How important is intercessory prayer in light of God’s sovereignty?
Genesis 18, 1 Samuel 12:23
God Invites and Commands Prayer
One of the great privileges of the church is that we can stand in the gap on behalf of those in our generation, and we can intercede as Abraham, our father in the faith did. Scripture gives at least 190 exhortations or commands to prayer. Isn’t that incredible? 190 times God has said, “Draw near to me and ask.” In James 5:16 it says, “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” Abraham gives us a display of that in Genesis 18. Or 1 John 3 says, “whatever we ask we receive from him.” What an incredible exhortation of prayer that is. And how about this one? John 15:7 says, “If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you.” And so, we stand, we intercede, we ask, and God has lavishly blessed.
The great men and women of God throughout time have taken up this prayer burden and have been faithful with it. Athanasius, for example, prayed five hours every day. Bernard of Clairvaux would not begin his daily activities unless he had spent at least three hours in prayer. Augustine once set apart 18 months to do nothing but prayer. Now, you can do that when you are a monk and you don’t have to hold down a regular job, but that’s all he did, 18 months focused on prayer. Charles Simeon devoted the hours from 4 till 8 every morning to prayer. Martin Luther once commented very famously, “I have so much work to do that I have to give myself to an extra amount of prayer, perhaps three hours today.” That speaks to our busy 21st century, doesn’t it? What do we do to prayer when it gets busy? We pitch it. We don’t have time for it.
God’s Intimate Public Revelation to Abraham About Sodom
God was both the Alpha and the Omega of this prayer encounter. It was God who drew near.
But I know you are busy and so prayer is a challenge, and that’s the very reason we’re looking at Genesis 18. Here we see Abraham, our father in faith, in prevailing intercessory prayer. It’s important that God draw near to us and warn us concerning the situation in Sodom and Gomorrah. That is why he reveals himself intimately to Abraham. He involves Abraham; he initiates prayer with Abraham. I think it’s important as we look at this prayer encounter between Abraham and God, to note that God was both the Alpha and the Omega of this prayer encounter. It was God who drew near. He opens his heart and says to Abraham in verses 20-21, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin is so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. And if not, I will know.”
God reveals himself; he shows himself to Abraham. You know that God doesn’t need to use angels, and he doesn’t need to use people. He didn’t need to use Noah’s ark to save the animals, but he chose to do so. He involved Noah and his hammer and his saws and his sons in his redemptive plan. And in the same way, God doesn’t need to send missionaries to the ends of the earth. He doesn’t need to send missionaries to East Asia, He doesn’t need to send missionaries to Greece or to Africa, but he has chosen to involve us in his work. And the number one way we can be involved with God is, the same way Abraham was here, through intercessory prayer that God initiates. Realize that we would have no access, no prayer life, if God had not granted it. It says in verse 22, “The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord.”
God looked at Abraham and saw properly what he was. He was a sinner saved by grace. He was justified by faith in a Christ who would come later. Not one of us has access into the very presence of the holy throne room of God, except that Jesus shed his blood. He provided for us a new and living way into the throne of grace, and with it a command to come near, to draw near and let our consciences be sprinkled by the blood of Christ, to not stay distant. And we know that that’s the problem in intercessory prayer. We are sinners, and he is holy. It says in Isaiah 59:1-2, “Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.” Only in Christ is that barrier taken away. The Lord has initiated, Abraham is ready, and he stands before the Lord to intercede.
Abraham’s Three Great Concerns in Prayer
There are three great concerns on Abraham’s mind as he stands before them. Abraham’s first and greatest concern is for the honor and glory of God and for his reputation as a just judge. That’s his first and greatest concern. Abraham’s second concern is for the righteous in the city of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham’s third concern is for the city generally, as created by God, and a concern that the city be spared on behalf of the righteous, that the wicked might have more time to repent. Those three are not equal in Abraham’s mind. First and foremost, is that God’s reputation might be established. In verse 25, Abraham speaks to God, “Far be it from you to do such a thing−to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you!” And then he says a fascinating thing, “Will not the judge of all the earth do right?”
God is the standard of righteousness and God cannot behave contrary to his own nature. That’s the issue – Abraham wants God to behave according to his own nature. Where did Abraham himself get the sense of what’s right and wrong? Is it not because he was created in the image of God? And, therefore, is this not the moon reflecting rays back to the sun that gave it? The moon has no light of its own, only a reflected light. It came from the sun to begin with. And so here is this created being, created in the image of God, speaking back to God concerning righteousness. “Shall not the judge of all the Earth do right?” God does right all the time. Everything he does is right, just as everything God does is loving, because God is love.
Abraham’s Character in Prayer
And as we look at Abraham’s revealed character in this prayer, we see a number of things. First, I see faith. It’s not directly mentioned, but what is faith but a response to the word of God? Secondly, we see intimacy. Look at verse 22, it says, “The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord.” There’s a sense of standing before God, an intimate relationship. Abraham drew near to God. Only by what Jesus did on the cross, when he shed his blood and died, can there really be Immanuel. God with us or near us or in us, and us close to him as well.
There is a sense of humility and there is a sense of perseverance, isn’t there? Oh, this convicts me in my prayer. Are you this persistent in your prayer? When you ask and don’t receive right away, do you keep on asking or do you give up quickly? Abraham kept on going, kept pressing on, persevering in prayer. And then finally, there’s that reverence, the sense that Abraham standing there is standing before the Judge of all the earth. Now he’s standing on behalf of some others, but someday, he will stand himself before the Judge of all the earth and himself be judged. And so, there is a reverence there, a sense of humility.
This is the character of Abraham in prayer: faith-filled, intimate, compassionate, bold, humble, persevering, reverent. That’s the way we need to pray, isn’t it?
Excerpt from sermon Abraham Intercedes for Sodom and Gomorrah
