The meal was finished. The promise had been spoken. Sarah was back inside the tent, her laughter still echoing in her ears. The three men rose from under the oak at Mamre and looked toward Sodom. Abraham went with them to bring them on their way, walking beside them as they moved across the plain. The dust rose around their feet. The sun beat down on the dry ground.
As they walked, the Lord spoke. His words were quiet, a divine deliberation offered in the hearing of the man who had been called the friend of God.
“Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do, seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.”
Then the Lord spoke directly to Abraham.
“Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous, I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me. And if not, I will know.”
The two men turned and walked toward Sodom, their figures growing smaller against the horizon. But Abraham stood yet before the Lord. The old man had heard what was coming. The cities on the plain were about to be destroyed. The place where his nephew Lot lived with his wife and his daughters was about to become a furnace.
The First Step Forward
Abraham drew near. His heart was pounding. His mouth was dry. But his voice, when he spoke, was steady.
“Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?”
The question hung in the space between the old man and the Lord. It was a bold question, the kind a servant might ask a king only if he knew the king well enough to dare. Abraham knew the Lord that well. He had walked with him for twenty-five years, through famine and war, through promises made and delayed, through altars built on rocky hills and covenants sealed in blood and fire. And now he stood before the Lord and asked him to consider what he was about to do.
“Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city. Wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?”
Fifty righteous people. Surely there were fifty in all of Sodom. Lot was there. His wife was there. His daughters and their husbands were there. Their servants and their children were there. Fifty people who had not bent the knee to the wickedness around them. Fifty people who still feared God. Would the Lord sweep them away with the rest?
“That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked. And that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
The old man was reminding the Lord of his own character. He was not pleading on the basis of mercy alone. He was pleading on the basis of justice, the justice of the Judge of all the earth. If the Judge destroyed the righteous along with the wicked, what kind of Judge would he be? Abraham knew the answer. The Judge of all the earth would always do right. And doing right meant sparing the righteous.
The Bargaining Begins
And the Lord answered him.
“If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.”
The answer was immediate and generous. Fifty righteous people would save an entire city. The wicked would be spared for the sake of the righteous. The mercy of God would cover Sodom like a shield if only fifty good people could be found within its walls.
Abraham took a breath. Fifty was a large number. What if there were not fifty? What if some of Lot’s household had already been corrupted by the city? What if the righteous were fewer than he hoped? He pressed further, and his voice grew more humble with each step.
“Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes. Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous. Wilt thou destroy all the city for lack of five?”
Dust and ashes. That is how the old man described himself. He who had been promised a seed as numerous as the stars was dust and ashes. He who had been called the friend of God was dust and ashes. He knew his place, and his place was low. But he kept asking anyway, because his nephew was in Sodom, and love made him bold.
“If I find there forty and five, I will not destroy it.”
Forty-five. The number had dropped by five, and still the Lord agreed. The old man’s heart beat faster. He had started at fifty, and the Lord had consented. Now forty-five, and still the mercy held. How much further could he go?
The Numbers Fall
“Peradventure there shall be forty found there.”
“I will not do it for forty’s sake.”
“Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak. Peradventure there shall thirty be found there.”
“I will not do it, if I find thirty there.”
“Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord. Peradventure there shall be twenty found there.”
“I will not destroy it for twenty’s sake.”
The numbers were falling. Fifty to forty-five. Forty-five to forty. Forty to thirty. Thirty to twenty. Each time Abraham asked, and each time the Lord agreed. The old man had started with boldness, but now he was pleading, his voice low and urgent, his face turned toward the ground. He was dust and ashes asking the God of heaven and earth to spare a city of wickedness for the sake of a handful of righteous people.
And the Lord kept saying yes.
The Final Number
Then Abraham made his last plea. He had come from fifty down to twenty, and the Lord had agreed at every step. But twenty still seemed high. What if the righteous in Sodom were fewer than twenty? What if Lot had failed to win anyone else? What if his own family was all that remained?
“Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once. Peradventure ten shall be found there.”
Ten righteous people. Lot and his wife made two. His two unmarried daughters made four. His married daughters and their husbands could have made eight more. Ten was the number of a single household, a man and his wife and his children and their spouses. Surely there were ten righteous people in Sodom. Surely Lot had raised his family in the fear of the Lord even while living in the shadow of that wicked city.
“I will not destroy it for ten’s sake.”
The Lord had agreed one final time. The bargaining was over. The old man had asked for everything he dared to ask, and the Lord had given him everything he asked. If ten righteous people could be found in Sodom, the whole city would be spared. The mercy of God had stretched from fifty down to ten, and at each number the answer was the same. The Judge of all the earth would do right.
The Parting
The Lord went his way. The conversation was finished. The old man stood alone on the plain, watching the road that led toward Sodom. The two men had already disappeared in the direction of the city, walking toward the gate where Lot sat in the place of the elders.
Abraham turned back toward his tent at Mamre. His legs were tired. His heart was heavy. He had bargained with the Lord for the lives of the righteous, and the Lord had listened. But he did not know if there were ten righteous people in Sodom. He did not know if Lot had kept his family pure in the midst of that city. He only knew that he had asked, and the Lord had answered, and the fate of Sodom now rested on whether ten righteous souls could be found within its walls.
The sun climbed higher over the plain. The oaks of Mamre cast their shadows across the dry ground. Abraham reached his tent and sat down at the door, the same place where he had been sitting when the three men first appeared. Sarah was inside, still carrying the promise of a son. The flocks were grazing on the hills. The servants were going about their work. Everything looked the same as it had that morning. But nothing was the same. The old man had stood before the Lord and pleaded for a city he had never lived in, and the Lord had heard him. Now all he could do was wait.
Far to the east, the two angels walked toward Sodom, and the sun began its slow descent toward the hills.
