God’s Classroom

WALKING WITH GOD. No.6

Gen 18:16 When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way.

We go back a little bit from our previous meditation. This is a year before the last meditation. After the first incident with Hagar occurred, about fourteen years pass and the Lord speaks to Abram when he is 99 years old and reconfirms His promise to make him the father of many nations (17:1-7). After this the Lord comes to Abraham, as he now is, in the form of three men – angels – (18:1,2) and confirms that in a year Sarah will have a child.

In these early verses of chapter 18, Abraham shows hospitality. He offers the men water to wash their feet, and then rest (v.4), and then food (v.5). In return the Lord gives the promise of a child in a year. In reality this starts out being a walk of hospitality. He is there with the three men “to see them on their way.” It’s the caring thing to do. When you see someone on their way you make sure they have everything they will need for the journey; you make sure they know their way; it’s a caring act, it’s a gracious act. That is how Abraham finds himself walking – with concern.

However, on this walk something happens. The Lord starts thinking about Abraham’s future. Yes, Abraham will become a great nation (v.18), he will keep the way of the Lord (v.19), and he will do what is right and just. Now we may take this to mean first, the fact that through faith Isaac is going to be born and, second, that the people of Abraham are going to be first a physical people through his grandchild, Jacob (Israel), and then a spiritual people of faith – all believers. All of that is undoubtedly true, but it must also surely apply to the type of man Abraham is to be, an example to those around him, a man living God’s way, knowing right and wrong.

These thoughts come out of the Lord’s pondering on whether to show Abraham what He’s about to do (v.17). He clearly decides He will do this and so this revelation is about to become a test for Abraham and a major teaching lesson for him. He reveals that He is going to see the state of Sodom and Gomorrah. Something significant then happens. The ‘men’ representing the Lord (angels) turn off towards Sodom leaving Abraham standing there but very much aware of the Lord’s presence still with him. Whether it was in the form of one of the men we don’t know. Note that Abraham has come to a standstill in his walk. Very often when the Lord is dealing with us it seems that our walk comes to a standstill for the moment of crisis.

Abraham ponders this situation. He knows Sodom is evil and he knows his nephew, Lot, is there. He seeks to persuade the Lord not to destroy Sodom if there are fifty righteous men there. The Lord agrees to this, but as Abraham thinks about it, he realises that the evil reputation of Sodom probably means that there were not fifty righteous people there. He reduces the number again and again, until he comes down to ten. At that point he stops. We aren’t told why but it is as if he realises that in reality there probably isn’t a righteous person there, and its destruction would be quite just. He has faced the awful truth about Sodom’s sin and thought through the validity of justice destroying this city. He has reached out on behalf of Lot but now has to leave him to the Lord’s grace and mercy. This has been an exercise in understanding.

When we walk with the Lord, He wants us to conform to the image of Jesus (2 Cor 3:18) but that also means in our thinking and our understanding. He wants us to be able to distinguish right from wrong, good from evil (Heb 5:14). He wants us to realise the awfulness of sin and realise that only something so awful could drive Jesus to the Cross. When we walk with the Lord with an open heart, He brings revelation but sometimes that revelation requires us to respond in faith to cope with that revelation. Revelation isn’t just information, it is something to be received by faith and to be responded to in righteousness.