By Richard Clifford, SJ

Genesis and Luke both encourage perseverance in prayer. It is an important point because many people give up on prayer fairly quickly “if nothing happens.” Abraham gives us an example of pursuing God, and the parable in the Gospel of Luke tells us that Jesus applauds similar boldness.

In Genesis 18, Abraham comes to God with two specific requests, the first regarding Lot’s safety, and the second regarding God’s nature. First, his nephew Lot, whom he has been indulging and protecting according to Genesis 13‑14, has put himself in danger once again. Abraham has learned that God intends to destroy Sodom because of its wickedness, but Abraham’s nephew Lot lives there. Bound by family ties, Abraham feels he must rescue Lot and his family. Alone, in a land where he is merely a resident alien, Abraham turns to God in prayer. He has just entered into a covenant with God and finds that he must call on his covenant partner, his new legal patron, for assistance. The mysterious midday visitor who came abruptly to Abraham’s tent in midday turned out to be God, with whom Abraham had entered into a covenant. In prayerful conversation, Abraham wrests from God a concession on behalf of his nephew. In its final stage, Abraham bargains with God to concede that even if there are only ten righteous people in Sodom, God will refrain from his plan to destroy it. But when God’s messengers, two angelic messengers, arrive in Sodom to investigate its crimes, the city’s inhabitants gang up to sexually assault and humiliate them. God punishes the unrepentant city, but spares Lot. Though both Lot and his family behave foolishly, they are spared from the sulfur and fire that destroy the city and its inhabitants.

Abraham’s second request is to learn more about the God who called him and to discover His purpose. So he asks in 18:25, “Shall not the judge [= ruler] of all the world act with justice?” Put differently, do you, God, act justly toward humans by supporting the aggrieved righteous and putting down the exulting wicked? In the course of his questioning, Abraham learns that his God is totally just. He finds out something else: as few as ten righteous people can save others, and indeed one person’s prayers (like Abraham’s) can be the salvation of others. He learns why God singled him out — for the sake of the world.

In contrast to the lively interchange between God and Abraham, praying can become routine, simply words we recite to an unresponsive deity. Genesis invites us to see our prayer as an exchange between two persons so that God’s reign takes hold on earth more and more.

Richard Clifford, S.J., has taught biblical studies for 55 years, most recently at the Clough School of Theology and Ministry, Boston College, and has written many scholarly and popular books and articles.