God Visited Abraham

Good morning everyone. It is a cool cloudy day here in our part of the Panhandle. Maybe the Lord will bless us with some rain.

He is the one who spoke everything into existence. He spirit that hovered over the waters and breathed life into man and woman. He walked in the cool of the evening with Adam and Eve. He is the burning bush that was not consumed, and the fourth man in the fire. He is the small, still voice. He is the baby in the manger, the prophet ushering in a new kingdom, and the perfect sacrifice for our sins. He is God. In the Scriptures today we see God and two angles in the forms of men visiting Abraham.

Having been received into the covenant with God through the rite of circumcision, Abraham not long afterwards honored by entertaining the Lord and two angels in his tent. This fresh manifestation of God had a double purpose, to establish Sarah's faith in the promise that she should bear a son in her old age (vv. 1-15), and to announce the judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah (vv. 16-33). (From Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)

This chapter records another manifestation of the divine presence more familiar than any of the earlier manifestations, and more like that in the future when the Word was made flesh. God had voluntarily descended from on high to give several special revelations of His will to Abraham. Having taken him into a covenant relation, God was pleased to treat him as a friend, whose house He would visit. Abraham had been recently notified of the approaching fulfillment of that promise, and, by his faith in the divine communication made to him, new physical energy had been imparted to his aged frame. But Sarah had not been favored with the same or any similar revelation. Though Abraham had, doubtless, told her the wondrous news he had received, she seems to have remained skeptical to the possibility of an event so unprecedented as that a wife at her advanced age should become a mother; and so unyielding was her skepticism that a direct assurance from God was necessary to convince her of the truth.

The primary design of this interview was to remove the doubts of Sarah, the promise being renewed to Abraham in her hearing, and to bring her into the same confiding state of mind with Abraham, that `through faith she might receive strength to conceive seed.'

CHAPTER 18 AT A GLANCE

We have an account in this chapter of another interview between God and Abraham, probably within a few days after the former, as the reward of his cheerful obedience to the law of circumcision. Here is,

I. The kind visit which God made him, and the kind courtesies, which he gave to, that visit v. 1-8.

II. The matters discoursed of between them.

1. The purposes of God's love concerning Sarah v. 9-15.

2. The purposes of God's wrath concerning Sodom.

(1.) The discovery God made to Abraham of his design to destroy Sodom v. 16-22.

(2.) The intercession Abraham made for Sodom v. 23, etc.

(From Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1991 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)

Gen 18:1-8

18:1 The LORD appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. 2 Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.

3 He said, "If I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, do not pass your servant by. 4 Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. 5 Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way--now that you have come to your servant."

"Very well," they answered, "do as you say."

6 So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. "Quick," he said, "get three seahs of fine flour and knead it and bake some bread."

7 Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice, tender calf and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it. 8 He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared, and set these before them. While they ate, he stood near them under a tree.

1. ABRAHAM HAS VISITORS (vv. 1-8)

Abraham was living in the immediate vicinity of Hebron at the time of his visit from Jehovah and the two angles.

The opening words of the chapter must be considered as a historical introduction, personal, in general terms, the fact of a new and important revelation; because it is evident that Abraham did not at first know the character or the rank of his visitors. But supposing them to be bonafide travelers, he hurried to offer them the customary rites of oriental hospitality; and we may conclude that he regarded them as personages of high, though unknown dignity, from the unusually large scale of liberality on which his hospitalities were provided.

(From Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1997 by Biblesoft)

He was very polite and respectful to them. Forgetting his age and gravity, he ran to meet them in the most obliging manner, and with all due courtesy bowed himself towards the ground, though as yet he knew nothing of them but that they appeared graceful respectable men. Note, Religion does not destroy, but improve, good manners, and teaches us to honor all men. Decent civility is a great ornament to piety.

(From Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1991 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)

Whenever visitors from heaven appeared to men, they often used the form of man. This is the easiest form to make themselves known to us. It is not the nature of God in revealing His mercy to us to make us familiar with the whole of His being.

They accept the hospitality of Abraham and partake of human food. This, also, was a real act. It does not imply, however, that food is necessary to spiritual beings. The whole is a typical act representing communion between God and Abraham. The giving and receiving of a meal was the ground of a perpetual or inviolable friendship.

(From Barnes' Notes, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1997 by Biblesoft)

Gen 18:9-15

9 "Where is your wife Sarah?" they asked him.

"There, in the tent," he said.

10 Then the LORD said, "I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son."

Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. 11 Abraham and Sarah were already old and well advanced in years, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. 12 So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, "After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?"

13 Then the LORD said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh and say, `Will I really have a child, now that I am old?' 14 Is anything too hard for the LORD? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son."

15 Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, "I did not laugh."

But he said, "Yes, you did laugh."

Gen 18:9-15

2. ABRAHAM’S INTERVIEW WITH THE ANGLES (vv. 9-15)

During the meal, at which Abraham stood, and waited upon them as the host, they asked for Sarah, for whom the visit was chiefly intended. On being told that she was in the tent, where she could hear, therefore, all that passed under the tree in front of the tent, the one whom Abraham addressed as Adonai (my Lord), and who is called Jehovah in v. 13, said, "I will return to thee at this time, when it lives again" i.e., at this time next year; "and, behold, Sarah, thy wife, will (then) have a son." Sarah heard this at the door of the tent; "and it was behind Him" (Jehovah), so that she could not be seen by Him as she stood at the door.

As the fulfillment of this promise seemed impossible to her, on account of Abraham's extreme age, and the fact that her own womb had lost the power of conception, she laughed within herself, thinking that she was not observed. So that she might know that the promise was made by the omniscient and omnipotent God, He scolded her for laughing, saying, "Is anything too wonderful (i.e., impossible) for Jehovah? At the time appointed I will return unto thee," etc.; and when her uncertainty led her to deny it, He convicted her of falsehood. Abraham also had laughed at this promise (Gen 17:17), and without receiving any reproof. For his laughing was the joyous outburst of astonishment; Sarah's, on the contrary, the result of doubt and unbelief, which had to be broken down by reproof, and, as the result showed, really was broken down, inasmuch as she conceived and bore a son, whom she could only have conceived in faith.

(From Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)

Gen 18:16-33

16 When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way. 17 Then the LORD said, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? 18 Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. 19 For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him."

20 Then the LORD said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous 21 that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know."

22 The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the LORD. 23 Then Abraham approached him and said: "Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing--to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?"

26 The LORD said, "If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake."

27 Then Abraham spoke up again: "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, 28 what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city because of five people?"

"If I find forty-five there," he said, "I will not destroy it."

29 Once again he spoke to him, "What if only forty are found there?"

He said, "For the sake of forty, I will not do it."

30 Then he said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?"

He answered, "I will not do it if I find thirty there."

31 Abraham said, "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?"

He said, "For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it."

32 Then he said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?"

He answered, "For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it."

33 When the LORD had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.

3. SODOM … GOMORRAH (vv.16-33)

The two leading cities at the south end of the Dead Sea. The others - Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar - were to be destroyed along with Sodom and Gomorrah in the inferno that was to purge the cesspools of iniquity. (Ultimately God spared Zoar as a new home for Lot.) The Scripture clearly indicates that a divine visitation was to bring terrible judgment and doom upon the sinful inhabitants. The cities were about eighteen miles from Abraham's home at Hebron. It was possible for him to see the southern end of the Sea from the immediate vicinity of Hebron.

When Abraham left off interceding, he had God's promise that He would spare Sodom if as many as ten righteous persons could be found therein. But when the required number could not be found, nothing could avert the catastrophe. Intercessory prayer always brings out the best in men. Their unselfish concern for others shines like a beautiful jewel. In pleading with the Lord, Abraham clearly demonstrated genuine love and concern. And he experienced anew the friendship of God in His willingness to counsel with him and grant him a special revelation before the doom fell.

(From The Wycliffe Bible Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1962 by Moody Press)

This completes the full and free conversation of God with Abraham. He accepts his hospitable entertainment, renews his promise of a son by Sarah, communicates to him his counsel, and grants all his requests. It is evident that Abraham has now fully entered upon all the privileges of the sons of God. He has become the friend of God (James 2:23).

(From Barnes' Notes, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1997 by Biblesoft)

NOTE:

Though sin is to be hated, sinners are to be pitied and prayed for. God delights not in their death, nor should we desire, but mourn, the woeful day.

(From Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1991 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)