Save the Cheerleader; Save the World

The line is from the first season of "Heroes", although the plotline never really gets fully developed.

Still, the point is, sometimes the fate of the world, or a nation, or a city, hangs on a single person.

You recall the bargaining Abraham did with YHWH when YHWH was on a quest to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, as recorded in Genesis 18. Abraham challenged God, saying, "Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if fifty righteous people are found in the city?" (He continues on with some manipulative language -- "Far be it from you to do such a thing..." -- which encourages me somewhat because I often find myself being manipulative in my prayers. Part of our fallen nature, I suppose.)

YHWH relents and says that if He finds fifty righteous people in the city, He will not destroy it.

Abraham then bargains God down to forty-five, then forty, then thirty, twenty, and finally ten.

The end result is that ten people were not found, but God did chase out the four righteous that He did find, Lot and his family (although "righteous" appears to be a generous term for this group).

I was reminded of this event last night as I was reading Jeremiah chapter five. The first verse triggered this memory:

Roam through the streets of Jerusalem.
Look and take note;
search in her squares.
If you find a single person,
anyone who acts justly,
who seeks to be faithful,
then I will forgive her.

Find the Righteous; Save the City.