Posts by John

The Gospel for the City in Genesis 20

In Genesis 20 the promise of God to bless the nations through the seed of Abraham appears to be threatened due to the chicanery of Abraham and Sarah. In a faithless effort to preserve his life by hiding his marriage and telling a half-truth about Sarah his step-sister/wife, Abraham supposed he was preventing his death at the hands of a pagan king whom he assumed would have killed him for his wife.

Behind the scenes, the God of promise is faithfully at work bringing His promise to fruition. God is already at work in the hearts of nations whom the promise intends to include. Abimelech fears the Lord and upholds a moral standard that appears to be higher than Abraham’s at this point.  Furthermore, God in his sovereignty prevents Abimelech from taking Sarah as his wife and temporarily closes the wombs of Abimelech’s harem as a warning.

Abraham is rightly rebuked for his lack of faith; yet despite his faithlessness, God preserves him and even blesses him through the generous gifts of Abimelech.  His failure in faith does not detract from his responsibility as the heir of the promise to be a blessing to the nations, so in obedience to God, Abraham prays for the healing of Abimelech’s harem.  Abraham is somewhat embarrassingly forced into an uncomfortable act of intercession. One must wonder what kind of impact Abraham might have had at the outset had he been a man of faith.

Similar misconceptions and disbelief about the absence of God’s work in pagan hearts often exist in the minds of Christians who see the evil and fear the evil of densely and diversely populated cities. Perhaps this explains the departure of evangelicals and churches to the ‘safer’ suburbs.  Urban ministry cries out for men and women of faith and faithfulness. Cities need men and women who believe that God is at work in pagan hearts. Cities need men and women who trust that the God of promise still seeks to bring the blessing of Abraham to the nations through the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Cities need men and women who believe that their God can protect them in the midst of the apparent dangers of urban life.

The Gospel for the City in Genesis 18-19

Genesis 18-19 contrast Abraham and Lot as Abraham is visited by angels and a theophanic presence of the Lord who brings affirmation of God’s promise, while Lot is visited by angels of judgment without any theophanic presence of God. These chapters also take us back to Lot in Sodom and let us know how he fared in the city culture that had allured him.  Abraham apparently had hope in Lot’s ability to counteract the allurement of Sodom’s culture and to influence others toward the God of Abraham. His intercessory prayer ends with a plea to spare Sodom, if only ten righteous persons could be found there.  But even if, and it is questionable, Lot’s family of four could be called righteous, the tepid spiritual influence of Lot leaves the city under judgment. Abraham’s intercession cannot prevent the inevitable judgment of a city that defies God.

It appears Lot did not fare well in Sodom. Instead of being an influence for the God of Abraham, Lot has succumbed to the power of the dominant culture of the city. He honors the good cultural value of hospitality and the evil cultural value of promiscuity while dishonoring his God-given parental responsibilities of protecting his daughters and of preserving the one-flesh relationship of marriage.  When called upon by his angelic visitors to flee the city under judgment, his appeal to his future sons-in-law is not taken seriously. They could not imagine why Lot would fear God’s judgment on a culture that he had come to affirm.

Lot, in God’s mercy, is forced from the city with his wife and daughters. His wife loses her life because she had already lost her soul to the allurement of the city. The deleterious impact of the depraved city culture is evident also in his daughters who get their father drunk and commit incest with him.

These chapters again contrast Abraham and Lot and affirm God’s selection of Abraham as the one through whom He will create a new humanity bringing together the nations of the world.  Lot fails to influence the city for God while Abraham relentlessly cries out to God to spare the alien city. Also the ignoble birth of sons through a drunken Lot’s incestuous acts contrasts with God’s promised gift of Isaac through an aged and doubtful Sarah. Abraham is distinguished from Lot because he believes the promise of God. It is only through Abraham-like faith in the promise of God (now centered in Jesus Christ) that we see the false promises offered by the enticements of urban culture

As we labor in cities which often display the depraved culture of Sodom, we hope, unlike Lot, to withstand the allurement of cultural values that deny God and to counteract those values with a godly life and witness to the gospel. Like Abraham we intercede for cities deserving of judgment, hoping that God in his mercy will delay judgment. We recognize as Peter did later, that Sodom-like conditions often exist in urban centers, calling out for judgment, yet God in His longsuffering sometimes delays that judgment, ‘not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.’ We also realize that not all our prayers of intercession are answered in the way we desire. Sometimes the ‘Sodoms’ of this world are destroyed with only an undeserving few being rescued through God’s mercy.