Daily Lesson for Wednesday 4th of June 2025
Just prior to the destruction of Sodom, there is a curious story that takes place on the plains of Mamre. God, accompanied by two angels, appears to Abraham. When Abraham sees them, he invites the heavenly visitors to a meal, and it is at this point that God promises that Abraham and Sarah will have a son who would lead to the Messiah. Jesus, indeed, came from the line of Abraham (compare with Galatians 3:16). Then the story suddenly turns to the matter of the wicked cities of the plain.
Read Genesis 18:17-32. What do we learn from these verses about the character of God and the way He ultimately plans to deal with evil on our planet?
Image © Kim Justinen at Goodsalt.com
God does not owe us an explanation, but He chooses not to veil His motives and plans from the human race. “Surely the Lord God does nothing,” the prophet Amos tells us, “unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7, NKJV).
Before God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah, He declares that the only right thing to do is inform Abraham of what is about to happen, about what he can soon expect to be witnessing.
God lingers with Abraham while the two angels go to the wicked city to call out those who will heed their warning. One cannot help but think of the prophetic angels who perform the same task in the last days, calling those of God’s people who live in Babylon to come out of her (Revelation 14:6-12, Revelation 18:1-4). As the final warning is being issued, God discusses with Abraham what is about to happen, and He willingly subjects Himself to the patriarch’s questions.
“ ‘Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked,’ ” Abraham comments, and then asks, “ ‘Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?’ ” (Genesis 18:25, NKJV). Abraham is not only examining the case of Sodom, but he is also examining the character of God. Likewise, before the end comes, God opens the books of heaven (Revelation 20:4,11-15) and allows us to investigate the evidence before He finally brings fire down on the earth. That is, we will have a thousand years to get a lot of questions answered that, for now, remain unanswered.
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Before the Lord will bring down final judgment upon the lost, He gives us a thousand years to understand what will happen to whom and why. What does this tell us about His character and about how open He is to scrutiny by created beings—beings fully dependent upon Him for existence—and who have no inherent right to know these things? |
(1)Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25b-10-the-judge-of-all-the-earth/
