Abraham’s three visitors from heaven
18
📚And the LORD appeared to him at the oak trees of Mamre as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. 2 📚And he raised his eyes and looked and three men appeared, standing near him. And when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself toward the ground, 3 and said, “My Lord, if now I have found favour in your sight, please do not pass your servant by. 4 📚Please let a little water be brought, and wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree. 5 📚And I will bring a piece of bread. Refresh yourselves. After that you can go on. That is why you have come to your servant”. And they said, “Do as you have said”.6 📚And Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, “Quick! Get ready three measures of fine flour, knead it, and make bread 📖 on the hearth”.
7 📚And Abraham ran to the herd and brought a choice tender calf and gave it to a young man who hurried to prepare it. 8 📚And he took butter and milk, and the calf which he had prepared, and set them before them. And he stood by them under the tree, and they ate.
18:8 Abraham’s preparation of the meal took some time. The Lord and His angels waited patiently. See Jud 6:18.⚜
9 📚And they said to him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” And he said, “There, in the tent”.
10 📚And he said, “I will certainly return to you, according to the time of life, and then your wife Sarah will have a son”. And Sarah heard it standing in the tent door, which was behind him.
11 📚Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well advanced in age, and it had ceased to be with Sarah according to the way of women. 12 📚Therefore Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have become old will I have pleasure, my lord 📖 also being old?”
18:12 See Gen 17:17. Though Sarah laughed here, later she must also have believed the promise – Heb 11:11-12.⚜
13 📚And the LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Will I, who am old, indeed bear a child?’ 14 📚Is anything too hard for the LORD 📖? At the time appointed I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah will have a son”.
15 📚Then Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh”, for she was afraid. And he said, “No, but you did laugh”.
18:15 Sarah shows her sinful nature by lying to God. See Gen 12:13. Very often the wrong kind of fear causes even good people to sin. The healthy fear of God keeps them from it (Gen 20:11; Ex 20:20). So God tells His people not to fear what men in general fear (Gen 15:1), but to fear Him – Deut 10:20; Matt 10:28; Heb 12:28.⚜
Abraham prays for Sodom
16 📚And the men got up from there and looked toward Sodom 📖. And Abraham went with them to take them on the way. 17 📚And the LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am going to do, 18 📚seeing that Abraham will certainly become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed in him? 19 📚For I know him, that he will command his children 📖 and his household after him, and so they will keep the way of the LORD, practicing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring to Abraham that which he has told him”.
20 📚And the LORD said, “Because the outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous, 21 📚I will now go down and see whether they have done altogether according to its outcry, which has reached me; and if not, I will know 📖”. 22 📚And the men turned their faces from there, and went toward Sodom, but Abraham was still standing before the LORD. 23 📚And Abraham drew near and said, “Will you destroy the righteous also with the wicked?
18:22-23 Abraham understood God’s intention to destroy Sodom. His nephew Lot was living there and Abraham was afraid that Lot would be destroyed in the destruction of Sodom. And he probably felt compassion for the people of Sodom, wicked though they were. So he begins to intercede for the city.⚜
24 📚Perhaps there are fifty righteous people in the city. Will you really destroy it and not spare 📖 the place for the fifty righteous who are there? 25 📚 Far be it from you to act in this way, to kill the righteous with the wicked. That the righteous should be as the wicked – be it far from you! Will not the Judge 📖 of all the earth do right 📖?”
26 📚And the LORD said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, then I will spare the whole place for their sakes”.
27 📚And Abraham answered and said, “Please, here am I, who am only dust and ashes 📖, undertaking to speak to the Lord, 28 📚perhaps the fifty righteous will lack five. Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?”
And he said, “If I find there forty-five, I will not destroy it”.
29 📚And he spoke to him once again and said, “Perhaps there will be forty found there”.
And he said, “For the sake of forty, I will not do it”.
30 📚And he said to him, “Oh, may the Lord not be angry 📖, and I will speak: perhaps thirty will be found there”.
And he said, “I will not do it, if I find thirty there”.
31 📚And he said, “Please, here am I undertaking to speak to the Lord: Perhaps twenty will be found there”.
And he said, “For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it”.
32 📚And he said, “Oh, may the Lord not be angry, and I will speak just once more: perhaps ten will be found there”.
And he said, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it”.
18:32 Abraham stopped at ten, perhaps thinking that Lot would have been able to lead his family and a few others at least into the paths of righteousness. Actually in the whole city of Sodom there was only one righteous person. That was Lot (2 Pet 2:6-8). And even he needed the prayers of Abraham for his rescue (Gen 19:29). Prayer is a very positive and mysterious and powerful force in God’s dealings with men (Gen 20:17-18; Ex 17:11; 32:11-14; Num 14:19-20; 16:46-48; Josh 10:12-14; Job 42:10; Ps 18:6-10; 65:2; Prov 15:8, 29; Isa 38:1-6; Jer 33:3; Dan 2:17-19; 9:3, 21-23; 10:2, 12-14; Matt 6:9-13; Mark 11:24; Luke 11:9-10; 18:1-8; Acts 1:14; 2:1-4; 4:24, 31; 12:5-10; Jam 5:16-18; Rev 8:3-5).⚜
33 📚And the LORD went his way when he had finished conversing with Abraham, and Abraham went back to his place.