In Matthew 5:45, Jesus says: “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” So, in the discussion between God and Abraham, Abe’s supposition that God wouldn’t kill the righteous along with the wicked (Gen. 18:23-25) is a little off kilter as we discover later in the story. Nevertheless, God goes on to demonstrate his longsuffering while Abraham seemingly negotiates Him to a bargain of a ratio of saints-to-sinners that He believes God will tolerate. In the Las Vegas of the ancient world, Abe supposes he can find at least 10 people who would qualify as “righteous” and thereby avert a wholesale elimination of the city (Gen. 18:32).
Since I hold to a dispensationalist view of Biblical interpretation I accept that God’s dealings with the “Age of Civil Government” supposes a slightly different economy from a later, more revelatory period of understanding His will and purpose. Yet, from the beginning, certain principles are clear. Like gravity . . . if you walk off the top of a tall building you will plummet to the pavement . . . the principle of God’s patience is certain. Though it cannot be measured in the same sense as the physics of natural laws, it is nonetheless definite and even so natural. Here’s a lesson from ancient times: “One of the most famous passages in all of philosophy occurs in Plato’s ‘Meno,’ in which Socrates seems to teach a slave boy who has never studied geometry the Pythagorean theorem. The twist is he doesn’t teach him. All he does is ask a series of questions that bring out what the boy already knows. When you put the boys answers together, you have the proof.” (“Written on the Heart” J. Budziszewski, Intervarsity Press, 1997) The lesson translates to this: God has placed “doing right” in the heart of everyone and the people of Sodom had no excuse . . . nor do we. We shall plummet to the pavement if we do not “do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God” (Mic. 6:8). Yet, much like Abraham’s predilection for concession, God is willing to negotiate, evidently no matter how wicked the unrighteous become. “. . . if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” (2Ch 7:14)
I watch the news. I read the newspapers. I surf the news sites. I listen to the radio commentary. At times I want to scream with all the fury in me at the corruption, incompetence, prejudice and outright criminal behavior coming from our government. And yet I realize that blaming them changes nothing. Even if we were to manage to start with tabula rasa we would soon be back to the mire that trusting in the arm of man gets us. I can despise Barak Obama because of his philosophy, world view, and strategy for where he wants to take us nationally, and I do. I equally abhor his confederates in the systematic demolition of our Judeo-Christian culture . . . that includes the man driving the red 1998 Ford Ranger with the “Obama” bumper sticker on the tailgate and the Ichthus fish with legs decal on the rear bumper. But my emotional reaction to Sodom will gain me nothing more than acid reflux and a poor four-letter word vocabulary. If real change . . . on the political/cultural landscape and in my heart . . . is to come about, it will have to begin from a kneeling position. I encourage all who count themselves in the category of “My People” to humble themselves and submit to God’s prescription for a healed land.
