Lesson 01 · Genesis · outside Sodom
Arguing with God
“And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?... Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
Genesis 18:23–25
God tells Abraham what He's about to do to Sodom, and Abraham does something most of us would consider rude: he starts negotiating. Fifty righteous people? Forty-five? Thirty? Twenty? Ten?
Read the tone — Abraham knows he's pushing. 'I who am but dust and ashes.' 'Let not the Lord be angry.' He's aware of who he's talking to, and he keeps going anyway.
God doesn't shut him down once. He answers every single round.
This is the first extended prayer in the Bible, and it isn't a request for personal blessing. It's a man pleading for a city full of strangers who would never know he did it.
Put plainly
The first long prayer in Scripture is an argument on behalf of other people — and God let it run all the way to the end.
Sit with this
- Have you ever been afraid to say something honest to God? What was it?
- Abraham prayed for strangers. Who's on your list that can't pay you back?
If you're giving the message
- 01Abraham talked God down from fifty to ten, and God answered every time.
- 02He was fully aware of who he was addressing — reverent and bold at once.
- 03The first long prayer in the Bible is for other people, not for himself.
- 04God invites the conversation; He isn't fragile.