The Justice of God: The Father Chosen for Justice
Notes
Transcript
The Justice of God: The Father Chosen For Justice
The Justice of God: The Father Chosen For Justice
16 Then the men set out from there, and they looked down toward Sodom. And Abraham went with them to set them on their way.
17 The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do,
18 seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?
19 For I have chosen him, 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 to Abraham what he has promised him.”
20 Then the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave,
21 I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know.”
Introduction
Introduction
Theophany - A visible appearance of God to humans
Matthew D. Montonini, “Theophany,” ed. John D. Barry et al., The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).
1 And the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day.
2 He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth
I. God revealed His plans to Abraham because:
A. Abraham had been blessed and promised: (v. 18)
He would surely become a great and mighty nation
All the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him
B. God had chosen Abraham (v. 19a)
To command: (v. 19b)
his children
his household after him
To keep the way of the Lord by doing (v. 19c)
righteousness (Mal 3:18)
justice
To bring about His promise to Abraham (v. 19d)
II. I will go down to see. (vs. 20-21a-b)
Other instances of when God comes down!
5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built.
7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.”
8 and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
A. The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great (v. 20a)
Outcry in verse 20 means: plaintive cry, cry for help
(Ludwig Koehler et al., The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1994–2000), 277.)
B. Their sin is very grave (v. 20b) (Genesis 13:13)
C. Their outcry has come to me (v. 21b)
Outcry in verse 21b means: outcry, yell or lament over injustice
(Ludwig Koehler et al., The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1994–2000), 1043.)
III. I will know–God knows! (vs. 21c)
A. God wants all fathers to command and instruct their households to keep the way of the LORD.
B. The reason is that they and their children will act righteously and do justice.
C. God will judge those who don’t!