Most Important People

MANY important lessons lie here in the story of Abraham, the intercessor. First is the importance of believers in the world. The most important people in all the world are that little company of often unrecognized but indispensable, born-again believers, who are walking apart from the world in fellowship with their Lord. So important are the believers in Christ that God will not bring judgment upon this old, wicked world until He has informed them concerning it. So important is the true Church of Jesus Christ that it can stand between God and judgment and prevail upon God to stay His hand in mercy. It was so with Abraham. He held back the destruction of Sodom by his own intercession.

Lot, too, was a believer and a righteous man, but he was a carnal, backslidden man, out of fellowship and walking after the flesh. Although a believer, he had no power with God and no testimony. It was due to Abraham’s intercession, not Lot’s worth, that the city was spared until Lot was safely out. It is of most impressive significance, therefore, that Jesus, when speaking of the last days just before His coming again, compares those days to the days before the doom of Sodom. He says, “Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot . . . so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed” (Luke 17:28-30).

Sodom was spared for a time because one man walking with God, interceded and stood in the gap. God did not finally destroy the city until Lot was safely out. Here, indeed, is a marvelous lesson for these days when we hear so much about revival. One man, Abraham, interceding with God, kept back the hand of judgment.

The case is no different today. Remember Jesus’ words, “Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot . . . so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed.” The sins of Sodom are being repeated today with a vengeance. The wickedness, the immorality, dishonesty, graft, violence, ungodliness of the world seem to surpass even the days of Sodom. Professing Christendom, like Lot, is utterly blinded to the impending doom. It is wholly unaware that God’s hand is even now raised this very moment to bring judgment upon the earth and upon our fair nation. It continues to prate about a better world, winning the world for Christ, bringing in the kingdom without the coming of the King Himself.

Adapted and modified excerpts from Studies in the Life of Abraham by M. R. De Haan (1891-1964)
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, ESV © 2016 by Crossway Bibles.
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