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Even though it is the angel speaking, he does so with authority from the One who sent him, making this an illustration, as Jewish tradition insists, of the principle announced by the prophet Amos that “the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7). ^[6]

And what was the “way of the Lord” that Abraham would teach to his posterity? It meant nothing less, says Jewish tradition, than to emulate the qualities of the Almighty himself: “As He is righteous, so you be righteous; as He is compassionate, so you be compassionate.” ^[7] In short, “the way of the Lord’ is the exercise of love,” says a midrash, ^[8] and doing “justice and righteousness” includes “being kind and sympathetic” by doing acts such as “consoling the bereaved and visiting the sick, all in emulation of Abraham ^[9] and in fulfillment of his precious legacy.

This declaration about Abraham teaching his children to keep the way of the Lord became an important part of the Abrahamic heritage in Judaism, which deemed it a religious duty of the father to provide proper education for his children. ^[10] And according to J. H. Hertz, “The last injunction of the true Jewish father to his children is that they walk in the way of the LORD’ and live lives of probity and goodness,” a duty that gave rise to the practice of the so-called “ethical will” in medieval European Jewry whereby the departing father would leave his last exhortation to his children. ^[11]

Only Latter-day Saints know the ancient roots of such a practice: it was Abraham himself who wrote the Book of Abraham expressly “for the benefit of my posterity that shall come after me” (Abr. 1:31).

The significance of Abraham’s efforts to teach and bless his posterity would be his most important responsibility, and an enduring example for that posterity to do the same. “Abraham’s desire to do God’s will in all things,” stated President Spencer W. Kimball, “led him to preside over his family in righteousness. Despite all his other responsibilities, he knew that if he failed to teach and exemplify the gospel to his children he would have failed to fulfill the most important stewardship he had received … Fathers and mothers, your foremost responsibility is your family.” ^[12]

Having determined to confide in Abraham, the angel proceeded to explain that part of their mission was to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah (JST Gen. 18:19-23), ^[13] and the three angels then walked away toward their destination.

Having rejoiced in what the Qur’an calls the “glad tidings” ^[14] brought to him – namely the priesthood blessing just delivered concerning the son to be born to Sarah – Abraham is suddenly grieved for the inhabitants of the cities about to be destroyed. He could easily have been safe and satisfied with the great blessing he was about to receive, but felt so deeply pained for the fate of his fellow men – whom he had befriended and even rescued – that he could not help but talk this over with God.

Following the path of the three angels who had gone on ahead, Abraham “drew near to Sodom,” apparently reaching the height near Hebron where he could see Sodom and all the valley below, and, as the Joseph Smith Translation makes clear, began praying to Him who had sent the angels (JST Gen. 18:25). ^[15]

Then, according to Rashi ^[16] (and seemingly the Joseph Smith Genesis Translation ^[17] ), God actually appeared to Abraham – a remarkable fact considering what was on Abraham’s mind. For Abraham was about to question the Almighty and even negotiate with him over the fate of the Sodomites, whom he had rescued once before.

Abraham was much exercised, and God not only paid attention, but went to the trouble of coming to Earth to hear his friend Abraham in person. “Our heavenly father is more liberal in his views,” stated Joseph Smith, “and boundless in his mercies and blessings, than we are ready to believe or receive … He will be inquired of by his children.” ^[18]

Nowhere is this better illustrated than in this incident with Abraham, surely “the most remarkable instance of human intervention” on record. ^[19] According to the Qur’an, Abraham was “most tender-hearted,” and “began to plead … for Lot’s people” ^[20] with such intensity that could have easily jeopardized Abraham’s own status with the Lord.

A rabbinical source states that “none prayed with such fervor as Abraham” on this occasion.

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^[21] As noted by J. H. Hertz, “Abraham proves true to his new name and embraces in his sympathy all the children of men. Even the wicked inhabitants of Sodom were his brothers, and his heart overflows with sorrow over their doom.” ^[22]

Far from being angry at Abraham’s pleading, the Lord allowed Himself to be interrogated. In fact, He listened patiently to Abraham and “heard him out” ^[23] and answered his questions. For it was not just Abraham speaking, but also God. Abraham realized, notes a modern rabbi, “that praying is a dialogue. It is talking with God.” ^[24]

But what a strange dialogue this! “Wilt thou,” began Abraham, “also destroy the righteous with the wicked?” Surely, continued Abraham, God would not destroy the place if fifty righteous souls were there. “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?” (Gen. 18:23-25).

As a modern scholar notes, “the tone of Abraham’s pleading shows decisiveness and courage,” and emphasizes “the inconceivability of God’s doing anything uncharacteristic of perfect justice.” ^[25] One thinks immediately of a similar prayer by another giant of faith, the brother of Jared, who just centuries earlier had told the Lord: “Thou art a God of truth, and canst not lie” (Ether 3:12).

According to the Midrash Rabbah, Abraham reminded God of His oath made at the time of Noah: “Thou hast sworn not to bring a deluge upon the world. Wouldst Thou evade Thine oath! Not a deluge of water wilt Thou bring but a deluge of fire? Then Thou hast not been true to Thine oath … If Thou desirest the world to endure, there can be no absolute justice … Unless Thou forgoest a little, the world cannot endure.” ^[26]

God responded that he would not destroy the place if fifty righteous could be found. But Abraham persisted: what if there were lacking just five of the fifty? Again God agreed.

And, continued Abraham, what if forty righteous souls could be found? Once again God relented.

And so it continued, with Abraham aggressively lowering the number and God agreeing, as they went down to thirty, and twenty, and finally to ten (Gen. 18:23-33), whereupon, as the Joseph Smith Translation tells, the Lord “ceased speaking with Abraham” (JST Gen. 18:40).

Who else but Abraham would have done such a thing, risking his own standing and the great blessings he had finally now been promised as he bargained with God over the fate of the Sodomites? Abraham did so, says a rabbinic source, “hoping that perhaps they would repent.” ^[27] Hugh Nibley wrote of Abraham:

“O the purity of Abraham!” declared Ephrem the Syrian about the Patriarch’s entirely selfless motives. ^[29] W. F. P Noble observed:

If they are not found in us, the Talmud says, then are we not of Abraham: “Whoever is merciful to his fellow-men is certainly of the children of our father Abraham, and whosoever is not merciful to his fellow-men is certainly not of the children of our father Abraham.” ^[31] According to Joseph Smith, “the nearer we get to our heavenly Father, the more we are disposed to look with compassion on perishing souls; we feel that we want to take them upon our shoulders, and cast their sins behind our backs.” ^[32]

Jewish tradition tells that “the intercession of His saints is mighty with God.” ^[33] So it was with Abraham, for “when the Holy One . . . saw how he pleaded . . . , He praised him” ^[34] and declared: “I love him.” ^[35] He loved him enough to be questioned by him about the fate of fellow mortals in this scene that, according to one scholar, seems not so much a dialogue between a mortal and the Almighty, but rather a deliberation “of the heavenly council” ^[36] over the fate of mankind. God was deliberating with his friend Abraham even as had happened earlier at the Creation in the grand council in the heavens.

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In fact, one Jewish text even insists that the very reason God had apprised Abraham of Sodom’s fate was so that Abraham would plead on behalf of its wicked inhabitants. ^[37] Hence the event provides a window not only into the soul of Abraham but also of God himself.

Abraham’s example invites his Latter-day Saint descendants to do the same for today’s world, according to modern prophets. President Gordon B. Hinckley declared:

In Abraham’s case, however, not even his mighty intercession could save Sodom and its sister cities, for ten righteous souls were not to be found there. Sodom’s fate was sealed, and its destruction could not be averted. ^[39] Not only were their deeds vile, but they had disbelieved God’s prophets “and reject[ed] the good counsel which Lot had brought them from their Lord.” ^[40]

More specifically, “the Holy One … gave them the opportunity of repenting,” and had for decades “made the mountains to tremble and brought terrors upon them in order that they might reform, yet they did not.” ^[41] So will it also be at the end when, as latter-day revelation foretells, the Lord will lament that he has called upon the inhabitants of the earth to repent not only by the mouth of his servants, but also by the voice of thunderings, lightnings, tempests, earthquakes, and other forms of warning, but all to no avail (D&C 43:25).

The angels proceeded and removed Lot and his family out of Sodom, which the Lord then “overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath” (Deut. 29:23). He rained down fire and brimstone, or “sulfurous fire” (JPST Gen. 19:24), from the sky, “for the angels called upon the name of the Lord for brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven” (JST Gen. 19:31).

It was altogether as catastrophic, one modern writer notes, as “atomic destruction,” ^[42] effected probably “by a great earthquake, perhaps accompanied by lightning, and the ignition of natural gases and asphalt seepages common to the region.” ^[43]

Whatever the exact means used, the Lord “annihilated those cities and the entire Plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities and the vegetation of the ground” (JPST Gen. 19:24-25). What had been the most lush and fertile of all places was violently “overthrown as in a moment” (Lam. 4:6), suddenly transformed into an utterly harsh and hostile landscape. So it remains to this day, at the southern end of the Dead Sea, one of the most inhospitable and lifeless places on the planet. ^[44]

But even more than a dramatic historical event, the fiery destruction of the wicked cities is a sobering type of things to come. “God … sent fire from heaven upon them, and it is still unextinguished in its burning,” is the ominous warning found in an Armenian apocryphal text. ^[45] Jubilees asserts that the destruction of the wicked at the final judgment will be “exactly as it was on Sodom,” ^[46] a comparison likewise later made by the Savior as He explained to His Jewish audience about His Second Coming (Luke 17:28-30). ^[47]

Hence, according to 3 Maccabees, the Lord made the inhabitants of Sodom “an example to those who should come afterward” (NRSV 3 Macc. 2:5; see also Jude 1:7). The imminence of that future destruction is indicated by the statement made by President Gordon B. Hinckley that “all of the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah haunt our society.” ^[48]

And if the final fiery destruction of the wicked is foreshadowed by Sodom, then Abraham – unscathed though just miles away – foreshadows those of his righteous posterity who follow his example in paying a faithful tithe, for as stated in modern day revelation, those that are tithed shall not be burned at the Lord’s coming (D&C 64:23).

In an early Christian writing, the Apostle Peter tells that even in Abraham’s day what happened at Sodom might well have been the beginning of worldwide destruction, inasmuch as “the scourge was hanging over the whole earth.” How was it averted?

According to Peter, by the intervention of Abraham, who “by reason of his friendship with God, who was well pleased with him, obtained from God that the whole world should not equally perish.” ^[49] Similarly, a Jewish source indicates that Abraham had earnestly pled that God “should not destroy the world.” ^[50] The man holding the keys to establish Zion over the whole earth had pled for mercy for the whole human race, which was given a reprieve. They would be offered the opportunity to repent through the preaching of the gospel by Abraham and his posterity.

In fact, that posterity was the very subject of what the angel had said the Lord would do for Abraham. To be sure, Genesis never follows through to tell us what the angel knew the Lord would do for Abraham, nor does it relate the fulfillment of the angel’s promise to return to Abraham. Such return is however recorded in Jubilees, wherein the angels later tell:

Such was the joy brought by the blessing of the messengers from the heavenly Zion for the benefit of the earthly Zion and the establishment of the future Zion – through the posterity of the son about to be born pursuant to that blessing. Once again, Zion above had been sent to open the way for Zion below.