What Can Be Learned from the Lamed-Vovnik?

Proverbs 26:12 “Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.”

While I was in college I participated in a Sunday school class, and just this week recalled a lesson our teacher gave in which he used an illustration about the Lamed-Vovnik. It’s strange how God will bring to mind something from such a long time ago.

The Lamed-Vovnik are 36 people living on the earth, throughout history and continuing on today, who, because of their righteousness and humility before God, are the sole reason God does not pass judgment and bring the earth to an end. It’s an old Jewish tradition; it’s not in the Bible. Apparently, some ancient Jewish scholars came up with the story to help explain why God had not yet passed judgment on all the evil operating in the world.

The Lamed-Vovnik, or “thirty-sixers”, are not aware that they are Lamed-Vovniks, and they do not know about the existence of the other Lamed-Vovniks. If and when a Lamed Vovnik becomes aware that he or she is one of the thirty six, they would be immediately be disqualified from being one of them.

This Jewish mystical tradition also holds that the Messiah may possibly arise from one of the Lamed-Vovnik.

What can we learn from the Lamed-Vovnik teaching? It is said that Jews developed this tradition from the account of Abraham’s intercession for Sodom in Genesis 18. Sodom was a very evil, wicked city, but Abraham pleaded with God that He would not destroy it.

From 18:24 we read: “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 think, 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?”

Abraham continues to pray for the people of Sodom, until God agrees not to destroy Sodom if there were but 10 righteous people living in the city: “He answered, ‘For the sake of ten I will not destroy it’”.

What if this was the reason God tarries today? Is God withholding judgment from the earth today because of unknown, humble servants of His whom, not being sinless or without fault, but humbly submitting to Him, are carrying out kingdom activity every day, in unknown places with no applause from men? The beauty of the idea is that these folks would hardly be aware of their own service to Him; they are Christians, just loving God and loving people.

The value in this tradition of the Lamed-Vovnik is in pointing us back to the account of Abraham’s intercession on behalf of Sodom, and in reminding us that, as followers of Jesus, we must be careful about who we make our “heroes.” The real heroes of the faith are pretty much nobodies in the eyes of the world. But God definitely knows whom they are, and is showing the world His great mercy through these disciples, who are not wise in their own eyes, and who are living lives of sacrificial service.