Too Hard for God?

2 days ago
5 min read

Is anything too hard for the Lord? (Genesis 18:14).

Genesis 18 tells the story of how the Lord, in the form of three men, visits Abraham and Sarah in their tent near the oaks of Mamre. God is on a mission and has two important messages for his friend. First, he tells Abraham that, within twelve months, his 90-year-old wife will get pregnant and give birth to a baby boy. Sarah, who is eavesdropping on this conversation, laughs cynically at the absurdity of what the men are saying. “Doesn’t God know anything about gynecology?” she must have thought. The men rebuke her unbelief by asking a really good question: “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (v. 14).

The second message the Lord has for Abraham relates to Sodom and Gomorrah. As the men rise to leave, they reveal that they are on their way to visit these wicked cities to determine whether or not they should be destroyed. But first, the Lord wants to talk with Abraham about it!

The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do…?” Then the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know.” (Gen. 18:17, 20-21).

Apparently, God hasn’t yet decided what to do with these wicked cities. Should he show them grace? Or judgment? The Lord is talking to himself about this and decides to make Abraham privy to what he is saying! In my imagination, I envision God’s internal dialogue as taking place among the three Persons of the Trinity. Perhaps it went something like this:

The Father: What are we going to do about Sodom and Gomorrah?

The Son: I think we should give them more time. Perhaps we could send them a prophet who could show them the error of their ways. Then, maybe they would repent.

The Spirit: I think their hearts are so hard they are incapable of repentance. The most merciful thing we can do is to destroy them now before even more people are damaged by their sinful perversions.

The Father: This is helpful, but let’s bring Abraham into the conversation. I’d love to know what he thinks!

While such a conversation is obviously imaginary, it helps to capture the mind-boggling reality of our trinitarian faith. It also teaches us that intercessory prayer is not begging a reluctant deity to do something he doesn’t want to do. No. Intercession for sinners begins in the heart of God, not man. The Spirit of God moves upon the spirit of a man or a woman, inspiring and motivating them to stand in the gap for some situation. This means that the prayer God hears from the one who prays is a prayer that God himself has inspired! (You might want to reread that sentence.) In other words, God is talking to himself through the medium of a surrendered human heart. This is the prayer that Paul describes in Romans 8:

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. (Rom. 8:26-27).

Now we realize that, in visiting Abraham, God has a purpose much greater than making a birth announcement. He is looking for an intercessor! The ensuing conversation between the Lord and Abraham is the first great example of intercessory prayer recorded in the Bible (see Gen. 18:22-33). The dialogue is confrontational, passionate, and audacious. Abraham asks God if he is going to destroy the righteous as well as the wicked. What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Forty-five? Thirty? Twenty? Ten? It’s almost as if he is taunting God. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is right?” (Gen. 18:25). At times Abraham comes across as a shrewd negotiator. At other times, his prayer sounds more like brazen manipulation. Because they are “friends,” the Lord is not offended by such candor (see Jam. 2:23). In fact, he seems almost to encourage it!

Why did Abraham stop his intercession at ten? Why didn’t he continue and ask God to spare the city if even one righteous person could be found there? We will never know the final answer, but the text suggests that the Lord himself indicated that the conversation was over (see Gen. 18:33). In other words, God chose when to initiate the intercession and he chose when to end it. And though we celebrate the fact that Abraham’s prayer brought about the deliverance of his nephew Lot and two of his daughters, it was not sufficient to save Sodom and Gomorrah from a fiery judgment (see Gen. 19).

So, dear friend, I ask you: Is anything too hard for the Lord? For many years, I thought the question was rhetorical, because I thought the answer was obvious. Now, I’m not so sure. God can enable an old lady to get pregnant. But can he save Sodom? Are there limits to divine omnipotence? The question takes my breath away. I’m still not quite sure how to answer it.

A few years ago I wrote a poem in an effort to help me embrace the mystery of intercession and divine omnipotence. Perhaps these words will be an encouragement to you as well.