Genesis 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.
1. This account of the appearance of God to Abraham is amazing, for God enters the stage of history like a common man. He comes as a guest who is hungry and needs to be fed. It is the heat of the day and so we have God who is likely sweating like Abraham and seeking for some shade and cool water. He is experiencing the real life of man with all of its limitations. This sort of thing does not happen every day. God does not knock on your door and say I was just in the area and thought I would drop in. There is humor here in the fact that it is shocking to think of such a thing happening. Abraham is not just entertaining angels unaware, which is awesome in itself, but he is entertaining the Lord Himself. God is not in the habit of making house calls, but here is the great exception, and he stays for dinner to boot. Here we have God in disguise. He fools Abraham for a while, and he thinks these are just three guys traveling together, but he soon knows that they are not mere humans.
2. God is eating out, but not in a fancy place of kings and royalty, but in the common setting of the farmer and shepherd. It is not even inside but out in the yard. It is a step below McDonalds. We take it all so serious that we do not stop to think just how bizarre and unusual this whole event was. Get this picture in your head; this is God coming for dinner. It is mind-boggling to imagine it. The most accepted interpretation of this astounding appearance is that it is the Son of God, or in other words, the Lord Jesus Christ in a pre-incarnate appearing. This is called a theophany, or a Christophany, and there are number of them in the Old Testament. That is a fascinating study in itself. Jesus and angels do this quite often by taking on the body of a human so that they can appear and converse with man face-to-face. When angels appear to men, or women, they are always in the form of a man. On this occasion the Son in the Trinity joined two angels to come to earth to talk to Abraham and take care of business with Sodom, as we see in the next chapter.
3. The funny thing is that the wacko’s who think aliens can land on earth and take people away in their space ships are not that far from reality. They are right about beings other than humans who can walk this planet, and we have one example where a chariot came down and carried Elijah away to heaven. Enoch also suddenly disappeared from the planet because God took him. The weirdo’s are wrong in thinking the aliens are little green men, or some other imaginary beings like those starring in space movies. These beings are angels, and on occasion even God himself comes to earth to walk and talk and accomplish a special mission. That is what we see in this chapter. It is humorous because it is so contrary to normal human experience. People who do not believe the Bible would think their must be severed mental illness to even consider the possibility of God coming to earth with some friendly angels. This is not the part of the Bible you want to try to explain to your non-believing friends. You can chuckle at the humor of it as a believer, but share it with a non-believer and you will be laughed at.
4. God had appeared to Abraham before this, but this was the most shocking and the most unique. He had spoken to him in a vision and with a voice, and through a spokesmen, but this is the first time God appears as an ordinary man since he walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden. There is much speculation about why there are three men, and the whole issue of the trinity is involved, but chapter 19:1 makes clear that two of them are angels. So what we have here is the pre-incarnate Jesus, and two angel companions visiting Abraham, and being invited to dinner. Their bodies are just temporary, and they will soon just vanish as their spirits return to heaven. They will not leave dead corpses lying around. The funny thing is that while they are in these human bodies they can enjoy the pleasures of the human body just like any other human. They can enjoy a good meal, for example. This is another text that supports the many others that reveal that eating pleasures will be a part of the eternal kingdom. We will enjoy the pleasure of eating for all eternity. Jesus ate in his eternal resurrection body, and he promises that his bride will enjoy a wedding banquet to beat all banquets at the wedding of the Lamb that kicks off the eternal honeymoon we call heaven. The good news is that the menu these heavenly beings enjoyed consisted of a variety of things including meat, supporting the hope of meat lovers that we will not be vegetarians in heaven.
5. The whole issue of God in disguise gives a touch of humor to this event. God has to disguise himself when he comes into history. Man cannot see God in his essence and live, and so God is always dressed in some kind of disguise. Even in his resurrection body Jesus was still in disguise, and the two on the road to Emmaus did not recognize him. It was not his ultimate state of glory. When he comes again in power and glory it will be with all the disguises off. C. S. Lewis wrote,
"God will invade. But I wonder whether people who ask God to interfere openly and directly in our world quite realize what it will be like when He does. When that happens, it is the end of the world. When the author walks on to the stage the play is over.
"God is going to invade, all right, but what is the good of saying you are on His side then, when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else - something it never entered your head to conceive - comes crashing in; something so beautiful to some of us and so terrible to others that none of us will have any choices left? For this time it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. It will be too late then to choose your side. . . That will not be the time for choosing: it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realized it before or not.”
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.
1. Abraham just saw three traveling men, and being a hospitable man, and only seeing such travelers once in a blue moon, he ran to meet and greet them. They were not wearing halos and sprouting wings, but were just three normal looking men. He had no idea who they were, and so God had a good disguise and was going to surprise Abraham. Had he known who they were he might have fallen on his face and been too shocked to get up. His bowing here was traditional courtesy to welcome a guest, and not because he recognized it was the Lord and he fell in worship. He is totally unaware of who he is dealing with here. That is a common aspect of comedy. We the readers know it is the Lord, for we are given this information at the start of the story, but Abraham does not have this information. We are watching a man in ignorance going from that state to an awareness that he is dealing with supernatural being.
2. The paradox here is that we are told that it is the Lord who is appearing, and yet there is no blast of the trumpets and great balls of fire. There is no announcement fitting for the king of the universe, and no display to acknowledge that the creator of all reality is at your door. He is just another guy. And the Bible does make it clear why God does not come into the presence of men with all his glory blazing, for it would destroy them. God has to come in disguise or he could not come at all, for none could survive his presence without the disguise. God cannot be himself, but always has to accommodate himself to the limits of humans.
3. Calling these three men by the word men does not mean that they are men. They simply appear as men, but they are not men. They are heavenly beings, but they take on the form of men so as to make people they communicate with feel comfortable. If they had taken on the form of some ghostly being with features of fire that made them glow like lava, Abraham probably would have run the other way screaming. God and angels have to appear to men as men to have any chance of a meaningful meeting. It is a paradox, but the fact is the only logical way for God and angels to deal with humans is to hide who they are.
3 He said, "If I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, [1] do not pass your servant by.
1. Abraham did not have a lot of company and so he was eager to get them to stay awhile so he would have someone to visit with. He is all but begging God to come and eat with him. In the New Testament Jesus stands at the door knocking to come in and eat with us, and all we have to do is open the door and invite him in. Abraham is more aggressive and goes out of his way to get God into his life and fellowship. Jesus did not have to knock at Abraham’s door, for he was out the door to meet him before he got to his tent.
2. One of the comic elements that we see in this account is the eagerness of Abraham to have some company. His greatest fear is that these three will be too busy to stay and visit and just pass by with a wave. We see his desperate need for company in the repetitive mention of just how eager he was to please these guests. First of all v. 2 says he hurried to greet them. Then in v. 6 it says he hurried into the tent and said to Sarah “Quick, get going on the meal.” In v. 7 it says he ran to the herd to select a calf, and then the servant hurried to prepare it. Here we see the beginning of the fast food industry. Everyone was flying to get this meal ready. It was rush, rush, rush, and everyone was to turn on the speed dial to fast. It was a feverish effort to get a meal ready like those we see on T V today-30 minutes or less, and keep in mind v. 1 tells us it was the heat of the day. The temperature would be well over a hundred degrees. Abraham had to be a sweating mess by the time he got this meal served. He did not care, for all that mattered to him was they did not get impatient and leave. His swift and efficient preparation did the trick and they stayed to enjoy time with him. The funny thing is that he could have been a slow poke even and they would have stayed, for they were not just passing by, but had come to him for a specific purpose. He did not know this, however, and so he ran like a mad man to get this meal prepared. As far as the record goes, this was the first time God ate fast food.
3. Technically this was not fast food, for it would take a long time to cook the meat and bake the bread. It was Abraham and others working fast, but the visitors had to wait a long time, and it would be fascinating to know what they talked about as they waited. It was a conversation of God and angels, and at some point Abraham had to get back to his guests and join the conversation. It had to be the most unusual conversation in history. Even God knows how you have to be patient when waiting for a meal to be prepared. He could have snapped his finger and had a feast prepared before them in a second, but he patiently waited for things to be done by the process that all of us have to wait for. Some people hate fast food and so they are willing to wait for the long process of getting a meal ready. One man said he so hated fast food that he lives on snails. That is extremely slow food, and as fast as Abraham worked it could have been slow food in the long run for this most unusual meal of all time. It would be wonderful to have God’s evaluation of the meal, and to know if it was truly memorable and one of the best he ever had. And was it a movie meal where the food is all prepared and ready, but no one ever has time to eat it. Movie moms can routinely make a breakfast with eggs, bacon, and waffles, and dad and the kids are in such a hurry that nobody takes more than one bite before they are out the door. Did God and his angels enjoy a leisurely meal, or were they up and on their way after a bite or two? There is much we do not know, but it is funny that we can even speculate about this most unusual meal in all of history.
4. Brian Morgan writes, “Abraham models true hospitality. Notice that this event was neither planned nor convenient. The guests arrive unannounced, at the worst possible time of day, when the kitchen is shut down and nothing is readily available. And note how Abraham serves with humility. He is secure in who he is. Having been blessed by God he is free to serve others as if they were divine. He treats these men as if for this one moment they are the center of his universe. He draws his whole family in and sets his household into operation.”
4 Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree.
1. Again we get the picture of a very hot day, and a desperate need for shade to escape the burning rays of the sun. It was also before paved roads and sidewalks, and so the men had dirty feet that needed washing and refreshing. It is funny again to think of God getting his feet dirty and needing to wash them and then get out of the sun, which he created, in order to stay cool. Everything about God in human flesh is comedic because it is such an awesome reducing himself to the level of enduring all the weakness and limitations of human life. It is ludicrous to think of God having dirty feet, and needing rest.
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."
1. Think of it! The Lord did not honor the sumptuous halls and princely palaces of Egypt with His presence, but He accepted hospitality in the tent of a pilgrim and stranger. Jesus is doing in the Old Testament the same thing he did in the New Testament. He accepted the hospitality of the common man, and even ate with publicans and sinners. He does not refuse to fellowship with any who request his presence at their table. Abraham did something here that became an example to all the rest of history. He entertained stranger and did not know it but he was entertaining angels. Heb. 13:1 refers to this event and says, “Be kind to strangers, for therein some have entertained angels unawares.” The implication is that angels do appear from time to time in the form of strangers, and it can be a great mistake to turn them away. What if Abraham had said, it is hot and I am tired, I will just let those guys pass by unnoticed. I will close my eyes so they think I am sleeping and they will soon be past and I will not have to deal with them. He could have missed the chance to have a visit with God in human form on his level.
6 So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. "Quick," he said, "get three seahs [2] of fine flour and knead it and bake some bread."
1. Note all the words of haste. He hurried and said quick to Sarah and then ran to the herd. It is as if he was afraid they would leave if the service was not fast enough. He had everyone in the household in a rush. It was rush hour for this family. Fast food was in existence a long time ago, and Abraham was the father of fast food. Brian Morgan says, "We can almost see the sweat dripping from his Abraham's brow as he barks out the orders. If we are taken by surprise by his sense of urgency, his generosity also appears overwhelming by our standards. This is no popcorn and tuna fish lunch. It is a banquet fit for a king."
2. The only people on record that God every visited to set down for a home cooked meal was this old couple. Sarah was the only woman in history to cook for God. Most agree this was Jesus in a pre-incarnate appearing. So others cook for Jesus when He was incarnated, but this was different, for He was God in human form but not yet manifested as such. This was a preview of what was to be. So Sarah was the only one to cook for Jesus in that state. Sarah is unique in many ways. She married Abraham back in Ur and they were a pagan couple that God called to become the father and mother of his people. They were the first two Jews in history. They became the most famous couple in history and are honored greatly by Jews, Moslems, and Christians. Their burial site is honored and visited by all three religions to this day. Sarah is the only other woman besides Rahab who made it into the great faith chapter of Heb. 11. She is also one of the most beautiful women in the Bible and the only women who was kidnapped because of her beauty twice, and was taken into the harems of two kings. Her beauty gave her the opportunity to be a queen, but she stayed faithful to Abraham and lived in a tent the rest of her life.
3. The Jews considered her second in rank to Eve in beauty. In Gen. 12:11 Abraham says to Sarah, “I know that you are a woman beautiful to behold.” Sarah had objectively beauty-that is beauty that appeals to most if not all men. Most all women are beautiful to someone, but some are beautiful too most all, and Sarah was one of these. He beauty complicated life because it attracted all men and she taken captive twice by kings. She could have stayed in the palace and been like a queen, but her love for Abraham did not allow her to make that choice. Her beauty was an aid to balance out her lack of fruitfulness. In an age of polygamy Abraham so loved her that he remained faithful to her and never choose another wife even though he was free to do so, and did so after she died.
They are the only couple in the Bible who are treated with such equality. When God changed Abram to Abraham he also changed Sari to Sarah. It is the only record we have of a couple being dealt with so equally by God. They are the only couple that are both named in Heb. 11 of great people of faith. Abraham is called the father of nations and Sarah is called the mother of nations.
4. The funny thing here is the enormous amount of food made for three men. If Abraham has known they were angels, and one was God, then it would make sense that he would make the most elaborate meal possible. But he only knew them to be three strangers who would eat and run. His generosity was amazing. He made a whole calf and about five pounds of flour into bread plus cottage cheese and a cool glass of milk. I sure hope there were leftovers, for if not, these angels and God did not set a good example by avoiding gluttony. It was more than enough, and it is funny just to think of Abraham standing there watching them eat, and being ready to wait on them with any need they had, and not having a clue that he was feeding the Son of God. Sarah, likewise, had no clue that she had just baked bread for Him who is the Bread of Life.
Some commentators say that the amount of bread Sarah baked was equal to more than two bushels. It has been established that men had great appetites in the ancient world. The heroes of Homer, for example, ate hugh meals. When Eumaeus entertained Ulysses, he dressed two pigs for himself and his guest.” A pig apiece is literally making a pig of yourself, but big meals were the in thing. On another occasion it is recorded that an entire 5-year-old hog was slaughtered and served up for five persons. It is not likely that on this occasion, after Abraham made such an effort to prepare all this food, that the angels and God would refuse second helpings, or even more. If God does not have a big appetite in a human body, it would be strange indeed. We can assume that these three looked like strong healthy men who could eat plenty. It would be laughable for them to enter the bodies of scrawny wimp-like men who didn’t have the strength to hold their fork long enough for a second helping. To Abraham they looked like men who could hold their own in a food eating contest, for he made enough for just such a contest.
7 Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice, tender calf and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it.
1. Abraham did not pick some poor creature that was on its last legs anyway to feed these strangers. He selected the best he could find. It was hand picked and hand prepared, not for God and angels, for he did not know who they were at this point. He gave his best to unknown men. In so doing he gained the reputation of being one of the most hospitable people in the Bible, and all of history. Lets not forget that he is no spring chicken here. He is nearly 100 years old, and he is running all over the place trying to be the best host possible. He illustrates Col. 3:23, “And whatsoever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.” He was actually doing this for the Lord, but did not know it, and so he deserves all the more credit. It is obvious he would do his best for the Lord, but when he does his best to please others, it pleases the Lord. Any good thing we do for anyone with the kind of joy and enthusiasm of Abraham, is pleasing to the Lord.
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. The funny thing we see here is that Abraham is playing the Martha role. He is not setting at the feet of the Lord listening to any wisdom he might impart. He is making sure there is plenty to eat, and he stands ready to bring more. Sometimes in life the most important thing is not the most important thing. I mean by this paradox that sometimes the less important things become a priority and take precedence over the most important things. Here is the Lord setting and waiting for a meal. Abraham could have played the Mary role and just sat and chatted with these men and learned something of their wisdom, and that would be the most important thing. Someone else could have thrown together a sandwich and some milk, but Abraham went all out like a Martha to get them the best meal they have had in some time. Only later did he realize that he had fed the Lord and his angels, and he would have cherished that experience for the rest of his life. He had such pleasure in watching them eat it, and he would have endless pleasure is remembering it. He is the ideal host, for he stands watching them enjoy his feast, ready to serve in any other way needed.
2. The Lord must have been so pleased as well, or otherwise why preserve all these details in his Word for all of history? The Bible has many details that seem so non-essential, and this meal is certainly a good example, but such details tells us much about people and their character. It is funny that God would want us to know of this only meal he ever ate with humans in his pre-incarnate state, but it tells us that sometimes the trivial is important. Abraham is the only man ever called the friend of God. He had a unique relationship because they broke bread together, and not only bread but meat. God is not a vegetarian for He ate meat with Abraham. Every time you enjoy a meat meal you can thank Abraham that you can do so without guilt, for if he had made only vegetables we could never know for sure if that was all God would eat if He was a man. Jesus, of course, ate meat when he came in the incarnation. Lamb and fish were his main meat meals.
3. The paradox of the lesser things in life being the most important is confirmed by Jesus in the New Testament. Obviously the most important thing in life is seeing that people come to know Jesus as their savior. Evangelism is the number one priority. But Jesus teaches that this does not mean that secondary things can never have even greater importance because of special needs. We have to use common sense and realize that secondary needs have to be met even before primary needs. Stedman in one of his sermons puts it together like this: “In Matthew 25 the Lord presents a scene of judgment (Verses 31-43). He will divide the nations into two groups. They all claim to be his but, as he sees the human heart, there are two divisions. He says to the one group, Verse 41: "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire." And they are amazed and say, "Why do you say that to us, Lord?" And he says, "for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me," {cf, Matt 25:41-43 RSV}. Then to the others, he will say, Verse 34, "inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world," {Matt 25:34b RSV}. And they are surprised too, and say, "Lord, what do you mean?" And he says,
"For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me." (Matt 25:35-36 {RSV})
And they said, Verse 39: "And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?" You remember his words: "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me," (Matt 25:40 {RSV}).
4. Someone else wrote these words about what Abraham was doing here:
“He is not doing this because he wants to gain something for himself. He is not trying to impress anybody. He is not seeking credit or recognition. He is not trying to display his piety. For all he knows these three men are nothing but poverty-stricken, penniless nomads of the desert. He will perhaps never see them again. But he treats them as royally as though they were kings come to visit. Even if he had known who they were, he could not have treated them better. This prompt and full response is simply the manifestation of a heart which is filled with grace and love and responds immediately to human need without thought of self or praise from others.” Someone has well said,
Your reputation is what you do when everyone is looking,
while your character is what you do when no one sees.
9 "Where is your wife Sarah?" they asked him. "There, in the tent," he said.
1. This is the first hint that these men were more than men, and that they were there for a purpose. If we go back to the previous chapter we see Abraham had a special visit from God just for himself, for nobody was with him. God told him in 17:21 that Sarah would bear a child by this time next year. And now in v. 10 he says the same thing that she will have a son next year at this time. It was just a short time between the visit of chapter 17 and this in 18. It would appear that Abraham was keeping this promise from Sarah and that the purpose of this visit was for Sarah’s sake rather than Abraham’s. He already had God tell him this just a short time ago, but Sarah needed to hear this herself, and so God makes a special effort to convey the message to her. Of this whole chapter Barnes says, “He visits him for the twofold purpose of drawing out and completing the faith of Sarah, and of communing with Abraham concerning the destruction of Sodom.” The second purpose is at the end of the chapter, but here in the first part the real focus is on Sarah. Abraham has been in on a lot of special revelation, but not Sarah. Now it is her turn.
2. There is humor here in that it is the typical story of men and wives that communication breaks down. Abraham did not tell Sarah about his encounter with God and the promise that a year from now she would bear a child. She was shocked when she heard it here, and so did not know about it before. Abraham, like a typical husband failed to communicate this to his wife. It could be he just forgot, or it could be he was protecting her from disappointment, for they had been told she would have a child for 25 years and it never happened. He did not want to get her hopes up and then dashed again. Whatever the case, there was a breakdown in communication, and this is an issue that produces both a great deal of harm and humor in marriage.
3. Old people are still on the top of God’s agenda for the future. They are visited by God and given a promise. They can still be very hospitable and eager to serve. Old people can still entertain angels-Heb. 13:2 and even God-Matt. 25:40. Old people can still have sex and babies. They can still, like children, try to cover up their faults by lying-v. 15.
4. Stedman writes, “They ask him, "Where is Sarah your wife?" Only the LORD could know of her recent name-change, but here is a man who asks, "Where is Sarah?" Abraham begins to realize then who this is, and when the question is followed with the repeated promise of a son, he is sure of the identity of his guest.
“Do you remember those two men on the Emmaus road, after the resurrection of our Lord, who did not recognize Jesus when he joined them? It was not until they saw him in the familiar act of breaking bread that they knew who he was. So when Abraham hears these familiar words about the promise of the son, then he knows who it is that speaks.”
5. Equality of the sexes is an issue with God, but sometimes equality is not what women are looking for. Barbara Walters of 20/20 (USA-ABC Television) did a story on gender roles in Kabul, Afghanistan, several years before the Afghan Conflict. She noted that women customarily walked 5 paces behind their husbands. She recently returned to Kabul and observed that women still walk behind their husbands. From Ms. Walters's vantage point, despite the overthrow of the oppressive Taliban regime, the women now seem to walk even further back behind their husbands and are happy to maintain the old custom. Ms. Walters approached one of the Afghani women and asked, "Why do you now seem happy with the old custom that you once tried so desperately to change?" The woman looked Ms. Walters straight in the eyes, and without hesitation, said, "land mines."
10 Then the LORD [3] 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.
1. It is funny that God would promise to return in a year. It is as if he wanted to be present for the birth of the baby that would change all of history. Someone wrote, “God promised He would return in a year and Sarah would have a son. Was God going to be her obstetrician or pediatrician or just a friend stopping to see how it was going? We don't have details, but it did sound preposterous and it is hard to fault them for laughing. But her laugh was a laugh of unbelief. She was saying, "You have got to be kidding-what a joke!" But the joke was on her, and when Isaac was born she laughed again in belief and joy-Gen. 21:6-7.” It is hard to imagine how this couple felt climbing into bed that night after such a promise. Were they both ready and willing to help get the process underway, or were they both extremely nervous? They were facing a deadline of one year and so they had to get this pregnancy going in a couple of months. They had never experienced pregnancy, and now at their ripe old age it did not seem fitting, but in obedience to God's promise they made love and God honored it with the fruit of the womb one year later just as he said.
2. The Lord was not just passing by, but was there for a specific purpose, but Abraham would have missed it had he not invited them to receive his hospitality. Sarah was eves dropping on the men and she heard for the first time that she was to have a baby in the coming year. What a shocker! Who in the world are these guys coming here with such a prediction? God had just recently told Abraham this good news, and now he comes in person to tell it again. It has been more than 13 years since God had anything to say about it, and now he repeats it in person twice in a short time. It is because the time has now come, but also because Sarah needs to hear it too, and apparently Abraham has not told her what God said to him. There is a breakdown in communication here, and God comes to rectify it and get Sarah in the loop. God is saying, if Abraham will not tell her, I will go and tell her myself. We see here the personal care of God concerning Sarah. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God said Paul, and Sarah needed to hear it from God himself, for her faith was wavering. Some suggest also that they needed this personal encounter to motivate them to do their part in fulfilling the promise, and that meant to get back to sleeping together.
3. Some commentators point out that it is of interest that God makes Sarah equal to Abraham in needing to know and hear his promise. This whole experience was about her need to know. The humor here is in the fact that in this after dinner conversation the Lord is being the servant. He has been served by Abraham and Sarah, but now he is serving them and bringing them up to speed on what is going to happen. He has a mission here, and it is to minister to them and increase their faith. God is going to do an amazing thing through their old bodies, but not without their cooperation. His mission here is to make them both feel an equal part of this plan, and to get on board by believing and acting in accordance with the plan. They have to get back to the marriage bed if this is going to become a reality. As the author of Hebrews writes, "By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised" (Heb 11:11).
11 Abraham and Sarah were already old and well advanced in years, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing.
1. The text keeps rubbing it in that this couple is just too old to even be thinking of having a child. It is as silly as thinking of building an obstetrics ward in the old folks home. “Our God seems to have a sly sense of humor and likes to act in unlikely ways and with unlikely people.” Thomas Hulme . That is certainly the case with this couple. “God promises but waits until they are old-Gen. 12:2, 13:15-16, 15:2-15 and 17:15-21. But God keeps his promise even when it is so late that it is laughable. Abraham laughed too in Gen. 17:12. Older people laugh at things that younger people do not. Mary did not laugh when told she would have a child. It was normal to expect it in youth, but old age is not the time for child bearing.”
God waits until things are beyond human capacity because then all will know it was him and him alone that made it possible. There is no question when a couple is 90 and 99 that it is the work of God that they conceive and give birth to a child. Nobody is going to write a book on how to get pregnant at 90, or increasing your sperm count at 99. They had been living decades with unfulfilled promises and you cannot blame them for being doubtful and skeptical. It is hard to live in hope of a promise coming true, and never see it happen. It takes a great deal of faith, but these two did still have faith after all these years. That is real faith that goes until it is too late and still believes.
2. There is a lot of humor connected with being old. For example: Hymn titles for older people-Just a Slower Walk with Thee "Blessed 'Insurance' "Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah", I've Forgotten Where I've Parked The Car. Youth and old age have things in common. Success at age 4 is not peeing in your pants, and success at age 80 is also not peeing in your pants.
12 So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, "After I am worn out and my master [4] is old, will I now have this pleasure?"
1. “It's laughter with derision: "Oh come on, don't fool with me, Lord! I'm too old for teasing!" Patricia de Jong writes, “Here is Sarah, at age 90, saying to God: Look, I'm old, I'm tired, I have arthritis and even a little osteoporosis; are you sure we want to get into something new like this now?” Stedman writes, “Beyond the dividing curtain in the tent, Sarah has been listening to everything. She is doing the dishes just beyond the tent curtain, but she hears it all. She hears the question and the promise, and she realizes it is God who is saying that she will have a son. She looks at her 90-year-old body, long since almost dead. She looks in the mirror and sees the whiteness of her hair, the wrinkles in her face. She feels the arthritis in her bones. And when she hears this, she laughs cynically to herself.” A similar incident occurred in the Temple 2000 years later, when Zacharias, promised a son whose name would be John the Baptist, said, “I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” He was chastened for his disbelief, struck dumb of speech until John was born.
2. Here we have the most controversial laugh in all the Bible. The first laugh in the Bible was that of Abraham in Gen. 17:17, and the second is that of Sarah in this text. Sarah hears, by her snooping on the men’s conversation, that she is about to have a baby in the coming year. God must have talked loud enough for her to hear on purpose, for he was fully aware that she was listening and he heard her response even though it was not an out loud laugh, but just a personal expression of saying to herself, that is really funny. She may have made a snicker under her breath, but her laugh was in total contrast to that of Abraham when he heard the same news sometime earlier. He fell flat on his face and had, not a Mac attack, but a laugh attack. His response was loud and radical, and Sarah’s was soft and almost silent. But God heard it, and it becomes an issue. Commentators are in general agreement that Abraham’s laughter was laughter of joy and celebration, and that Sarah’s laughter was the laughter of doubt and skepticism. For over 20 years she had been told by Abraham that they were going to have a child. After some years she remained childless and come up with her own plan to have her maid give birth to a child for her. This turned out to be a big mistake and she just gave up altogether. Now she hears this from some passing stranger and she says to herself, what a laugh. I am not going to fall for this line again. And so her laugh is one of, not laughing with God, as Abraham did, but laughing at God and considering his words as ludicrous. It was funny to Sarah to hear this worn out promise that she and Abraham would be having a baby in their old age. Michael Povey wrote, "She has to deny her laughter, but I do not think that Sarah laughed because she doubted God. I think that she laughed because she doubted Abraham. Would this old husband who had treated her so badly now give her pleasure?"
3. She was just being realistic, for just imagine how funny it would seem to her to be raising a child at her age. They do not have a maternity ward in the old folks home, and the senior center would not have any activities for those who were still parenting. It was just a joke to Sarah. And what tickled her most was the thought of sex at her age. Calvin translates, “'After w are grown old shall we give ourselves up to lust?' She is long past her childbearing years, and the implication is that Abraham has not been all that sexually active in his old age. She says will I now have this pleasure, and obviously she is referring to still having a roll in the hay with all of its risks of broken bones and heart attack at their age. Her days of sexual pleasure are over and she was not about to start having thoughts of passion when just getting through the chores of the day were all her fading energy could tolerate. She admits that sex is pleasurable, but she doubts that her old body can ever return to the pleasures of former days. She is over the hill where those good old days are out of sight. There are a lot of jokes about wives refusing sex to their husbands, but you have to admit that Sarah has a point here, and that a 99 year old man having sex with a 90 year old women might be a picture that loses some of the glamour of married love making. It has been a dry spell for some time and she was not hopeful in the least that the well could produce water again. But faith demanded that they get back into a lovemaking mood, for this child that God promised was not going to be conceived apart from their cooperation.
Is sex still on the menu for old folks like us?
We thought for sure that we had missed that bus.
Is it possible that Abe will still get so bold?
And be passionate with one who is now so old?
Can we experience again what we once so treasured?
And enjoy once more being sexually pleasured?
4. A Jewish translation has this verse say, “And Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “Now that I am withered, am I to have enjoyment with my husband so old?”
You will notice that Sarah makes mention of her husband being old here, but when God quotes her in verse 13 to Abraham he refers only to her being old and not Abraham. God is being sensitive to Abraham's feelings as if his age is a touchy subject in that home. There is humor found here by the ancient Jewish scholars. As one writes, "[I should add parenthetically a delightful observation made here by the Talmudic rabbis. If you carefully compare what Sarah actually said to God, with what God reported her to Abraham as saying, you will notice a small discrepancy. Sarah was incredulous at the announcement because she was old "and my lord [i.e., Abraham] being old also" --However when God paraphrases this to Abraham, he leaves out the part about Abraham's being old! --So as to avoid any possibility of Abraham's taking offence at what might have been a sensitive issue in their household! The sages derive from this a valuable lesson: In the interests of maintaining harmonious relations between a husband and wife, even God did not hesitate to bend the truth a little...]
5. Rabbi Micah D. Greenstein Senior Rabbi, Temple Israel Memphis, TN in a message on this text puts it quite plainly-“She laughs because she also understands what it will mean to give birth to the child.” Keep in mind, there’s no immaculate conception in Judaism. Which means that Sarah must first conceive the child, and to do that, Professor Rachel Adler observes, Sarah, at the age of ninety, realizes “that the old man and I are going to do it again!”
As revealed in the biblical text, specifically the literal meaning of the Hebrew word ednah, pleasure, Sarah’s thoughts move from having Isaac, to the pleasures and the absurdity in conceiving him. Friends, this isn’t a stretch. Don’t tell the biblical literalists because this may throw them, but laughter in the bible, from the Hebrew word, tzahak, as in Yitzhak, Isaac, is often associated with sex. In Genesis 8, “The king of the Philistines sees Isaac mitzahek, “playing” with his wife. In Genesis 39:17, Potiphar’s wife accuses Joseph, “that Hebrew slave whom you brought into our house, he came to me l’tzahek bi [to dally with me].” And the use of tzahak, laughter, continues in Exodus 32:6 in connection with the story of the Golden Calf where the people “sat down to eat and drink and then rose l’tzahek, to make merry.” This led the classical biblical commentators to envision an orgy based on the literal meaning of the word.
So, the traditional focus on Sarah’s laughter in this story centers, as I did in that side comment to our women’s bible study group, on the idea that Sarah is overwhelmed, disbelieving at the possibility of conceiving a child at age 90. But this interpretation overlooks Sarah’s reference, in Genesis 18:12 to enjoyment, from the Hebrew word ednah, which connotes sexual pleasure, but which most English translations have toned down from the original Hebrew."
6. Three chapters later, when Sarah gives birth to a son, Sarah says, “God has brought me laughter; everyone who hears about this [especially the women] will laugh with me." (Gen 21:6). "Sarah not only laughs, but even names her child, 'Isaac' [Yitzhak], meaning 'one who laughs.'” Katz notes that Isaac thus becomes the literal embodiment of the sexual pleasure that Sarah experienced with Abraham at ages 90 and 100.”
7. Sarah is the first woman in history to say it out loud that sex is fun. She had no child but she and Abraham had spent decades enjoying the pleasures of sex in their marriage, and because of the positive attitude toward the sensual their marriage was beautiful even in spite of this lack of fruitfulness. Childless couples can experience a beautiful marriage. Sarah teaches us that it is possible for a wife to make her husband happy and satisfied even if she does not give him a child. They were in love for 50 to70 years before she had Isaac. That is a lifetime of loving.
They are the ideal husband and wife. Most other Bible couples are portrayed as father and mother. But these two have been husband and wife and not parents. When women are valued only as breeding stock they are degraded. Sarah was a good wife and that is the primary relationship. They are the only couple in the Bible that are both portrayed as laughing.
8. Sarah probably looked into the mirror and thought, what do I have left that would entice Abraham to come to bed with me. All my feminine charm had faded, and my beauty that once enticed every man to long for me has long departed. And Abraham’s get up and go has probably got up and gone. She just did not feel she had what it would take to seduce the old man anymore. Ageing Aunt Mildred was a 93-year-old woman who was particularly despondent over the recent death of her husband. She decided that she would just kill herself and join him in death. Thinking that it would be best to get it over with quickly, she took out his old Army pistol and made the decision to shoot herself in the heart, since it was badly broken in the first place. Not wanting to miss the vital organ and become a vegetable and a burden to someone, she called her doctor's office to inquire as to just exactly where the heart would be on a woman. The doctor said, "Your heart would be just below your left breast.
"Later that night........
Mildred was admitted to the hospital with a gunshot wound to her knee. Time may be a great healer, but it's a lousy beautician.
9. It is possible that Abraham would be impotent in his old age, for we do read about this in the life of David. I Kings 1:1-4 "Now king David was old and stricken in years; and they covered him with clothes, but he gat no heat. Wherefore his servants said unto him, Let there be sought for my lord the king a young virgin: and let her stand before the king, and let her cherish him, and let her lie in thy bosom, that my lord the king may get heat. So they sought for a fair damsel throughout all the coasts of Israel, and found Abishag a Shunammite, and brought her to the king. And the damsel was very fair, and cherished the king, and ministered to him: but the king knew her not."
A beautiful young virgin slept with him to keep him warm, and he did not have sex with her-that is a picture of impotence.
10. The sexual humor that we are dealing with here is that Sarah did not know that her old husband was still willing and able to enjoy sex. He was not too old to cut the mustard anymore. Long after Sarah was dead and buried Abraham was having a good crop of children with another wife by the name of Keturah. She bore him six children we read in Gen. 25:1. He also had other sons by his concubines as we see in verse 6. Sarah may have been past the age of pleasure, but Abraham was still in his prime according to the abundant fruit of his loins that we read of here. So what we are seeing here is the sexual differences of men and women that are so common. Wives often lose their sex drive before men lose theirs. One woman said to her doctor, “Our sex life has really improved since my husband’s head injury.” “Really,” said the doctor, “how can that be?” She responded, “He just doesn’t bother me so often now.”
11.
Abraham had faith in the promise, and so we can imagine that it was not too long after the Lord left that he made it clear that they were no longer going to sleep in separate tents. We have no idea how often they had to have sex in order to get Sarah pregnant, but they did get the job done, and she gave birth to a son. Now that is amazing considering their age, but another amazing thing is that for some reason God made this child from Sarah the most important baby in the Old Testament. Abraham had many other children, but they were not the bloodline to the Messiah. It was Isaac and only Isaac that was that bloodline. This child born to an old lady was a basic part of God’s plan in history. Why did he not choose the son of her maid, or the many sons from Keturah or from his young concubines? It was because all of those children were possible without any divine intervention. Only the child born of Sarah was the result of a miraculous work of God in her body. This miracle child was to be the perpetual witness to the fact that God’s people are the result of God’s miracle and providence in history. God waited on purpose for Sarah to become way too old to have a baby, for only then could it be known for sure that the baby was the result of God’s working in history and not just the result of natural law.
12. God certainly knew that having a baby at the age of 90 was laughable, and he could appreciate it that Sarah laughed at the promise. The problem comes when Sarah lies about laughing. God was not upset by her laugh, but by her denial of it. God was all in favor of laughter about having a baby at their age, for he told them to name the baby laughter, for that is what Isaac means. God was in on the joke and wanted it preserved for all time. Isaac was laughter and he became the father of Jacob out of whom came the twelve tribes of Israel, and so all of Israel came out of laughter, for Jacob was the son of laughter. All through history God would be doing things through the sons of laughter that would be so amazing that people would laugh with joy.
13. Sexual humor does not have to be crude, vulgar and dirty, for there is much about sex that is funny, and the Bible deals with it, and so can we without shame. Abraham was laughing wildly when he was told he was going to have a baby. He loved the idea of sex again with his wife. She, however, was more skeptical and doubted that it could happen. He was amazed but she was amused. Males and females are just wired different and they have characteristics that fit them that are totally different from each other. Masses of jokes are based on gender differences. For Example, A woman came home to find her retired husband waving a rolled up newspaper round his head.
'What are you doing dear?'
'Swatting flies - I got 3 males and 2 females' 'How do you know what sex they were?'
'Easy - 3 were on the beer and 2 were on the phone'
14. I mentioned that this laugh of Sarah is very controversial, and that is because there are two ways to interpret it. Most take the way of it being a laugh of skepticism and doubt, but others see the possibility of it being a laugh of “this is too good to be true.” In other words, it is just like Abraham’s laugh in that it sounds too good to be true, but how wonderful if it is. In other words there is a more positive spin put on it so that it is not a rejection of it but just a mixture of faith and doubt much like that of the disciples when they saw Jesus after the resurrection.
Luke 24:36-41
Afterwards He appears to the apostles and reproves their unbelief
36 And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.
37 But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.
38 And he said unto them, why are ye troubled? And why do thoughts arise in your hearts?
39 Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.
40 And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet.
41 And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat?
15. Let me read to you a poem by Ralph Milton about Sarah’s laugh:
At first it was a cough;
then a stifled gasp;
then a watering of nose and eyes--
a rasping, wheezing, rattling noise
that might have been a full-blown case of asthma.
Or a stroke.
But it was laughter.
It was laughter!
From arthritic toes to gray and thinning hair,
it was a laughter from despair to hope--
laughter from the tomb to resurrection.
The old crone pulled the tent flap tight across her toothless mouth
to hide her laughter;
Hide it from her sniggering, impotent mate--
Hide the laughter from the bright-eyed strangers
who came
announcing new and ancient promises
a child of hope
for Sarah's ancient, arid womb--
for Abraham's ancient, arid land.
But hide it from the future, she could not.
Sarah birthed a promise,
in a child named Laughter,
And so proclaimed a dancing God
into the ages.*
16.Sarah’s response differed very little from her husband’s,
Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, ‘Will a child be born to a man one hundred years old? And will Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?’ (Genesis 17:17).
And Sarah laughed to herself, saying, ‘After I have become old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?’ (Genesis 18:12).
13 Then the LORD said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh and say, `Will I really have a child, now that I am old?'
1. The Lord is Jehovah, and this word is never used of any but God himself, and so it is made clear that this is God in human form, and not just an angel, for no angel ever bore that name.
2. Why does God ask Abraham why Sarah laughed? It is likely because God knows he did not tell Sarah about the meeting he had with God just recently where he told him she would have a baby in the next year. She was not prepared and it was because Abraham was keeping her in the dark about this latest news. She knew nothing about it and was surprised by what she heard. She would not have been had Abraham explained it all to her beforehand. God knew why she laughed, but he asked Abraham to make it clear that he had failed to include his wife in the plan. This is a mild rebuke to Abraham for lacking the courage to tell his wife that this is the year finally. He did not want to break her heart again, and so he kept quiet.
Sarah heard this and realized that if this man knew of her laugh and the words she thought, then he is more than a man. He has to be the Lord in the form of a man, and then if that be the case his knowledge of the future baby has to be real also.
Abraham and Sarah are the only couple in the Bible revealed to be laughing.
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."
1. God asks the question of himself, and he expects an answer from them, and the answer is to be that of faith that says God can do anything he promises to do, and so live in faith that it will be just as he says. Hebrews 11:1, “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” One of the Greek words in that verse actually means “title deed.” Faith is the “title deed” to the things we do not yet possess. It’s the “guarantee” of that God will one day give us. Here’s another definition of faith based on Abraham’s experience: Faith is believing that God will keep his promises despite circumstances to the contrary!!!!
2. Two thousand years after Abraham lived, Paul summarized Abraham’s remarkable faith in Romans 4:19-21, “Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.”
3. If God can do all things, then why does he bother with all of this theophany and coming into history to communicate with people? Why not just do his thing and forget the people he uses to get the job done? It is because God does not operate as a tyrant. He wants man to cooperate with him in all that he does. He needs Abraham and Sarah committed to the plan so they will not hinder it, but help it become reality. God can override the will of man and do whatever he wants, but he prefers to have the support and cooperation of man. Unbelief can actually hinder the power of God and prevent his will from happening. It is a funny and tragic reality that God will do or not do according to the faith or unbelief of man. One of the best examples is Mark 6:1-6
1 And he went out from thence, and came into his own country; and his disciples follow him.
2 And when the Sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, from whence hath this man these things? And what wisdom is this, which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands?
3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.
4 But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honor, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.
5 And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them.
6 And he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages, teaching.
4. Nothing is too hard for the Lord, but why does he do everything the hard way, like waiting until it is humanly impossible to have a child? It is God’s way of making it clear that it is not the luck of fate, the labor of man, but the love of the Lord that is behind the wonders of what he brings to pass in history. Gideon had ten thousand soldiers facing an enemy ten times greater, and had little chance of victory. God said that is too many and made him reduce his forces to 300 men. Why? He tells him, “'The people who are with you are too many for me to give Midian into their hands, for Israel would become boastful, saying, "My own power has delivered me"'" (Judges 7:2).
5. John Piper says it well, “God's purpose in all that he does is: "To magnify his sovereign grace and keep us in our humble place. Ishmael was not the promised son because he was humanly possible, but Isaac was humanly impossible. Here are some statistics that show it.
From the National Center for Health Statistics:
Of the 4,058,814 babies born in the United States in 2000,
452,057 were to women 35 to 39
90,013 to women 40 to 44
4,349 to women 45 to 49
255 to women 50 to 54.
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the oldest spontaneous pregnancy in modern times occurred in a woman who delivered when she was aged 57 years, 120 days.
6. Because all things are possible with God, one of the key lessons of life is-never give up. For example, Dr. Arthur G. Ferry tells this amazing story:
"Once there was a child prodigy named Ana Maria Trenchi De Bottazzi. Ana began studying the piano at the tender age of 2. She gave her first piano recital in her native Buenos Aires at the age of 4. She toured many countries. By the time she was 18, she had performed recitals, both solo and with orchestras, throughout South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. At 23 she was a full professor for graduate piano students at the Kunatachi University in Tokyo.
Then tragedy struck. The gifted world-renowned concert pianist was nearly killed in an automobile accident. The doctors were honest; the damage to her brain was extensive. They told her she would never play the piano again. "For years to come I couldn't do anything; remember anything," Ana Maria says of her long recovery. The doctors removed fifteen blood clots from her brain. "I couldn't pick up a plate," she says, "I lost coordination."
During her years of recovery her mother told her over and over again, "What we are is God's gift to us. What we become is our gift to God." God doesn't make mistakes, her mother said. Ana began to believe in herself once again. " I could imagine myself playing at Carnegie Hall," she said. In her imagination she saw the people giving her a standing ovation.
After a long 16 years she finally did walk onto the stage at Carnegie Hall. "I was terrified," she says recalling that moment of triumph. "I sat down and I prayed. I asked God to help me." Ana Maria played the piano for 2 hours. "I was totally immersed in music," she says. When she finished her last piece of music she turned to face the audience. Two thousand people were clapping, giving her a standing ovation. "For a second, I wasn't sure that it was really happening," she recalls. "It was exactly like my daydreams. When I realized it was real, I broke down and cried on the stage. As I took my bow I said to myself, `God, this is my gift to you. Since then she has given 10 more concerts at Carnegie Hall. She has also played for government leaders and dignitaries throughout the world. Not bad for a woman who was told she would never play the piano again."
15 Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, "I did not laugh." But he said, "Yes, you did laugh."
1. This is funny, because Sarah finally realized who this was she was dealing with, and she is shocked, for she had just laughed in the face of God. She laughed a laugh that conveyed a rejection of his promise. It scared her that she had the audacity to laugh at God. She naturally fears that this inappropriate and disrespectful chuckle at his promise might kill the happy mood that has been set by all their labor. It is a common theme in comedy where people are saying something about another person that is a put down, and they do not realize that the person is nearby and hearing them. They are shocked and embarrassed when they realize they have been heard by the person they are being critical toward. So is it with Sarah. She has laughed a mocking laugh at the absurdity of this strangers words, and now it dawns on her that this stranger is the Lord himself, and she is mortified. She is caught with her hands in the cookie jar, and what do we do when we are caught red handed in something that we wish we could take back and undo? We lie about it and try to deny that we did it. Here we see the humor of trying to deny sin and cover up our folly even when we are dealing with a God of omniscience who knows all. Nothing is impossible with God, but I have just laughed at the promise of God, and basically called God a liar. When you become aware of the inconsistency of this, it is fearful, for what if God takes it personally and you suffer judgment. But God did not judge Sarah here, for it made good sense why she would doubt him after 25 years of waiting.
2. We need to learn from Sarah’s error to be completely open with God, for he knows all and there is not hiding from him. If you have sin in your heart or mind, it does no good to pretend it is not there. Just openly confess that you are having sinful thoughts and doubts. God already knows and so be honest with yourself and acknowledge the reality of your sin. It is ludicrous to lie to God and try to cover up folly.
3. The fact that the Lord knew her heart scared Sarah: "Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, `I did not laugh.'" Rather than admit her disbelief (as the Lord would have liked her to do), she compounded her error by lying to the Lord. Lying was, unfortunately, common in Abraham's family, and one of his great weaknesses. Sadly, he passed this vice on to his family. We saw Abraham lie to Pharoah in Egypt, putting Sarah in danger (Gen. 12:12-13); we will see him lie in a similar way to Abimelech in chapter 20; we will see Isaac follow in his father's footsteps in chapter 26; Jacob also lies a number of times; etc. The sins of parents are often passed on to their children, and so, we who are parents must be careful to live upright lives. We have no idea of the lasting effect that our sin has through our offspring.
4. Peter L. Haynes “Laughter holds a special place in God’s heart. I believe God enjoyed that moment when Sarah laughed. "Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?," God replied to her laugh, with a barrel full of holy hilarity bound up in those words. Of course, Sarah tried to deny her laughter. After all, faith is no laughing matter. At least that’s what we’ve been taught. It’s a serious affair to encounter the almighty God, isn’t it? Or is that always the case? Sarah tried to deny her laughter, for she was afraid. But with a wink of the eye, which is only seen when we read between the lines, God says in reply: "Oh yes, you did laugh." God has the last word, and it is the word laugh.
5. An unknown author gives us all this insight: "The divine response to Sarah's laughter is different than it was to her husband's. God makes a point of calling it to Abraham's attention, and stubbornly rejects Sarah's attempt to deny her laughter. The classical Jewish commentators were understandably troubled by this apparent double standard, in which God seems to flare up impatiently at Sarah's momentary loss of control --when Abraham's ostensibly identical reaction earlier was passed over in silence. Most of them tried to resolve the inconsistency by proposing subtle conceptual differences in the motives and the quality of the laughter in the respective cases: Abraham's laughter was an expression of trusting joy, while Sarah's was giving vent to her doubts and skepticism in the face of a divine assurance. --This distinction was incorporated into the "Targum," the ancient Aramaic translation of the Torah."
"With all due respect to those great sages of the past, I would like to propose a somewhat different reading of the story. Somehow, I do not see God's exchange with Sarah as an angry or confrontational one. Quite the contrary-- The Almighty is trying to point out to her the importance of her utterly human response to the news. Sarah herself fears that it was inappropriate and disrespectful for her to laugh, as it were, in the face of God. It was a detail that she would be likely to omit from her memoirs. Unlike Abraham, who laughed out loud for all to see, Sarah laughed "within herself," embarrassed to give public expression to her feelings."
"To paraphrase a later Jewish teacher: "Wheresoever this story shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her" --God seems determined to remind all concerned that the laughter was integral to his plan, and to the covenantal mission. The memory of the laughter is so inseparable from the story of Sarah's pregnancy that God has already commanded Abraham that the child shall be named in honor of that very laughter "Yitzhak": meaning "He shall laugh"! This author goes on to write, "....it strikes me as supremely important that the laughter of Abraham and Sarah should be appreciated in all its profound importance, for somehow it plays a decisive role in that grand design. The first fruit of that covenant was named "Isaac" for laughter, and there is an implication that people who are incapable of a spontaneous chuckle, even in the presence of the Almighty, are not considered worthy of participating in the covenant."
"Sarah laughed at the prospect that at the age of ninety she would be enjoying the pleasures of motherhood. There is some satisfaction in noting that her good humor was in fact inherited by her son. When Isaac grew up and followed his parents' example in trying to present his wife Rebecca as his sister (Gen. 26), what gave them away was that he was spotted "sporting [employing the same Hebrew word that is translated in our passage is "laughing"] with Rebecca." I don't know exactly what it was that they were doing, but since it was enough to prove that they were not siblings, then I would guess that they weren't just playing Scrabble®. Evidently, they were involved in a public display of affection; or in other words: (if you'll pardon the expression) making out! And having a good time of it. What a delightful statement this makes about the natural quality and good humor of their married life!"
6. Sarah was mildly rebuked by the Lord, but in the final analysis she was praised, for her faith in the promise was restored by this visit from God and she is exalted in the New Testament as a woman of great faith. By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. (Heb 11:11 {RSV})
Dear Creator and Lord:
Often, when we are presented with opportunities beyond our own imagination, we laugh and disbelieve. Sarah's laughter then is no different from our own now. When you present us with some amazing new possibility, be it love, faith, trust, or any other of your many and manifest blessings, often we disbelieve. We disbelieve because we cannot imagine success outside of our own expectations. Help us Lord to see not what we can be, but to see what you would have us do, and help us to trust you, so that your will for us is successful. AMEN
7. This event ends so abruptly, but it is not the end of the story. The rest of the story is in Gen. 21:1-8. The Message has it-
1-4God visited Sarah exactly as he said he would; God did to Sarah what he promised: Sarah became pregnant and gave Abraham a son in his old age, and at the very time God had set. Abraham named him Isaac. When his son was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him just as God had commanded.
5-6 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born.
Sarah said,
God has blessed me with laughter
and all who get the news will laugh with me!
7 She also said,
Whoever would have suggested to Abraham
that Sarah would one day nurse a baby!
Yet here I am! I've given the old man a son!
8 The baby grew and was weaned. Abraham threw a big party on the day Isaac was weaned.
“Even though God's promise is greeted with the laughter of derision, within the year the laughter will change into the laughter of joy as the sounds of a baby's cry enter into this household. Now, standing next to her 100-year-old husband with her eight-day-old infant sleeping in her arms, Sarah once again drew a breath and released a tremendous burst of joy and tears. This laughter was different, though; for perhaps the first time, Sarah laughed because she felt whole and complete within the arms of God. After many times of laughing because she did not understand, she was now able to express her excitement because she finally did see God clearly."
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.
1. The next item on God's agenda is Sodom. His social time is now complete and its time for business. He is on earth to check out the complaints he has heard about this wicked town. Here is Abraham walking with God and feeling very content after such a great meal and wonderful fellowship. He has no idea of the mission of God and his angels at this point.
2. Here begins a long study of the destruction of one wicked city. It is a major event in the Old Testament. Brian Morgan makes this statement, "Our passage today devotes more space to the destruction of Sodom than any other twenty-four hour period in the life of Abraham. The importance of this event cannot be underestimated. The story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah shaped the lives of the early Israelites (Deut 29:23). It became the paradigm for the prophets for future judgments on Israel and the nations (Isa 1:9; 13:19; Lam 4:6; Zeph 2:9), and was understood by Jesus (Matt 10:15; 11:23) and the apostles as the type for God's final judgment (2 Pet 3:5-15). In our own day, where there are no sacred boundaries, where every TV and Internet connection makes the ancient city accessible within virtually every home, this text could not be more relevant. It serves up a fearful warning about the dissolute destiny of compromise, and exhorts us to walk in the faithful footsteps of our father Abraham."
17 Then the LORD said, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?
1. God is talking to himself. He asks himself a question, and being omniscient it should not take him long to come up with an answer. " God reveals himself as deliberating over those decisions, weighing the pros and cons. Should Abraham be invited to hear the Lord’s deliberations.”? He agrees with himself that it is right to let his gracious host in on the plan. It is funny to be inside the mind of God and listening to what he is thinking. He is debating in his mind whether or not he should include Abraham in his plan to destroy the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. If I tell him he will be upset, but if I don’t and he learns of it afterwards he will also be upset. What should I do? This is humorous because we know God does not have to go through the same process of reasoning that we do, but he is in the form of a man, and so he is pictured just like a man in all ways. God has submitted himself to the human level. He has to weigh the pros and con’s of what is best for Abraham. He is God’s best friend on earth, and so he has to treat him as a friend and do what is truly honorable in friendship. Telling him seems the best and so that is what God does. God is willing to share his secrets with men whom he can trust. In Amos 3:7 we read, “Surely the Lord God does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets.” He lets men in on things because they play a role in his plans. Noah, for example, had to be let in on the plan for the flood to be motivated to build the ark.
2. "Abraham has the distinction of being named specifically throughout the Bible as a friend of God (cf. II Chron. 20:7; Isa. 41:8; James 2:23). In this chapter, we see a demonstration of the friendship between the Lord and Abraham. First, the Lord personally visits Abraham. Then, Abraham shows extreme hospitality to the Lord. Now here, the Lord confides in Abraham concerning the impending judgment of Sodom. God reveals Himself to his friends. As Christ said to His disciples: "I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you" (John 15:15). And so, the Lord will reveal Himself and His plan to us, if we are His friends. As David tells us: "The Lord confides in those who fear Him" (Ps. 25:14). This makes sense. Certainly, those who walk with God more closely will know more of His ways. . "Surely the Lord God does nothing, without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets" (Amos 3:3)
Note, the Lord does not initially tell Abraham that He will judge Sodom. He merely says: "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous 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" (Genesis 18:20-21). But Abraham, as God's friend, knew what was unspoken, that God was long overdue to judge the wickedness of Sodom."
3. The people of Sodom had so much to thank God for. They had the most fertile land that gave them abundance in the harvest. They had been delivered from the 4 bad kings of the East and restored to their land by the courage of Abraham and his army. They had been given a great deal of time to repent of their wickedness, and so they had no excuse left for their rebellion against the ways of God. His patience had come to an end, and he knew Abram loved Lot and his family, so he felt he had to let Abraham know that the end was near for that city.
18 Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him.
1. God is here reviewing the promise he made to Abraham when he first called him in Chapter 12. He knew what he was going to do with the seed of Abraham, and in the light of his own plan he sees that it is wise to include Abraham in the plans he has at the moment with Sodom. There is going to be a lesson out of this judgment on Sodom that will be a part of the education that God's people, who are Abraham's seed, will teach their children for all time. It is only appropriate that I include him in on the whole plan from the beginning. Someone put together this list of the role Sodom's destruction played in the future of Abraham's seed.
a. What God is about to do in Sodom will become a cautionary tale for all time
b. Abraham will tell it to his children
c. Israelites will tell it to theirs
d. Moses will warn the children of Israel of the dangers of disobedience using Sodom as his example
e. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Zephaniah — these prophets will all point to Sodom as the example of God’s judgment on the wicked to turn the ungodly to the fear of the Lord and remind the faithful of the wrath they have escaped by God’s grace and mercy.
f. Peter, over 2000 years later, will tell it to us — 2 Pet 2:4-9 — For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of deepest darkness to be kept until the judgment; 5 and if he did not spare the ancient world, even though he saved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood on a world of the ungodly; 6 and if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction and made them an example of what is coming to the ungodly; 7 and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man greatly distressed by the licentiousness of the lawless 8 (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by their lawless deeds that he saw and heard), 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment
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."
1. God is confident that Abraham will be a good teacher of the way of God to his family so that they will continue to be people of God by doing what is right and just. Because of this he feels that he should treat him as the friend that he is and not keep secrets from him. He has a concern for Lot and others in Sodom, and so I cannot just go ahead and let him learn from tomorrow’s headlines that it has been wiped out. I need to share with him what is about to happen and let him express his own perspective. God is dealing with Abraham like a true friend. He is going to do the right thing by me, and so I am going to do the right thing by him. God knew Abraham would make sure that there were people in the world just the opposite of those in Sodom, and they would carry on the name of the God of Abraham and live lives that pleased him and gave a witness of him to the lost world. Abraham won't save Sodom today, but his people in the future will save many many cities by their righteous living. Many godless cities like Sodom will be spared in the future because Abraham's seed is there living lives of righteousness that they have learned from him. Abraham will learn a lesson today by his failure to save Sodom that will motivate him to build up a people that will make it possible to succeed in coming generations. God wants Abraham to plead for all he is worth and fail to save this wicked city so he will realize that the only hope of escaping God's wrath is righteous and godly people. And these only come by way of being taught in childhood. God is going to teach Abraham a hard lesson, but it will make him a better teacher of his own children. Keep in mind, Abraham is the leader of a large community with a great many children, and all of them need to be instructed in the way of righteousness. What we see here is that the essence of godly living is doing what is right and just, and that is what God wants us to teach every child. This was long before God gave his people the ten commandments, but they were being taught by Abraham to his family because they are obviously right and just rules of life that were known before they were written on stone.
2. Adrian Dieleman is right when he expresses the wonder of what is going on here. He writes, "Do you realize what is happening here? The LORD of far-flung galaxies, the Creator of life and all that exists, the All-Powerful, the All-Knowing, the Incomprehensible and Immutable, the Judge of angels and demons and men, is taking the time and trouble to explain Himself to a mere man. I find this to be simply amazing. Why is God doing this? Why is He bothering to explain Himself to a man? He is God, after all, and Abraham is nothing but a mere speck of a man! And why does He explain Himself to Abraham of all people?" The answer is that Abraham is his friend, and that is what you do with friends. You share things with each other that you do not share with everyone else. Abraham is going to start a line of godly people who will eventually produce the Messiah and be a blessing to the whole world. He is the foundation on which God is going to build his eternal kingdom, and so he shares with him things that he shares with no other man. God gives high praise to Abraham, for he has high hopes that he will perpetuate his own faithful living on to the next generations so that he can fulfill all of the promises he made to him. This is a strong indication that the promises are conditional on the right living of his descendants.
3. God expected Abraham to be the kind of father that would have a great impact on his children and others in his household by means of his instruction and example. This is God's idea of the ideal father, and all father can live up to this ideal is they remain conscious of what Edgar Guest conveys in this poem:
And they're watching night and day
There are little ears that listen
To every word you say.
There are little hands all eager
To do the things you do;
And a little boy who's dreaming
Of the day he'll be like you.
You're the little fellow's idol,
You're the wisest of the wise;
In his little mind, about you
No suspicions ever rise.
He believes in you devoutly,
Holds that all you say and do
He will say and do in your way
When he's grown up just like you.
There's a wide-eyed little fellow
Who believes you're always right;
And his ears are always open
As he watches day and night.
You are setting an example
Every day in all you do,
For the little boy who's waiting
To grow up to be like you.
-- Edgar A. Guest
20 Then the LORD said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous
1. It is difficult to discern just where this outcry is coming from. Is it people in the city who are being so abused by the evil around them that they are crying out for God to intervene. If this is so, then maybe there are some righteous people there, and possibly some of them did escape. We only have an account of the angels pulling Lot and his family out of the city, but that does not mean that there were no others who fled out in other directions before the fire fell. This is speculation, however, and so we have no knowledge about who it is that is crying out. Could it be other nearby communities who are being hurt by the evils of Sodom, or is it the angels of heaven who look down and see such evil that they cannot help but cry out against it? We do not know.
2. Calvin comments in such a way as to eliminate any need to find out who is crying out, for it is the sins themselves that cry out. He writes, "In saying that the "cry was great," he indicates the grievousness of their crimes, because, although the wicked may promise themselves impunity, by concealing their evils, and although these evils may be silently and quietly borne by men; yet their sin will necessarily sound aloud in the ears of God. Therefore this phrase signifies, that all our deeds, even those of which we think the memory to be buried, are presented before the bar of God, and that they, even of themselves, demand vengeance, although there should be none to accuse."
3. James Montgomery Boice catches this truth well that the cries come to God from every city, and that includes ours. He writes, "Listen! Can’t you hear those cries in your imagination? I think I hear the cry of a child—wretched, hurt, and terrified—being beaten by a drunken father. There is another cry. It is the cry of an old man assaulted by a gang of tough street youths. I hear his painful cry as they beat him around the face and shoulders. There is the cry of a teenage girl being raped in an abandoned car. And there . . . the cry of a wife abandoned by her husband. I hear the cry of a man so trapped by our dehumanizing welfare system that he has given up. I hear the cry of sinful pleasures: the raucous cries in the thousands of bars that scar the faces of our cities, the cries of prostitutes and those who patronize them, the soft cries of drug addicts, the arrogant cries of those who have been able to defeat their enemies or ruin their competitors. But wait! Those cries are only a fraction of those millions of cries that are rising every moment of every day from every street in every city and village of our land—cries that are all heard by God, felt by God. Must God’s judgment not fall on us too, and quickly? How shall we excuse ourselves when the only righteous God comes down to see if what we have done is as bad as the accusation that has reached Him? (Genesis, Vol 2, p. 160)"
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."
1. It seems so strange that God would limit his knowledge to personal experience so that he had to go and learn what the situation was in Sodom, instead of just knowing by his omniscient mind. That is what adds humor to all that God does in limiting himself by taking on a human life. God is teaching us very important lessons by this strange behavior. He is saying this is how a godly man should deal with life. He should not make snap judgments about people and be prejudiced against anyone. Check out the fact for yourself and do not take the word of others. If you take the word of critics you will always have bad opinions of just about everyone. Go see for yourself. Meet with people and learn from their own mouth and actions before you make judgments.
Almost every man of God used greatly in our land is called a man of the devil by some critic who judges that anyone who disagrees with them has to be evil to the core. This has gone on all through history, and you are a foolish person if you believe all that you hear about men of God. I have checked out men whom others call evil and false prophets and discovered them to be such amazing blessings in their knowledge of the Word of God. I no longer rush into snap decisions. It should have been an open and shut case with Sodom, but even here God gives the benefit of the doubt and goes to check it out.
2. Calvin says much the same thing when he wrote, "..he commends the moderation of God, who does not immediately fulminate against the ungodly and pour out his vengeance upon them; but who, when affairs were utterly desperate, at length executes the punishment which had been long held suspended over them. And the Lord
does not testify in vain, that he proceeds to inflict punishment in a suitable and rightly attempered order.......Therefore, Jerome turns it, 'If they shall have completed it in act.' I have, indeed, no doubt but Moses intimates, that God came down, in order to inquire whether or not their sins had risen to the highest point: just as he before said, that the iniquities of the Amorites were not yet full. The sum of the whole then is; the Lord was about to see whether they were altogether desperate, as having precipitated themselves into the lowest depths of evil; or whether they were still in the midst of a course, from which it was possible for them to be recalled to a sound mind; forasmuch as he was unwilling utterly to destroy those cities, if, by any method, their wickedness was curable."
22 The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the LORD.
1. Abram could read between the lines and he knew that Sodom was doomed. He knew that this might be the last chance to intercede with God on their behalf, and so as he stood there he began to formulate a plan in his mind as to how to approach the Lord. What do you say to God when you know he is going to do something that you want to prevent? Abraham decides to appeal to God's sense of justice, for he knows he will not do anything that is not just.
23 Then Abraham approached him and said: "Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?
1. Abraham was not unaware of the wickedness of Sodom, for he came right away to plead for them knowing what would be found by the angels going there. He did not have to wait for any report from angels. Lot lived there and he, no doubt, told Abraham about what he had to live with, and how terrible the people were in Sodom. Abraham knew they were worthy of destruction, but he loved his nephew Lot, and he wanted him to be spared. He knows Lot is a righteous man, just as Peter in the New Testament knew it. Most who preach on Lot do not seem to know it, however, and seek to put him down in everyway possible by reading sin and bad motives into just about everything he does and says. But Abraham considers him righteous, and he is determined to see that he is spared from what will be certain judgment on Sodom. But he is facing the Lord himself, and how do you approach God and try to influence his decision? This is a tough call, and Brian Morgan wrote, "The patriarch is driven by his sense of "justice." He is horrified at the thought that God might not distinguish between the fate of the righteous and the wicked (cf. Ps 146:8-9). He makes this point three times in his opening plea. And yet, consider the irony of attempting to be a legal advocate for justice when the accused is the "Judge of the whole earth." It is a very difficult balancing act. Thus Abraham draws out every rhetorical device he can think of to delicately make his points, without at the same time offending the One from whom he has received his "sense" of justice."
2. Someone made this comment: "What boldness! Abraham felt comfortable enough with God to question him about his plan, and question if he has thought through all of the implications and ethical issues involved. Are you just going to destroy without any distinction between the righteous and the wicked? Isn’t there something in the rules of being God that says you can’t just indiscriminately wipe out people regardless of their being good or evil? Abraham was concerned for Lot and his family, and for anyone else who did not enter into the corruption of the city."
3. This is the first intercessory prayer in the Bible, and it shows that God will listen and respond to the plea for mercy. God listened to Abraham like a friend or consultant. Here was a man separated from the world but not indifferent to the world and its needs. He loved people and hated to see judgment fall, in contrast to Jonah who wished to see Gentile pagans wiped out. An intercessor has to be informed to be effective. Chris Robinson wrote, "Consider the other way Abraham might have asked the question. “Surely it is proper justice to preserve the righteous. But it can’t be justice, to preserve the wicked with the righteous, can it?!” Asking the question this way tips the scale, as it were, to the side of justice. Abraham, however, had known mercy from God. And so, Abraham is very concerned with the glory of God’s justice. But his concern is rooted in the fact that the glory of God’s justice is best demonstrated by how mercy triumphs over judgment............God’s justice is a foundation of our faith. “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne, mercy and truth go before your face.”ps89.14 Those words come from the very same psalm that says “I have made a covenant with My chosen.” When we cannot fathom the workings of providence, when we cannot fathom the apparent tangle of good and evil, of happiness and sorrow, yes, of life and of death in this world, here is the starting point for understanding. The starting point is the justice of God. His greatest mercies could not stand were it not for His perfect justice."
4. Someone asked the following questions. "Abraham here, at first glance, sounds so correct, so right. But we must consider carefully: would it have been wrong for God to destroy the "righteous" in Sodom along with the wicked? Would it have been wrong for God even to destroy Lot, the only righteous man in Sodom, along with the wicked? Did not Lot choose to live in Sodom? Did not Lot choose to accept the abundant provision of Sodom's fertile soil, rather than spurn its evil and live somewhere less fertile? Did not Lot place his family in great danger by choosing to live in such a wicked place? When one associates with the wicked, he endangers himself in two ways: he can very easily be drawn into their sin; he can possibly be included in their judgment. Moreover, we each have a responsibility to make wise decisions in our lives. If a man chooses to walk across the freeway, would anyone blame God from taking his life, no matter how righteous he may be? I maintain that God would not have been wrong in judging all of the inhabitants of Sodom, including Lot. But God is merciful. God chose in His mercy to spare Lot, the only righteous man in Sodom." This author says it would not have been wrong to kill the righteous with the wicked, but the fact is, the text tells us he could not destroy Sodom until Lot and his daughters were safe. It appears that it would not be right in the mind of God to have gone ahead and killed them. Was it just the mercy of God, or was it the justice of God that spared them? If it was his justice, then he is saying it would have been wrong to kill them along with the wicked, and that is Abraham's point that it would be unjust to sweep the righteous away with the wicked.
5. Dr. Ray Pritchard points out, "It’s important to realize that Abraham doesn’t question God’s right to judge, nor his decision to judge the wicked. He’s not saying, “Who do you think you are?” or “What right do you have to destroy Sodom?” Unlike modern man, Abraham understands that a holy God has the right to judge his own creation. In all that he says, he implicitly recognizes the sovereignty of God."
6. Calvin has a long comment on his view of the motivation of Abraham in having such boldness to approach God in this way. He wrote:
"Some suppose, that he was more anxious concerning the safety of his nephew
alone than for Sodom and the rest of the cities; but that, being withheld
by modesty, he would not request one man expressly to be given to him,
while he entirely neglected a great people. But it is, by no means,
probable that he made use of such dissimulation. I certainly do not
doubt, that he was so touched with a common compassion towards the five
cities that he drew near to God as their intercessor. And if we weigh all
things attentively, he had great reasons for doing so. He had lately
rescued them from the hand of their enemies; he now suddenly hears that
they are to be destroyed. He might imagine that he had rashly engaged in
that war; that his victory was under a divine curse, as if he had taken
arms against the will of God, for unworthy and wicked men; and it was
possible that he would be not a little tormented by such thoughts.
Besides, it was difficult to believe them all to have been so ungrateful,
that no remembrance of their recent deliverance remained among them. But
it was not lawful for him, by a single word, to dispute with God, after
having heard what He had determined to do. For God alone best knows what
men deserve, and with what severity they ought to be treated. Why then
does not Abraham acquiesce? Why does he imagine to himself that there are
some just persons in Sodom, whom God has overlooked, and whom he hastens
to overwhelm in a common destruction with the rest? I answer, that the
sense of humanity by which Abraham was moved, was pleasing to God. First
because, as was becoming, he leaves the entire cognizance of the fact
with God. Secondly, because he asks with sobriety and submission, for the
sole cause of obtaining consolation. There is no wonder that he is
terrified at the destruction of so great a multitude. He sees men created
after the image of God; he persuades himself that, in that immense crowd,
there were, at least, a few who were upright, or not altogether unjust,
and abandoned to wickedness. He therefore alleges before God, what he
thinks available to procure their forgiveness. He may, however, be
thought to have acted rashly, in requesting impunity to the evil, for the
sake of the good; for he desired God to spare the place, if he should
find fifty good men there. I answer, that the prayers of Abraham did not
extend so far as to ask God not to scourge those cities, but only not to
destroy them utterly; as if he had said 'O Lord, whatever punishment thou
mayest inflict upon the guilty, wilt thou not yet leave some dwelling
place for the righteous? Why should that region utterly perish, as long
as a people shall remain, by whom it may be inhabited?' Abraham,
therefore, does not desire that the wicked, being mixed with the
righteous, should escape the hand of God: but only that God, in
inflicting public punishment on a whole nation, should nevertheless
exempt the good who remained from destruction."
7. Maclaren also has a long comment on this verse. He wrote:
His first abrupt question, flung out without any reverential preface,
assumes that the character of God requires that the fate of the righteous
should be distinguished from that of the wicked. The very brusqueness of the
question shows that he supposed himself to be appealing to an elementary and
indubitable law of God’s dealings. The teachings of the Fall and of the
Flood had graven deep on his conscience the truth that the same loving
Friend must needs deal out rewards to the good and chastisement to the bad.
That was the simple faith of an early time, when problems like those which
tortured the writers of the seventy-third Psalm, or of Job and Ecclesiastes,
had not yet disturbed the childlike trust of the friend of God, because no
facts in his experience had forced them on him. But the belief which was
axiomatic to him, and true for his supernaturally shaped life with its
special miracles and visible divine guard, is not the ultimate and
irrefragable principle which he thought it. In widespread calamities the
righteous are blended with the wicked in one bloody ruin; and it is the very
misery of such judgments that often the sufferers are not the wrongdoers,
but that the fathers eat the sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set
on edge. The whirlwind of temporal judgments makes no distinctions between
the dwellings of the righteous and the wicked, but levels them both. No
doubt, the fact that the impending destruction was to be a direct Divine
interposition of a punitive kind made it more necessary that it should be
confined to the actual culprits. No doubt, too, Abraham’s zeal for the
honour of God’s government was right. But his first plea belongs to the
stage of revelation at which he stood, not to that of the New Testament,
which teaches that the eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell were not
sinners above all men in Jerusalem. Abraham’s confidence in God’s justice,
not Abraham’s conceptions of what that justice required, is to be imitated.
A friend of God will hold fast by the faith that ‘His way is perfect,’ and
will cherish it even in the presence of facts more perplexing than any which
met Abraham’s eyes."
I have a problem with the idea that all disasters are the will of God, or the judgment of God, and so I could get into a long debate with Maclaren here, for it is true that the wicked and righteous suffer together in all kinds of natural tragedies and in warfare, but this is not the same thing that Abraham is getting at. He is saying that God does not pour out his wrath on sin with no thought of distinguishing between the guilty and the innocent. All of the suffering like the Tower of Siloam falling, and the many other tragedies of life are not the same thing as God pouring out his wrath on sinners. If all disaster is in the same category of judgment then God does not make a difference between the guilty and the innocent and he would be a truly unjust judge, and would not be doing right by any standard of justice known to man, and this is not the God we see in the Bible. If we do not make a distinction between judgment and just the suffering of a fallen world we end up making God unjust. It is true that when he judged Israel that the righteous remnant had to suffer exile with the guilty, and there may be other examples that could be brought forth, but to make all massive suffering of the good and the bad fall into this same category makes just about all suffering the judgment of God, and this is just not Biblical. What is truly of God will be right and just, and if something does not fit the category of right and just it is to be rejected as the will and work of God. This is a vast subject, and so I refer you to my study on the 7 causes of all suffering. Type Glenn Pease into the Google search engine and it will take you to my site and then to the free books, one of which is on suffering.
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?
1. Stedman has this interesting comment, "I remember a friend telling of walking past a church bulletin board one day and noting the announcement of the sermon: "If I were God." The man with my friend said, "'If I were God' -- that's an interesting title for a sermon. If I were God, I'd just lean down over the battlements of heaven, take a big, deep breath, and blow this earth out of existence!" Why has not God done that long, long ago, with all the shameful record of human defiance, rebellion, and depravity which history records? It is because of this very principle to which Abraham appealed: There are righteous here.
2. Much humor is based on what is incongruous, and that is what we have here. A mere man is going to stop God and question if he is doing the right thing. You just don’t do this: unless, of course, you are so close a friend of God’s that you can boldly make him justify his actions. Who but Abraham has ever been so close to God? It still took a lot of courage to have the audacity to lecture God on what is justice. This is an amazing passage, for it pictures Abraham just talking to God like one friend to another. He acknowledges that God is Lord and that he is being overbold in pursuing his agenda, but he feels free to do so because God has just eaten at his table, and in that culture this made them uniquely bonded together.
If God can assure Abraham and Sarah that they will have a child in the coming year, why can’t he do other wonders and save the people of Sodom? That had to be the thinking of Abraham, and so he seeks to have an influence on God and persuade him to do the right thing. It is humorous because it is portraying Abraham as being the compassionate one trying to get God to be more compassionate. God seems to be willing to match the compassion of Abraham, and because he stopped short of the goal that could have saved the city, we can never know just how far God would go in mercy. Maybe if he had gone one more step down to 5 righteous people that would have been just right. God had just stated to Abraham earlier that nothing is impossible with the Lord, and so it would not have been impossible for God to spare the city of Sodom.
3. Henry wrote, "It is the first solemn prayer we have upon record in the Bible; and it is a prayer for the sparing of Sodom. Abraham, no doubt, greatly abhorred the wickedness of the Sodomites; he would not have lived among them, as Lot did, if they would have given him the best estate in their country; and yet he prayed earnestly for them. 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 deprecate, the woeful day."
4, Maclaren wrote, "The tone of Abraham’s intercession may teach us how familiar the intercourse with the Heavenly Friend may be. The boldest words from a loving heart, jealous of God’s honor, are not irreverent in His eyes. This prayer is abrupt, almost rough. It sounds like remonstrance quite as much as prayer."
5. We need to understand the paradox of their being none righteous and yet God being open to the possibility of some being righteous even in Sodom. I found an unknown author who does and excellent job of explaining this paradox. He writes, "Now it probably needs to be said at this point that when the word “righteous” is used here it is important not to read a full systematic theological definition of that word into this text. What
do I mean by that? Simply this: In the language of our own day, whenever you and I talk about
doctrine and theology and the word “righteous” is used, we typically use this word to mean
something like “sinless” or “pure”, or something like that. And we think of verses like Romans
3:10 which, quoting Psalm 14, says that “no one is righteous”. And when we read such a thing,
we understand what Paul is talking about - that before God, there is no one who stands unaffected and un-tainted by sin. We are all victims of Adam’s fall and are guilty “in him”. In that sense, no one is righteous. No one can stand before God and say that He owes them salvation or blessing or anything because of their own inherent goodness. Nobody can say that.
But that sense of “righteous” is not the only one that appears in the Bible. There are other
places which use the very same word to describe people who are regarded as righteous - not in
an absolute sense but in another very real sense. Sometimes the Bible uses the word righteous to refer to people who are rightly-related toward God. They are his people and have a basic
Godward orientation toward their life and are characterized as those who consistently pursue
Him and His ways, even if they do not do so perfectly. It is in this sense, for example, that the
NT talks about the person of Lot, in 2 Peter, describing him as a “righteous man”.
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 [7] of all the earth do right?"
1. Here we have the key to prayer. If you do not believe that the Judge of all the earth will do right, then there is not much point in prayer. Prayer is based on the view of God that says he is just, but also fair; he is strict, but also merciful; he hates sin, but he also loves the sinner. In other words, God is a God of balanced emotions so that he can be reasoned with and be persuaded to see things from the point of view of the person who prays. What is the point of praying if God is locked into his will and there is no other possibility? It is all determined and change is not possible. But that is not the Biblical view of God. A prime example is when Moses was coming down Mount Sinai with the commandments written on the tablets. The people had begun to wonder if he was coming back, and so had convinced Aaron to fashion a golden calf which they then proceeded to worship. God confronts Moses with this news and announces His intention to wipe these people from the face of the earth. It is here that Moses intercedes for the people. He knows that the God who brought the people out of captivity in Egypt will not abandon them now. He knows that God is a God of mercy and so he appeals for the people. God relents and does not do what he had planned. The foundation for our intercession must lie in our belief in the mercy of God.” Moses could plead with God because he knew, as Abram did, that God is reasonable and merciful and will do the right thing, and the right thing was to spare Israel, but here the right thing was to destroy Sodom. Israel fell into sin momentarily, but Sodom reveled in sin perpetually. It was right to forgive one and to condemn the other.
2. Another great example is in this very story of the destruction of Sodom. Lot and his daughters are pulled from the city and told to flee to the mountains, but Lot pleads for the chance to go to the small town of Zoar. Then in Gen. 19:21-21 the angel said, "Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of. But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it." As soon as he did get there the fire fell on Sodom. Here was a small town saved by the presence of just three righteous people-Lot and his daughters. We don't know how many lived there, and how wicked they were, but they survived a great disaster because of the prayer of Lot to escape to they’re town. There is no group so small that God will not show mercy to those they plead for, and that is why we must be ever in prayer for the lost. It can be our concern and prayer that keeps them alive and makes it possible for them to at some point come into the kingdom of God.
3. God will always do what is right, and so all He does is right. We may not be able to see it that way, but He will never do what is wrong. Abraham is confident that God will not judge the innocent with the guilty. This being so there is no way to think that natural disasters are the will of God in judgment, for they kill the innocent with the guilty. The world is full of terrible things that are not judgment on the sins of the people, for the righteous suffer with the unrighteous. They are called acts of God, but they are not, for it would be wrong for God to kill the righteous with the guilty if it is his judgment that is falling in natural disasters. People who think that all bad things are the will of God do not see God as Abram does, nor as the Scriptures everywhere reveal him to be.
4. What would you think of a judge who treated everyone in his court the same way by sending the innocent to prison along with the guilty? It would make you angry and disgusted, and you would want to see that judge put out of office. His injustice would make him despised by all. That is how people feel toward God when they do not recognize that he is a God of justice. Whenever God does something that we think is unfair and unjust, it is because we do not have the knowledge of God. He does not judge anyone unjustly, and all who are treated severely, as were the Sodomites, are worthy of such treatment. No one can ever say to God, you dealt with me unjustly, for I am innocent of all you say I am guilty of. It will never happen, and in the final judgment all will know that they were treated just as they deserved.
5. "Some Christians think it is really being a spiritual giant to take a strong stand and never make concessions. If the law has been broken, then let the violator be judged with the maximum penalty. God, on the other hand, is looking for a way to show mercy. If He can find someone who cares enough to intercede for the guilty, He will be open for a deal. Abraham said, "Shall not the God of all the earth do right?" That is precisely the way God is. He will always do the right thing, and the right thing is to find a way to beat evil and overcome it. When God has to judge and let His wrath fall, then evil has won a victory. God is ever looking for a way to prevent that." Unknown author.
26 The LORD said, "If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake."
1. God was willing to let the most wicked people live if there could be found these 50 who would be salt in the midst of such corruption. In other words, if there is any hope at all that things can be changed by the good influence of the righteous, he will not destroy the unrighteous.
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,
1. Talk about low self-esteem. Abraham puts himself in the same category with the stuff you wife off your feet, and the stuff you haul out to the dump. He is saying that he does not speak as one worthy of God's attention, for he is of no consequence and has no authority in the matter. He is nobody, but he wants to speak his mind anyway, and he knows this is being overly bold. Stedman wrote, " Lord, I haven't any right to ask this of you. You, Lord, are wholly righteous, true, and I don't need to tell you what to do. Who am I, a man, talking to you -- but Lord, I can't help but say this thing that is on my heart. Would you not spare the city if there are only 45 instead of 50?" This is the kind of language which delights God to hear and honor, for it is the very opposite of the pride and deceit that makes us think we can demand of God what we want.
I listened to a faith healer one day praying for people on the platform and I was appalled at the way he spoke to God. He ordered him about as if God were a sort of magic genie obliged to do what this man said. It reflected the awful pride of his own heart. This is not true prayer. Abraham's approach is right: "Lord, who am I to speak to thee?"
2. Brian Morgan writes, "After a conciliatory opening, "I am but dust and ashes," he carefully ratchets the number down by a mere five, "Well, what about forty-five?" Once that number is secure, he repeats the process again. The third time he gets even bolder and drops it by ten: "How about thirty?" Throughout the bargaining we can feel the tension rise and fall as Abraham pushes the envelope of divine justice further and further."
3. Calvin comments, "It is to be noted, that the nearer Abraham approaches
to God, the more fully sensible does he become of the miserable and
abject condition of men. For it is only the brightness of the glory of
God which covers with shame and thoroughly humbles men, when stripped of
their foolish and intoxicated self-confidence. Whosoever, therefore,
seems to himself to be something, let him turn his eyes to God, and
immediately he will acknowledge himself to be nothing."
4. An unknown author wrote, " This sounds like heresy doesn't it? God compromising! Yet, that is precisely what we see God doing because of Abraham's intercession. Abraham is bargaining with God. He starts with the plea that if there are 50 righteous people in Sodom that God spare the city for those 50. God agrees that this is fair enough. Abraham is immediately aware that he may have been too optimistic. Sodom was a hellhole and how could he expect there to be 50 people unspotted by such corruption? He became a rapid realist and knew he had to convinced God to come down from this original agreement."
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."
1. Abraham is being quite clever by just going down in small segments, for it seems like a cruel thing to destroy a whole city because of the lack of 5 righteous people. Five is such a small number that it would not make sense to destroy the city for lack of a measly five. "Abraham is very clever and he uses the argument of triviality to get God to lower the number required to spare the city."
2. Someone gave us this wise advice: "The flexibility of God is clear. He will alter his plan when somebody cares enough. He will compromise and concede when there is an intercessor who cares enough to plead. When we are stubborn and refuse to budge on our plans and convictions we are not being Godlike at all. It is important to be flexible and be willing to change to meet the needs of others. You are not playing God when you are an absolutist, for that is not the way God works."
3. Ed. Dayton in World Vision wrote, “Now I’ve come to an older man’s view. I see that when we are young, we refuse to compromise. When we are in our twenties, we see we have to compromise. When we are in our thirties, we are willing to compromise. When we are in our forties we learn to compromise. Finally, we discover that compromise is what life is all about.” Lincoln was flexible and said, “Much as I hate slavery I would consent to the extension of it rather than see the Union dissolved, just as I would consent to any great evil to avoid a greater one.”
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."
1. God was so quickly willing to go along with Abraham, and we cannot know for sure if it was because he really wanted to see them spared, or because he knew that they would not get low enough to spare them, for he knew there were only a couple of righteous people 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."
1. God is going to take one more step down to the number ten, but before we go there we need to deal with the whole question-does God change his mind? There are verses in the Bible that would lead us to believe that God never changes his mind, and others that suggest that he does. Lets look at a few to see the issue.
A. HE DOES NOT CHANGE
Malachi 3:6 "For I am the Lord; I change not."
Numbers 23:19 "God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent."
Ezekiel 24:14 "I the Lord have spoken it: it shall come to pass, and I will do it; I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I repent."
James 1:17 " . . . the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."
B. HE DOES CHANGE
Exodus 32:14 "And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people."
Genesis 6:6,7 "And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth . . . And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth . . . for it repenteth me that I have made him."
Jonah 3:10 ". . . and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not."
It is obvious that we are dealing with a paradox, for God is both unchanging and changeable. The point of the verses that deal with his being unchanging are to make clear that God does not operate on whims and blow hot or cold because of unstable emotions. His nature is always consis