A.1. Abraham entertains strangers & is rewarded by the promise of son by Sarah, 1-15
Our word "hospitality" a translation of a New Testament Greek word philoxenia, which means literally "love of strangers." What is a “stranger”? Leviticus commands: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But who is a “neighbor”? The Good Samaritan in Jesus’ story (Lk 10:25ff) didn’t know anything about the man he found wounded by the side of the road, only that he was a person in need.
18:1–8
The Place: At the oak grove of Mamre, near Hebron. Time: Noon on a hot, hot day. Abraham is sitting, not standing or walking about, and not just because he is old, but because noon is siesta time, a time for rest during the hottest time of day. Three men are approaching. What is known about them? Are they natives of Hebron? Are they Canaanites? Egyptians? Midianites? Nothing is revealed. They are just strangers.
Abraham’s response: He thinks: "Locals would be home in their houses. These must be travelers, away from relatives, food, shelter. And walking (not riding) at such a hot time of day!!" Abraham’s concern is for a way to help these weary travelers any way he can. The following verses from the New Testament are worth meditating on:
Romans 12:13 Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
1 Timothy 3:2 Now [a church leader] must be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,
1 Peter 4:9 Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.
3 John 8 We ought therefore to show hospitality to such people so that we may work together for the truth.
Hebrews 13:2 Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.
Note that Abraham initially promises his guests only foot-washing, a cool drink, a seat in shade, but he gives much more: a sumptuous meal: veal (a whole calf; so there was plenty for seconds and thirds), yogurt, and lots of delicious warm pita bread.
18:9–15
Then comes the conversation at the dinner table. The strangers ask a polite question about his wife. Not prying (“where is she?”), just polite curiosity. They are told she is inside, in the huge bedouin tent, at the rear, in the women’s quarters.
Abraham still thinks they are just ordinary human strangers.
The leader speaks up and gives Abraham an astounding promise. “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.”
“Return?” thought Abraham. “Is this a trip this man makes annually? And what does he know about my barren wife? How do these strangers know Sarah is without a son or wants one or is young enough to have one? And who is he to make such a prediction?”
Abraham is too polite to dispute his guest’s well-meaning remark.
But Sarah is not in rear at all: she is eavesdropping behind the entrance flap.
When she hears the preposterous promise by the ignorant traveler, she smiles silently at his naiveté. Silently she thinks “Doesn’t he know this is out of the question? I’m past 90 and long beyond having periods.”
But to everyone’s surprise, the visitor reads her thoughts! "Nothing impossible for Yahweh," he says. “I will return and she will have a son.”
Sarah’s denials are overruled. Admittedly, the stranger has said nothing that requires that he is claiming himself to be Yahweh: he only claims that Yahweh can do it, and that he expects to see the result the next time he comes a year from now. But Abraham knows his God and recognizes him.
From this point on in the dialogue he will speak accordingly. Strangely, when he thought the visitors were just strangers, as a gracious host he refrained from challenging anything they said. But now that he knows he is talking to Yahweh, his 'Friend', he does not hold back to question the stated intentions.
A.2. Abraham shows concern for God’s Justice, 18:16-33
18:16–33. Abraham acts as a gracious host setting his guests on their way. They are headed toward Sodom, where Lot lives.
18:17–19
vv. 17-19 are key to the purpose of this section.
First, although Abraham has been calling himself “your servant” throughout the entertaining of the guests, he is much more than that. In Gen 20:7 God tells King Abimelech of Gerar that Abraham is a prophet, and we are assured in Amos 3:7 that: “the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets”).
Furthermore, Abraham is not just a “servant” of God—a believer and worshiper—but a friend and confidante. Hear what Jesus had to say, centuries later, about the difference between God’s servants and his friends.
“No one has greater love than laying down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant isn’t taken into his master’s confidence. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I have learned from my Father I have made known to you.” (John 15:13–15)
Second, his descendants will bring blessing to all nations of the world (v. 18). That includes Sodom and Gomorrah.
Third, a pre-condition of bringing this blessing is that he will teach his descendants, and they pass on to their descendants, “the path of Yahweh,” which consists of “performing (lit., doing) righteousness and justice” (v. 19).
So God will reveal his intentions to Abraham not just because he is a confidante, but also as a kind of test of his sense of justice. Which he must have and pass on to his children.
18:20–21
Verses 20-21 reveal the test. “What should I, your Lord and God, do about the cry of oppression coming from Sodom and Gomorrah? People are being mistreated, especially strangers, who are helpless and vulnerable. I intend to be fair; so I will go down and see for myself, in the guise of one of those unwelcome and vulnerable guests.”
The Lord doesn’t say what he will do if the cry is correct, but several possibilities are envisioned by Abraham. And he began to wonder:
How would God handle the situation? Put only the offenders to death, or destroy the whole population of the cities?
In the ancient Near East, and in some clear instances in God’s own laws for Israel, there is a principle of corporate responsibility for maintaining justice: a community that fails to restrain evil is held responsible for it—as a community.
Is this fair? Is this just? Abraham doesn’t concern himself with how difficult it might be for a small righteous minority to enforce justice in a wicked city. Instead, he is just worried about the possible fate of those innocent people in the cities, when God’s judgment falls. He is disturbed not so much for those people themselves, but for the character of his God (v. 25): “Shall not the judge of all the earth do what is just?” In Babylonia, the sun-god Shamash was called the “judge of all the earth.” Abraham believed only in Yahweh, and he must be just, or Abraham’s faith is vain. The test God put to Abraham was not just to see if he had sympathy for possible suffering, but to see if he understood what the just way would be in handling such a difficult situation. His descendants will have to handle such a situation many times in Israel’s history. Their father must demonstrate now that he has a true sense of justice and mercy.
18:22–33
Notice how persistent Abraham is in arguing for God’s justice (vv. 22-33). He begins with setting the cutoff at 50 - 40- 30 -20, and finally 10 innocent. But he doesn’t go below ten. Why? Ten righteous men in a city is a minyan! This is the minimum number of Jewish men necessary for a synagogue in a city.
Perhaps it was thought that God would never destroy a pagan city having enough righteous Jews there to form a synagogue. That may not have been the meaning in this chapter. But perhaps it bears on Jesus' statement that believers are the “salt” of the earth (Mt 5:13), keeping back God’s final and universal judgment. Once the Church has been taken out of the Earth at the second coming of Jesus (1 Thes 4:13-18), God will judge the earth.
Abraham’s intercession will not prevent Sodom from being destroyed, because there will not be even ten righteous persons living there (Gen 19:24-29). Therefore, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah will not be spared, but Lot, his wife and two daughters will escape the judgment. Abraham’s challenging and probing God’s justice here was not a futile exercise. It showed the character of the man God had chosen and called to be the progenitor of Israel and of the world’s Savior. The whole visit of the three strangers gave Abraham the opportunity to show not only his own hospitality and love for strangers, but to defend the justice of his God and Friend by insisting that innocent persons not be punished for the sins of others. This assures God that Abraham and his descendants will insist on justice and righteous living, which will be a necessary preparation for the giving of the law through Moses and the eventual coming of the messiah and the blessing to spread to all nations through him. Both Moses and Jesus followed Abraham’s example by interceding for God’s people, that the righteous not be destroyed with the unrighteous. Both of them understood as Abraham did that God’s judgment was appropriate and would certainly come, but only on the wicked, not the righteous. Abraham’s love of strangers and his keen sense of justice will form a foil to the total lack of love for strangers and total rejection of justice by the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah (19:4-11).
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