Reading Genesis 18 today, I was caught up again in Abraham's brazen attempt to work out a deal with God. Some wicked cities are about to be judged, and Abraham (knowing that he has relatives there) bargains with God about the number of righteous people who might be able to keep the destruction from coming.
God, would you save the city if fifty righteous people can be found there? Forty-five? Forty? Thirty? Twenty? Ten?
Abraham goes no lower than ten. And we're not surprised to learn that even ten is too high a number. Taught in other places that not one is righteous, we realize that any number would be too high for this negotiation.
What intrigues me most, though, is this God who is willing to bargain, this God who isn't offended in the slightest by Abraham's nerve in making his appeal.
We do the same thing all the time, I suspect. Martin Luther, in peril of losing his life in a horrific storm, promised God that he would become a monk if God saved him from death. He offered God a deal - and fully believed that his subsequent rescue required full obedience. On a navy sub-chaser in the Pacific, my dad promised God that he would be a preacher if God brought him home from the war safely. Again, when God kept his end of the bargain, my dad followed through on his promise without question.
Examples from my own life are not quite so dramatic, but I've made deals with God for years. I haven't always kept my end of the bargain even when God has come through, but I'm often ready to go into bargaining mode when the circumstances call for that. God, if you will only do that, I'll do this. God, if you will grant this, I'll give you that.
And so it goes.
I'm pretty sure that God isn't swayed by my empty promises. But I'm also pretty sure that he isn't completely offended by my appeals either. Of course he wants me to keep my word. But what he wants even more, I think, is a relationship that's real.
Even if what we say is utterly ridiculous, God loves it when we talk and plead and beg and cajole - and even bargain.
I'm not suggesting that we approach God in an irreverent or careless way. But I am intrigued by Abraham's example. He heard about something that he didn't feel good about - and he took his concern straight to God. And in a matter of a few verses, he convinced God to reduce the required number from fifty to ten. Abraham still came up short, of course. But that's not the point of the story. The point of the story is this very real God who fully expects a very real relationship with those who walk with him.
Yes, we need to be polite and courteous and respectful and reverent with God.
But, maybe more importantly, we need to be real.