What Does Genesis 18:22 Mean?

The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord. The departure of the two toward Sodom and the remaining of Abraham before the Lord is the chapter's turning point. The two who will investigate Sodom are on their way; one, identified with the Lord, remains in the conversation with Abraham. The scene shifts from the departure of guests to the beginning of the most extended intercession in the patriarchal narrative. Abraham "remained standing before the Lord", the stance of someone who has something to say and the covenant relationship's standing to say it.

The phrase "remained standing before the Lord" is the standing of the intercessor, the one who does not simply receive the divine word and go home but engages with it. The Hebrew of this verse is interesting: some manuscripts and the Septuagint read "but the Lord remained standing before Abraham," which presents the encounter slightly differently. Whichever reading is original, the scene is of two who are in conversation: the Lord who has disclosed His intentions and Abraham who is about to respond with a series of increasingly specific questions about justice and the scale of the righteous within the city.

The intercession that Abraham is about to make is the first sustained example of covenant intercession in the Old Testament, a human standing before God on behalf of those under judgment, for persons outside his immediate family. This is the prophetic office in its earliest form: standing in the gap. Moses will do it for Israel after the golden calf; Elijah will do it for the nation in the drought; and Jesus will do it in the fullest sense, "always living to make intercession" for those who draw near to God through Him (Hebrews 7:25).