It’s interesting what favor can do in a relationship.  When a relationship is healthy and alive, openness is a fruit of it.

In Genesis 15, Abram believed God, and it was accredited to him for righteousness.  In other words, a real relationship with depth and trust was established with God for Abram.

Abraham was in God’s favor!  This time, the Lord has come to visit with Abraham and revisits the promise of a son for Abraham.  But the visit has a two-fold purpose.

When we arrive at Genesis 18, God is about to do something on the earth, in fact, not that far away from Abraham.  I find it intriguing to look closely at how God acted and, in doing so, unveils His thinking and reasoning.

Genesis 18:16 Then the men rose from there and looked toward Sodom, and Abraham went with them to send them on the way. 17 And the LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing, 18 since 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 known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the LORD, to do righteousness and justice, that the LORD may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.” 20 And the LORD said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave, 21 I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to Me; and if not, I will know.”

Because of the relationship with Abraham and the favor resulting from it on Abraham’s life, the Lord lets Abraham know what He is up to nearby.

We all know how this information leads Abraham to intercede for the city based on the fact that his nephew lives there with his family.  You can read these passages and get all caught up in how Abraham became an intercessor and why and how Sodom was destroyed, but Lot was spared.  Or you can pay close attention to the beauty of the relationship between the Lord and Abraham and observe how favor with God due to being made righteous by God behaves itself.

There is a dynamic in this relationship with God that is very powerful and can ignite a believer’s imagination and spark a renewed desire to interact with God on an intimate level.  Dead religion behaves as though God is distant and only getting to heaven is the goal.  All close intimacy with God will really occur once in heaven for the merely religious.  But here we have evidence of a mere man who has found favor with God and been made righteous by God according to believing God, enjoying an intimate relationship with God to such a depth and degree that God is unwilling to keep what He is up to on the earth from this man.  We should let that truth sink in.  “Shall I hide this thing I am about to do from Abraham?”  Those words shall I hide are filled with hope and promise for any and every believer when it comes to being in a relationship with the One who created all things and is still at work on this earth.  We are more than just in the favor of God now. We are joint heirs with Jesus, new creations in Christ!  We are called sons, given an inheritance along with Jesus, and are hidden with God in Christ!  He’s not hiding from us!  He is willing to discuss His plans with us!  Abraham met with Him and extended hospitality to Him with the desire to sit with Him and listen to Him.

I look forward to hearing from Him every day.  I hope you do as well.  He loves you and wants to talk with you.