Negotiating with God? – Genesis 18:16-33
Bethel Baptist Church – David Rising
Genesis 18:16-33; July 12, 2026 Sunday PM
Negotiating with God?
Our studies in Genesis have taken us to the place where Abraham and Sarah are now awaiting for their son to be born – a very unique son who will be born of two elderly people.
God has taken the initiative many times to drill home the fact of His promise to them. Though they still seem a bit reluctant to see how this will take place, the text of scripture is silent about this until we see the birth of Isaac in chapter 21.
In the meantime, we have before us a series of events recorded in Genesis 18:16-20:18 that take our focus away from the Isaac story to issues that Abraham has to face with regard to Sodom and Abimelech.
However, there is a connection to the story we just examined as we will see in the opening lines of our text for tonight. Pray.
Notice Genesis 18:16:
16 Then the men rose from there and looked toward Sodom, and Abraham went with them to send them on the way.
These three men – the LORD and two angels – did come to interact with Abraham and Sarah there in Mamre, but they were also on another mission to Sodom.
The last time we were told something about Sodom was in 13:13 as a comment by Moses to describe where Lot had moved. Verse 13 says: “But the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the LORD.”
We must remember statements like this, especially when we see the LORD severely judge a city or nation.
We recall the LORD’s timing in the promise of land in chapter 15. As the LORD cut the covenant with Abraham, we heard that the period of 400+ years in Egypt was in part due to the “iniquity of the Amorites” running its full course. God is tolerant of sin for a season, but in the end He shuts it down in judgment.
As we press forward in this text, we’ll see that it was the LORD’s work here to address the wickedness of Sodom.
Remember also that when Abraham had returned from rescuing Lot, that the king of Sodom wanted to reward Abraham with all of the goods that the coalition had stolen. Abram refused to take any of them because he did not want Sodom one day to boast that they were the ones who had made Abram rich.
He did allow them to feed the men, but nothing else. This was a very wise choice because the city was very wicked and they would have taken credit for Abram’s successes.
Notice now the LORD’s comments in verses 17-21 to the other men with Him:
17 And the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing, 18 since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? 19 For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.” 20 And the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave, 21 I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to Me; and if not, I will know.”
This is a most interesting conversation by the LORD as He thinks out loud as it were. As we read this, we recognize the omniscience of God in this matter as it incorporates the extension of the Abrahamic promise.
The fact that in Abraham all the nations of the earth will be blessed is the LORD’s concern because what the LORD is about to do to Sodom and Gomorrah would relate to this promise.
We know that Sodom is a very wicked nation, and so they clearly are people who are not keeping God’s commandments, are not keeping the way of the LORD, and are not doing what is righteous and just. Their lives are corrupting everyone else and so the LORD is about to send His powerful judgment against them.
We will see in chapter 19 that the LORD does destroy them.
But He will not destroy everyone, and that is where Abraham enters this story.
The LORD asks the question whether He should disclose to Abraham His plans, and then the LORD answers that question in verses 20ff by giving Abraham a clue to what was to come.
Verse 20 says that “the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great” and the text does not elaborate upon this, but this might refer to the cry of the just within the city to God for the oppression they face. Like the psalms so often, perhaps the godly who are pleading for help to God is what is noted here.
And so, this could be a perfect illustration of how the LORD responds to the cries of His people. In fact, this is the sense of the passage in the end as well because of how God used Abraham to bring about His purposes by Abraham’s pleading with Him.
Verse 21 indicates that the LORD will investigate the situation and then He would know. This verse is written in a way that we can understand in terms of humanity. This sounds like what the LORD said about the Tower of Babel – to go down, to look down.
This is God’s response to the cries, and He will investigate and know. For God to know is for God to be sympathetic and to hear and thus respond.
And so the LORD has spoken of His plans to the two men, and we continue in verse 22:
22 Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord.
Abraham heard what the LORD had said they were there to do, but Abraham seems stunned. Why? His family was living in that area and he was concerned. He had put his life on the line earlier when he had rescued him, and now he sees the LORD and two angels heading to destroy this place.
What would we do when we know what is about to happen would greatly impact our family?
What follows now in the text is a very interesting dialogue between Abraham and the LORD. Abraham is petitioning the LORD. This intervention helps us see how he fleshed out his role as a blessing to others (12:3, noted by Matthews). Moses understood this role as he petitioned the Lord on behalf of Israel.
What is interesting here is that Abraham seems intent on sparing the city which was basically wicked.
Notice the initial concern he raises to the LORD:
23 And Abraham came near and said, “Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked?
This reminds me of teacher who penalized the entire class for a few who might have been bad. Remember those times? This question of Abraham is a question of fairness: how can you, LORD, destroy the wicked along with the righteous? That does not seem right.
And we would agree. That doesn’t seem right.
And so Abraham begins to negotiate with the LORD, if I can use that term:
24 Suppose there were fifty righteous within the city; would You also destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous that were in it? 25 Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
This sounds like a conversation that two humans would have about the fairness of something. Abraham is painting a potential scenario for the LORD, so that He could consider withholding His judgment if there are 50 righteous people in the city.
Notice that here in the Old Testament we have a description of two different people: the righteous and the wicked. We see this throughout the psalms. It is a description of who they are and what they do.
In actuality, this is not so much a request but a protest to the LORD for what Abraham perceives to be an inequity. Verse 24 is a question, but verse 25 is a few statements, the last being in the form of a question.
In some ways, this is similar to the problem that Habakkuk had with the Lord’s answer to his concern about the sin of the people. God’s solution was judgment, but by the hand of a wicked people? Habakkuk protested that God could not do this as He was of purer eyes than to behold evil.
Here, it was the fact that God would let the righteous get caught in judgment when they were after all, righteous. It just did not seem fair and right, and so Abraham says: far be it from You! Lord, don’t do this.
Abraham then asks at the end of verse 25: “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
It is a powerful question given to the Lord, and as a statement we know that it is a true statement. Of course, the Judge of all the earth will do right.
But is this right? That’s the sense we get here.
Abraham appears to believe that God is heading down a road of judgment that does not exactly square with His understanding of God.
This is Abraham negotiation with God. He is strongly asking God to change course.
Is this the right thing to do?
But is this not what we do when we pray?
We see something taking place or not taking place as we desire, and so we ask for a change.
The LORD responds:
26 So the Lord said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.”
Is the LORD playing with Abraham? The LORD agrees with the request of Abraham and said he would spare everyone if there were 50 righteous in the city. Fair enough.
But Abraham continues:
27 Then Abraham answered and said, “Indeed now, I who am but dust and ashes have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord: 28 Suppose there were five less than the fifty righteous; would You destroy all of the city for lack of five?”
Abraham works down the number from 50 to 45. Notice the humility of Abraham as he clearly understands his position before God. Dust and ashes seems like a way of describing life and death, but it draws attention to the fact that Abraham is speaking with the Creator. He knows his place, and yet still asks.
The LORD responds:
So He said, “If I find there forty-five, I will not destroy it.”
Abraham is 2 for 2. The LORD agrees.
And it continues:
29 And he spoke to Him yet again and said, “Suppose there should be forty found there?”
So He said, “I will not do it for the sake of forty.”
Why increments of five? We can only guess, but the LORD agrees to spare the city if only 40 righteous are there.
Abraham continues yet again:
30 Then he said, “Let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak: Suppose thirty should be found there?”
So He said, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”
31 And he said, “Indeed now, I have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord: Suppose twenty should be found there?”
So He said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of twenty.”
32 Then he said, “Let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak but once more: Suppose ten should be found there?”
And He said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of ten.” 33 So the Lord went His way as soon as He had finished speaking with Abraham; and Abraham returned to his place.
Abraham carefully, humbly, and yet boldly asks the LORD for better numbers so that His wrath against Sodom might be averted.
Abraham is able to work it down to ten – ten righteous people in the entire city. If the LORD finds ten, then He will not destroy it.
After Abraham finishes this negotiation process, he returns home.
Obviously the story continues, but we will pick up the continuation next time.
We ask the question: why all of this effort? Why was Abraham intervening with this?
The answer comes, of course, as the narrative unfolds and also as we remember who was living nearby. His nephew Lot was in there and he did not want to see him destroyed.
Any loving family relative would be so concerned as this, and Abraham has the privilege of having almighty God in conversation.
Chapter 19 will tell us how depraved this city was, and in the end we do see that Lot is able to escape the city.
Application
What do we see here? It is an unusual dialogue recorded in scripture that has a Job-like feel in places.
This account reminds us of these things:
1. Indeed, in Abraham, all the families of the earth will be blessed. This is a taste of how this would be as the family of Lot will be spared, even if in a very strange way as we will see.
2. Abraham models the intercessor who goes to God on behalf of the people. We might think of Moses as the model in this area, but here is an example of Abraham talking with God to intervene.
3. This account also reminds us of what happens when we pray. Think of it. We are asking God to change the course of history because at present it is not what we want it to be. We see someone sick or lost or hurting, and we ask God to change the circumstances for that person. We may take prayer for granted and consider it the roll of the dice, but that is to misunderstand prayer and our God. Abraham asks God to reduce the number of righteous required to spare the city, and God agrees – down to ten.
Why stop at ten? Some say this is a way of speaking anyway because in the end God spares Lot but still destroys the city. God is all-wise and will do what He determines, but He does give us the privilege to communicate with Him and negotiate as it were like this.
As we consider this narrative, remember that it takes place between the time of Abraham and Sarah’s definitive time-table for a son and the birth of that son. In other words, Abraham would not just be able to sit around at home and wait for things to unfold. He still has work to do, and the events of chapters 19 & 20 are quite dramatic as we see them unfold.
Abraham will be used by God to rescue Lot, and it all started by this most interesting interaction, negotiation, by Abraham.
For us, pray. Let us be people who pray, who call out to God, who ask God to keep His word in our lives. As we do, we will grow closer to the Lord and will see His blessings day after day. Our praise and thanks to God will increase, and we will be fit for worship. May we continually come before the Lord as we have the great privilege to do so.