/lit/ - Literature

Abraham pleading for Sodom and asking God to spare the city [Genesis 18:16-33]

What do you get out of this story? For me this shows God's infinite mercy. And the only thing that stands in the way of his mercy is the lack of faith in his mercy.

God is about to destroy Sodom but Abraham keeps asking God to lower the number of righteous people needed to spare the city, even though he might anger God with this. But he keeps asking until the number 10 is reached.

But I believe Abraham could have gone even lower than that, even as low as one person. But because of fear Abraham stopped asking. And not only that but maybe he could have even asked God to spare all people from hell fire for the sake of one righteous person? And not even one person but one righteous act done in all of history might be enough to save all of humanity? Much like the onion story in brothers karamazov.

The complete opposite of this story seems to be when Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son. Up until the very end Abraham had full faith in God that his son would remain unharmed. (telling the son that God will provide the offering and telling his slave to wait for both of them to return)