How God Allows His Servants to Discover His Ways

“Then the Lord said, “Should I hide what I am about to do from Abraham? Abraham is to become a great and powerful nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him so that he will command his children and his house after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just. This is how the Lord will fulfill to Abraham what He promised him.” Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is immense, and their sin is extremely serious. I will go down to see if what they have done justifies the cry that has come up to Me. If not, I will find out.”” (Genesis 18:17–21, HCSB)

Who is God speaking to in this passage? It looks like at first that God is speaking to the other angels or to Himself. But it can also seem that God is speaking to Abraham. God reminds Abraham that he will be a father to a great nation and that the reason is because Abraham is right and just. At the same time, God reveals that there is a town which cries out to Him that there are people who are not right and just. They are sinful. Who is crying out? The right and just people are crying out to God. Who are the right and just people? Abraham knows that his family is there – Lot and his family. Could Lot and his family be crying out to God? Could Lot and his family be the right and just people who are asking for help?

Abraham takes time to discover this. God lets Abraham ask Him questions to find out how may right and just people are in the town. This allows Abraham to deduce that the only right and just people are people from his family. In the same way, God gives us the chance in prayer to discover His ways. We learn to discover God’s work and what He plans to do. We also learn to how to pray for others who are asking for God’s intervention in their lives.