Genesis 18:29 ESV “Again he spoke to him and said, “Suppose forty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of forty I will not do it.”
In this story Abraham is negotiating with God about Sodom….
Are you willing to risk negotiating with Me?
How can you be obedient AND fear Me and still be able to negotiate with Me?
If you will read the whole story you will see that Abraham does this really well. He respects that I am in authority and will do My Will. He also honors the value of mankind as a whole and shows his compassion for innocent people, so he is showing that justice is really important to him. Justice is really important to Me also and so I am willing to listen and negotiate here.
What you see is that the story does not change very much due to the negotiation; Sodom is still destroyed, however Lot, his wife and 2 daughters are saved. You can see that they remain rebellious even as they are being saved though. They linger, and Lot’s wife looks back when she is told not to and Lot doesn’t even do what the angels say. Instead, he negotiates to go to a small town instead of the mountains…even though he discovers that the small town is evil and ends up in the mountains anyway. The small town he goes to before he goes into the mountains was also saved, even though it should not have been because it was just as evil as Sodom.
What comes next is quite repulsive to many…Lot’s daughters lie with their dad and they each have children. If they had not been saved this would have been the end of the family line of Lot and some believe this would have been a good thing, however, I worked this into my overall Will and My overall plan.
I adjust for My children because I love them.
But know, I do know what I am doing and when I decide to do something I love for you to talk to Me and work it out with Me but
I don’t want to discourage you from negotiating, but I want you to realize that negotiations do not usually change the outcome of what is true. I love that you love justice, and it is important to you. I love that you love Me and that you want to come to Me with every concern and every sense of wanting something to be different in the world and I love that you know that I am God and I am the knower of everything. But most of all, I am the One who loves you more than you could possibly know and I love that you want to engage with Me in all circumstances and in all cases.
Prayer:
Dear Lord, as I navigate this world with You, may I see as You see, hear as You say, do as You do so that justice may be served and Your Will be done. Help me see when to negotiate with You and when to accept that which is, may I know and see the difference….but most of all, may I put Your justice as a priority!
I believe this is a message to us from God, written from His perspective – Sherri
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