Abraham

January 23

Genesis 18:31-33, 19:15-26

A city in flames

Abraham’s nephew Lot had moved into the wicked city of Sodom.

God told Abraham that He was going to destroy the whole city. Abraham pleaded with God saying, “Are you really going to destroy the innocent with the guilty? If there are fifty innocent people, won’t you spare the city to save the innocent?”

The Lord replied, “I will spare the city.”

Then Abraham carried on speaking to the Lord. “What if there are forty-five, forty, thirty, twenty? What if there are ten? Would you destroy them with the rest?

The Lord replied, “I will not destroy the city for the sake of ten good people.”

Can God’s people keep the world from becoming worse?

Did you know, long ago when a sailing ship went out to sea, the sailors had no way to keep their food frozen, so they used salt to keep their food from going bad.

Abraham knew that God is a just God, and because He is completely fair, He would not destroy a wicked city if there were good people living in it. And so Abraham pleaded with God to spare the city if He could find just a few good people living in it—but there were not even ten.

Where there is goodness there is life. If there had been some goodness in Sodom, God would have spared the city. Jesus said that we are the salt of the earth. We are keeping schools and cities from becoming completely rotten with sin, and God is holding back His judgment on the world because of us.

Verse for today

You are the salt of the earth… Matthew 5:13