Setting: Genesis 18:17-22
Michael and I accompanied Adonai on this visit to Abraham. Michael was to announce to Sarah that she was to give birth to Isaac, and I was to deliver the overturning of Sodom and Gomorrah. The announcement of Isaac accomplished, we rose up from there, and looked down on Sodom. Abraham went with us to see us on our way.
Turning aside to me that Abraham might not hear, Adonai asked, “Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do, seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth shall be blessed? For I know him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Adonai by doing justice and judgment, so that Adonai may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about him.”
I answered not a word, for I dared not contradict the will of Adonai, but I did not see why the Possessor of heaven and earth should need to consult with a son of Adam.
It seemed to me that Adonai reasoned thus: “If I asked Abram to sacrifice even his own son, he would not refuse me, how much less these wicked cities? What then can I lose by consulting him? Though I drove Adam from Eden, and though I shut Noach in the ark, yet Abraham do I love so much that I will do nothing without his consent. And look, I have already called Abraham the father of these nations. Does one condemn the son without the father’s knowledge? Shall I hide anything from Abraham?”
I answered him not with my voice, but with my whole being, as I always answer Adonai. “Yes, Lord.” And of course, Adonai must show this thing to Abraham also so that he would be warned not to lead his remaining children in the wicked ways of these cities.
We rejoined Abraham on the way, and Adonai said to him, “Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know.”
Michael and I turned our faces away, and went toward Sodom, leaving Abraham to stand there before Adonai in a wonderful conference between God and man.