 In Genesis chapter 18, we find a very interesting episode. God tells Abraham that there are five cities over here that are very wicked. Sadaim, Amira, and he wants to destroy these cities. What does Abraham do? Abraham comes along and he argues with God. He tells God, perhaps there are 50 righteous people, perhaps there are 45 righteous people. He argues and he intercedes with God on behalf of these wicked cities. Now, let's step back and try to absorb what's happening over here. We know God is the ultimate in kindness. If he wants to destroy these cities, they must have been pretty wicked. And Abraham is arguing with God for who is he arguing? He's arguing for wicked people. He's arguing for the survival of evil people. Why is he doing this? Our teachers, the rabbis, the sages of many years ago compound this problem when they tell us that this event, this quality that Abraham had that he cared about the wicked people and he interceded on their behalf was the reason that God chose him. That was the reason that Abraham was chosen by God to make a covenant with him. So what was Abraham doing? What was Abraham doing when he interceded with God on behalf of the wicked cities? And he was unsuccessful because the cities were so wicked that Abraham's intercession didn't even help. But what was he trying to do? And what are the rabbis teaching us when they tell us that this is why God chose Abraham? What was so special about this intercession? We have to understand, in the beginning of the book of Genesis, it tells us that God looked at the world and, behold, it was very good. He had just created the world and it's very good. That tells us that God sees a beautiful world. He sees a good world. What does it mean when God sees a good world? Does it mean that the scenery is beautiful, that the trees are nice, that the mountains are beautiful? God, when he says that it's good, he means morally good, ethically good, spiritually good. He saw that the world was a place where he could... where it is a beautiful place to cultivate and develop and a spiritual community, a community of kindness, a community of honesty, a community of truth, a community of justice. And that's what God wants and that's the beautiful and good world that God saw. Now, he put Adam in the garden, a beautiful world. He sinned. Adam's descendants sinned, the flood. And now we have the five cities in Abraham's times and God's going to have to destroy them. But Abraham knows God's heart. God does not want to destroy them. God has a plan for the world and the world is getting worse and worse up until Abraham's times. So what is Abraham arguing for? When he says to God, if there's 50 righteous people in the city, don't destroy the city, what Abraham is telling God is, I believe God that if there will be 50 righteous people in the city, eventually, it might take decades, it might take centuries, but the city will turn around and it will become a good city. That was what God was looking for. Why was God looking for that? Because what is God's plan? God's original plan was everyone should be righteous, everyone should be good. But he had a fallback plan. That didn't work out. He had a fallback plan. What was a fallback plan? That there should be one nation. There should be one nation into which he plants his teaching, into which he plants his truth, into which he plants his Torah. And that nation will try to live righteously. Again, no one expects human beings to be perfect, but they'll try to live by the truth that God plants in them and that will elevate and inspire and uplift mankind. And that was what Abraham was arguing for. Abraham was telling God, listen, if there'll be 50, if there'll be 45, if there'll be even 10 righteous people, I believe that will turn around the city. And when God looked down at Abraham and heard Abraham's argument, God told himself, there's a man that believes in my plan. There's a man that believes in the goodness of man, that believes that ultimately the rule will be a good place and the way it will happen is by 10 people setting an example, by a few people setting an example and elevating and uplifting everybody else. When Abraham interceded for the people, for the wicked people of the five cities that God wanted to destroy, Abraham was showing God that he's a man after his heart. He's a man that believes in the goodness of creation. He believes in the goodness, inherent goodness that God planted in the human soul and he believed that goodness will ultimately prevail over evil.