Behind the Smoke and Ashes

Scripture: Genesis 18: 16-33; 19:27-29 and Ezekiel 16: 53-55

Sermon: Behind the Smoke and Ashes

Topics: Providence, Hope, Audacity

Preached: May 9, 1999 Woodlawn p.m.

Rev. Mike Abma

Genesis 18: 16-33

16 Then the men set out from there, and they looked towards Sodom; and Abraham went with them to set them on their way. ¹⁷The Lord said, ‘Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, ¹⁸seeing that Abraham shall become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? ¹⁹No, for I have chosen him, that he may charge his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice; so that the Lord may bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.’ ²⁰Then the Lord said, ‘How great is the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah and how very grave their sin!²¹I must go down and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me; and if not, I will know.’

22 So the men turned from there, and went towards Sodom, while Abraham remained standing before the Lord. ²³Then Abraham came near and said, ‘Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?²⁴Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will you then sweep away the place and not forgive it for the fifty righteous who are in it?²⁵Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?’ ²⁶And the Lord said, ‘If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will forgive the whole place for their sake.’ ²⁷Abraham answered, ‘Let me take it upon myself to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. ²⁸Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?’ And he said, ‘I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.’ ²⁹Again he spoke to him, ‘Suppose forty are found there.’ He answered, ‘For the sake of forty I will not do it.’ ³⁰Then he said, ‘Oh do not let the Lord be angry if I speak. Suppose thirty are found there.’ He answered, ‘I will not do it, if I find thirty there.’ ³¹He said, ‘Let me take it upon myself to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there.’ He answered, ‘For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it.’ ³²Then he said, ‘Oh do not let the Lord be angry if I speak just once more. Suppose ten are found there.’ He answered, ‘For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.’ ³³And the Lord went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham; and Abraham returned to his place.

Genesis 19: 27-29

27 Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord; ²⁸and he looked down towards Sodom and Gomorrah and towards all the land of the Plain, and saw the smoke of the land going up like the smoke of a furnace.

29 So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the Plain, God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had settled.

This is the Word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

INTRODUCTION

In Frederick Beuchner’s wonderful book, Telling the Truth, he does a delightful job of describing the gospel as both comedy and tragedy, as both good news and bad news. It is. On the one hand the gospel is comedy because it is so unexpected, preposterous, and unforeseeably grand that all we can do in response is laugh in astonishment. On the other hand, the gospel is tragedy. Given the sinfulness of humankind and how prone we are to repeat our mistakes over and over again, tragedy is bound to happen. The gospel is comic. The gospel is tragic. The comic is unforeseeable. The tragic is inevitable.

Genesis 18 speaks with both these voices. It begins with the comic. It begins with the preposterous, unforeseeable announcement that Sarah will have a baby. Sarah of all people, well beyond child-bearing years, will have a baby?

Impossible.

So impossible, so out of the question, that Sarah cannot help laughing at the outrageousness of it. From her barren body she would produce life?

Then there is a change. As the visitors get up to leave, they look down the road and over the valley toward the city of Sodom. The mood changes. The Lord has just given a message of life, of redemption. Now he wonders whether he should give the rest of the message – the message of judgement and of death, of sin and its inevitable end. For an amazing three verses, we are given a glimpse of God pondering what to tell Abraham and what not to tell. Finally, the Lord decides Abraham has a right to know. He tells Abraham where he is going and why. He tells Abraham he is on his way to Sodom and Gomorrah to investigate. Are they are bad as he has heard?

THE AUDACITY OF ABRAHAM

Where Abraham and Sarah could hardly believe the comic news that they would have a baby, Abraham has no trouble understanding the tragic news of what this trip to Sodom will result in.

Although this divine visitor only says he is going to investigate,

and although nothing is said about what would happen if things are as bad as

rumored,

Abraham knows.

He knows how bad things are in Sodom and Gomorrah.

He knows their inevitable fate, their doomed destiny.

He knows his nephew’s life is in danger.

And so he tries to do the only thing he can – he has the audacity to plead with the Lord.

When two of the divine visitors continue down the road to Sodom, Abraham stands before the Lord – some see this as Abraham literally blocking the Lord’s way. Why does he stand in the way?

Does Abraham love Sodom? No. Does Abraham love Gomorrah? No.

But he does love Lot. For the sake of Lot and Lot’s family, Abraham has the audacity of going toe-to-toe with God.

Abraham is doing what had become second nature to him – playing protective father to the only real child he had ever known.

Abraham had taken Lot with him when he left Ur to come to Canaan.

Abraham had given Lot the first choice of gazing lands.

Abraham had come to Lot’s rescue when Sodom was ransacked and Lot was taken hostage.

And so, it is again on the impulse of love to do what he can to protect, to shield, to save his flesh and blood that he begs, he pleads, he boldly bargains with God.

“If there are 50 righteous people in the city, you won’t destroy the whole place will you? You won’t kill the righteous with the unrighteous — that wouldn’t be fair.

Will not the Judge of all earth be fair?”

The Lord replied, “For the sake of 50 righteous people I’ll save the whole place.”

Abraham goes down 5. “For the sake of 45 will you spare the city?” he implores.

“For the sake of 45 I will spare the city,” the Lord replies.

For 40? For 40 it will be spared.

For 30? For 30 it will be spared.

For 20? For 20 it will be spared.

For 10? Even for 10 the whole place would be spared.

Abraham’s bargaining, his wrangling, his begging, his pleading, they tell us something about Abraham — they tells us Abraham is ready to do anything to save Lot.

This wrangling also tells us something about God — it’s not as if Abraham wants to save and God wants to destroy. God also wants to save not only Lot but the whole city. No matter how low Abraham goes, God responds quickly and immediately – for the sake of 10 righteous I will spare the whole city.

ABRAHAM LEFT HANGING

The last verse of chapter 18 speaks volumes. When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home. Abraham did not race back to his tent, jump on a horse, and gallop to Sodom to warn Lot and his family. Abraham did not muster troops or sound the alarm as he had done so often in the past. No, Abraham knew that even if he raced to Sodom to rescue Lot and his family, it wouldn’t mean a hill of beans in the long-run. Abraham knew that this was one time that he wouldn’t, that he couldn’t, cover for Lot. He could not bail him out. Lot and his family had to make it on their own. They would have to stand before the Lord. It would be the Lord who would either Judge them or Deliver them.

No, instead Abraham trudges slowly home. And in all likelihood he spent a sleepless night tossing and turning in bed, fearing for the safety, for the deliverance, of his own flesh and blood. Would he find the cities destroyed in the morning or would they be spared?

Early the next morning,

after a night of more tossing and turning than tranquility,

of more inner wrestling than rest,

Abraham returns to the spot where he had bargained with God.

He anxiously looks toward the cities of Sodom and Gommorah.

To his horror his worst fears are realized.

All he can see is thick, dense smoke rising from the charred remains of

what used to be his nephew’s home-town.

OUR SLEEPLESS NIGHTS

What keeps us awake at night?

What makes us restless and anxious?

What causes bags to form under our eyes and ulcers to eat away at our stomachs?

Isn’t it the people we love who leave us unsure?

Isn’t it the people we love who willingly pitch their tent too close to Sodom?

The people we love who seem to be living both

in this world and of this world?

The ones who display little or no allegiance to Christ?

The ones who have left the church and have flatly said they have no plans to

return?

In 1741, Jonathon Edwards ended his famous sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” with this urgent appeal –

The wrath of the Almighty God is now undoubtedly

hanging over a great part of this

congregation.

Let everyone flee out of Sodom.!”

Let everyone flee out of Sodom!

Who hasn’t pleaded and prayed for this

for a son, a daughter, a grandson, a granddaughter, a brother, a sister?

In leading services in retirement homes and care facilities, the one prayer request I have received more often than any other is to pray for a loved one, a family member, who has wandered from the Lord, who has turned their backs on their faith. The weight of worry lines their faces.

We shouldn’t downplay the weight of this burden. One of the reasons it is so burdensome is because we realize this is something from which we can’t bail loved ones out.

This is something we can’t protect them from or rescue them from.

O, we can rescue them from banks who plan to foreclose on their property;

we can relieve them from their kids for a weekend

when they need a time to relax;

we can do a lot in this life to smooth things out.

But when it comes to how a person stands before the Lord, what can we do?

Well, we can and should pray and plead and bargain, with God.

God listened to Abraham. He will listen to us.

SMOKE AND ASHES

When Abraham rose early in the morning, he rushed out to view the city of Sodom all he could see was the charred rubble and remains of the city.

All he could see was smoke and ashes.

From our perspective that is often all we can see – smoke and ashes.

We see the lives of loved ones all messed up. Marriages destroyed. Children neglected. Faith life ignored. Church chucked.

From our vantage point, things may look dismal. Bleak. Tragic.

But don’t forget the comic side of the gospel.

The surprising side.

The unforeseeable side.

The its-too-good to be true side.

Unknown to Abraham as he viewed the destruction on the plain,

the smoke and the ashes,

was that God had hounded and chased Lot.

Unknown to Abraham was that God had literally grabbed and dragged Lot

and his family out of the city before it was destroyed.

Why was Lot dragged out?

Why was he rescued and saved while the whole city perished?

It certainly was not because Lot was righteous himself. Lot willingly lived in the Sodom even knowing its wickedness. In desperation he was willing to give his own daughters to the frenzied crowd who were demanding to abuse Lot’s visitors. And even after he was rescued, he gets his own daughters pregnant while drunk. No, Lot is hardly the epitome of virtue. Lot is not saved because he is righteous.

Then why is he saved?

The words of chapter 19:29 tell us, “when God destroyed Sodom, he remembered Abraham and brought Lot out of the catastrophe.”

God remembered Abraham.

COST OF RESCUE

Remembering Abraham and rescuing Lot comes at a cost to God. Rescue missions always do. The cost is this. The children, the incestuous children Lot has with his daughters, are Moab and Ben-Ammi. They are the patriarchs of what will become some of Israel’s greatest rivals – the Moabites and the Ammonites. Yes, Lot is saved. But it comes at a cost.

When we pray for loved ones, we should know better than to beg that they should be saved because they are such nice people, such good kids down deep.

And we should know better than to beg that they should be saved because we are such good people.

We pray for our loved ones by pleading that God will remember Jesus Christ.

We pray for our sons and daughters pleading that God will remember his own child,

the righteousness of his holy one,

the one into whose death and resurrection we have been baptized.

We also pray fully aware of the cost of this rescue. Even as we pray for God to remember his Son, our Lord, we remember this Son too. We remember what it cost for Him to rescue us. We remember his pain, his suffering, the price of his atonement.

Now some of you may be wondering,

why was Lot rescued and not the rest of Sodom?

If Lot was unrighteous yet spared, why wasn’t the whole city spared?

This is a good question. This is a good and difficult question.

Behind the smoke and ashes we know Lot was rescued.

But perhaps …. perhaps behind the smoke and ashes we need to see an even bigger

rescue operation in effect.

Sodom is synonymous with sin and judgement.

Sodom is synonymous with corruption and catastrophe.

Sodom is synonymous with the inevitable result of a rebellion against God.

Sodom for us is only smoke and ashes.

But is there salvation even for Sodom?

HOPE FOR THE HOPELESS

During the time of the prophet Ezekiel, Jerusalem had become a thoroughly corrupt city.

The Lord laments through the prophet Ezekiel:

“You, Jerusalem, are worse than your southern neighbor, Sodom.

You are worse than your northern neighbor, Samaria.

You are a disgrace”

But even though all Ezekiel can see is corruption, wickedness, and evil,

Yet he delivers this astonishing promise of God,

“I will restore the fortunes of Sodom,

I will restore the fortunes of Samaria,

And I will restore your fortunes as well.” (Ezekiel 16:53)

Our own lives may be in shambles.

The lives of our loved ones may be all messed up.

From our vantage point perhaps all we can see is a tragic inevitability,

all we can see is smoke and ashes.

But remember, hope that is seen is no hope at all.

We may not be able to see it, but we believe there is life behind the smoke and ashes.

For we believe in the power of the resurrection.

We believe the impossible is possible.

We believe that God is able to bring life from death,

joy from sorrow

and redemption from smoke and ashes.

We believe this because we remember and know Jesus Christ.