Arguing With God — Abraham, Sodom, and the Righteousness of the Almighty

Reading the Bible as a Dialogue

Our father Abraham is known for his faith, but also for his hospitality. I continue to be amazed and inspired every time that I read any significant portion of the Word of God. The key to being amazed and inspired reading the Word of God is not to read like a dummy. When you read the Bible you are not reading for your pleasure. You need to read as if you were in a dialogue with the writer. You are reading to argue and to try to understand. You are reading to ask questions and possibly to argue and dig deep into the text in order to answer the questions that the text opens up in your mind. You are in the arena and you are there to wave the red cape and to challenge the big bull that is snorting challenges at you. The challenges are to act, to argue, to get out of your comfort zone.

God Shares His Plans With Abraham

A major event in the text of Genesis is the revelation that the Lord shares with Abraham in chapter 18:

The Lord shares His plans with His servants and Abraham is God's servant. See this text in Amos 3:7:

This is important to me personally. I want to know what the Lord is doing and what I am to do. When the Lord enlightens me from His Word I always appreciate it. What I don't think is right is to try to do, is to calculate the end times. The Lord has given us enough information to cause us to be vigilant and to be prepared and ready for Yeshua's return. The speculations and calculations that are circulating in many places, border on false prophecy and even more serious than false prophecy. We have to simply be patient with the prophetic proclamations in the Bible and to neither try to rush or delay the hand of the Lord. His calendar is perfect and He Himself is the only one who knows the dates of the events. Yeshua Himself says that He does not know the day and the hour of His return. If Yeshua doesn't know and the angels don't know, then who knows? I would automatically question anyone who claims he knows, whether he's a television pastor, or some self-proclaimed television "prophet" who is doing what he does for profit.

Abraham Challenges God's Righteousness

But let's go back to Abraham. Abraham challenged the Lord Himself with the following words:

If I would dare to translate the words of Abraham to the Lord Himself: "Are you crazy man? You are going to kill the innocent, the cool brothers, with those bad bad dudes?"

The question that Abraham is asking in simple English is: "Lord, can You be unrighteous?" Is God able to be unrighteous? Is God bound by moral principles? Or is God without limits when it involves His decisions and actions? These are questions that Abraham has, and this gives Abraham the right and the strength to haggle with God like someone buying fish in the Arab market of the Old City of Jerusalem. What amazes me is that God is willing to haggle with Abraham and actually, in spite of the fact that God knows the end before the beginning and knows how many righteous men are in Sodom, God is willing to allow Abraham the privilege of testing His measure of righteousness. The Lord allows this haggling of Abraham, for our benefit.

The most wonderful thing, dear brothers and sisters, is that the challenge that Abraham put before the Lord was accepted by God, and God modified His action toward Sodom, and was willing to hear Abraham's righteous challenge.

The Lord wants us to know that He is a righteous God. The Lord wants us to know that when it is necessary to punish cities, countries, or individuals for their sins, there will be divine consideration for God's righteous servants and they will not be ignored. A question that is sometimes asked in this regard is about the Nazi Holocaust of World War II. The answer that I can give you is that only the Lord knows who is righteous and who is not. He is the only one who can see into people's hearts. We don't have the ability to know or to evaluate who is righteous.

In Sodom, in the end, there were not even 10 people who were righteous. Sodom had to fall and be destroyed. Until this very day Sodom has not been rebuilt as a city. Until this day, Capernaum, Beit Saida, and Korazim, the three cities that Yeshua cursed, have not been rebuilt and are archaeological monuments and tourist sights.

The Burden of Righteousness on Us

Just consider this, my brothers and sisters — if there were 10 righteous men in Sodom, God would have spared this city. This puts a great big burden on every one of us, disciples of Yeshua. We love our countries and our nations, and we want only blessings and only good to befall our countries and nations. We want to be those people whom God can look down on this earth and say what He said about Noah,

We can be faithful and we can be righteous in Yeshua, with Yeshua, and by virtue of His righteousness. We can be salt and light and a blessing to our communities and our nations, and our brothers and sisters, those near and those far.

It is a wrong reading of the Word of God to give up and say,

And give up on doing our best to do what is right and what is good and what is not selfish and self-serving.

Anti-Semitism is on the rise the whole world over, and the USA is no exception. So, here is what I propose to my Christian brothers and sisters — please keep reading the Bible. Read the weekly Torah portion, and put yourselves in Abraham and Sarah's shoes, and ask yourselves what you would do and where you would be today if you were in Abraham's shoes (or maybe his sandals). Remember the words of God to Abraham, and ask yourselves if God means what He promises, and are His promises still active and with the same power:

God Keeps His Promises — and Places a Burden on Us

Yes, the Lord keeps His promises! He keeps His promises to Abraham, and to Israel, and to the world. If we learn anything from the story of Abraham there are two things that must be taken seriously: The Lord keeps His promises! And each promise of the Lord puts the burden on us as humans and as disciples to keep the faith and to do His will and to serve Him by serving and caring for His children.

These are the reasons, my dear brothers and sisters, why it is so important to pray for each other and to pray for people whom we don't even know personally, since by praying for them we confirm that we are members of a kingdom that is much greater than us and our small fellowships and small worlds. When we pray for people, for brothers who are in need of healing or a job, and other needs for their life and comfort, we partner with the Creator in the care and protection and provision of His creatures and creation.