God Confides in Me?

Then the LORD said, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?
~Genesis 18:17

Ponder that question? God came from Heaven with two other men to personally visit Abraham.
The purpose of this visit in the earlier verses was so that they could deliver the news that Abraham and Sarah were to have the child God promised this time next year.

What a personal God we serve! First He didn't have to deliver the news that way. He already told Abraham about 25 years ago when he made a covenant with him. Of course along the way and with too much waiting Sarah told Abraham to take her maidservant and have a child through her. That was not God's plan. They tried to rush it.

I like how normal Sarah and Abraham were. Don't we after all try to rush God as well. He has given us many promises and sometimes we think if we just help Him a bit then it will come to pass in our time frame. God is God. He doesn't need our help or us at all to accomplish anything. Yet the high honor is the He chooses to.

He delights in allowing us to partner with Him in His work. He delights in the personal relationship where He personally shares things with us. He delights in this. He created us for Himself. We are His children and what good-willed Father would not want to enjoy relationship their children?

Verse 17 above is God saying that He wanted to share His work with Abraham. He wanted to tell him what He was up to in the world. I am so baffled by that. God wants to share the things He is up to with us. Here is another verse I like regarding this then I want to get back to the amazing text on intercession.

The LORD confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them.
~Psalm 25:14

The word for confides in the Hebrew text connotes the term in a way that a person would speak to a friend. I LOVE that. God as our Friend confides in those who fear Him. I believe Abraham had a great healthy fear of God. Was Abraham perfect? By no means. God is looking to people whose hearts are inclined toward Him. Abraham was one of those. He also feared God. The word for fear is simply the fact that we are so in awe of God. He could swish up like a bug but instead He chooses to make us His friend. It doesn't get anymore amazing than that. The God who places each star in place and tells the ocean where to stop. The God of all Creation. The God who raised Jesus from the dead wants to confine in us. He wants to be our Friend. Now that is something to really rejoice about.

Here is some more of the reason that God chose to share with Abraham.

¹⁸ Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. ¹⁹ 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."
~Genesis 18:18-19

God knows the plans He has for us. It was through Abraham (and Jesus of course) that we became a part of this line of people. Galatians 3:29 says, "If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." So because of this he is part of our heritage and the blessings that come with it are also ours in a spiritual sense.

Then God tells Abraham the problem.

Then the LORD said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so 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." ~Genesis 18:20-21

Why would God tell Abraham something so hard to hear? Why would He chose to share this with Abraham? Abraham wasn't the first man God shared hard things like this with. Psalm 106:23 tells us where Moses also plead before God about the people. So we see Abraham respond in a similar way.

Then Abraham approached him and said: "Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty 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?"

The LORD said, "If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake."
~Genesis 18:23-26

Abraham is amazing to me. He knew God's heart. He knew He could approach God and ask Him questions about His ways. Abraham could not understand God's ways much like us. God's ways are God's ways, our minds are not like His to understand. Plus we do not see the entire picture that God does. But God loves our respectful questions. It is how we get to know Him better. To know His true heart. What bold question Abraham asked as well, "Will not the Judge of the earth do right?" Wow. That is a bold question. But I know he asked it in respect because he did not understand God's way.

I love God's response to Abraham. He did not have to change anything but for the sake of his intercession God does. Think on that for a second. Because Abraham stood in the gap for the city, God ceased to destroy it so quickly. God listened to Abraham and He did not have to. Yet He delighted in Abraham and His heart.

The rest of the passage Abraham continues to ask God about a smaller number of people by fives all the way until he gets to only 10 being left. God agrees in each request to not destroy it. When you read those remaining passages you get an even better glimpse of Abraham's heart and great fear of the Lord. At each new question he says, "though I am nothing but dust and ashes, what if" (v.27), and "may the Lord not be angry" (vv.30,32).

The last number they come to is if there are 10 righteous people left in the city it will not be destroyed. God is so good and merciful. We must understand thought that His ways are bigger than our ways. As it goes, the city was destroyed so there had to be less than 10 righteous there. I love though how God allowed Abraham to speak with Him and intercede for the people. It is an amazing privilege.

What people has God allowed you the privilege to lift before His throne?

Do you ever sense God sharing something with you that you know you need to bring before His throne? Ever been woken up in the middle of the night with someone on your mind? Pay attention to these cues, God may want to share something with you so you can stand in the gap in prayer for the person.