Genesis 18:1-15 The Three Visitors
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. 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.
He said, “If I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, do not pass your servant by. Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. 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.”
So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. “Quick,” he said, “get three seahs of fine flour and knead it and bake some bread.”
Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice, tender calf and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it. 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.
“Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him. “There, in the tent,” he said.
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. Abraham and Sarah were already old and well advanced in years, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?”
Then the LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the LORD? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son.”
Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, “I did not laugh.”
But he said, “Yes, you did laugh.”
Abram means “exalted father” whereas Abraham designates “father of many”. This seems a little strange for the man in question has only one son at the time, Ishmael born of His wife’s slave, Hagar. Sarah, Abraham’s wife is barren and is now about to enter her 10th decade of life. In desperation to provide a means for continuing the family name, she had given Hagar to her husband to bear a son. Ishmael is now a young teen.
Abram and Sarai had left family, country, lifestyle and religion 25 years before to wander at God’s direction in the land of Canaan. God had promised them numerous descendants as well as possession of the land in which they were wandering. To this point in time, perhaps they felt that God had forgotten them. The announcement by the Angel that within a year Sarah would bare a male child seemed laughable. The age of child baring had long passed.
What was understood by all concerned, the Angel, Sarah, and Abraham, was that for such to happen, reality must court the realm of the miraculous. In other words, only God could do such. The point of the story was made and this explains its inclusion within the Hebrew Scriptures. Approximately 4000 years ago, God was going to bless the union of Sarah and Abraham and Isaac, the son of the promise, was to be conceived.
Why had it taken 25 years for God to make good on His promise to the ancestral parents of the Jews? During this spance of time, God had enriched their understanding concerning the God who had called them. They had found God to be protective, sustaining and dependable. In essence, they had developed fellowship with God and had found Him to be worthy of faith.
Pivotal in understanding the relationship between God and His chosen couple is Genesis 15:6 (Abram believed the LORD, and He credited it to him as righteousness.) It was this witness and the response of Abraham that made him righteous in God’s sight.
Righteousness in this sense deals with fellowship rather than ethics and morals. It was this relationship that Adam and Eve lost in Eden’s Garden when they sinned. The result is a void within mankind’s soul that only God can fill to satisfaction. In a misdirected fashion, mankind attempts to fill this void with things of this world such as possessions, experiences, power or accomplishments, all of which are unsatisfying. It is not that any of this list is bad but that their procurement is no substitute for the intimate knowing of God. But why so long? Faith is nourished in a setting of experience. We come to a more perfect faith in God as we experience God’s dependability. His dependability gives birth to trust. Trust is the fruit of extended faith.
Paul, in the letter to the Romans in 5:1 (Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ) underlines the critical nature of faith in the process of salvation. Salvation is simply being saved from self and the power of sin. The process is one of justification. Justification is a legal term whereby we are declared righteous merely through faith. This faith is not merely in the existence of God but in the very character of God. God warns us that we are not intellectual equals with Him. Isaiah 55:8 (“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD.) it is not reasonable for us to anticipate that we can “figure God out.” What is possible for us to know and trust is the very character of God. This is at the very heart of God.
God’s character is most readily experienced on a mountaintop in proximity to His Person. The children of Israel’s first encounter with Him was on Mt. Sinai. His holiness filled them with fear as He gave His law from this site. In contrast was the appearance of God as His Incarnate Son on a cross outside of the mountain top city of Jerusalem. It was here that God demonstrated His love by punishing the believer’s sin on His begotten Son.
Since we all are deserving of blame because of our corporate and individual sins, God must rescue us from our sin and ourselves. We are powerless to resurrect ourselves from the eternal death that is sin. It is here that God has devised and executed a plan that makes us blameless in His eyes and memory. The sacrifice of Jesus is so majestic that the anger of God is turned away from the sinner and the full payment of guilt results.
So, it is by an ancient man and his wife of 4000 years ago that we learn how to be blameless in our walk with God. He offers the only thing that he can offer, faith. Abraham sees the object of his faith poorly, but never the less, he sees Him. Our focus is sharper for we know this faith object to be in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. He is all that has been predicted of Him. He is the Son of God and the Savior of the World.
Is it imperative that one completely understand all of the nuances of this miracle of salvation to accept Jesus as Savior? The answer is a clear “no.” All that is necessary is that you accept Jesus in faith, which gives birth to trust.
