BIG Volume 4, Issue 7: Abraham Meets with God

BIG Life S settings from Abraham

We’ve been gleaning life lessons from Abraham, and this time, when Abraham meets with God. This is a special time when the Lord physically comes to Abraham and Sarah in preparation for a year from now when Sarah will bear Isaac.

Last time we discussed how Abraham tried to make God’s promise happen without Him. They had been waiting for so long. When that happens to us, we start to wonder about God’s promises or we become inpatient as we wait.

Now, we will discuss all the amazing things that happened when God met with Abraham just one year before the promise happened. We will see some incredible things about God’s visitation to Abraham.

Abraham’s Hospitality When He Meets with God (Genesis 18:1-8)

What would you do if God met with you physically in this world? When Abraham meets with God, he knows it is God. He responds to the Lord appearing to him. He ran to meet the Lord represented in three persons.

He didn’t wait for God to come to him. He ran to meet God as He was coming. While it may be of interest to the Jewish people who read these Scriptures, Christians have no problem with God appearing in three persons to Abraham.

At the end of this issue, I will talk about a theophany – what it is and some of the theophanies that happened in the Old Testament. But for now, God appears in three separate persons and Abraham treats them as the same God.

When Abraham speaks to God, he uses the Hebrew word for “Sir” or “Lord” (Adonai). This is not Yahweh, the covenant keeping God. But Abraham knew these three were no ordinary men. His first intent is to provide hospitality for them.

As Abraham meets with God, he is hospitable, saying, “If I have found favor in Your sight.” This makes me wonder how God appeared to Abraham in the past. He knows something is different about these three men. You may not pick up on it in English when he uses “Lord” instead of “Lords” as well as “in your sight” as a singular instead of plural pronoun.

He sees three men in front of him but refers to them altogether as one. He knows for certain they are different. I wonder if God has appeared to him before in some physical way and he is familiar with God’s appearance. He does not want God to pass him by, but to speak with him.

This hospitality begins with water to wash their feet because it is an extremely hot day (Genesis 18:1). God comes to Abraham in the heat of the day while he used to walk with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day (Genesis 3:8).

He also wants to provide a morsel of bread while they rest themselves. They permit all this to take place. While they are resting, Abraham wants to prepare a meal for them. Sarah makes the cakes of bread for them, but Abraham prepares much more than that.

He goes out and picks out a calf to prepare meat to eat, along with curds and milk for them to eat. Did they need to eat? Probably not. But they honored Abraham with his hospitality toward them. Abraham is a man of action, directing people to prepare things. But he tells them what to prepare and picks out his own calf.

He takes the food to them and stands while they eat. He is not comfortable enough in their presence to sit with them. He stands in honor of them. Because he knows they are different than ordinary men, he stands because he cannot be overly comfortable with them.

Sarah Laughs When Abraham Meets with God (Genesis 18:9-15)

When Abraham meets with God, God does not beat around the bush. He has a reason for coming to Abraham and He wants to talk business with him. God asks about Sarah. It is not enough that Abraham believes in the promise. Sarah must also believe considering that she hatched a plan to fulfill God’s promise on their own.

The Lord says He will return to them about this time next year and Sarah will have a child. Instead of taking this at face value as a truth from God, Sarah laughs about it. She laughs because it is preposterous to her. The way of women has passed on from her in her old age. The way of women refers to conception and pregnancy, and being a mother to her own child.

I don’t know if this is laughing in disbelief are just laughing at the prospect of it all. She is interested and happens to be listening at the door of their tent. But she does not come out and join the conversation.

Sarah had tried to do it legally through the customs of their day by giving Hagar to Abraham. But she despised Hagar and Ishmael for how she was treated. Perhaps she has given up on the whole prospect.

She refers to having pleasure in their old age – referring to having children. So it doesn’t appear she doesn’t believe as much as she is laughing at the possibility. The Lord hears Sarah laughing at the door of the tent. We don’t know how far away the tent was from the trees where the Lord was meeting with Abraham.

He hears all things whether we realize it or not. He heard her laugh in the tent and what she said. He asks Abraham why she laughs and why she says something similar to what she says. Sarah said, “After I am worn out and my master is old, shall I have pleasure?”

But the Lord says that she said, “Shall I indeed bear a child while I am old?” The Lord knows the thoughts of our hearts. He understood she was laughing at the very possibility of burying a child in old age. Abraham had to have told her about God’s promise.

He asks the rhetorical question, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” The answer to that is always no. When God promises to do something, He will do it. We don’t even need to question it as Sarah did.

The Lord repeats the promise as Abraham meets with God that He will return to them about this time next year and Sarah will bear a son. Perhaps she realized how serious He was about this. Sarah is afraid, so she denies that she laughed. But the Lord knows her better than that.

God wants us to be honest about our disbelief and what we have said and done weather in His presence or not. Where can we go from God’s presence (Psalm 139:7)? Nowhere. Every action we take in word we say, even the thoughts we have, God knows them all. And he knows the true heart of everything we do, say, and think.

God wanted Sarah to be honest about what she did, laughing, and what she said, “Shall I have pleasure when I am worn out and my master is old?” He knew she was questioning the possibility of this taking place. In a way, she has always been questioning because she tried to make it happen on her own.

God wants us to be honest with ourselves about what we believe and how it comes out in our actions and speech. He wants us to be honest so that when He fulfills His promises to us, we realize we cannot do it on our own. It is a miracle that God has to do.

Sarah laughed out of fear. She must have also known that these were not ordinary men.. She had reason to be afraid of the Lord because of her disbelief. But she did not have to be afraid of God not fulfilling His promise. God promises us things out of His good and gracious nature.

God Includes Abraham When Abraham Meets with God (Genesis 18:16-21)

God does something He did not have to do when Abraham meets with Him. The men looked down on Sodom. The Lord knows what He has to do to Sodom and Gomorrah. What’s interesting is that Abraham only has any care about Sodom because Lot is there.

But the Lord cares about what we care about. That may be why He tells Abraham what He plans to do. The Lord speaks about it in front of Abraham, asking if He should hide what He is about to do. Perhaps He wants to see how Abraham responds.

The Lord involves Abraham when he meets with God because Abraham has been promised by God to become a mighty nation and should be interested in the affairs around him. God’s promise to Abraham still hinges on Abraham’s obedience and following through with what God expects of him and his household.

God has promised that Abraham would become a great nation. Now, He lets Abraham no His plans because they involve cities around him and his nephew. While Abraham is listen to the Lord speak, the Lord tells him in a roundabout way that He is going to inspect Sodom and see if the outcry of the victims of that city is as He sees it.

God listens to the outcries of the righteous when this world victimizes them. He hears the voice of All His creatures. He knows us intimately and knows what happens to us. He will bring justice at the proper time.

The Lord already knows about the wickedness and injustice that happens in the city of Sodom. But He is going down to see it for Himself. He has heard the cries of its victims and now goes to take a personal inspection of the city before He carries out the justice it well deserves.

Abraham’s list to the Lord speak about Sodom in these ways. He has just mentioned that Abraham must rule his household with justice. Now Abraham wants to know if the God he has been speaking to and having this relationship with is truly righteous in His justice. God has opened the door and Abraham is about to walk through it.

Abraham Intercedes for Lot When He Meets with God (Genesis 18:22-33)

We have talked about how Abraham intercedes for Sodom and, most specifically, his nephew Lot before. But I’m going through it again because I want you to see life lessons from how Abraham intercedes with the Lord.

Abraham is not the last person to intercede for people before the Lord. Moses will intercede numerous times for the Israelites God has chosen. But we see Abraham’s approach in his humility and that he has no delusions about his importance.

The way Abraham will be before the Lord in his intercession for Sodom shows that he is unconcerned about Sodom as much as he is concerned about learning more of God’s righteous character. He cares about his nephew and about God’s righteousness and character.

God’s righteousness and character is in the forefront of his mind as he intercedes. Abraham meets with God as he realizes God will carry out His justice against Sodom. He knows his nephew is considered to be a righteous person.

Abraham’s key concern is the precision of God’s righteousness. How far will God go in the destruction of many if there are even a few who are righteous? Is God still a good God if He slays the righteous along with the wicked?

Keep that in your mind as you watch how Abraham intercedes before the Lord. Abraham is well aware that most of Sodom is a wicked place. If he ever went to visit his nephew, he knows what that city is like.

You will notice as he speaks to the Lord when Abraham meets with God that he is unconcerned about the city itself. He is only concerned that God not slay the righteous along with the wicked. He does not believe the numbers he gives God. He knows there are fewer than 50, 40, or any other number he would bring before the Lord.

No. This is not about Sodom. It really isn’t about his nephew either. It is about the precision of God’s righteousness. Will He acknowledge righteous people in His judgment? If God answers Abraham’s questions in a way that shows Him honorable and just, Abraham is fine with the loss of a city, even his own nephew.

Let me show you what I mean. In Genesis 18:22, because Abraham has heard the Lord speak about what He has to do to Sodom, Abraham draws near to the Lord to speak in humility. There is something interesting here.

The Bible says the men turned and went toward Sodom but the Lord remained there to hear Abraham out. This is so unusual! I have to wonder if the men are the angels who go to the city. However, we know that there are only two angels in the city. How did the three men go toward Sodom but the Lord remain with Abraham?

This is fascinating! However, the Lord exists everywhere all the time. Could it be that the man leave Abraham but God’s presence stays with him? That the Lord is still inhabiting the three men and yet is still able to be with Abraham? God can do all things and this is a mystery I may have to ask Him about when I get to heaven.

Abraham draws near to the Lord. He has this confidence before the Lord, and yet as he intercedes for Sodom, he is very careful to not overstep what he believes to be his boundaries. I wish all Christians had the same confidence, yet humility, before the Lord as they intercede and pray.

But I’ve heard some Christians pray and talk about God’s promises as a they are robbing them in His face or thinking He forgot He gave those promises, and I am almost sure they do not have this distinction.

Abraham does. He knows his place and respects the Lord too much to demand anything from Him. He intercedes and asks but draws his own limits so he does not overstep his boundaries.

Abraham asks questions, not interrogating the Lord, but trying to understand how precise God’s righteousness and justice are. He offers a scenario. Suppose there are 50 righteous people in the city. Would God in His righteous and wrathful judgment sweep away those 50 with the rest of the city?

We do not know Sodom’s population, but as a city, it was not a small place. The population must have been quite large for Abraham to start with 50. Abraham doesn’t believe there are 50 righteous people in Sodom as much as God knows there aren’t.

Remember, this is not about Sodom or his nephew. This is about how precise God’s justice is. Is God the kind of God who will sweep away the righteous with the wicked in His judgment? Or is He concerned for all the righteous because they are trying to be like Him and honor Him with their lives?

God promises Abraham that if there are 50 righteous people in the city, he will not destroy it. Those 50 righteous people would have saved a large city. Abraham has his answer. But that was just the beginning for Abraham.

Look at how Abraham interacts with God. He says, “Far be it from you, the Judge of all the earth, to sweep away the righteous with the wicked.” He repeats “far be it from you,” showing he is more concerned for God’s character than the city (Genesis 18:25).

Abraham speaks to God with such humility, knowing who he is. He says, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes.” Abraham new who the Lord was and who he was. He was just a man who had no business challenging God’s righteousness. And he knew it.

But he can still intercede for the people of the earth. He moves the number down to 45 and receives the same answer. He doesn’t believes there are 45 righteous people, so he moves it down to 40 in his third request. God gives him the same answer.

The number is not consequential. The fact that God gives Abraham the same answer no matter the number shows He continues to be righteous. Look at Abraham’s humility. After three requests from the Lord, he hopes the Lord is not angry with him for persisting beyond three requests.

Abraham moves to 30 righteous people. The Lord’s answer is still the same. He is willing to spare the lives of hundreds of thousands of wicked people are for the sake of such a small number of righteous people.

Then Abraham pleads for the possibility of 20 righteous people and the Lord gives the same answer. Again, he doesn’t believe there are 20 righteous people in the city because he asks just one more request of the Lord. He asks for 10 righteous people.

Some extraordinary things are happening as Abraham meets with God. Notice that Abraham is the one realizing he can only ask so many times from the Lord. Or at least, that is his perception. The Lord does not say anything about not asking for any lesser number than 10.

Abraham thinks he is asking too much. Abraham limits himself to what he asks from God. How many times have we limited our request, thought it to impossible or inconsequential to ask?

At the same time, Abraham knows who he is and God is. He knows he does not have the right to challenge God’s righteousness. Like Job, he knows he is just a man, that he cannot go toe to toe with God concerning righteousness.

This is not about challenging God’s righteousness. It is about seeing the character of the God Abraham worships and serves. On some level, Abraham knows God is absolutely righteous. The only skin in the game he has is his nephew living in that wicked city.

As Abraham meets with God, here is what he intuitively knows: there is at least one righteous person in the city, Lot, and perhaps his family. That’s only four people. Abraham asks God a reduced amount of righteous people six times and feels that is enough.

Here’s the kicker: Abraham stops at 10 righteous people in the city. He has limited the precision of God’s righteousness from 50 to 10 people. He stops there because that is righteous enough for him. But God saves the four righteous, foolish people who choose to live in the worst of wickedness.

God’s righteousness is always greater than we can imagine. We cannot challenge Him on righteousness or any of the other beautiful and wonderful characteristics He possesses. He possesses them, for He began to make them a reality in our character.

What Is a Theophany and Where Does It Happen?

As Abraham meets with God, we see something we have seen in Genesis and the Bible for the first time, a theophany. What is a theophany? It is a visible appearance of God to humans. It is especially significant when Jesus appears in pre-incarnate form to people.

One of the most important theophanies in the Old Testament is when God comes down on Mount Sinai before all Israel (Exodus 19). These are moments where God reveals Himself in His power.

I want to focus for a moment on theophanies in which Christ appears before His birth in the Gospels. Many times, Jesus appears as the Angel of the Lord. One chief example of this is Moses at the burning bush. The Angel appears to Moses from within the burning Bush.

One of the ways you know the angel of the Lord is probably Jesus is when he accepts worship from people. The angel of the Lord in the burning Bush tells Moses to take off his sandals and kneel before Him.

The three men that walk up to Abraham when Abraham meets with God we understand from a New Testament perspective to be the three Persons of the Trinity. Another example is when the “Word of the Lord” appears to the prophets. Have you ever noticed these occurrences?

They often happen as God commissions the prophets to speak in His name. You can read a lot of great material about theophanies. I just wanted to touch on what they are and a couple of examples of where they happen.

Life Lessons from When Abraham Meets with God

As we talk about when Abraham meets with God, I can see at least four life lessons we can learn from Abraham. Each of us can speak with God just as Abraham did. We can become too familiar with God and miss the excellent threading of the needle Abraham does in his intercession.

Let’s begin with asking ourselves a question. How comfortable are we in God’s presence? Abraham knows he is in the presence of the Lord. He is comfortable with God because he has been talking with God for at least 25 years.

Some people think you have to tippy toe around God in His presence. But we are His children. He wants to hear from us and we want to be in His presence. We can have a comfortable posture in God’s presence.

Other people think you can be so comfortable in God’s presence that you can treat it like you treat your best friend. There’s a happy medium between these two extremes. We must learn how to “thread the needle” of being in God’s presence like Abraham did.

We must be comfortable with God because He is our best friend. But at the same time, this is the God who is a “consuming fire.” If we get too comfortable, God might remind us of how fierce and powerful He is. If we are not comfortable enough, God will call us to draw deeper to Him.

Here’s another question as part of this first life lesson we can learn. Do you know God’s voice and presence when you hear it or are in it? When Abraham meets with God, he knows God well enough to know that these three men that appear are actually the Lord.

I ask God to know His presence as well as Elijah did (1 Kings 19). Even though Elijah was experiencing extreme depression in the wilderness, he knows God’s voice. God comes in several ways He has come to the Israelites in the past.

Whirlwinds, fire, and the other spectacular signs of His presence do not fool Elijah. It is not until he hears the “still small voice” of God that he comes out of the cave. Do we know God’s voice that well? We live in a world full of busyness and noise. There are many voices. But there’s only one we should be concerned with.

Another lesson we can learn from Abraham is that he is a man of action before the Lord. He recognizes the Lord coming toward him and wants to stop Him from passing by. He wants to meet with God. Do you want God’s presence more than anything this world has to offer?

Are you a person of action when God visits you? Abraham meets with God hurries to make Him comfortable. He provides water, cool shade under the tree, rushes to have Sarah prepare cakes, and picks out the right calf.

We need to be people of action in the Lord’s presence. Since He is always with us, we need to be people of action for the Lord in this world. We go against the grain of our world’s culture, politics, and ethics, to name a few.

Can people say of us that we rise to action when people around us slender our Lord? We need to prepare ourselves for time with the Lord. That means making time, scheduling for time with the Lord. It means neglecting other things, even good things, in favor of His presence.

We can shut out the things of this world in favor of opening ourselves to God’s presence. God is gentle and will not force His presence upon us. Like anyone else, He knows if He is not wanted. In the Bible, God hides from people when He knows they are not really seeking Him.

Another lesson we can learn when Abraham meets God is that God expects our obedience and faithfulness for His promises to become reality. God’s promises are not always guaranteed. Some of them are conditional.

He is so good to us with His promises. They flow from His character and Person. But God expected Abraham to do as He commanded. When God set up His covenant with Abraham, he expected Abraham to fulfill the sign of the covenant through circumcision.

God expects us to be obedient to His Spirit living inside us. When the Holy Spirit tells us something we must do, as the Lord of our hearts, He expects us to do it. If we are disobedient, why should God fulfill His promises? If we are not careful with disobedience, we will be greatly abusing God in His grace.

Remember that you are in a relationship with the Lord. Just as you cannot abuse people you have human relationships with, you cannot abuse God and expect Him to be fine with it. God is long-suffering, but He will not let you abuse Him. He will hold you to account.

A last life lesson we can see from when Abraham meets with God is that we must approach the Lord with humility and confidence. We can be confident in the Lord’s presence without being arrogant. We must be careful not to “throw God’s words in His face.”

God knows what He has said to us and promised us. He does not need us to remind Him. He knows our hearts. He knows when we are being arrogant or too comfortable with Him. We can have confidence in who He is and who He is making us to be.

But we must also be humble. We are speaking to the Lord of the universe. He made all things and has done great things. We are His creation. He loves and cares for us. But that doesn’t mean we can boss Him around. It doesn’t mean we can treat Him badly if we don’t get what we want.

We must always keep in our minds and hearts the fact that we are, as Abraham put it, “dust and ashes.” We are not eternal. We are not God. We do not have His perfect perspective and judgment. We are limited and finite. And we do well for ourselves to remember that as we address our God and King.

The Saga Continues…

We are just over half way through our study of Abraham’s life and learning life lessons from him. In our next issue, I will discuss how Abraham does it again – asking Sarah to cover for him as his sister instead of his wife.

Jonathan Srock

Rev. Jonathan Srock is an ordained minister with the Assemblies of God since 2010. He received two Bachelor’s degrees in Biblical Languages and Pastoral Ministries, as well as a Masters of Divinity from Assemblies of God Theological Seminary. Jonathan was privileged to be the Lead Pastor of New Life Assembly in Shillington, PA for five years before suffering sudden paralysis in 2013. Jonathan has been a Christian since 1988.

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