God (or 3 men?) meets Abraham
Genesis 18 begins with God appearing to Abraham, but apparently God is 3 men:
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. 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.
Abraham and Sarah prepare a meal for the men, and the men spoke about Sarah:
“Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him.
“There, in the tent,” he said.
Then one of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.”
Sarah Laughs
Sarah overhears this discussion and laughs at the thought:
Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?”
But wait… I thought this was already covered in the previous chapter, with Abraham laughing at God at the thought of Sarah having a son, and God insisting that it would happen. Yet here, Sarah seems to be hearing the news for the first time. And given that all of the men were circumcised, and given that Sarah had so much bitterness towards Hagar and Ishmael, it seems like a pretty big piece of information for Abraham to have withheld.
Sodom and Gomorrah
The men leave, and Abraham walks them out on their way to Sodom. God (apparently not one of the men?) tells Abraham that he will go to Sodom and Gomorrah to see for himself how sinful the land has become. Abraham tries to convince God to spare the city from destruction:
Then the Lord said, “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.”
The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord. Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 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? 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 of all the earth do right?”
The Lord said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
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, what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?”
“If I find forty-five there,” he said, “I will not destroy it.”
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.”
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.”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.”Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?”
He answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.”When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.
That’s right – Abraham talks God down from 50 righteous to 45 to 40 to 30 to 20 and finally all the way down to 10. And God agrees that is 10 righteous men are found, he will not destroy the city.
God doesn’t sound like the all-knowing God…
In this chapter, God said he had to go to Sodom and Gomorrah to see for himself whether or not the reports of their sin were true. Since when does God need to physically go somewhere to see it or to know what is happening there?
And the way Abraham barters with God – it’s weird isn’t it? I won’t place too much emphasis on this because God could be seen as humoring Abraham here rather than actually changing his mind, but how different from the modern idea of God to see Abraham debating with him!
Is God one of the 3 men, or not?
The whole 3 men and God thing is strange in this chapter. I’m not sure why it’s so convoluted. Here are the verses mentioning the men, and God (the Lord):
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. 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…
Then one of them 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… Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?”
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?”…
When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and 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?”…
The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord. Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?”…
When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.
At first, I thought maybe the ‘3 men’ was some reference to the trinity, but as I read on, I realized it’s just confusing. Doing a quick Google, a common teaching is that the 3 men were actually 2 angels and God. Whatever it is, it’s unclear :/
Chapter 19 includes more on these mysterious man-angels. More on that in the next post.