Genesis 18:23 -- On the Righteous and the Wicked

"And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?"
Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?
That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?
Genesis 18:23-25


This is an interesting part of the conversation between God and Abraham talking about the destruction of the city where Lot, his nephew, was living. Abraham starts with this question, and then starts asking God how many good people have to be there for it to be spared, and works him all the way down to 10. Unfortunately, when we switch back to Lot's story, we find that in this case there seem to have been fewer than 10, and as we have seen in other stories, God often commands the righteous to flee rather than staying in a place that is about to be destroyed. In any case though, the part I really like here is the initial question, and that God responds to it, promising that he won't... showing that he does care, and that he is willing to spare whole cities for the sake of a small group of the righteous.

What this says to me is that when we ask God why he allows evil to exist... the answer is always that it is for our sakes in some way. He spares us by not destroying evil, he gives the mildly evil the chance to repent, he teaches us how to be good sometimes because we can see the contrast between good and evil, and our motivation is to *not* be part of the evil we have seen, etc. In the end though, he will destroy the evil out of his vineyard, according to how the good will grow (Jacob 5:65), to give all of us a chance to build on the foundation of good, and learn the things and enjoy the peace that you can only have in a better place. Today, let's be good and turn away from our own evil while we are spared... and let's also help the good to grow, so that God can clear away more and more evil and make everyone's lives better.