I watched a TV show on the 12 boys and their soccer coach rescued from the cave in Thailand. Eleven of the boys dedicated themselves to Buddha. They shaved their heads, put on orange robes, and were ordained into Buddhist monkhood. When the boys were trapped in the cave most of the people outside prayed to Buddha and sacrificed to the goddess who lives in the mountain. The news reporter mentioned that only 11 of the 12 dedicated themselves to Buddha, because one is not a Buddhist; he is a Christian. He is 14-year old Adul Sam-on. He is a sponsored child of Compassion International. He accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior in March 2018. I heard his parents say, “Hallelujah!” Their church, Baag Jong Church hosted the many of the rescue divers. I believe God saved all the boys because of the presence of one Christian boy, his parents and church members, who prayed to Jesus Christ.
Question: Is there any story in the Bible that teaches God will spare sinful idol worshipers because of the presence of one righteous person? Yes. It is the story of Abraham interceding for wicked Sodom and Gomorrah: Genesis 18:16-33. Then Abraham drew near and said to the LORD, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” And the LORD said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.” If the LORD had been able to find just ten righteous, God-fearing people in Sodom, then He would not have destroyed it and killed everyone. (Archaeologists estimate a population of about 200,000 for the five cities of the Jordan Valley, Genesis 13:10, 14:1-3.) The Lord could only find four – Lot, his wife, and two daughters. The two sons-in-law refused to believe and perished. The presence of righteous people delays judgment upon the wicked and gives them more time to repent and get right with God.
Read Isaiah 42:6-8. Righteous people are a light “to being out prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.” One righteous boy and family were the key to all the boys rescued from darkness and death. Proverbs 15:29: The LORD is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.
Maybe some of the other boys and families will believe in Jesus Christ because of the witness of the Christian boy and his family. Pray for this.
Wilenghart’s Wisdom 