Abraham and the three visitors

Preached at St. Mary the Virgin, Little Burstead on 24 October 2021

​Abraham Relaxing

I like to picture Abraham sitting in his deck chair in front of his tent, with a handkerchief knotted on his head, even though he’s in the shade of the one of the great trees. It’s been a hard morning, it's too hot to work now, so time for rest and a snooze. It’s not a biblical image, but it helps me understand the feel of the scene.

Suddenly something catches his eye. Three men have arrived at the front of the tent, so he gets up to greet them. They are caught off-guard, and as are the customs of Hebrew hospitality, a meal must be served. Now

the camp is all action as food and drink are prepared and the strangers fed. No business can happen until this formal greeting is over.

​It’s the Lord

How Abraham recognises these three men as the Lord, is not explained, but he does. It’s interesting for us that there are three men, and it is tempting to assume that they are Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That may be going further than the text allows, especially as representatives of God, are sometimes addressed directly as God in the Old Testament. They are clearly messengers, so perhaps we should settle for calling the angels.

​Business at hand – the promise

Without Abraham having recognised the three men as God, the answer to their question would probably have been very different.

“Where is your wife, Sarah?” It seems the question is asked so that the men can be sure that Sarah hears what they are saying, and the Abraham knows that she has heard.

“There, in the Tent” say Abraham.

Then the LORD repeated His promise, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.”

​Previous Promise

If we look back at chapter 17, we will see that the Lord has already made this promise to Abraham.

Ge 17:16 I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”

Sarah was not around at the time. So now is the first time she is hearing the promise.

We are now getting down to the specifics of an earlier promise. When Abram, as he was known then, was first called by God, the Lord promised to make him into a great nation and to make him a blessing to the nations. For now, we’ll concentrate on the ‘great nation’ part, but we’ll come back to the ‘blessing to the nations’ part later.

​Impatience → Sin

Both Abraham and Sarah had known this promise, but Sarah was unable to conceive.

Abraham was worried about his inheritance.

Ge 15:3 And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”

Ge 15:4 Then the word of the LORD came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir”

So Sarah suggested to Abraham that the promise should be fulfilled through her servant Hagar. Abraham accepted this idea and Ishmael was soon born.

Both of them, knowing God’s promise, and being impatient – they were already old, Abram was 75 when he was called, decided to make the fulfilment in the only way they could think of. This lack of faith in God is a sin because we are putting our ways and thoughts ahead of God’s ways and thoughts. As Isaiah 55:8 reminds us, “'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the LORD”. It led to all sorts of problems and suffering, which goes on to this day.

​Abraham’s reaction

When Abraham first heard the promise that Sarah would have a son, in chapter 17:16, he fell on his face and laughed, and asks essentially the same questions as Sarah “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?”, but his attitude is different, he has believed God. He immediately thinks of Ishmael, and what Ishmael has lost. “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!”

​Sarah’s reaction

Sarah reacts quite differently, (we’re in 18:12 now) her laughter is more along the lines of “ha, ha, you’ve got to be kidding!”

Then we get the rhetorical question which sums up the lessons for this part of the reading, “Is anything too hard for the LORD?”

​Nothing too hard for God

The answer is clearly that nothing is too hard for God. Remember that God created the universe, and you and I, so why would anything be too hard?

We have to put our own ideas aside, try not to do things that seem like the only way to get something done, and allow God to operate in His own way. That’s what it means when we talk about our weakness being His strength. Hudson Taylor used to say that when God wanted to open inland China to the gospel, He looked around until He found a man weak enough for the task.

It can be incredibly difficult just to wait for God’s timing, after all we are all getting on now, and if we don’t do something it may never happen. That was Abraham’s mistake.

There’s even a song by Kayne West called “There is nothing too hard for God” here is an extract from the lyrics:

We must not question the Good Lord
Have faith in God and trust his word
We don’t know how, we don’t know when
To see this day, so we should stand

Now, I may not completely agree with everything he says, but the sentiment is there.

If you don’t know who Kayne West is, he is a Rapper – which doesn’t mean he will help put the shoe boxes together.

​God is Faithful

Despite Sarah’s sin, her disbelief, God still gives her the child she desired so much, and through that kept His promise to Abraham. 2 Timothy 2:13 says “if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.”

That means God keeps his promises to us, even if we don’t keep our promises to Him.

​Gen 18:16-33

The second part of our reading sees the men prepare to leave for Sodom. An outcry has reached the Lord, with many people complaining of the behaviour of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. Those people will likely be those who are the victims, and they want justice.

Abraham was chosen because he will keep the ways of the Lord, and direct his family and his household to do the same.

​Go and see

So the Lord says He will go down and see if things are really as bad as the prayers He’s been hearing say. Of course, He doesn’t need to go down, He can make His judgement just as easily from heaven as he can from earth. It is being done in person for Abraham's benefit.

God is involving Abraham in what He is doing, just as He involves us. He has decided to work through Abraham and his descendants, and that is the model He will use, rather than keep a continuous presence on earth.

Israel was called to be an example and a blessing to the nations, though often they tried to keep God as their own and use Him against the world. We too, as the spiritual descendants of Abraham and called to be a blessing to the world, and also to be an example of how to live for God. We will bring many of them to God in our prayers later on in this service and throughout the week.

​Two men leave

So two of the three men leave in the direction of Sodom, and we hear of their arrival in chapter 19. One remains, Abraham stays standing before him. This man is frequently said to be the pre-incarnate Christ.

​Judgement and bargaining

Abraham is not concerned about that, he is only concerned about the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. He also may have had his nephew Lot in mind, as Lot and his family had headed to Sodom. That would of course only be four people – Lot, his wife and two daughters.

What if there are fifty righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah, will the cities still be destroyed? Then Abraham seems to get angry with God:

“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?”

Abraham is doing exactly what God wants him to do, he is interceding for the world – at least the immediate part of it that he can see is in danger.

God doesn’t contest Abraham’s statement, which maybe took Abraham by surprise a little, He simply says that He will spare the city if fifty righteous people can be found. Anyway, Abraham’s

tone changes in verse 27. Rather than making demands of God, he is now pleading for the city if there are only forty-five righteous people.

“For forty-five, I will not destroy it.” God says.

So the negotiation continues, Forty, then thirty, twenty and finally ten.

​Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed

Could he have then gone all the way down to one – yes, of course, but by ten the principal had been established, God will not destroy the righteous with the wicked. So Abraham’s role is over, and he goes home.

But there is not one righteous person to be found. While all of them may not have been involved in the wickedness described in chapter 19, none were righteous. As we know from Romans 3:23 – “All have sinned, and fall short of the glory of god”.

Lot and his family are rescued from Sodom, by the two men, before the city is destroyed.

​Learning points

So, what have we learnt from today’s readings, I’ll finish by summing up the four key points:

1) God is faithful. He will keep His promises to us, even if we do not keep our promises to Him.

2) We need to understand this and allow God to operate in his own time. This is especially true

for very specific promises.

3) We have a role to play by interceding with God for the world, and by being a blessing to the world.

4) God is a god of justice and will not destroy the righteous with the wicked.

[Repeat]

How do you think these things might change your week?

Amen