Sermons at Trinity Church

Genesis 18

21^st March 2004

Jonny Elvin

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 All Bible references in this sermon transcript are taken from the English Standard Version. This can be found at www.biblegateway.com

Can you remember the most important 24 hours of your life? (Apart from the day you were born!) Maybe the day you had a life-saving operation, perhaps it was your wedding day or the day you got your exam results. I hope that it was the day you became a Christian (if you can pin it down to a day) or a day when God did something profound in your life. To meet with the Living God and to know his power and his presence is certainly a day to take note of.

Abraham had such a day. In fact no other 24 hour period in Abraham’s life is given so much attention as these next 2 chapters; with the visit of the Lord, his angels and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
It’s the first part of that extraordinary day that we read about in ch18. According to v1 it’s a day when Abraham meets with the Lord.

Abraham meets with the Lord 18.1-8

Ch18 opens with a leisurely day in the life of Abram. It’s lunchtime and the sun is hot. He’s sitting in the door of his tent to catch the breeze.

²He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him.

Though Abraham doesn’t yet realise who his guests are. Abraham wouldn’t have been expecting anyone to be travelling in the heat of the day.

We see something here of how important it was to show hospitality to visitors in Abraham’s day. Note how in v2 Abe ran to meet the strangers who suddenly appeared, how he bows down before them and how quickly he singles out one whom he addresses especially in v3, "O Lord,^[2] if I have found favour in your sight, do not pass by your servant.

In v4-7 Abraham is keen to welcome, feed, and refresh his visitors. He gets Jamie Oliver to cook and sets a feast before them. v8 tells us that he stood by them under the tree while they ate (like a good waiter standing in attendance as for very special guests).

In Abraham’s day hospitality laws were unwritten, but vital to uphold. We’ll see how highly they regarded them when it come to ch19.

Whilst Abraham considers these visitors as mere men there’s a hint of their greatness in that the quality of the food and the service that Abraham provided – the best meat and the best flour, was fit for God. NB Hebrews 13.2 ‘Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.’

But it’s not until the meal is over that the strangers begin to reveal their real identity, first in their knowing Sarah’s name, so recently changed, secondly by promising her a son in a year’s time and thirdly by rebuking her despairing unheard laughter.

The Lord reveals his identity and his grace 18.9-15

⁹They said to him, "Where is Sarah your wife?" And he said, "She is in the tent." God knows her new name of course, because he gave it to her!

And then we see the purpose of the divine visit and hear the amazing and much hoped for words of v10…¹⁰The LORD said, "I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son."  The date has been set.

Such a specific date was, of course, a test of faith for these two pensioners. It’s one thing to believe that at some stage in the future God will give you a child. It’s quite another to fix your hopes on a specific date and risk a cruel and bitter disappointment if the event doesn’t come to pass. Maybe Sarah’s laughing is her not daring to believe it. On the surface of things this is the first that Sarah’s heard of her impending pregnancy. It seems that Abraham didn’t tell his wife what God had promised them back in ch17 verses 16-17. He wouldn’t be the last husband to forget to communicate something important to his wife. I’m always forgetting to tell Jane things!

Well when it comes to predictive prophecy you’ve got to get it right! But if God is Lord Almighty then he not only determines this birth against all odds, he also knows when it will happen. Sarah, however, thinks that this is some sort of ‘Candid Camera’ or ‘Trigger Happy TV’ joke….

And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. ¹¹Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. (That doesn’t mean she could no longer multitask! It’s referring to her not being able to have children.)  ¹²So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, "After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?" The pleasure of having children, that is. Sometimes the good news seems just too good to be true.

Well God hears the thoughts of our hearts and though she’s in another place and hasn’t even met the heavenly visitors… ¹³The LORD said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh and say, 'Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?' ¹⁴Is anything too hard^[4] for the LORD?

This is the first time in this episode that God has revealed who he is. And he reveals something of his grace. He doesn’t call Sarah ‘worn out’ or her husband ‘too old’. He takes her comments and uses them to reveal something about his omnipotence. He is all powerful. ¹⁴Is anything too hard^[4] for the LORD? Well of course not. Not for Almighty God who made and sustains the heavens and the earth with a word. He is all-seeing and all-powerful.

That was vital for them to grasp as they looked at their ageing and wrinkly bodies. And it’s important for us to grasp and remember when we look at various situations or people and think that they’re hopeless. Maybe you’ve been working and praying for years for family or friends to come to know and serve the Lord. But it seems that they are so hard-hearted that they’ll never come to faith. Or we’re tempted to think that God doesn’t hear our prayers for them. Don’t give up, because nothing is too hard for the Lord.

As if to reiterate the point God makes it again in v14, At the appointed time I will return to you about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son."

Sometimes when you go to churches that claim to have times of prophecy what you get is some vague ‘the Lord will bless you’ without any specifics of how that will happen. Here there is no ambiguity.

¹⁵But Sarah denied it,^[5] [i.e. laughing to herself as in v12] saying, "I did not laugh," for she was afraid. He said, "No, but you did laugh."

‘Oh no I didn’t.’ ‘Oh yes you did!’ But seriously, it’s pointless trying to hide the truth from God. Sarah did it because she was afraid. But we don’t need to be afraid to tell God the truth about how we feel. God knows and God cares.

Do you remember the Bette Middler song ‘God is watching us from a distance’? Well she was wrong, this episode reveals that he is far more imminent than we might think. Indeed he is here will us this morning, by his Spirit.

One of the amazing things that God chooses to do is to show friendship towards fallen human beings. We see that not only in God visiting Abraham, but also from v16-21 in sharing his thoughts with him.

Abraham, friend of God 18.16-21

¹⁶Then the men set out from there, and they looked down toward Sodom. From this point on in the narrative the focus is on the destruction of Sodom. The reader here knows that this is an ominous sign. But Abraham is unaware of what is about to happen. He is simply concerned to fulfil his hospitality obligations and see the men off on their journey. And Abraham went with them to set them on their way.

Abraham is the only person in the OT to be given the title ‘friend of God’ (2 Chronicles 20.7, Isaiah 41.8) In the light of what we’ve seen so far of his life, doesn’t that strike you as amazing? How come he can be given such an honour? It’s certainly not because of his own righteous acts. Far from it. It’s because of God’s grace; his undeserved favour. It’s only by God’s grace that anyone can approach him and be called his friend. And by God’s grace anyone can approach him through the Lord Jesus Christ. And amazingly for his followers Jesus says…

¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵ No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

A friend is someone you open your heart to; someone you trust; someone who you tell not only what you’re doing but why you’re doing it. For Abraham to be a friend with God means that he was the man to whom God opened his heart and shared his thoughts. One of the marks of a true prophet is that he is given insight into divine secrets. But will Abraham enjoy such privileges? ¹⁷The LORD said, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, ¹⁸seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? 

Not ‘shall I tell him?’, but ‘shall I hide this from him?’ This suggests that to share his thoughts with Abraham was normal for God. After all, he’d called and chosen Abraham for a purpose.

As we eavesdrop on the divine conversation we see the reason that God has chosen him.

¹⁹For I have chosen^[6] him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him."

Not only is Abraham to circumcise his sons, he is to command all his children to do righteousness – in other words, to live in a way that is right before God. Unlike the people of Sodom.

Well the Lord then speaks to Abraham in v20

²⁰Then the LORD said, "Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, ²¹I will go down to see whether they have done altogether^[7] according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know."

The ‘if not’ gives a glimmer of hope. And it’s on this slender hope that Abraham makes his plea.

Abraham friend of sinners 18.22-33

This is the first time that a man in Scripture initiates a conversation with God.

As Abraham stands before the Lord it’s not so much justice for the wicked that concerns him, but the destruction of the righteous."Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?

If God does not distinguish between good and bad behaviour then it would be immoral. But the testimony of the OT is that he does distinguish between good and bad behaviour. As Psalm 146.8-9 say ‘The Lord loves the righteous…but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.’

Well what does Abraham pray?

²⁴Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? ²⁵Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?" ²⁶And the LORD said, "If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake."

It is always God’s intention to show mercy – for his character is merciful.

That established Abraham pushes more boldly, even though he recognises that he has no right to do so, for he is but dust and ashes. And rather like a haggler in a Moroccan market he works his way down in number. And eventually it gets down to ten, to which God replies in v32…"For the sake of ten I will not destroy it."

The Scriptures are right when they say that the Lord does not desire the death of sinners. But will he find ten righteous men in the city? 13.13 tells us that ‘the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord.’  Did he mean all of them? What about Lot, Abraham’s nephew?

We’ll see what happens next week.

Well Abraham’s prayer is unique among the prophetic intercessions in that here he’s not praying on behalf of God’s people. Nor is he even praying for his nephew Lot. He prays for Sodom.

What was it that Jesus said to his followers? Matthew 5:44  ‘But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you’.  It’s not dissimilar to what Abraham is doing here.

If the Lord won’t relent then the prospect for the people of Sodom looks extremely grim. Indeed when in v31 God says ‘for the sake of twenty I will not destroy it’ the word for destroy or ruin is the same key word used at the time of the great Flood. It’s there again in v32. The signs are ominous.

At this point the Lord leaves. ³³And the LORD went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.

There are no more negotiations to be had, no more prayer requests to be made. God’s will is settled, convinced and determined.

There comes a point when God’s justice will be enacted. But that terrible result is for next week.

Loving Father,

We thank you for the way friendship is possible with you though the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for the way Abraham welcomed you. Please help us to be those who are quick to welcome you into our lives day by day.

Help us to teach our children and our households to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that you may bring to us what you have promised us.

Please help us to be like Abraham praying for our enemies.

And we pray that as we trust in you, so we would know your blessing in adversity, your comfort in our loss, your strength in our weakness.

To the glory of your holy name.

Amen.