Bible Question: Who was the only human God listened to and did what was asked in the old testement |
Bible Answer: There wasn't only one person that God listened to. God heard the prayers of people and responded to them in the OT days as well as NT. My understanding of Scripture is that God never does what we want unless what we are asking for is in perfect agreement with His will. We do not persuade God to change His mind. I have heard people speak of the account in Genesis 18 and 19 as God being "persuaded" by Abraham when Abraham advocated for the City of Sodom and "bargained" with God asking If God would spare the city if a certain number of righteous people could be found there. God had told Abraham that He would destroy Sodom due to it’s sinfulness. Abraham began the bargain by asking if God would spare the city if 50 righteous people were found. God did agree to spare the City if 50 righteous were found. On first reading it may appear that Abraham persuaded God to change his mind. However, we know that God knew exactly how many "righteous" people were there. Apparently Abraham assumed that 50 might be a high number in the sinful city so began to bargain the number down to 45, 30 and all the way down to 10, a safe number to include Lot and his family. Abraham wanted to save his nephew Lot and Lot’s family. What we finally see is that God used the opportunity to show Abraham (among other things) that God's will in fact would be done and no changing of God's mind would occur. God did destroy Sodom though He did spare Lot and his family all but Lot and his daughters. We can conclude, from the wider context of Scripture, that God intended to spare Lot and in fact was the one persuading Abraham to pray for it hence, the visit to Abraham in the first place. |