Abraham The Intercessor Series

What comes down from the heavens has a big effect on the

values of real estate. Take what happened in Stillwater in

1852 for example. Jacob Fisher, who was a surveyor, had

found a small stream called Brown's Creek in back of the

town. He dammed it up and made a lake, and he ran the

water down the hill to power a saw mill. John McKusick

bought the whole operation and had a great business. But

then came May of 1852. It had been raining for many days

and people were just sick of it. It would not stop, and the

soil on the bluffs over looking the town could not absorb

anymore. On May 14 the people heard a rumbling and a

roar as a great chuck of the hill came crashing down. It

covered trees and buildings. It buried barns and shops and

everything along the water front.

Fortunately the hill came down where the land was low ,boggy,

and worthless. John McKusick would have sold it for

a $1.25 and acre. Now he felt he was ruined, for his mill was

covered along with the 5 acres that the avalanche buried.

For several days he lamented the disaster of almost 20 feet of

mud that entombed his mill. But when it dried up he found

that he owned 5 acres of new land by the rivers edge. It was

excellent land for business purposes. The land slide

converted his swamp into usable land, and he began selling it

for five hundred dollars an acre. Much of the present

business area of Stillwater is now located on this land that

was created by rain from heaven.

The flip side of this is Sodom and Gomorrah where the

heavens rained down burning sulfur, and real estate values

fell to zero. The land became so totally worthless that it

became the symbol of God's worst judgment for the rest of

history. To be like Sodom and Gomorrah was to be hell

bound. They were so completely devastated that to this day

nobody knows for sure where this real estate is. What the

heavens rain down can do wondrous things to the real estate

of this world, and to the people who live on that real estate.

That is why any influence we can have on the God who

controls what falls from the sky can make a big difference in

this world.

Abraham was just such a man, for he could move the

God who moved the forces of nature. Abraham was the

great intercessor of the Bible. This prayer of his for Sodom

is the first intercessory prayer of the Bible, and it is one of

the most remarkable prayers in all the Bible. An intercessor

is one who pleads with God on behalf of others. Much

prayer is seeking God's gifts and guidance for your own life,

but the intercessor seeks them for the life of others. In the

case we are looking at the others are people who deserve

judgment. They are so godless they would laugh Abraham

to scorn if they knew he was pleading for them. But we still

see Abraham pleading on their behalf, and we can learn

some important truths about interceding from Abraham.

The first is-

I. THE INTERCESSOR IMPRESSES GOD.

It is impressive to see just how impressed God was with

the fact that Abraham cared enough about these godless

people to plead for them. God is very impressed with people

who care about other people enough to pray for them.

There are many people in the world who never get a chance

to experience the mercy of God and get a second chance. It

is because there is no person who intercedes on their behalf.

The Bible reveals that if nobody cares about people who are

going to be judged, they are judged. But if someone cares

enough to intercede for them, God is impressed with that

love and compassion, and He will be open to compromise.

This sounds like heresy doesn't it? God compromising!

Yet, that is precisely what we see God doing because of

Abraham's intercession. Abraham is bargaining with God.

He starts with the plea that if there are 50 righteous people

in Sodom that God spare the city for those 50. God agrees

that this is fair enough. Abraham is immediately aware that

he may have been too optimistic. Sodom was a hell hole and

how could he expect there to be 50 people unspotted by such

corruption? He became a rapid realist and knew he had to

convinced God to come down from this original agreement.

Abraham is very clever and he uses the argument of

triviality to get God to lower the number required to spare

the city. "What is 5 people less than 50? Certainly you