Just Negotiations
Faithfulness is a way of living; not simply a good ideal but something that guides the steps of your life and sets you a part in the world
What will your spiritual footprint be?
Prov 3:3-4
Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.
Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.
Bio: Suzanna Wesley
Faithful people are shaped, and developed by the personal choices they make
In this passage we experience something quite amazing, the Lord involves Abraham in his counsel – He is going to ‘let him in on what he is about to do’. The Lord says, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do…” Often what God is about to do is hidden until he acts and everything is evident, we don’t always know what God is up to. Who would not like to know what God is about to do, we say that because we do not always know, but now God is about to reveal himself and his immediate plans to Abraham.
God recognizes that He is making Abraham into a great and powerful nation that is going to have a significant legacy – by his own choosing.
God chooses faithful people to reveal His purposes, who he uses – as Jesus said in…
John 15:16 “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit — fruit that will last.”
God chose Abraham for a specific purpose… “,so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just”
1) God wanted Abraham to direct his children, and household after him to keep the way of the Lord – to set a pace and direction for all who would come after him, this was to be a lasting legacy of keeping the way of the Lord – being a people who live in God’s Kingdom, as God’s people, living and acting according to the ways of God, obedient to Gods commands, finding Him faithful by relying on God and His ways.
2) This is going to be fleshed out by doing what is right and just (judgment & justice)– that God’s people were able to make good decisions over difficult and moral situations and take the right steps that is good for people. – where we know the good to do, know how to do it and we actually do it – God wants his people to be able to make good and right choices – all the time
God has a vision for a people, a nation, that would come from Abraham body and life. It was not going to be enough that he started a new family tree but that he started a new way of living that did not exist before – a nation that would follow the ways of God, that would live and demonstrate the presence of God on earth. God was shaping and deeply instilling Abraham to be the kind of nation God was looking to establish.
When Diana and I were raising our children, we wanted them to be able to make good decisions as they grew up and so we did two things, - 1 we had a clear and particular vision for their lives – what they would look like when they were 25 yr old adults – then we trained them that their choices mattered, they were responsible for their choices, they were not the victim in a situation, but they always had a choice and they needed to make the good choice, even if it was difficult.
This is what God is doing with Abraham, he has a vision for Abraham that is far beyond where he is today and he is instilling this truth that he expects his people to choose rightly and act justly.
In this passage we also see the exercise of God’s mercy.
20 Then the Lord said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous 21 that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know."
These verses are not suggesting that God is not omniscient – that he does not know all things – but it is an example of the extent of God’s great mercy. He was willing to leave his holy place and walk among the sin of the people of these cities, that they may know that it is the Lord who exercises judgment and gives them a chance to repent. God did this when he sent Jesus into the world to live among us, and our sin, that we may know him and willingly choose to turn from sin and find life
1 John 4:9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him
The word says 22 The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord
Abraham challenges God…
Abrahams heart burned with what he heard the Lord was about to do and he remained standing before the Lord. He kept the Lord from going with the others on to Sodom because he had a concern to bring before the Lord. It says “he approached him” He respectfully but boldly confronted the Lord with what he did not understand and he was going to wait for an answer.
How often do things happen in our life that we don’t understand and we cry out to God for understanding but do we wait – linger before God for an answer. Abraham was not to be distracted from his concern before God, he approached him, he came closer anticipating God to speak to his concern and He lays out his concern…
"Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing — to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?"
Abraham turns the table on God and calls him to account for his motives and choices. Clearly, Abraham had a relationship with God that allowed him to challenge God like this. Abraham was not like some random person who emotionally calls in on a radio show expecting an answer to solve the worlds problem of the day. People can be like that with God, they get angry with God over something and call him to account, but they have no idea of who he is or what his ways are. But, that is not Abraham here. Abraham has a track record of a relationship with God and he knows he is man and God is God and they are not equal. But Abraham asks a very important question… “God, are you righteous and just like you have just said I am to be?” Here we find a great truth of this passage… We can trust God to demonstrate the righteous and just life he expects us to live.
Abraham knows that to be righteous and just you have to have a perfect track record, you can’t be righteous most of the time but not righteous when you choose not to be righteous – That is no righteousness. The same with justice, you can’t be just part of the time, if you are a just God you are a just God all the time. So, now we have a situation --- Your going to destroy a city because of their sin and wickedness, but what if there are some righteous people living in that city? Are you going to treat the righteous like the wicked? Or the wicked like the righteous? That is not justice. – where are your limits to righteousness and justice?
And so, Abraham begins these negotiations with God over justice… whittling him down to find the limits of God’s justice and God reveals that he is both righteous and just and that his mercy is longsuffering.
That for 50, 45, 40, 30, 20, 10…righteous people he will withhold destruction of the wicked. Righteousness is his quality, and the character he is calling his people to live and demonstrate and God will not destroy that.
A second truth of this passage: That a righteous minority can have a major impact on a population of people. A few can make a difference. That the outnumbered can prevail. That also, the majority may never know the impact a righteous minority has on their life and livelihood. The minority may never know the impact their life may make on a community, this side of eternity, but should take comfort today that their life is brining honor to God in the midst of a wicked majority.
Each of us may live at times as a righteous minority in a wicked majority. It may be in your home or marriage. It may be in your work place, where you are surrounded by wicked people who would just as soon see your demise as acknowledge your presence, but you can and do make a difference. We live in a city that demonstrates much wickedness, we live in a world with much wickedness, but a righteous minority can and does hold back God’s wrath, though that wrath will one day come, God is moved by the righteousness of His people.
Ps 37:25-26 NIV
I was young and now I am old,
yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken
or their children begging bread.
26 They are always generous and lend freely;
their children will be blessed.
When Suzanna Wesleys husband left her pregnant and a household of children, how do you think she may have felt? But inspite of her despair she looked to her heavenly father to strengthen her and help her live righteously, act justly and raise her children. How often might she have felt that her life was making little difference when she has to rebuild her home after a fire, twice. The depression she experienced after the birth of her 19th child, or the death of other children.
Difficult circumstances are not an opportunity to compromise our righteousness or justice, instead it is in the midst of being a compromised minority that these quality are to shine brightest.
God promises that if he finds a righteous minority in Sodom he will not destroy the city, he will always uphold the righteous.
A third truth from this passage is that a faithful person looks to the good of others.
Abraham considers Lot a righteous man. As soon as the Lord begins to talk about destroying Sodom Abrahams thoughts go to his nephew Lot and Abraham stands up for Lot before the Lord and calls him a righteous man.
Now you could build a case that would challenge whether Lot was really a righteous man or not. He looked out for his own interests when he separates from Abraham, he settles near a wicked city, Abraham has to go and rescue him from a war lord because he was living in a foolish place and when he returns he actually moves into this wicked city. There is no indication he is attempting to make a righteous impact on his culture, instead as we will look at next week, his wife, daughters and son’s in law all have compromised character, which could lead us to believe they learned this lifestyle from their father. But Abraham considers him important, valuable, worth risking for, worth looking out for, he considers him righteous.
Often we have a critical, skeptical view of others around us. Think of the way you talk about others around you, family, friends, co-workers, neighbours, we can easily and quickly cut them down and we certainly do not consider them righteous
I have a friend who is going through a very difficult situation in their life that also involves their spouse and though they may have reason to speak poorly of them, they never do, instead they protect their reputation and regard them with hope.
Suzanna Wesley was like that too. Though her husband left her for a year over a minor offense, though he also spent 2 yrs in debtors prison because of poor financial decisions that put his family at risk, Suzanna never spoke poorly of her husband and always regarded him with genuine respect.
That is what faithful people do, they look to the good of others,
1 Cor 13:4-7
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Three truths from this passage…
- We can trust that God demonstrates the kind of life of Righteousness and Justice that He expects us to live
- A righteous minority can make a major difference
- A Faithful person looks to the good of others
These truths grow from our relationship we have with God. Jesus came into this world preaching and proclaiming the Kingdom of God,