A Word in Season: The Judge of all the Earth (Genesis 18:25)

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Abraham the man of God was troubled. The Lord God in his wisdom and mercy had taken

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Abraham into his confidence with regard to some of his particular plans and purposes at that time.

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Specifically the Lord had made known to Abraham that he intended to bring fiery judgments upon the cities of the plain

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Sodom and Gomorrah. The vileness of their wickedness had come up before him and he was no longer going to overlook that, but was now about to bring the appropriate punishments upon them for their sins.

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Abraham also knew that his nephew Lot had pitched his tent toward Sodom. He was probably aware that Lot was now dwelling in the city with his wife and his two daughters, and that those two daughters had become enmeshed in the life of Sodom, marrying men of the city.

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Perhaps Abraham hoped that Lot, who was despite his compromises a righteous man, that Lot was somehow effective in making known the true

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God there in Sodom and Gomorrah, that he perhaps had some kind of influence and that under that influence people may have turned to God.

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And Abraham hopes almost against hope that perhaps in Sodom there are some who are righteous, and so he begins to plead with the

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Lord. Is God going to destroy the righteous with the wicked? And he says suppose there were 50 righteous within the city, would you also destroy the place and not spare it for the 50 righteous that were in it?

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Far be it from you to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked, far be it from you, shall not the judge of all the earth do right.

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Now Abraham's question there at the end is almost a statement.

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I don't think it's a desperate concern, is God going to act unrighteously?

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Rather it's a declaration in confidence that the judge of all the earth shall do right.

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Abraham knows the righteousness of God and that's the very basis of the plea and those that follow as he begins almost to whittle down the possibilities knowing the wickedness of the place.

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And it may be that we have the same question and we need the same confidence, for we know if we are

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Christians that this world also is under judgment and we know that there are times and seasons even in this world when

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God brings judgments against the nations of the world. And we might ask, is

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God treating the righteous as he does the wicked? Is he just bringing the same condemnations upon them all?

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Or what about the events of the last great day when the Lord Jesus Christ returns and calls everybody to account for the way in which they have lived?

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Is God going to deal in the same way with the righteous as with the wicked and will they all be swept away?

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No, the judge of all the earth shall do right. The Lord knows how to preserve his people, he knew how to preserve a lot even in those temporal troubles.

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He sent angels to guide him and his wife and his daughters out of the city because they were the only ones who would be preserved by the pleas and the prayers of Abraham.

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Righteous lot, despite his compromises, despite his confusion, despite the failures of his testimony in those cities, righteous lot was still delivered.

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And the Lord knows how to take care of his people. It's worth remembering that even in this life death itself can be a deliverance for the righteous because it brings them immediately into the presence of Christ in their spirits and their bodies rest in their graves until the resurrection of that great day.

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But the picture that we have perhaps in Sodom and Gomorrah is closer to that of the final judgment when the

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Lord will bring destruction upon the earth because of the sin that characterizes this fallen world.

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And will then the judge of all the earth do right? Yes indeed he will, he always does.

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God will spare his people, God will deliver them in that judgment and God will bring them out not as he did with lot into a further experience of compromise and sin but rather into perfect righteousness.

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God knows how to take care of his people, God knows how to deal with sin,

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God knows how to vindicate his people, God knows how to punish wickedness and when we may look around and see the confusion and the misery of this world and we might ask shall not the judge of all the earth do right?

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Then the assured answer is yes he does, he must and he will to the praise of the glory of his justice.