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Abraham
bids down God by David Epstein February 6, 2001 A very strange scene is found in Chapter 18. God is considering taking
action against Sodom and Gomorrah for their “grievous” sins. Abraham stands up
to God and questions how he could possibly kill the good people along with the
bad. “Wilt Thou indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Peradventure
there are fifty righteous within the city; wilt Thou indeed sweep away and not
forgive 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, that so
the righteous should be as the wicked; that be far from Thee; shall not the
Judge of all the earth do justly?” Conventional arguements have been made that this scene shows that God
is capable of commiting evil, or that this is the ultimate test given by God to
Abraham. Does this show that God is imperfect? Is Abraham more ethical or wiser
than God? I think any of these perspectives is grounds for a healthy
discussion; but for me, the fundamental lesson of this scene is the capacity of
man to engage in high ethical behavior by first asking the right questions. Abraham’s first point is that the righteous should not be killed along
with the wicked. Implicit in this perspective is the philosophy of the ends not
justifying the means. Equally apparent is the conviction that only the
transgressors should be punished, not the society collectively. His second point is more subtle. When he says “wilt Thou indeed sweep
away and not forgive the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?”, he
implies that any righteousness is enough to offset the wickedness in the city.
The righteous, in effect, carry the moral burden for everyone else. They
represent the city. According to Abraham, God should “forgive the place”,
though not necessarily the sinners; but equally recognizable is a blaring
omission, namely that he says nothing about punishing the sinners. God should
grant amnesty for everyone simply because there are righteous people in the
area. Is this flawed thinking on the part of the great patriarch of Judaism?
Was God testing his powers of reasoning along with his alleged high moral
standards? Abraham certainly could have said something like, “Oh God, spare the
righteous, let them leave before thy take action against the wicked.” After
all, this is what God did in the story of Noah. But the alternative theory is
that Abraham wanted God to go beyond merely saving the good folk. He yearned to
save all humanity, both good and bad, and whether intentional or not, he was
posing a direct challenge to God. The third point is a dandy. Abraham claims that if God wipes out
everyone, he is equating the wicked with the righteous. This not only raises
the spectre of guilt by association, but also an association of guilt by
association. Society would be a place where everyone is equally guilty,
regardless of his or her actions. Hence, punishment for all is justified. The counter argument to this is that the righteous could have taken
actions to prevent the wicked from carrying out their sins. They are bound to
suffer alongside the sinners because of their lack of intervention. This
paternalist argument, however, neglects one very significant maxim: individuals
must be responsible for their own actions and behavior. Ultimately, only the
individual can stop himself from commiting a sin. In addition, the sins which
were ostensibly being commited (e.g. sodomy) occured in the privacy of peoples
dwellings. This would make it more difficult for the righteous to intervene,
and even if they did, would the egregious step of invading one’s right to
privacy (or freedom of sexual preference as the case may have been) have been a
sufficient justification to prevent the declared immorality of the “wicked”? Was Abraham a libertarian? Something to think about. The final point is the most direct challenge to God. He tells good ole
YHVH to live up to his own highest standards. For how could a just God behave
unjustly?! Clearly Abe has his own high standards of justice and questions
whether God measures up to them. If this wasn’t interesting enough, listen to how God responds: “If I
find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will forgive all the
place for their sake.” God accepts Abraham’s proposal in its entirety. He
doesn’t send it back to Abe for revisions, he doesn’t pose any realistic
questions like “OK, I’ll save the righteous, but what should be done about the
wicked?” This tells me that God isn’t expecting Abraham to think about these
issues clearly and analytically, or to ponder over the moral implications of
the issues inherent in this situation. He was looking for Abraham to stand up
for what he believed in, a necessary prerequisite for leadership. Only an
individual with such courage, conviction, strong will and determination, could
be qualified, in God’s eyes, to lead the Jewish nation. From this point of view, Abraham passed the test. So why did he
continue on? Listen up: “Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty
righteous; wilt Thou destroy all the city for lack of five?” His basic argument
is that there is no justification killing everyone if it turns out there is
less than 50 as originally anticipated. Here, we can swing two ways. On the one
hand, if Abraham knew (or at least thought) that God was omniscient, then he
would know whether or not God knew there were 50 righteous people. Lowering the
bar to 45 would be another challenge to God. On the other hand, if Abraham
thought God wasn’t omniscient, then he’s telling God to consider the
consequences if he’s wrong. If God finds 5 additional evil people, Abraham
tells him to spare the city anyway for the 45 righteous people he correctly
identified. Aby doesn’t stop there. He bids God down to 40, then to 30, 20, and
finally 10. Touchdown? Was God merely granting Abraham’s wishes? Or letting him
call the shots? Why then God finally destroys Sodom and Gomorrah is another story which
would be left for another discussion. Was God a hypocrite? Peradventure?! Perhaps ! How about the “terebinths of Mamre” (Chapter 18, verse 1)?! |