Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

ABRAHAM AS INTERCESSOR 18 : 1-3 3
to all the epics: Ugarit, Mesopotamian, Greek and proto-
patriarchal, The simple personal contact between men and
God was gradually eliminated” (AD, pp. 66-67).
V. 25--“Shall iiot the Judge of all the earth do right”?
‘The perennial problem: Must the good suffer aloizg with,
aiid because of, the wicked? Is God to be understood as
Absolute Justice? What is the relation of Divine Love to
Divine Justice? Is Mercy compatible with Absolute
Justice? How does the principle of Equity come into this
problem? (Equity is defined, NWCD, s.u., as “any body
of legal doctrines and rules similarly developed to enlarge,
supplement, or override a system of law which has become
too narrow and rigid in its scope.”) Cf. v. 23--“Wilt thou
consume the righteous with the wicked?” Skinner (ICCG,
3 0 J ) : “This question strikes the keynote of the section-
a protest against the thought of an indiscriminate judg-
ment. , . , In OT, righteousness and clemency are closely
allied: there is more injustice in the death of a few innocent
persons than in the sparing of a guilty multitude. The
problem is, to what limits is the application of this principle
subject? . . . Unrighteousness in the Supreme Ruler of the
world would make piety impossible.” Whitelaw (PCG,
249) : “Assuming it as settled that the fair Pentapolis is
to be destroyed, Abraham practically asks, with a strange
mixture of humility and boldness, if Jehovah has con-
sidered that this will involve a sad commingling in one
gigantic overthrow of both the righteous and the wick.ed.”
“The patriarch appeals not to Jehovah’s covenanst grace,
but to his absolute judicial equity” (ibid., 250). Again,
Abraham regarding it as impossible that the entire popula-
tion of Sodom was involved in common ruin, kept modify-
ing the conditions of his appeal, believing that the city
might be spared, even if only a few should be proved to be
righteous. It was inconceivable to him that Jehovah would
do anything to tarnish His divine righteousness, such as
destroying even ten righteous persons in order to punish the
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