A Time to Bargain: Reflections on Peace, Justice and God (Genesis 18) by Marlin Vis

Feeling the Weight of Judgment

The time for food and laughter has ended.  The three strangers stand with Abraham on a hill overlooking the Dead Sea and the city of Sodom.  No one speaks for a long time.  Although all share a collective dream, each is lost in private thoughts.  Abraham is thinking about creating a child.  The other three are thinking about destroying a city filled with children. Abraham imagines Sarah standing by the entrance of the tent eagerly awaiting his coming. The three envision the fire and smoke knowing that no one is waiting for them to come, because no one can imagine what they bring with them.  Judgment is a terrible burden.  Even these three feel the weight of it.

As Abraham walks on ahead, quickening the pace to match his haste to get back to Sarah, the three men quietly debate about what, if anything, Abraham should be told about what is coming upon Sodom.  Judgment is a terrible burden.  Can a mere mortal bear judgment’s weight?  Finally the matter is settled by executive decision.  The LORD says:  “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, since Abraham is to become a great and populous nation and all the nations of the earth are to bless themselves by him?  For I have singled him out, that he may instruct his children and his posterity to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is just and right, in order that the LORD may bring about for Abraham what He has promised him” (Genesis 18:17-19 JSB).

There’s more for the LORD to say: “The outrage of Sodom and Gomorrah is so great, and their sin so grave!  I will go down to see whether they have acted altogether according to the outcry that has reached Me; if not, I will take note” (18:20). What outcry?  Who is crying out?  The last time God came down to investigate an outrage was to Egypt.  Does God hear the cries of oppressed people who are not among the chosen?

Apparently, old Abraham has not lost his hearing.  The LORD taking “note” is notable and Abraham notices!

After the two men are dispatched to bring judgment to bear upon Sodom, Abraham stands alongside the flesh-and-blood embodiment of the Voice he has been hearing for most of his life.  Abraham knew from the moment the three arrived that this was the LORD in his midst.  He recognized the Voice.  Abraham also knew the heart behind the voice, so he knew he could speak boldly.  “For the sake of fifty innocents would you forgive?”

“For forty-five, would you forgive?”

“Forty?”

“30?”

“20?”

“10?  For the sake of ten innocents, would you forgive?”

“I will not destroy for the sake of ten” (Genesis 18:23-32).

Abraham decides that he has pushed the LORD as far as the LORD will be pushed.  He’d be wrong, of course, but still, ten is good.  There must be at least 10 babies in the city.  Surely babies are innocent.  Apparently not!  The LORD has the final word, and then departs; going wherever it is the LORD goes after having the final word.  Abraham quickly walks to the tent he shares with Sarah.  She will be waiting.

Later, Abraham discovers what all parents discover somewhere along the way.  Making a baby is easy, even fun.  Raising one to be just and right?  Well that’s not quite so easy.

In this amazing story, God treats Abraham like a prophet, disclosing God’s plans to him.  Abraham, like one of the prophets of Israel, eloquently demands justice from God, and at the same time, passionately pleads for mercy.  As it turns out, Abraham gets justice from God, but mercy?  Not so much!  Whatever was the “outcry” (vs 21) that reached the ears of God, the result was judgment, and therefore, we assume, justice served.  Sodom was “swept away,” but Lot and his family, minus his rubbernecking wife, were saved.  If it had not been for “the LORD’s mercy on him (v. 6), Lot too would have been lost.

The Mishnah on the sin of Sodom

The Mishnah gives an interesting opinion around the definition of generosity. “There are four character types among people. One who says, ‘What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is yours’ is of average character. [One who says] ‘What’s mine is yours and what’s yours is mine’ is unlearned (lit. [of] the people of the land – Canaanite). [One who says] ‘What’s mine is yours and what’s yours is yours’ is pious. [One who says] ‘What’s yours is mine and what’s mine is mine’ is wicked (a Sodomite)” (m. ’Avot 5.10).

So the sin of Sodom involves more than sexual misconduct, although certainly there is misconduct.  But what is also certain is the gross violation of the conventions of hospitality. The people of Sodom have become so base as to not even respect the ownership of a person’s body.  They want what they want and will take what they want regardless of what the other party wants in the bargain.  God hears the cries of the poor, because surely what applies in the area of sexuality apples equality so in the dispossession of property.  God hears the cries of the oppressed, because if the people of Sodom are ready to literally press down and violate the two divine visitors of Lot, then the pattern is clear:  They will oppress anyone, and probably do.  God hears, takes note, investigates and administers justice on the people of Sodom.

Sodom is destroyed, and let that be a lesson to all Sodomites everywhere.  “What’s yours is mine and what’s mine is mine is wicked!”  Ezekiel got it right when he wrote: “This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy” (Exek. 16:49).

Peace, Justice, and Mercy Today

So what does this have to do with peace, justice and mercy?  Everything, I’d say, and just did, I think. This story is a Jewish story, owned by Jewish people and Christians along with them.  We are the ones being warned here.  And the prophets to come have no problem reminding their people that God is just, even as God is merciful. “But in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a more shocking thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies; they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from wickedness; all of them have become like Sodom to me, and its inhabitants like Gomorrah” (Jer. 23:14).

The prophetic voice of today must challenge the notion that God loves some more than others and so much so that God would turn a deaf ear to the cries of those oppressed by them.  If anything, the opposite is true.  God is the champion of the poor, the oppressed, and the outcast.  God expects that those to whom he has revealed himself will be like God in this regard.  Instead, what God gets from Jewish people and Christians is justification for injustice on the premise that God would ignore the cries of the oppressed, because, in this case, the oppressor gets a pass on the basis of a promise made to Abraham.

To be sure, Lot is rescued for the sake of Abraham.  But please note, Lot is not the oppressor in this story, only a hapless player of questionable character.  The oppressor in the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis is clearly the sons and daughters of Abraham through the child Sarah bore – Isaac.  Will these longsuffering people get a pass on the basis of the promise to Abraham and their own history of abuse done to them?  Maybe?  Maybe not, too.  It’s too soon to tell.  But this we know, God hears the outcry of oppressed people.  God takes note and comes down to investigate.  Then God acts.

Judgment is a terrible burden.