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Genesis 18:1-19:38 Key Verse: 18:18,19 THE LORD VISITS ABRAHAM "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." Abraham was an old man living in the city of idolatry. But God chose him as a blessing for all mankind. God gave him a promise when he left his hometown. "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing."(2) At first, this promise of God was not accomplished immediately. Not to speak of a great nation, God did not give even one son who would be the first step to the great nation. So Abraham once protested against God. He even tried to get his descendant in his own way through his wife's maid. However, God was not in a hurry to complete his plan. The great nation would be based on Abraham's faith in God. All people in the nation would follow his example of faith. So God raised Abraham as a man of faith through his son-problem. Now 24 years have passed since Abraham received God's promise. Now Abraham is very old, and his wife, Sarah, is past childbearing. But one day, God visited them with his two angels. He gave them a very surprising news. 1. Is anything too hard for the Lord? When the Lord and two angels visited Abraham in the heat of the day, he was sitting at the entrance to his tent. He welcomed his guests and did his best to show them hospitality. Abraham quickly mobilized his household and they prepared a banquet for the guests. The words, "hurried", "quickly", and "ran" suggest that Abraham was eager to serve his guests. Perhaps he did not recognize the Lord at first, but by the time they sat down to eat, he surely knew whom he was serving. Abraham had become mature in faith enough to serve his divine Friend with his full strength and heart. Now, what did God say to Abraham? To his wonderful surprise, God noticed that Sarah would bear a son to him the next year. So far, God had just said he would give a son. He did not tell when it would happen. But now the Lord mentioned the exact time. Truly, it was the great news after 24-year-long waiting. However, Sarah, Abraham's wife, laughed to herself, listening to the wonderful news. She thought, ‘After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?’” Already she had given up hope of having children long ago, and had even given her servant Hagar to Abraham so that he might have a son by her. Now what did God say to her? Let’s look at verses 13-14, “Then the Lord said to Abraham, ‘Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old? Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son.’” God rebuked Sarah for her doubt. He said, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” God is telling her that he will certainly do what he says. He is telling her that he can do anything because he is the Lord who created the heavens and the earth. Because God created the heavens and the earth, nothing is too hard for him to do. One purpose of God's visit to Abraham's house was to encourage and strengthen the faith of Sarah. Sarah was caught in unbelief because of her age. So God planted faith in almighty God in her heart. God had come / to help her believe God's promise and his notice so that she might be prepared for the wonderful miracle. 2. So that he will direct his children Now the men got up to leave Abraham's house. Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way. Then the Lord said, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?" God was going to do something secret. But he wanted to share the secret with Abraham, just as a friend would. Then, what was God going to do? In verse 20, he talked about the grievous sin of Sodom and Gomorrah. God was going to destroy the sinful cities. His two angels were supposed to visit Sodom to see if it was as bad as they had heard. Then, we have one question. Why did God tell Abraham that he would destroy Sodom? Why did he say the secret? Abraham would be a father the next year. God wanted Abraham to teach the way of God to his child with the example of Sodom' perishment. This is why he told Abraham about his judgement on Sodom. In verse 18, God reminded Abraham that he would surely become a great nation and all nations would be blessed through him. In verse 19, God also said so that Abraham might be a blessing to all the nations, he must teach his descendants to keep the right way of God. God can only bless people when they keep his way and obey his way. So Abraham must lead his children to keep God’s word in their hearts by learning it and doing it. When he taught his child, the sinful Sodom's perishment would be a good example. He could say to his child, "I saw Sodom judged. It was destroyed because it was against God. God is God of judgement as well as God of grace and mercy. So we should keep the way of God. Otherwise, we might be destroyed like Sodom." As we saw, God visited Abraham's house to plant faith in Sarah's heart. He prepared Sarah for receiving God's blessing. Now another purpose of his visit was to prepare Abraham who would be the father the next year. God reminded Abraham of his promise. He also told Abraham to teach his descendants the right way of God so that the great nation might be established with them. God even let him know the sinful Sodom's perishment so that Abraham might use it for his teaching. Now Abraham realized why God came to him. He knew why God told about Sodom and what he should do as the father of all nations. However, when the two men turned to go to Sodom, Abraham stood before the Lord to pray. He begged God to forgive Sodom in the very modest and earnest way. The Lord knew that Abraham was concerned about Sodom for the personal reason. Although Abraham did not mention Lot in his prayer, God knew Abraham's shepherd heart for his nephew. Finally, after Abraham's earnest prayer 6 times, God agreed to spare Sodom if as many as ten righteous men could be found in the city. 3. Dense smoke rising from the land The two angels arrived in Sodom in the evening. They met Lot, who was sitting in the gateway of the city. He was sitting by himself, apart from the other men of the city. When he saw the strangers, he got up to meet them. He recognized them as godly men and he invited them to his home to spend the night. But Lot prepared for them a simple supper of tough and tasteless bread. No one in his family helped him. This poor service revealed his low spiritual state. It was cleary contrasted with the wholehearted hospitality of Abraham and his household. That night, all the men of the city came to Lot's house. They demanded that he turn the strangers over to them. They wanted to sexually abuse them. Lot tried to compromise by offering his daughters instead, but he was despised and berated as an alien and judge, and they tried to grab him. This scene shows what terrible state Sodom was in. They were totally blind in their sins. The angels could not find even only one righteous man in it. How, then, did God deal with this city full of sins? God rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah. From heaven, sulfur was poured down like rain. Whether it was a human or an animal, all living things were melted out like ice on the stove. All houses and buildings were broken to pieces. There was no one who could hide from the punishment. Nothing was left after the killing rain. God's judgement was so fierce and so thorough. God’s punishment was so powerful and so complete. God is very patient and gives people many chances to repent. However, when people reject God’s word and harden their hearts continually, God does not stand them any more. He punishes their arrogance and stubbornness to the fullest. Lot was saved with his two daughters by the mercy of God. God remembered Abraham's earnest prayer for him. Even if Lot was warned by the angels to hurry up, he stupidly hesitated to leave the city of sins. But the angles held his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city. Now look at verse 27-28. "Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the LORD. / He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace." Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the Lord. He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace. What did he think of when he saw the destroyed city? Certainly, He engraved judging God and the result of sins in his heart. Also, he decided to teach the right way of God to his child who would be born the next year. As the descendants of Abraham, as those who follow in his footsteps of faith, we should always remember that God is the "Judge of all the earth." We must not only love but also fear this judging God. If we love and fear God, we can keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just. (19) Then God can establish the great nation through us. God can fulfill the promise he made to Abraham. As the Bible teachers, as Abrahams of this time, we should tell the story of Sodom to the people who do not fear God. Especially as a servant for English worship service, we should testify the story to the foreign students who don't know God judges the sinners. We should teach them the right way of God so that they may not be perished but may belong to the great nation. We should declare that on the final day, they will be judged unless they do not follow what is right and just. Our society has become so relative that they criticise and reject the absolute truth that we declare. There is always a great spiritual battle when we teach what is right and just. However, we must remember the great nation of God has grown from one person, Abraham to billions of people in the world in spite of all challenges and difficulties. We must believe the great nation will be bigger and stronger when we do our best to teach people to do what is right and just. This time, I pray God may help us to fear God and follow his words with our full strength. I pray God may help us to lead people to keep the way of God so that they may not be judged but may enter the great nation coming from Abraham. Reference : 1. http://sarahbarry.org/messages/book/Genesis/1992/53 2. http://www.washingtonubf.org/BibleMaterials/Genesis2004/Genesis13_msg.html |
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