Genesis 18:
17 The LORD said, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do,
18 seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?
19 For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him."
20 Then the LORD said, "Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave,
21 I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know."
22 So the men turned from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the LORD.
23 Then Abraham drew near and said, "Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?
24 Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it…………………
It has been erroneously taught that Abraham interceded with the Lord on behalf of Sodom and
Gomorrah. A close reading of the text shows that his intercession was actually on behalf of the
righteous (if any) dwelling in those cities. Abraham’s question is “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?” He was not asking the Lord to spare the wicked.
Abraham’s argument, beginning with fifty (not really a huge number in itself in comparison to the population of a city), and working down to just ten righteous ones, the Lord vows that He will not destroy the cities for their sake. Since the Lord ends up destroying both Sodom and Gomorrah, it is safe to assume that not even ten righteous men could be found.
However, the Lord does spare Abraham’s nephew Lot and his family and delivers them from the imminent destruction, though we know Lot’s wife in her failure to heed the Lord’s instructions does not make it with her husband and daughters to Zoar, the only town in the entire valley that the Lord spared from destruction,(He provided a refuge), so that Lot may dwell there.
Genesis 19:29 So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, GOD REMEMBERED ABRAHAM and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived.
Hebrews 7:25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
John 17:9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.
What we discover is that God spared Lot and family solely for the sake of Abraham the intercessor for the righteous. So it was not Lot’s righteousness that saved him, but a righteousness imputed to Lot by the Lord.
Once again we find Christ revealed in the “old testament” i.e. all the law. and the prophets. and
psalms. (Luke 24:44-47)
He alone intercedes for all who are declared righteous through Him and in Him.
The Father’s promise to Abraham is that He will never destroy the righteous with the wicked, and for the sake of the Son and the joy and glory set before Him, He declares a people to be righteous in Him; He who is the offspring of Abraham. (Galatians 3:16 and 29)
Ephesians 2:
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—
3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Proverbs 12:7 The wicked are overthrown and are no more, but the house of the righteous will stand.
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