Mercy and judgment
Wednesday, Sept. 23
Genesis 18:1 – 19:29 Read it here Listen to it here
Today we read two familiar but very different stories.
The fulfillment of God’s promise to make a great nation from Abraham continues when three visitors come to his home.
In the previous chapter, God spoke directly to Abraham. In this chapter, it isn’t as clear – one of the three visitors is referred to by Abraham as “Lord,” but that may be used simply as a title of respect, or it could be another direct appearance. In either case, this is God telling Abraham and Sarah that his promise is about to be fulfilled, and Sarah will soon bear a son in spite of their advanced age.
The Lord says in 18:18-19, “ Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him, 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, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.”
The text then moves into the very different story of the destruction of Sodom. The traditional connection of this account to homosexuality is clear in the city’s name becoming synonymous with it in “sodomy,” but that is not the only sin at work here.
Ezekiel 16:49 refers to the sin of Sodom by saying, “She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.”
Jeremiah 23:14 compares faithless prophets to Sodom, saying, “They commit adultery and live a lie. They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that not one of them turns from their wickedness.”
The threats of violence and the failure to protect the stranger show that this is a bad place where disobedience to God’s commands is widespread – a good reminder that rejection of God’s law seldom shows up in just one isolated action, but takes over lives and even communities.
Before the famous account of Lot fleeing with his wife and daughters, we see the interesting exchange where Abraham bargains with God for the protection of the innocent lives that may be within the city.
This runs counter to the common belief that God has an inflexible future laid out for humanity, and we are simply swept up in the inevitable course of history. Instead, it shows God as being willing to listen to and engage with his people. While God doesn’t spare the city, he does provide protection for the members of Lot’s family who are willing to receive it.
The outright rejection of that protection by the sons-in-law, and the initial acceptance of it by Lot’s wife, that she loses by looking back, seem to suggest some of the same teachings that we will later hear from Jesus (like the parable of the seeds along the path and the caution in Luke that “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”)
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As heavy as these teachings are, today’s verses also contain something I’ve always found amusing: In 18:6-8, Abraham orders a “quick” meal for the visitors. The meal starts with baking bread and slaughtering a calf – not exactly our modern understanding of fast food.

Wednesday meditation

Proverbs 2:20-22
Thus you will walk in the ways of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous.
For the upright will live in the land, and the blameless will remain in it; but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be torn from it.

Prayer focus
Lord, direct us to good and righteous friends who challenge us to be faithful to you.

– Rev. Mark Fleming