Sunk In The Well

ועמק השדים בארת בארת חמר וינסו מלך סדם ועמרה ויפלו שמה.  Rashi brings the Midrash ומדרש אגדה שהיה הטיט מוגבל בהם ונעשה נס למלך סדום שיצא משם לפי שהיו באומות מקצתן שלא היו מאמינין שניצל אברהם מאור כשדים מכבשן האש וכיון שיצא זה מן החמר האמינו באברהם למפרע.  The Ramban asks ואני תמה במדרש ההגדה הזה כי האומות שלא היו מאמינים שעשה הקב"ה נס לאברהם בראותם נסו של מלך סדום לא יוסיפו אמונה בהקב"ה?  

The Midrash in Noach (30:10) contrasts between Noach that had to be rescued from drowning in the depths of the people around him and Avraham that lights up the world with G-dliness.  The Sfas Emes explains that they are not two distinct paths but rather Avraham showed that even where G-d seems to be not present could become illuminated. lit up with holiness.  The novelty of Avraham was that G-d is present and can be felt in this world itself.  The Rambam describes the beginnings of avodah zarah in the days of Enosh was because they felt G-d was too distant, great and removed from the world.  That led them to set up a barrier between Hashem and the world.  Avraham came to tear that wall down.   

The people denied the miracle of Avraham not because they were scoffers but they had a philosophical problem with the story.  They did not believe in the message of Avraham that one can light up the world with  G-dliness and therefore they denied his story.  The בארות חמר represent the חומריות, the gashmi, the secularity of the world in which Sedom was the epitome of drowning in.  When the King of Sedom was saved from there it showed that even one so sunken in to the חומרי still can be rescued and illuminated.  This refuted the argument of those that challenged Avraham's argument and proved the miracle of Avraham's salvation.