Persistency in Prayer

“God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out.” Gen. 19:29.

We have, in Abraham’s persistent intercession for Sodom, a wonderful object-lesson of persistent prayer; one also that seems peculiarly applicable to this present time when the coming of the Lord draws near, and God’s intercessors need to cry mightily unto Him for those still lingering in the world of doom.

The “long-suffering of God” still waits as in the days of Noah. Brands can still be plucked from the burning fire, as the faithful messengers cry aloud. ‘Escape for your life and do not look behind you.’ “Quickly!” “Quickly!” is the word God is ringing in many hearts. The Holy Spirit is doing a “quick work on the earth.” The time is short. Let us see, then, from the story of Abraham, how we may intercede so that God may write of us in the heavenly record, “God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out.”

First, let us look at the spiritual life of the man who had power to stay the judgment on Sodom until Lot escaped.

Abraham was one who had obeyed God and come completely out of his old surroundings to be “separated unto God” at all costs. The Lord Jesus said to His disciples, “I have chosen you out of the world.” May He teach us what it means to be separated unto Himself, for we cannot be of the earth, earthy, have our mind on earthly things, and have power in heaven.

Abraham was one who knew what it meant to walk in intimate communion with God. Heaven was continually open to him. The day he pleaded for Sodom was not extraordinary, a great effort to “get access” through prayer, as something unusual, but the fruit of a life of open fellowship with the Eternal God. “God talked with him.” Abraham may have spent many such hours in conversation with God.

Prevailing intercession can never be to those who only seek the face of God occasionally. Habitually walking under the Shekinah light is the necessary prelude to power in prayer.

A soul separated unto God, a soul in continual fellowship with God, can be trusted by the Lord and treated as His friend. “Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?” said the Lord. He could add, “I know him, that he will command his children and his household . . . and they shall keep the way of the Lord.” God could rely upon Abraham in his faithfulness at home. All in Abraham’s house knew that God was always obeyed at all costs; knew that he cared more for God’s favour than for earthly gain. Faithful in the control of his household, the Lord can take him into confidence over the world and His necessary dealings with sin. Compare with this God’s complaint of the unfaithful pastors in Jeremiah 23.

Abraham was one who stood in the secret place of the Most High; and now, in a time of crisis, God opens His heart to him and tells him that the grievous sin of Sodom compels Him to go down and deal with it. The revelation draws out Abraham’s intercession. Look at him before the Lord in persistent pleading. “But Abraham stood yet before the Lord.” (v. 22) How could he go back to his tent, and rest under such a revelation of coming doom? He could not simply “thank God that he was out of it,” and leave Sodom to its fate, without one word of pleading. “And Abraham drew near.” (v. 23) Drew near in “full assurance of faith.” Abraham could go boldly to the throne of grace. Listen to him as he pleads. “Will you?” Oh, “Will you destroy the righteous with the wicked?” Is Sodom utterly corrupt? Are there not even ten souls there walking with God? And then Abraham rested upon the eternal righteousness of God.

Abraham’s intimate fellowship with God does not beget familiarity in speech or attitude. This comes out vividly in the words: Behold I have taken it on myself to speak to the Lord, although I am dust and ashes.” v. 27.

Souls who truly know God know most of the “godly awe” in His presence. In these days we feel the want of such a “godly awe” and such a deep sense of the holiness of His presence and His holy name. We hear so frequently the name of the Lord in ordinary conversation with too little “godly awe” in a flippant and careless language that is not befitting the saints.

Note again Abraham’s reverent persistency as he pleaded on behalf of the godless Sodom. Oh, that the burden of souls yet in this world of doom may press upon us such as to impel us to fervently pour out of our hearts before the throne of grace.

Let us turn to Sodom and see the effect of this dealing with God. Sodom so wicked, so sinful, that apparently the Lord did not see ten righteous men in it; but Lot, Abraham’s nephew, was there.

How did Lot end up in Sodom? By self-seeking. Pitching his tent towards Sodom, he finally went into dwell there. Sitting in the gate one evening, two strangers came, Lot invites them to his house, little knowing that it meant his salvation. In the awful scene that followed, the language of the men of Sodom shows that he had no influence in the city. “This fellow came in to live as a foreigner among us, and he appoints himself a judge,” they said. The children of God will not win the world by going into it.

Then the messengers of God revealed their mission: The Lord has sent to destroy. Again, we are shown that Lot had no influence in the city, not even in his home. He had given his daughters in marriage to men of the world, only to find out that they were lost to him and God. There was salvation offered to his sons-in-law as well as to his own children, but he had lost all influence by his compromise that, as he went out to them in the hour of danger with words of warning, he only seemed to them as “one that mocked.”

Can anything be more awful than to have God reveal to you the danger of others to know they are on the brink of doom and to have no power to make them heed, because of the past compromise of one’s own Christian life! By the life you have lived you have spoiled your chance to warn them.

Danger at hand! Impending judgment! Offered salvation! Yet to be “as one that mocked,” one that was in jest. Let us remember that if we jest with the world, we cannot warn them without seeming as “one that mocked.”

Lot’s opportunity was over. One chance to speak, and only one, and that was in vain. The angels hastened him to leave the city, but he could not believe the end was so near. He still lingered, reluctant to leave all behind him, until “the Lord being merciful to him,” the heavenly messengers “laid hold” upon him—upon his wife and unmarried daughters, and brought them out with the words, “Escape for your life! Don’t look behind you, and don’t stay anywhere on the plain. Escape to the mountains . . . !”

Even now Lot would draw back, and he stops to argue with his deliverers. “See now, this city is near to flee to, and it is a little one,” he says. Still exercising his own judgment, and led by the sight of the eyes again, he took less than God offered him.

Spiritually also we may have the mountain air and mountain life of dwelling on Mount Zion yet only take the “little” and be just escaped from the corruption that is in the world; eventually saved indeed, yet “so as by fire.” Lot’s life was spared, but God let him have his choice and retreat to Zoar, with the wonderful words that take us back to the intercession of Abraham: “Hurry, escape there, for I cannot do anything until you get there.” (verse 22) “Cannot do anything!” Yes, Abraham’s intercession held back the judgment upon Sodom until Lot was safe: “God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out.” “The supplication of a righteous man availed much in its working.” James 4:16. Oh, is it not true today that the “long-suffering of God waits” as in the days of Noah? Iniquity is abounding, and the love of the many is waxing cold. “Repent . . . quickly!” This is the Lord’s call to His Church. The Holy Spirit’s express warning about the “latter days” is being fulfilled. Some are departing from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons. Most of us have friends still lingering in the world hastening to its doom. Oh, let us stand yet before the Lord, and be among the few who have not defiled their garments among those who live in the secret counsel of God, and as Abraham are able to give forth is messages and turn souls from their evil ways.

Let us so live in intimate fellowship with our God that we shall have power and prevail in persistent prayer, until we get the answer of peace for our loved ones yet lingering in Sodom. Above all, may God enable us so to live separated unto Him that in the day of visitation we may not be to those we love as “one that mocked,” and ourselves be saved so as by fire.