Genesis 18 gives us a question we should ask ourselves regularly. The angels appear and Abraham prepares a meal for them. During their discussion the Angel of the Lord informs Abraham that God is about to fulfill his promise to them of a child. The Message records Sarah’s response to this:

“Abraham and Sarah were old by this time, very old. Sarah was far past the age for having babies. Sarah laughed within herself, “an old woman like me? Get pregnant? With this old husband of mine?”

The angel’s response was in the form of a question. This is the question we need to ask ourselves. He asked, “is anything too hard for God?”

Is there? Is there? Of course not! As we continue to read, we learn that this old woman, 90 years old! And this old man 100 years old had relations, and she conceived and had a son. Just as God said!

Genesis 19:1
When he learns God’s intentions of destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham asks “will you also destroy the righteous with the wicked?”(Vs 23).  Abraham then entered into an exchange with God which sounds like an exchange between an American tourist and an Arab shopkeeper in the stores we visited in Bethelehem last September. We tried to get the best prices we could. Abraham barters with God over how many righteous must there be in the city before God will spare it. He gets God all the way down to 10 and then accepts the price. 

It’s interesting to me that Abraham was concerned about God’s righteousness in judging the good with the evil, but he was willing to let 9 people perish with the wicked. As you know, God removed the righteous from the city before He destroyed it.

Abraham asks God in Vs 25, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” The assumed answer is “of course.” But notice that God’s view of “just” and Abraham’s view are different. The point is, that God is always more righteous and just in his dealings with man than man is in his dealing with man. 

We can rest assured, even at times when we don’t understand, that the Judge of all the earth will be righteous and just in everything in the end.