Genesis 18-20

From our perspective of the 21st century it is very difficult for us to understand God's motivation for the wholesale genoside described in the pages of the Hebrew scriptures. Entire cities and nations are put to the sword or devoured by divine disasters. We struggle to understand how God could justify such death. But Genesis 18:16-33 introduces an aspect of God's nature that helps us understand these acts of judgment were not unwarrented. Through the conversation between Abraham and God we see the depths of God's mercy. If there were 6 more righteous people in Sodom the city might still be standing today. Nineveh must have lacked anyone with righteous characteristics to receive the warning through Jonah. Jerusalem may have been  at least 8 people shy of receiving the same pardon offered to Gomorrah. God has always displayed his willingness to extend mercy. Too often the people who are visited by his judgment simply want their own destructive ways.
Stuart