Genesis 18:20-19:30 The Importance of Intercessory Prayer

Genesis 18:20-19:30 The Importance of Intercessory Prayer

In Genesis 18:20, God tells Abaraham that He is about to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.  Because his nephew Lot and family live in Sodom, Abraham pleads with the Lord to spare the city if even 10 righteous people are living there.  The Lord does not become angry with Abraham and agrees, but there are less than 10 people living right lives in the very wicked city of Sodom.

The Bible never says that God spared Lot because of Lot's righteousness but clearly states He does so because "God remembered Abraham:" and his cries for Lot, not necessarily for Lot himself.  

This is a wonderful example of God's mercy as well as showing the importance of intercessory prayer.  It reminds me to always be faithful in praying for the safety and salvation of those I love! 

(Genesis 18:20-23, 32) And the Lord said, "Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; 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."

And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the Lord. And Abraham drew near, and said, "Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?" And he said, "Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there."

 And He said, "I will not destroy it for ten's sake."

(Genesis 19:12-17 & 27-29) [Angels have arrived at Lot's house in Sodom.] And the men said unto Lot, "Hast thou here any besides... bring them out of this place: For we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the Lord; and the Lord hath sent us to destroy it."

And Lot went out, and spake... "Up, get you out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city..."

And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, "Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city."

And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the Lord being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city. And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, "Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed."

And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord: And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.

And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in the which Lot dwelt.