****Learning About the LORD (from Abraham)

       In today's reading 1 from Genesis 18, Abraham intercedes for Sodom. The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah was so great and their sin so grave that the LORD was going to look into it. Abraham said to the LORD, "Will you sweep away the innocent with the guilty? Suppose there were fifty innocent people in the city; would you wipe out the place, rather than spare it for the sake of the fifty innocent people within it? Should not the judge of all the world act with justice?" The LORD replied, "If I find fifty innocent people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake." Abraham spoke up again, asking the same question, but reducing the number of innocent people by five to forty-five. The LORD answered again, "I will not destroy it, it I find forty-five there." Abraham persisted, asking and reducing the number of innocent people to forty, thirty, twenty, and finally 10. The LORD gave the same favorable answer each time.
         We learn the following from this reading. (1) We need not hesitate asking the LORD any questions we have from the heart. (2) Persistence on our part brings greater success. (3) Specifically, we see God's great mercy at work here. By being holy ourselves, we can save innumerable other souls.