Why You Should Intercede For Others

To intercede is to mediate or intervene on behalf of another. Now why is it important to carry out intermediate prayers for others. Remember the story of Abraham and Lot. How Abraham interceded for Sodom.

Genesis 18:16-33, where Abraham pleads with God for the city of Sodom. First we see that true prayer begins with God, vs 17, where God reveals to Abraham that he is going to go down and see if the sin in Sodom is grievous.

In the Genesis account, God reveals to Abraham that Sodom and Gomorrah are to be destroyed for their grave sins (18:20). Abraham pleads for the lives of any righteous people living there, especially the lives of his nephew, Lot, and his family.

Abraham begins asking for the city to be spared, if there are but 50 righteous who are in it. He boldly prays, “Far be it from thee to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be it from Thee! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?

Abraham kept asking the Lord, suppose there are 50 people who are righteous in the City, will you destroy it and the Lord answered; If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.” He kept on reducing the number and besieging God not to get angry.

Lastly, he had asked. “Suppose ten are found there.” The Lord answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.” And the Lord went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.

In the end, God spared Lot and his family and let them leave Sodom before it was destroyed by fire. When God destroyed the cities in the valley, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot away from the disaster that overtook the cities in which Lot had lived.

This shows that the prayers we pray on behalf of others are heard by God. He hears our prayers and comes through for us. The goodness of Abraham saved Lot and his family from being destroyed in Sodom together with the wicked people.