Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

ABRAHAM AS INTERCESSOR 18 : 1-3 3
would make the following remarks: (a) His intercession
takes inore and mo& the form of a question. (b) He does
not pray that the godless should be freed from punishment,
but for the sparing of the righteous, and the turning away
of the destructive judgment from all, in case there should
be found a sufficient salt of the righteous among them.
(c) His prayer includes the thought that God would not
destroy any single righteous one with the wicked, although
the number of the righteous should be too small to preserve
the whole.” Gosnian adds, ibid., “The righteous, of course,
are not destroyed, although they are often involved in the
punishment of the wicked.” (3) Jamieson (CECG, lf8) :
“The continued and increased urgency of Abraham’s plead-
ing with God, which almost rises into shamelessness (Luke
11 : -8), assumes an entirely different character, from the
consideration that he is not a suppliant for any benefit to
himself, nor even to his nephew Lot, but an intercessor
for the people of Sodom generally. ‘His importunity was
prompted by the love which springs from the consciousness
that one’s own preservation and rescue are due to com-
passionate grace alone; love, too, which cannot conceive of
the guilt of others as too great for salvation to be possible.
The sympathetic love, springing from the faith which was
counted for righteousness, impelled him to the intercession
which Luther thus describes:-He prayed six times, and
with so much ardour and depth of emotion that, in
gradually lessening the numbers, in order to ensure the
preservation of the wretched cities, he seems to speak almost
foolishly, This seemingly commercial kind of entreaty is
the essence of true prayer, which bridges over the infinite
distance of the creature from the Creator, appeals with
importunity to the heart of God, and ceases not until its
point is gained’ (Keil and Delitzsch) .”
6. Pagaii Iqizitatioizs of this story. Lange (CDHCG,
43 3 ) : “Delitzsch thinks that Abraham recognized the unity
of the God of revelation, in the appearance of the three
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