Abraham Told of Sodom’s Destruction

Minister:
Date: PM
Text: Genesis 18:16-33
Psalters: 121, 215, 13, 207
Sacrament of Baptism
  1. The introduction.
    1. As Abraham and his visitors depart on the way, God speaks with Himself of His reasons for telling him about Sodom.
    2. In verse 18 God declares that He has known Abram in order that he might command his children and his household.
      1. In His eternal love of election God knows those who are His friends, each one personally and individually.
      2. This instruction in the knowledge of God is what God generally uses to gather His church in the line of generations (19b).
      3. Notice that the nature of the instruction is a “command.”
  2. God reveals to Abraham that He will destroy Sodom and Gomorrah for their very grievous sins.
    1. What Abraham is to command is that they “keep the way of Jehovah,” that is, “to do justice and judgment.”
      1. “Justice” is righteousness, and “judgment” is the realization God’s holiness judging and punishing every sin.
    2. The is a “cry” from Sodom and Gomorrah, which is an outcry, a cry of distress.
    3. Although God has determined to destroy Sodom, He presents it to Abraham as if He will check it out first (20,21).
    4. What is Abraham’s purpose in his questions and what is the cause of his anxiety? His concern is for God’s righteousness.
      1. Abraham did not understand how God could be righteous when His judgment fell equally on righteous and wicked together.
      2. The ground of Abraham’s plea is the righteousness of God (25b). A rhetorical question.
  3. God’s explanation.
    1. Each time God immediately answers that He will not destroy the city for the sake of the righteous there.
    2. God kept His word to Abraham (confer 19:29).
      1. He destroyed with final judgment those grievously sinning cities, because there were no righteous left in them.
      2. And the righteous never partake of the judgment of God on the wicked, for God delivers them.