“Then the men rose up from there, and looked down toward Sodom; and Abraham was walking with them to send them off. The LORD said, ‘Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed? For I have chosen him so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of The LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that The LORD may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about him” (Genesis 18:16-19)YHVH in His omniscience, in His omnipresence, His omnipotence shares His thoughts with us. He said, “shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do”? As if to say, I’m conflicted? I am not sure whether I should tell Abraham what I am about to do.
Are we to believe The Almighty Creator of the cosmos is debating within
Himself?
He already knows the end from the beginning, He is all-knowing, and He is GOD…then it is safe to say that He is not debating within himself. The wordy version used here is anthropomorphism. It means to behave like, or to personify something that is not. We know that Numbers 23:19 states the obvious, “God is not a man thatHe should lie”, but throughout Scripture oftentimes to get some comprehension of who He is YHVH has designed His Word to describe Himself like a man, so that man can better relate in order to gain some measure of understanding of GOD. Of course, GOD is inscrutable; however, if we are going to engage in relationship with The Almighty He has to bring Himself down to earth in some degree so that we can understand, and He absolutely accomplished that by sending His son who told His disciples “"If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him” (John 14:7).
So why then is there this record of God’s inward thinking like a man?
I submit to you He does this to provoke us to ask questions, which He intends to broaden our understanding of who He is, and what He desires of us! Ingenius, really; God didn’t need to tell Abraham anything. God already knew Sodom and Gomorrah were destined for destruction. He’s God, and yet He debates—or so it appears as it’s written in His Word, and then He relents and tells Abraham His plans. But He offers us some clues as to why. He says in verse 19 “For I have chosen him”. Why is that relevant here?
What significance does declaring that now have any bearing upon what He’s about to
do?
Chosen as it appears here is the Hebrew word yada, and it means to make oneself
known to, to reveal oneself to. When God reveals Himself people know about it!
When Moses came down the mountain after having been with God they all cried for
him to put a covering over his face because it shone! The point to that is, when
a person has been in the presence of God, it changes them, and Abraham was
changed by the presence of God. We read in Genesis 18:22 “Then the men turned
away from there and went toward Sodom, while Abraham was still standing before
the Lord”. Abraham was in The LORD’s presence, serving Him.
The very nature of God is not to destroy, but to bring to repentance. “The LORD is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2Peter 3:9). The Hebrew word found here for repentance is Strongs #7725and it means a turning back to a previous state or place, and it also means to restore! The Greek equivalent as it appears in 2 Peter 3 is the word metánoia (Strongs #3341) and it means a change of mind, as it appears to one
who repents, of a purpose he has formed or of something he has done (Thayer’s).
Peter is talking about a change of mind. Ya’akov says in chapter one “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does” (James 1:22-25).
Why does God share ideas that prompt us to ask engaging
questions concerning His plans?
“And He saw that there was no man, and was astonished that there was no one to
intercede;” (Isaiah 59:16); because the ultimate thing Abba is looking for is a man to
intercede on man’s behalf! The word used here for intercede is pâga’ and it means to meet, to cause to light upon, to make entreaty. We’ve established YHVH wants to restore, wants to give light, life and blessing, but man often becomes confused either out of ignorance or bad teaching. What Abba is trying to teach us is that we have a role in redeeming Israel! Adversity strikes! What do we do? Do we sit idly by? No, we have been called to intercede, because The Father is equipping us to be His hands and feet. You may be the chosen vessel He’s chosen to use to bring healing and comfort to another
person’s life! Let us speak life to one another, through our words, our actions,
our motivation! We’ve been called, now all we have to do is answer it. Blessings
and Shalom.
Are we to believe The Almighty Creator of the cosmos is debating within
Himself?
He already knows the end from the beginning, He is all-knowing, and He is GOD…then it is safe to say that He is not debating within himself. The wordy version used here is anthropomorphism. It means to behave like, or to personify something that is not. We know that Numbers 23:19 states the obvious, “God is not a man thatHe should lie”, but throughout Scripture oftentimes to get some comprehension of who He is YHVH has designed His Word to describe Himself like a man, so that man can better relate in order to gain some measure of understanding of GOD. Of course, GOD is inscrutable; however, if we are going to engage in relationship with The Almighty He has to bring Himself down to earth in some degree so that we can understand, and He absolutely accomplished that by sending His son who told His disciples “"If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him” (John 14:7).
So why then is there this record of God’s inward thinking like a man?
I submit to you He does this to provoke us to ask questions, which He intends to broaden our understanding of who He is, and what He desires of us! Ingenius, really; God didn’t need to tell Abraham anything. God already knew Sodom and Gomorrah were destined for destruction. He’s God, and yet He debates—or so it appears as it’s written in His Word, and then He relents and tells Abraham His plans. But He offers us some clues as to why. He says in verse 19 “For I have chosen him”. Why is that relevant here?
What significance does declaring that now have any bearing upon what He’s about to
do?
Chosen as it appears here is the Hebrew word yada, and it means to make oneself
known to, to reveal oneself to. When God reveals Himself people know about it!
When Moses came down the mountain after having been with God they all cried for
him to put a covering over his face because it shone! The point to that is, when
a person has been in the presence of God, it changes them, and Abraham was
changed by the presence of God. We read in Genesis 18:22 “Then the men turned
away from there and went toward Sodom, while Abraham was still standing before
the Lord”. Abraham was in The LORD’s presence, serving Him.
The very nature of God is not to destroy, but to bring to repentance. “The LORD is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2Peter 3:9). The Hebrew word found here for repentance is Strongs #7725and it means a turning back to a previous state or place, and it also means to restore! The Greek equivalent as it appears in 2 Peter 3 is the word metánoia (Strongs #3341) and it means a change of mind, as it appears to one
who repents, of a purpose he has formed or of something he has done (Thayer’s).
Peter is talking about a change of mind. Ya’akov says in chapter one “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does” (James 1:22-25).
Why does God share ideas that prompt us to ask engaging
questions concerning His plans?
“And He saw that there was no man, and was astonished that there was no one to
intercede;” (Isaiah 59:16); because the ultimate thing Abba is looking for is a man to
intercede on man’s behalf! The word used here for intercede is pâga’ and it means to meet, to cause to light upon, to make entreaty. We’ve established YHVH wants to restore, wants to give light, life and blessing, but man often becomes confused either out of ignorance or bad teaching. What Abba is trying to teach us is that we have a role in redeeming Israel! Adversity strikes! What do we do? Do we sit idly by? No, we have been called to intercede, because The Father is equipping us to be His hands and feet. You may be the chosen vessel He’s chosen to use to bring healing and comfort to another
person’s life! Let us speak life to one another, through our words, our actions,
our motivation! We’ve been called, now all we have to do is answer it. Blessings
and Shalom.
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