Welcome, friends, to another week of The Line of Fire, our free digital school of the Word and Spirit.
Class is now in session. Yes, we are in the school of prayer. We began last week talking about persuading God through prayer and opened up that concept scripturally of holding God to his promises and his character. Now today we are going to start by looking at Abraham's intercession, Abraham's intercession as a pattern for us. We go to Genesis chapter 18. The Lord has appeared to Abraham and Sarah, as I understand it, Yahweh and two angels appearing. And, as it says, when the man got up to leave, referring to the two angels, as we see from Genesis 19 and 1 that the angels came to Sodom. When the two men got up to leave, they looked down towards Sodom and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way. This is Abraham walking together with the Lord and these two angels, so the Lord in bodily form. This is a pre-incarnate visitation of the Son of God.
So they walk along with them on their way. Then the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord, by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him. So, God is saying, Hey, Abraham is chosen.
I am going to bless the whole world through him. Should I not tell him what is about to happen with Sodom because his nephew Lot lives there? So the Lord said, The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and their sin so grievous, that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me.
If not, I will know. So, obviously, God knows everything, but he works through vessels, angelic beings, human beings, to accomplish his purposes. So the men turned away and went towards Sodom. So the two angels now leave to go to Sodom. But Abraham remained standing before the Lord. So, again, they are having a conversation. Just picture Abraham walking with the Lord and two angels. This really happened.
The four of them walking. God says what he says. The two angels now go on their way to Sodom, and you read what happens there in Genesis 19.
But Abraham is still standing there with the Lord. It is a remarkable passage. I have shown it to many Jewish people, religious Jews, and said, Just read it through.
Do not read the commentary. Just read it through. I was doing that with a young Jewish man, ultra-orthodox, 18 years old, studies all day and all night, and is secretly seeking and asking questions. And we met together. And I said, Just read this through.
Just read this through. And as he did, he has read it many, many times. He read it kind of in an unvarnished, separated way. He looked up. He was shocked. He was just reading it in Hebrew.
Like, you read English, but I mean faster. He just knows all this stuff by heart. He was shocked. Whoa!
Whoa! Because he saw this is the Lord in human form, talking to Abraham. So, then Abraham approached him and said, Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Wait a second. Abraham, you're talking to God.
That's like a challenge. That's like you're accusing him of injustice. But see, God loves it when we do this, when we appeal to his character, when we appeal to his nature. God, it wouldn't be like you to do that.
I've gone to him sometimes with his word open, with scripture open, and read the verses and said, God, it's not like you to say this and not do it. This would be like putting a carrot on a stick in front of us. We can never get it. We can never get it. We can never get it.
We can never get it. Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are 50 righteous people in this city? Really, really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the 50 righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you. Will not the judge of all the earth do right? Wow. What a bold prayer. What can we learn from it?
Oh, it's going to go on. We can learn that this is something that God appreciates with reverence, with fear and trembling, not in a cavalier way, recognizing again that he's the creator and we're the creation, that he is almighty and all wise and all good and all just and all powerful and all knowing. That's who he is. But we still come to him and say, God, this would not be like your character to kill the righteous and the wicked alike. And then he asks him, will not the judge of all the earth do right? It's a verse many of us don't know where it is, but we've heard it. Genesis 18, 25. Will not the judge of all the earth do right? And the Lord said, remember, they're having a conversation face to face. If I find 50 righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake. Wow. What mercy.
All right. Abraham's done. Time to go back home.
No, no, not yet. Then Abraham spoke up again. Now that I've been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I'm nothing but dust and ashes, what if the number of the righteous is five less than 50? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?
Now he's turning it around. It's not for the sake of the 45. For lack of five?
For lack of five? You're going to destroy the city? If I find 45 there, he said, I'll not destroy it. Okay, Abraham, don't push your luck.
Don't push your luck. You've gone far enough. Once again, he spoke to him. What if only 40 are found there? What boldness. God said, for the sake of 40, I will not do it. Then Abraham prays again. May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only 30 can be found there? What a prayer.
What boldness. You're pushing it, Abraham. He answered, I will not do it if I find 30 there. Abraham said, now that I've been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only 20 can be found there?
This is amazing. He said, for the sake of 20, I will not destroy it. Remember, this is a wicked city that deserves destruction. He said, would you just spare it even if there are 20 righteous people? Then he said, may the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only 10 can be found there?
What if it's only 10? He answered, for the sake of 10, I will not destroy it. When the Lord finished speaking with Abraham, he left and Abraham returned home. In point of fact, God did not find 10 righteous people there, so he had to destroy it, but in his mercy, in his mercy, the angels got Lot and his wife and his two daughters out. The sons-in-law, the ones that were betrothed to marry his daughters, they mocked, and his wife, of course, turned back.
They're told, don't turn back. She turned back and became a pillar of salt. Again, Genesis 19 lays it all out, but it was because of Abraham's prayer that God had mercy and God delivered them. That is explicitly what we understand from the Scriptures. And just going through the horror of chapter 19, looking at it, and God, again, honors the prayer of Abraham and spares.
Listen, Genesis 19, verse 24, then the Lord rained down, burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord out of the heavens, which could suggest he was here on earth and in heaven. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the land and also vegetation in the land. But Lot's wife looked back.
She became a pillar of salt. Early the next morning, Abraham got up and returned to the place where he stood before the Lord. He looked down towards Sodom and Gomorrah, told all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land like smoke from a furnace. So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had left. This staggers me, but that's the power of prayer.
That is the power of prayer. And because God could not find ten righteous people there, he still spared Lot and his family, all who would escape because of Abraham's prayer. So in Genesis 18, when God was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, God shared with Abraham what he was going to do. He did this because he knew Abraham was a righteous man who would raise his children to fear God. And even though God told him what he was going to do, Abraham said, Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?
Far be it from you, Lord. Well, let the judge of the earth do right. So Abraham confronted God with his own character. And this is what God wanted. This is why he intentionally told Abraham about it and God was pleased with it.
Can I repeat that? This is why God told Abraham in advance because he wanted to have an excuse to be merciful. It says in Micah, the seventh chapter, about God, lo hech zik la'ad apo, he doesn't hold on to his anger forever, kicha feitz chesed hu, because he delights in showing mercy. He delights in showing mercy. He is looking for an excuse to be merciful, but he works with us.
This is how God in his sovereignty has set things up. He works through us. He said to the prophet Ezekiel, I looked for someone.
I was looking for someone. And in the context in Ezekiel 22, it seems to me from among the sinners and the evil people, he was looking for someone to repent and stand in the breach and intercede because he couldn't find anyone. He brought judgment. He says about Moses in Psalm 106, I referred to this a few days ago, that he was ready to destroy Israel, but Moses stood in the breach.
That's why it's still the children of Israel, not just the children of Moses, that God just is making a new nation exclusively from him. So God loves when we do this, when we hold him to his character, to his word. We're going to look at more of this on the other side of the break. Trivita Let's hear what Trivita customers are saying. Ron, I can't wait to tell you, those supplements are absolutely amazing. My strength has gone up. I was doing weight that I haven't done since my 20s. I usually ride my bike to the gym and then on the way back after I've done my weight training, I'm huffing and puffing. And on Sunday, I rode my bike there and back and I had so much energy. I'm telling you, the combination of the nitric oxide with the mild health, amazing.
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Click subscribe. So prayer holds God to his reputation. Prayer holds God to his reputation. What people think about us is not that relevant. What do they think about God? Obviously, we want to keep a good name before God and the world. But ultimately, what matters is not what people think about us, but what do they think about him? And that's how some of the prayers are prayed in Scripture.
I want to go to Numbers chapter 14. Prayer holds God to his reputation. And God loves when we do it. It delights him.
It pleases him. Numbers 14, verse 11. The Lord said to Moses, How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me in spite of all the signs that I performed among them? I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them. But I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they. I'm done with them. I'm going to make a new Israel out of you. It will be the people of Moses instead of the people of Israel. Now, how many of us would say, OK, let's do it. All right, I understand, God, you're just and they deserve it.
Do something new through me. Maybe some of us would say that. But Moses didn't pray that way. He experienced his dream. He saw the Israelites free from slavery. Then the people grumbled. They rebelled. They left Moses to himself. In fact, they should be judged.
He intercedes in Exodus 32. God, if you don't forgive them, then blot me out of your book. And now he knows, he knows this is it. They've crossed the line.
They've crossed the line. And God is about to wipe them out. So what does he say? Then the Egyptians will hear about it. Numbers 14, beginning verse 13. The nations will think that you're unable to bring these people into land. And so you slaughter them in the desert. And what God's saying is, Moses is saying, OK, God, it's not about how wicked they are.
It's not about how sinful Israel is. We're going to look. What's the beginning of the Lord's Prayer? Hallowed be your name.
Hallowed be your name. Exodus, excuse me, Ezekiel chapter 20. Ezekiel chapter 20, verse 9.
This is what God says. But for the sake of my name, I brought them, the Israelites, out of Egypt. I did it to keep my name from being profaned in the eyes of the nations among whom they lived and whose sight I had removed myself to the Israelites, revealed myself to the Israelites. So we read it in Ezekiel 36. God brought the children of Israel out of Babylonian exile, not because of their holiness, but because of his holiness.
He did it because it made him look bad. In other words, you have the deities of each of the different nations. You've got, you know, the God of the Moabites, Chemosh. You've got Marduk and Babylon. You've got Baal, the Canaanites.
You've got the Asherahs and Ashtoreth and all of these different gods and goddesses and, you know, the regional deities and the national deities. It looked like Yahweh was a weak deity. His temple was destroyed.
Other temples are fine. His people in a foreign land. It made him look bad. So he said, for the sake of my name, reading Ezekiel 36, I'm going to bring you back from exile, not because of your goodness, but because my name is being profaned. That's what he said in Isaiah 52.
My name is being profaned among the nations because of you. So God brought Israel out of exile, not because of their goodness, but for the sake of his name. So the question is, what kind of prayers can we pray when it comes to his reputation? Think of praying for America in a new light. God, the world thinks America is a Christian nation. And if this is what Christianity is, it makes you look bad.
God, cause your name to be hallowed in America. Prayers for the church. Lord, we're making Jesus look bad.
We're making Jesus look bad. For the sake of his name, send revival in the church. You can pray very proud for prayers because it's not about you.
It's about his reputation, about his honor. Prayer we talked about last week. Don't you know your honor is at stake, Lord?
So we can have boldness with God in a unique way. You can't pray this way in desperation and somehow think you can manipulate God into answering you for your own desires. I'm gonna get myself in a mess and then say, but Lord, you have to deliver me cause otherwise you're gonna look bad.
And he'd say, no, I'm gonna look good because I said you reap what you sow and you're reaping what you sow. We're not gonna play games with God. But there is a legitimate way to pray this out. If your coming is an obedient child of God, then you can be bold.
Luke 11, Luke 11, beginning verse five, Jesus talks about the call to be bold in prayer. And he says, you got a friend at midnight, comes knocking at the door. Hey, could you lend me a few of those at bed? I just had a visitor show up and I need some food. We're sleeping, man. Come back tomorrow. But he keeps knocking, keeps knocking and ultimately you get out of bed not cause he's your friend, but because he's bothering you. It's like, okay, okay, okay already.
Got it. So there's a way in a holy reverential way where we can be bold with God and Jesus is encouraging us to do it. So does God not know all the promises he's given in the Bible?
Yes, he does. But he loves it when we pick up his promises and hold them to his promises. He loves it when we go to the very promises he's spoken and say, but Lord, you promise us.
This is what he wants to do. He wants to build relationship and trust and it can be helpful in prayer if we have a promise in the word that speaks to the situation we're praying about so we can hold it up to God. Has God given you a verse over the years? Maybe reading the scriptures it just jumps off the page to you as relevant or maybe this has happened with me on rare occasions that in the midst of a crisis several people praying all end up sending me the same verse. I mean four different people say I was praying and the Lord gave me this verse for you and it's the same verse?
So it's okay, Lord, that's it. I'm going to hold you to that promise because you said it. He loves when you do it. Or maybe a word he's spoken to you in your own heart or prophetically and you know it's real.
He loves when you hold him to his promise and to his word. Isaiah chapter 62 verse 6 speaking about Jerusalem. I have posted watchmen on your walls Jerusalem.
They will never be silent day or night. You call on the Lord. Give yourselves no rest and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem. And here's the call to those who call on the Lord. Those who put him in remembrance give him no rest.
In Hebrew musk, what does that mean? Those who remind the Lord. Those who put him in remembrance give him no rest until he establishes Jerusalem as a praise on all the earth. So there's a sense of making yourself a holy nuisance by constantly praying to God and reminding him in faith, Lord, you promised.
Lord, you said so. He loves that when we do it in faith. We need to push past discouragement and a negative perspective and keep praying and keep trusting in God's faithfulness. Proverbs 24, 10, if you falter in a time of trouble, how small is your strength? Jeremiah 12, an amazing passage, wrote a commentary in Jeremiah some years back for the revised edition of the Expositor's Bible Commentary. Jeremiah complained to God and wanted to quit. A lot of our English translations kind of soften things, but Jeremiah pretty much says, okay, I know you're God. You're always going to be rife, but I don't like the way you run the world.
I'm bringing charges against you. It's a paraphrase, what he says. I'm worn out and his own family's turning against him. That's the previous chapter Jeremiah 11.
I'm worn out and I don't like the way you run the world and it's messed up because you're not acting. Wickedness is filling the land and now people are suffering and God responds and says, if you've raced with men on foot and they've worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in safe country, how are you managing the thickets of the Jordan? In other words, Jeremiah, you haven't seen anything yet.
If you're struggling in a little time of antidote, how are you going to make it in a big city like Jerusalem? Come on, man, time to toughen up. It's the exact opposite of what he was expecting, but sometimes God's saying to us, stop complaining. Stop complaining. Take hold of my promises. I'm God. I'm faithful.
I'm going to come through for you. Pray. Seek me and pray. God, God, Almighty God is saying pray. What he said to Jeremiah, call to me and I'll show you great wondrous things which you do not know.
He wants to reveal himself afresh and when we hold him to his word, when we hold him to his character, when we do what Abraham did, he loves it and he answers according to his wonderful, amazing plan. Next broadcast, we're going to talk about faith and perseverance right here on the line of fire. This is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks so much for tuning in. Just a reminder that we are listener supported. If we have been a blessing to you, if you're being enriched in the word and prayer and your own walk with God through this broadcast, then stand with us so that we can reach many, many more and bless many, many more. Together, friends, we're making a difference. So go to thelineoffire.org, thelineoffire.org and click donate.
