Genesis 18:1-21--The THree Visitors

READ:​  https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+18%3A1-21&version=ESV
LISTEN:  https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Gen.18.1-Gen.18.21

The Three Visitors
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18 And the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. 2 He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth 3 and said, “O Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. 4 Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree, 5 while I bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” 6 And Abraham went quickly into the tent to Sarah and said, “Quick! Three seahs of fine flour! Knead it, and make cakes.” 7 And Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to a young man, who prepared it quickly. 8 Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them. And he stood by them under the tree while they ate.
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9 They said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” And he said, “She is in the tent.” 10 The Lord said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. 11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. 12 So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?” 13 The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.” 15 But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. He said, “No, but you did laugh.”

16 Then the men set out from there, and they looked down toward Sodom. And Abraham went with them to set them on their way. 17 The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, 18 seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? 19 For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.” 20 Then the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, 21 I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know.”

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It appears that this passage comes immediately after the previous passage.  God rewed his covenant with Abraham and promised the birth of Isaac and Abraham and all the males in his entire household (including Ishmael) responded in faith to the promise of God's covenant by receiving the sign of the covenant--circumcision.

God now shows up to Abraham's camp along with two angelic visitors, but their identity is hidden so that Abraham does not recognize them.  The purpose of God's visit seems to be two-fold.  First to make sure that Sarah gets the same message that Abraham got because she too will need to be an active participant in being obedient to God's will regarding the birth of their son Isaac, and also to not hid from Abraham the judgement that was about to be executed on the cities of the Canaanites, specifically Sodom and Gomorrah.

The people of the near East were and to this day still are very hospitable people.  It is commanded in the Law for the people of God to take care of the sojourners and strangers among them, but this seems to have already been their regular practice.  If people were travelling a great distance and they saw someone else's camp or a city in the area, they could approach and ask for food, water and shelter for the evening and those living in the camp or in the city would gladly take care of them in the same way that they would wish to be taken care of and often the visitors would be given provisions for their journey before they left.

This is the situation in the first part of the passage.  Abraham sees that they have visitors and doesn't recognize them, but immediately shows them respect (bowing before them and calling them "lord") because you always show respect to your guests--you never know who might be visiting.  He offers them water to wash their feet--a great honor in this culture--and shade under the oak tree where he lived which was also something in short supply in the desert area where he lived.  He also offered them what he seems to refer to as a small meal, but we'll see soon that this is a little bit of an understatement (again, he seems to give them the "royal treatment," because you never know who might be visiting you).

The visitors agreed to the hospitality offered by Abraham and Abraham ran to Sarah and told her to make a small cake for each of their visitors, and Abraham gave a young calf to one of his servants to prepare some veal for the visitors and he served them some curds and milk as well.  While were not specifically told this, it appears that the visitors (even God) were able to eat and drink, and rest.

It was then time to get down to business and the visitors asked "Where is your wife, Sarah?"  If Abraham had not already had questions about who these visitors were, he certainly would at this point.  They knew his wife's name and wanted to know where she was?  Abraham said that she was in the tent, which happened to not be that far away because we'll read in a second that Sarah could hear everything that was being said.  God then makes sure to repeat the promise that He had given to Abraham regarding the birth of Isaac in the presence of Sarah.  He promises that He will return to them again in one year's time and by then their son Isaac would be born.

Sarah had much the same reaction that Abraham had in laughing at the suggestion that old people like her and her husband would have any kind of chance at having a baby at their age, and at the idea of her being able to enjoy having a child in her old age when she was worn out.  Essentially saying to herself, "We're too old to be keeping up with a little one running around the camp," and she had some idea what she was talking about because I'm sure she had seen and partially participated in the raising of Ishmael who just turned 13.

God stops and asks Abraham why Sarah laughed and then a rhetorical question that we talked about yesterday--"Is anything too hard for the Lord?"  If they hadn't recognized the identity of the visitors by now, I believe they did at this point.  Sarah had been quiet with her laughter possibly only laughing to herself--maybe not even out loud.  She was embarrassed and lied about it, but God said, "No, but you did laugh."  There is no hiding our doubts and fears from God, even the ones that we only express by laughing and being amused at what God says He is going to do that looks and sounds impossible to us.  We'll see this same kind of scene play out several times in the gospels where Jesus will tell someone what they are thinking or feeling and they will respond at a minimum with, "Sir, I perceive you are a prophet," or even to the point of recognizing Him as God in the flesh.

The mood of the passage then changes quickly.  No longer are we focused on what is going to happen inside the camp, but it seems that Abraham offers to walk with the visitors as they are on their way out--a "let me see you on your way" kind of thing.  The two angelic visitors are sent on their way and God decides to reveal His plans to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah to Abraham.  God once again repeats the Abrahamic covenant in front of Abraham to remind him of who he is in God's eyes.

Got then says something very interesting about Him hearing the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah and even though He has seen their wickedness He is going to go down and see it for Himself and that He will know whether they are innocent or guilty.  The last time we saw language like this was in Genesis 10 at the Tower of Babel.  Abraham realizes that judgement is coming and that his nephew Lot and his family are in danger of being caught up in the Lord's judgment.  We'll see next time how Abraham pleads for the righteous, but it seems apparent by the number that he settles on that he is pleading for his nephew and his family.

We will also see that although Abraham and God go through this entire scene of Abraham acting as defense attorney and pleading for the cities, God's mind was never changed as the angels that were to rescue Lot and his family had already been sent on ahead before God ever told Abraham what He was going to do.  In the same way we'll talk about how prayer does not change God, but will change us, and in this case Abraham will need to come to the conclusion that God will not sweep up the righteous with His judgement against the wicked.