Commentary on Genesis 18:20-32

Sara Koenig

Whenever we think about or talk about God, there is a wonderful tension between certainty

and mystery.

On the one hand we know God because we have Gods own revelation. We draw on the witness of

scripture. We experience God at work in our own world and in our own lives. We use our reason

and ecclesiastical traditions to develop frameworks for understanding who God is and how God can

be expected to behave and act.

But on the other hand, at some level, God remains mysterious. This gets expressed in pithy

expressions that warn against putting God in a box or forgetting the distinction between the Creator

and the creatures. If God is God, and we are humans, how can we ultimately understand Gods

nature and Gods ways? Scripture itself confronts us with those messy texts where God acts in

ways that cannot be rationally explained away.

Moreover, we have those life experiences of God allowing -- or causing -- things to happen that

defy our understanding of a good or powerful God. Particularly in those cases, the clash between

certainty (God is good, God is powerful) and mystery (why do bad things happen?) can be

painful.[1] Abraham, however, seems to gracefully balance that tension, and for that reason

Abraham in this text is such a wonderful model how to approach God.

This lectionary selection begins with Gods statement about Sodom and Gomorrah, but would have

been well served to start in verse 17, with Gods question to Gods self. Not only is it rare -- and

important! -- to read Gods internal dialogue, but as God muses about Abraham, God explains that

Abraham has been chosen (literally, known) so that his descendants will keep Gods way to do

justice and righteousness (18:19). Those theme of justice and righteousness becomes an important

reason why Abraham intercedes the way he does.

Abraham understands God as one who will act justly and righteously, and that understanding

emboldens Abraham to pray the way he does. Still, one of the benefits of the lectionary selection

beginning with verse 20 is how it illustrates that prayer can start with Gods words, and not only

need to begin with human initiative. The gospel lectionary this week from Luke includes Lukes

introduction of the Lords Prayer, when the disciples ask Jesus to teach them how to pray. This text

is another, albeit different, example of how to pray.

We notice that this section of the text does not go into the specific details of Sodom and

Gomorrahs sin. In fact, Genesis 19 is not included in the Revised Common Lectionary, nor is

Ezekiel 16, where verse 49 details Sodoms sin as arrogance, an abundance of food and ease

without care of the poor and needy. What this text does say, in generalities, is that their sin is very

heavy, and the outcry against them has come to God (18:20).

When the three men leave, Abraham is still standing before the Lord. He draws near, and asks if

God will destroy the righteous with the wicked (18:23). The Hebrew interrogative with the

particle ?ap can either be translated as indeed, or really, either one suggesting that Abraham is

incredulous at this possibility. Will God really do such a thing? Indeed, could God do such a thing?

In verse 24, Abraham repeats that, and then in verse 25 he uses another exclamation, ?alilh, often

translated as far be it, or never. These minor words of Abraham point to the way that Abraham

understands God to operate within a certain framework, that God would surely not destroy

righteous or refuse to forgive. Abrahams question in 18:25 is based on this, Shall not the judge of

all the earth act justly?

The mystery is preserved, however, in the fact that Abraham asks this of God as a question and

does not state this as a bald fact. Additionally, in verse 24 Abraham uses the particle ?lay,

translated as perhaps. Perhaps there will be a certain number of righteous people in the city.

Perhaps God will be merciful. That same word occurs in Jonah 1:6 when the sailors say in the

middle of the storm, Perhaps God will take notice of us, and we will not die. Perhaps can express

hope, or it can express fear or doubt. It does not express certainty.

Another example of the tension between certainty and mystery is in Gods own word, if, repeated

in verse 26 (if I find fifty), verse 28 (if I find forty-five) and verse 30 (if I find thirty).[2] Could it be

that God genuinely does not know how many righteous people are in the city? If so, that would call

into question Gods omniscience. Or, does God know that there are less than ten righteous in the

city, and merely go along with Abrahams attempt at bargaining for some other reason?

If so, that would suggest that Abrahams conversation with God has no effect whatsoever on God,

and God is less than honest in how God speaks to him. Neither possibility is terribly satisfying, and

this aspect of the pericope illustrates how it may be better to stay in that space between what we

can say with certainty about God, and what remains mysterious.

But the repetition of the particle, ?abur, for the sake of, affirms that God is a God who acts for the

sake of, on behalf of others. This word occurs in verses 26, 29, and 32, when God says that God

will not destroy (or, I will not do it) for the sake of the forty, the twenty or the ten righteous. Based

on Gods own words, we can say with certainty that God does not operate in a vacuum but out of

concern and care for the sake of the righteous.

[1] Abrahams language in 18: 27, that he is but dust and ashes calls to mind Job 42:6, when Job

is comforted concerning his humanity, his state of dust and ashes.

[2] Interestingly, God does not say if regarding the numbers forty, twenty, or ten.