Genesis 18: God Promises Abraham a Son – Judges Sodom
Sarah laughed when she heard from three visitors to Abraham that she would have a child the following year. (And I don’t really blame her as she was too old to physically have a child.) Two of the men were angels and one was God. Then the angels went toward Sodom to evaluate their evil behavior and God stayed behind to argue with Abraham about His disposition of Sodom.
I take from this chapter that we have a voice with God. We can argue our case with Him and He will listen and consider. When I grew up I thought of God as a cold monarch who judged us harshly for our failures but now I have softened over the years and see the loving father with whom we can talk and reason.
Abraham doesn’t just dive straight in and say to God, “if you can find five good souls in Sodom, will you relent from destroying them?” – rather he gently probes God’s heart with 50,45,40,30,20,10. It seems Abraham goes from 50 to 45 to see if God is willing to deal and then when he is successful, decreases the number by tens. God may be a monarch but he deals with his children like a father. Another reason to love Him so.