Will You indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city… Will You still sweep it away…? Far be it from You to slay the righteous with the wicked… to treat the righteous and the wicked alike. Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?”
So the Lord agreed to withhold His hand of judgment if He found fifty righteous. But then Abraham must have thought he should play it safe: “What if there are only forty-five righteous?” And you know the story—he kept changing his request of the Lord: “What if there are only forty? or thirty? or twenty? or ten?”
When the Lord’s angels arrived in Sodom and Gomorrah, they didn’t even find ten righteous. So the Lord was now released from the deal He’d made with Abraham. But guess what! The Lord didn’t hold Himself to the letter of His agreement with Abraham. Instead, He honored the spirit of Abraham’s intercession.
In Genesis 19:16 we read that the angels grabbed Lot’s hand and the hand of Lot’s wife, and the hands of his two daughters and they brought them out of the city and told them to flee, for the compassion of the Lord was upon him. Why was the compassion of the Lord upon Lot? Clearly, because of Abraham and his intercession.
And in Genesis 19:29 we read, “So when God destroyed the cities of the region, God remembered Abraham.” How did God remember Abraham? Before He destroyed the cities, He removed Lot from the midst of the destruction. Abraham’s “deal” fell apart because there weren’t even 10 righteous. But the Lord honored the spirit of his intercession and rescued Lot from the destruction.
This story is both instructive and encouraging to us:
1. Since the Lord’s compassion was upon the man Abraham interceded for, and
2. since the Lord honored the spirit of Abraham’s request and removed Lot from the destruction,
3. we should certainly intercede for the people God has put in our lives,
4. and we can rightly appeal to God for His compassion to be upon them, as it was with Lot.
5. And we can take heart that the Lord will remember us and the spirit of our intercession concerning those we have pled for at the throne of grace.
So… Are we interceding for the people God has put in our lives?