The Story of Abraham's Experience with God

Abraham was 99 years old and he had given up on the possibility of him having a child, let alone the great multitude of descendants promised him many years before. In order to give him hope and belief and a heart of continual trust in his promises, God decided to give him a visit when he was on his way to destroying the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

On the occasion of this special visit, God was accompanied by three angels and the three were disguised in human body (maybe to protect Abraham from being consumed by the glory of God). While Abraham was having his cool by the gate, he saw these three special visitors and welcomed them to his home, asked Sarah to prepare them a special meal and after eating, God promised Abraham that same time the year that follows, Sarah will have a baby.
But that is not the point I want to drive home. After realizing that Abraham had faith in him even in the impossible, he saw it impossible to hide what he plans to do to his friend. Therefore God decided to tell Abraham of his plan to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and this gave Abraham an opportunity to reason with God.

"And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?" Gen 18: 23. And after Abraham seemingly rebuked God for some kind of bad intentions, God replied by saying that he found fifty righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah then he will spare the cities.

The number of the righteous people then was reduced step by step by some kind of reasoning Abraham was having with God. When the number of the righteous that could spare the city reached 5, Abraham said that maybe he was bothering God and decided to stop the reasoning.

There was one righteous man that was spared though (maybe because of the prayers of Abraham that he be spared or because is God fearing) by the angels who went to destroy the cities. This then brings me to my argument of the way people of God should get to reason with him.

Imagine that God could do to Abraham anything he asked. What do you think God could have done if Abraham could have asked him to spare the cities for sometime? What if Lot was indeed righteous and Abraham asked if God could spare the city even if only one righteous man was found.

It is on my own opinion that God has given a lot of privileges that we always find shy to utilize. Who ever said that God get tired of us? Why did Abraham feel that he was bothering God? How many times to we stop asking God for great and simple things? How many times to we stop praying over something because we think that God is already tired of our asking?

God gave Abraham the right answers to his questions. There was no time during the reasoning process with him did God give a negative answer to Abraham. It was Abraham's attitude that put him off from requesting more favors for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and we should readily learn from this experience. It is my call to every Christian and believer in God to always reason with God as a friend, for God himself considers you a friend.