23 Abraham came near and said, “Will You indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?
24 “Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will You indeed sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it?
25 “Far be it from You to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?”
26 So the Lord said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare the whole place on their account.”
27 And Abraham replied, “Now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord, although I am but dust and ashes.
28 “Suppose the fifty righteous are lacking five, will You destroy the whole city because of five?” And He said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.”
29 He spoke to Him yet again and said, “Suppose forty are found there?” And He said, “I will not do it on account of the forty.”
30 Then he said, “Oh may the Lord not be angry, and I shall speak; suppose thirty are found there?” And He said, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”
31 And he said, “Now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord; suppose twenty are found there?” And He said, “I will not destroy it on account of the twenty.”
32 Then he said, “Oh may the Lord not be angry, and I shall speak only this once; suppose ten are found there?” And He said, “I will not destroy it on account of the ten.” Genesis 18:23-32
We all know the story. Abraham is pleading for God to spare Sodom. He wanted God to spare this one city.
He first starts off with 50 righteous people in the cities, would God spare them? The bargaining continues until he gets to 10 people. No doubt even Abraham was surprised there weren’t even 10 in the town that were righteous. He and his wife, three kids and presumably their wives make eight and they were spared.
Much like the widow who bothered the judge at all hours of the night to give her justice, so was Abraham with God.
Forget for a moment the utter sadness about not having 10 righteous people in a town.
Abraham had God’s ear. Yes, it was a different period of time with different ways to approach and communicate with God.
But God and Abraham had an active dialog about an entire city of perhaps 65,000 people.
That’s significant.
Why?
Have you ever had such a dialog about your town?
Have you ever pleaded with God to spare your town?
Granted, your town’s sin level probably hasn’t risen to that of Sodom, but evil still exists and probably more than we think.
We can certainly pray for our national and state leaders, but local is where we live. Do a prayer walk around portions of your city. Grab others to go along with you. God wants to move in nations, but small towns and cities is where a spiritual renewal will take place. God still moves and works in towns across this great land. Plead with Him to continue that move.