Mirroring the heart of God

It’s scenes like this one that show why God would choose someone like Abraham in spite of all his faults and failures.

In this interaction, you see in Abraham’s words and pleas what I believe was in the heart of God from the first: a desire to show mercy.

God tells Abraham that the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah was so great and their deeds so evil that he had come and see it for himself.

And Abraham knew what that would mean: judgment. But Abraham also knew that his nephew Lot and his family were living in Sodom, and so he started pleading for mercy.

It’s a very poignant scene. The two men (angels actually) leave for Sodom and the Lord and Abraham are left standing there, looking down on the city.

Perhaps they’re standing in silence knowing the judgment that is to come. But then Abraham slowly inches his way towards the Lord, and when he’s standing right next to him, he asks softly:

“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?” (Genesis 18:23–25)

The Lord replies, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”

Perhaps there is silence for a minute or two. Then Abraham asks, “What if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?”

The Lord immediately answers, “If I find forty-five there,” he said, “I will not destroy it.”

On and on, the conversation goes, as Abraham brings the number down to 40, 30, 20, and finally 10. One wonders how far God would have gone. Down to one? Perhaps God would have spared the city for even one.

Why did God let the conversation go as long as it did? Why do I think he would’ve even gone down to the number one?

Because while God must eventually bring justice, he also longs to show mercy as well. And I think it pleases him when his people mirror his heart and desire to show mercy as well.

So when his people mirror his heart and pray for his mercy on the lost, he is very quick to say yes.

How about us? Do we have that same heart of compassion and mercy for the lost?

Do we desire more than anything that they would know God’s mercy, and in so doing, find a relationship with the living God?

Or do we not give a rip?

How often do you pray for the people around you who don’t know Christ?

Do you pray for God’s mercy in their lives?

Or are you more likely to pray for his judgment?

Or do you not pray at all?

God’s desire is to show mercy. God’s desire for us is that we mirror his heart of mercy.

What is in your heart today, as you consider the lost people around you?