GENESIS 18


4 Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree:

Abraham is our example towards strangers and guests and brethren and sisters (Heb 13;1) Fear not to entertain (philonexia = hospitableness from philoxenos = fond of guests) strangers.

...We Know not the day nor the hour, but that we are living in the last times is sure and certain.

Abraham sat in his tent in the heat of the day, when Yahweh appeared, as three shaddai (powerful ones, not Adam/mortals).

Yet they appeared as men, although mighty celestial beings and messengers of Yahweh and suddenly interrupted his reverie. What was Abraham thinking? Will we be like the five wise virgins who had their lamps full of oil, or the five foolish virgins besotted with this world and mundanities.

Abraham was immediately hospitable to these strangers. Notice this. He was not aloof and self-centred, rather warm, sacrificial, and eager to give rest and succour to these thirsty and weary travellers in the heat of the day who had come from afar. He did not close the door on them and hurry off. He did not treat them like lepers, outcasts and unclean and withold communication. This is all the flesh.

Bro Richard Lister - The Apocalyptic Messenger



18 Seeing that [Avraham] shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?

19 For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of Yahweh, to do justice and judgment; that Yahweh may bring upon [Avraham] that which he hath spoken of him.

In these things he was a model man, as also in the lowly view that he took of his own case when he confessed himself to be "but dust and ashes." He was a man of unstaggering faith, under circumstances of the most faith-trying character it is possible to conceive of (Rom. 4:19, 20). His works were as great as his faith (Jas. 2:23), as his willingness to offer up his only son and heir testifies.

His intercession for Sodom illustrates equally his profound regard for righteousness, and the mercifulness of his disposition.

The Christadelphian, Sept 1888



26 And Yahweh said, If I find in Sodom 50 righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.

27 And [Avraham] answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto Yahweh, which am but dust and ashes:

Abraham considers it presumptuous to bargain with God, but his sense of need, his concern for Lot, drove him to it.

He does so, however, in a very reverential manner which can well be imitated by us in our approaches to the Father. Abraham was "heir of the world" (Rom. 4:13), and yet manifested deep humility towards God.

Bro HP Mansfield - The Christadelphian Expositor