Genesis 18:16

Verse 16 begins as the visit ends. The LORD has appeared to Abraham at Mamre, near Hebron, as one of three men standing by his tent (Genesis 18:1–2), and Abraham has welcomed them eagerly, served them a meal and heard the promise that Sarah will bear a son. Now “the men rose up from thence”. The verb qûwm is the ordinary word for rising or standing up, and with it the story turns from the joy of the promised son to the judgment of Sodom.

They “looked toward Sodom”. The verb shâqaph is used for looking out, often for looking down from a height, and this look has a purpose. Sodom lay in the Jordan valley, a prosperous place already known for its wickedness, for Genesis has said that its men were wicked and sinners before the LORD (Genesis 13:13). The visitors’ gaze tells us that God’s attention is fixed on the sin of the city, and it prepares us for the destruction told in Genesis 19.

Abraham “went with them to bring them on the way”. In the days of the patriarchs a host walked some distance with guests who were leaving, as a sign of respect and goodwill and to see them safely off, and doing so completed his duty as host. The verb is shâlach, which means to send or to stretch out, and here it is the sending off of guests by going part of the way with them. Abraham’s welcome to these strangers is echoed in the letter to the Hebrews: “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Hebrews 13:2). His courtesy also keeps him at the LORD’s side at the very moment the LORD chooses to speak, and the conversation that follows grows out of that companionship.

As the men set out, we are allowed to hear the LORD’s own thoughts: “Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do”. The name here is Yᵉhôvâh, the LORD, God’s covenant name, sometimes written Jehovah, which speaks of the eternal, self-existent God who binds himself to his people. It is this faithful, covenant-keeping God who weighs whether to tell Abraham. To hide, kâçâh, is to cover, as with clothing or for secrecy. “That thing which I do” uses ʻâsâh, the broad verb for doing or making anything at all, and the thing in view is the judgment about to fall on Sodom and Gomorrah.

God could keep his purpose to himself, and he chooses to share it, treating Abraham as a trusted friend and confidant. Scripture gives Abraham that very title: “he was called the Friend of God” (James 2:23). Amos says the same of God’s dealings with his prophets: “Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7). A psalm speaks of the secret of the LORD being with those who fear him (Psalm 25:14), and Jesus calls his disciples friends (John 15:15).

The secret is shared for a purpose. Abraham is about to plead for the city (Genesis 18:23–33), and he can pray for it because he has been told what God will do. God draws his friend into his own work, and the revelation and the prayer belong together.

God’s first reason is the promise he has already made: “Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation”. The Hebrew behind “surely become” is an emphatic form, an infinitive absolute, and it makes the promise certain. The adjective gâdôwl, “great”, describes greatness of size, standing or strength, and joined with “mighty” it speaks of a people of large numbers and real weight in the world. Abraham heard this as a wanderer living in tents, whose son by Sarah was still only promised, so the fulfilment rested wholly on God.

The word for nation, gôwy, is often used of foreign peoples, the Gentiles, and here it names Abraham’s own descendants as a distinct people. The same word returns in the plural in “all the nations of the earth”, so Abraham’s people will be one nation among the nations, and through it blessing reaches all the rest. The earth is ʼerets, the whole world. “Blessed” is bârak, a verb whose root meaning is to kneel and which means to give good, favour and strength. When God blesses, he gives what is good for body and spirit alike. “Shall be blessed” makes the nations the ones who receive and God the one who gives, and Abraham is the one “in him” the blessing comes.

This repeats and widens the promise God made when he first called Abraham (Genesis 12:1–3), where a great nation and the blessing of all the families of the earth already stand side by side. God chose one man and one people for the good of many. Abraham’s election was for the sake of the world, and God’s heart reached out to all nations from the beginning.

Paul reads this promise as the gospel told in advance: “And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed” (Galatians 3:8). He points to the promised seed as one person, Christ (Galatians 3:16), and says that all who belong to Christ are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise (Galatians 3:29). A psalm of the king looks the same way: “men shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed” (Psalm 72:17). Paul speaks of the promise that made Abraham heir of the world (Romans 4:13), of one Lord over Jew and Greek who saves all who call on him (Romans 10:12–13), and of Gentiles brought near and made fellow citizens with the saints (Ephesians 2:11–22). John sees where it ends, in a great multitude from every tribe, tongue and nation before the throne (Revelation 7:9). Whoever believes in Christ, from any people, is joined to Abraham by faith and shares in the blessing promised here.

God’s second reason looks at Abraham himself: “For I know him”. The verb yâdaʻ is the common word for knowing, and it reaches to observing, caring for and recognizing. Here it carries the sense of choosing and approving someone in a close, personal bond, which is why it explains God’s trust. God knows Abraham’s character through and through, and he has chosen him. He speaks of knowing Israel in the same chosen and close way through Amos (Amos 3:2).

What God knows is that Abraham “will command his children and his household after him”. To command, tsâvâh, is to give an authoritative charge, to enjoin, and Abraham is to lead, teach and hold his family to God’s ways. His household, bayith, takes in his children, his servants and all who depend on him. In the days of the patriarchs the household was the basic unit of society, and its head was responsible for passing on faith and right living to those who came after. “After him” carries Abraham’s charge on past his own lifetime.

Teaching the next generation is the pattern of the law as well, which tells Israel to keep God’s words in their hearts and teach them diligently to their children (Deuteronomy 6:6–7). Proverbs calls on parents to train up a child (Proverbs 22:6), and a psalm promises the LORD’s mercy to those who keep his covenant, reaching on to their children (Psalm 103:17–18).

Now the LORD names the matter: “Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous”. The cry is zᵉʻâqâh, from zaʻaq, to shriek or cry out, a loud lament or appeal. In Scripture such a cry is often the outcry of the wronged calling on God to act. The blood of Abel cried to God from the ground (Genesis 4:10), and the LORD told Moses, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows” (Exodus 3:7). Here the cry belongs to the cities themselves. Their wickedness was so open and widespread that it rose before God like a voice asking for his verdict, and with it rose the suffering their sin had caused.

The cry is “great”, rab, a word of size and number, so the wickedness marked the whole life of the cities. Their sin, chaṭṭâʼâh, is the ordinary word for sin, and elsewhere it also names the sin offering. It is related to chaṭâʼ, to miss the mark, and it speaks of falling short of God’s standard and breaking his law. That sin is “very grievous”. Grievous is kâbad, to be heavy or burdensome, and with mᵉʼôd, “very” or “exceedingly”, it describes sin lying exceedingly heavy, deep-rooted and widespread, an offence against God’s holiness that had reached its full weight.

Ezekiel later names the iniquity of Sodom as pride, abundance of food and “abundance of idleness”, while the poor and needy went unhelped, and haughty, abominable deeds before God (Ezekiel 16:49–50). The cities lay in the fertile plain of the Jordan, probably near the southern end of the Dead Sea, in a rich land that became a byword for wickedness.

God’s judgment on a whole society is a pattern Scripture records from the flood onward (Genesis 6–9). It is the answer of a God whose ways are perfect, just and faithful (Deuteronomy 32:4), and in the end “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). God’s patience with sin is long, and it has limits, and wickedness that persists unrepentant meets his just and decided answer.

The LORD goes on: “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.” To go down, yârad, is to descend or come down. To see, râʼâh, is the ordinary verb of sight, and it is used of looking into a matter in order to discern and confirm it. Verse 21 names the cry with a second Hebrew word, tsaʻăqâh, which also goes back to a root meaning to shriek, and it speaks of a vehement outcry tied to distress, oppression and grave wrongdoing. “Altogether” stands for kâlâh, completion, and the question is whether the cities have filled up the full measure of the cry against them.

“And if not, I will know” means that God will have the whole truth of the matter whichever way it stands, so whatever he then does rests on complete knowledge. What he finds is told in Genesis 19, and it confirms the cry.

“And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom”. The word for men is ʼĕnôwsh, a common noun for men or mortals, and these are the two angels, still in the form of men. Their going begins the errand on which they were sent.

Abraham stays: “but Abraham stood yet before the LORD”. The verb ʻâmad means to stand, and it can also mean to stay or remain. With “yet” (‘ôd ‘āmāḏ, still standing), it shows Abraham remaining where he was, attentive and ready to speak, while the others leave. He is alone before Yᵉhôvâh, the covenant God who has just told him his plan, and the “but” sets his staying beside the angels’ going.

His standing opens the great conversation of Genesis 18:23–33, where he pleads for the city. In Ezekiel’s day God looked for a man to “stand in the gap” before him for the land (Ezekiel 22:30), and here Abraham takes that place for Sodom. Jeremiah would later tell the exiles to seek the peace of the city where they lived (Jeremiah 29:7). Abraham, the friend to whom God has opened his purpose, uses that friendship to plead for others.

Abraham stood before the LORD and pleaded for a guilty city on the hope that righteous people might be found in it. Christ stands before the Father for his people on the ground of his own righteousness and his sacrifice, for he “ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25), and he is our advocate with the Father (1 John 2:1). He knows the weight of human life from the inside, having been tempted as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15), and through him we may come boldly to the throne of grace to find help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16).

The LORD told his plan to his friend, and in Christ God has made himself fully known. Jesus says that “neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him” (Matthew 11:27). John says that “the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (John 1:18). The Son is the “express image of his person” (Hebrews 1:3), and in him “are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3). He promised his disciples the Spirit of truth, who guides them into all truth (John 16:13). The LORD who came to Abraham’s tent was the Son before he took flesh, and the visit looks ahead to the day when the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14).

Abraham was to command his household in the way of the LORD, and Christ is himself “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). Abraham, faithful as he was, led an imperfect household, and Christ, the true seed of Abraham and head of God’s household, kept the way of the LORD perfectly in his life, death and resurrection. He rebuked those who passed over judgment, mercy and faith (Matthew 23:23), and by his Spirit he enables his people to do justice and judgment.

The look toward Sodom points ahead to Christ as Judge, for the Father has committed “all judgment unto the Son” (John 5:22). The same Christ is “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), and he bore the judgment that the cry of human sin deserved. God set him forth as a propitiation, so that he is just and the justifier of the one who believes (Romans 3:25–26), and he made him to be sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21). God’s greatest coming down was the sending of his Son, so that the world through him might be saved (John 3:16–17).

These verses show a God who is both just and near. He hears the cry of the wronged, he weighs sin with perfect knowledge, and his judgment is according to truth. He is also the God who keeps his promises, who chose Abraham to carry blessing to every nation, and who shares his purposes with those he calls his friends. In Christ that friendship and that blessing are open to everyone who believes, from every people on earth, as the promise to Abraham said.

Abraham standing before the LORD shows the place God gives to the prayers of his people. Abraham heard what God would do and stayed to plead, and the God who told him his plan was ready to hear him.