July 2020 | Page 12
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Silence Kills!
Silence Kills!
John Pandian, Missionary, Uttar Pradesh, BYM
The sins of Sodom and Gomorrah were
grave and the outcry against the city was
great (Gen 18: 20). God wanted to punish
them. But He didn't want to keep it from
Abraham, His friend. God told Abraham
about the impending judgement reserved for
Sodom and Gomorrah. This disturbed
Abraham and he started to beseech the Lord
(v22).
He asked the Lord whether He would
destroy the city if there were 50 righteous
men in it. The Lord replied that He wouldn't.
With great humility, Abraham continued to
beseech the Lord reducing the number each
time. From 50, he went down to 45, then 40,
30, 20 and 10. He stopped at 10. The Lord too
agreed, that for the sake of a mere 10 people,
He would not destroy the whole city. Why did
Abraham stop at 10?
He believed that his nephew Lot who was
in that city would have preached about sin
and holiness, righteousness and
unrighteousness to a few people and at least
50 would have become righteous. What if 50
were not there? So he continued to gradually
reduce the figure to 10. He believed that Lot
being there, he would have at least led 10
people to righteousness.
But leave alone leading anybody to
righteousness, Lot did not even preach! That
is why God had to destroy the city. Was Lot
blind to the wickedness prevalent in the city?
No! He was tormented in his righteous soul
because of their lawlessness (2 Pet 2:8). Yet it
seems that he had not shared about
righteousness to any of them. He couldn't
even win his own wife and daughters, leave
alone his sons-in-law to be!
Though he was righteous, he was unlike
Noah and Enoch who lived before him. Noah
obeyed God and built an ark to save his
family. But he did not refrain himself from
preaching righteousness to the people (2 Pet
2:5). Enoch too prophesied about the Lord's
judgement (Jd 14,15). But we do not see Lot
preaching to the people of Sodom and
Gomorrah.
Today, we have the whole Bible in our
hands. It means, we have the complete
revelation of the Lord's will. We are aware that
the world will be destroyed with fire (2 Pet
3:7). Have we shared the Gospel to at least
one person? The sins of the people were not
the only reason for the fall of Sodom and