Genesis 18:27,28

Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous.

The earnestness, and at the same time the exceeding humility, of Abraham's intercession, present. worthy example to the suppliants at the throne of grace in all ages. Encouraged by the favorable answer to his first petition, he still presses his request, with the number of the righteous made smaller. In doing this he confesses his own insignificance before God--"only dust and ashes"--dust, the lightest particles of the earth; ashes, the refuse left after fuel is burned; compared with God he means that he is light and worthless. He shows how deeply his soul is humbled before God, and therefore how high his conception was of the Divine Majesty. The more exalted views we have of God, the humbler we will feel when we go before him. When. hear. man pray who talks to God as if be was an equal,. feel assured that the man is either puffed up with conceit, or has no knowledge of the greatness of his Creator.