Visitors at Mamre: Promise, Plea, and the Fate of Sodom
by Jeremy Painter
April 29, 2026 · Abundant Hope Fellowship, Bremerton, Washington
Kind: Bible study
Scripture: 1 Timothy 3:1-2, Titus 1:7-8, Hebrews 13, 1 Peter 3:1-7, Genesis 1:26

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/jeremy-painter--visitors-at-mamre
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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Let's open our Bibles to Genesis 18, Genesis chapter 18, the first verse, right last week, if you recall, God reiterated His promise to Abraham. He's done that several times now. And this time in response, Abraham was circumcised and then his whole family with him or his sons and male servants. And we turn the page to chapter 18 and we arrive at a momentous story, one that will be revisited over and again throughout the rest of Scripture. In fact, you're going to see this topic, the topic of this story reiterated all the way to the book of Revelation to the very end. And today, I'm going to try to do something I haven't done in any previous Bible study. I'm going to try and combine two chapters because I really don't feel like I can split up 18 and 19. They're so intricately interwoven that I need to put them together. So let's read through chapters 18 and 19 together as a public reading.

We read together as a church. And then I just want to go through passage or section by section of what we've read. And the Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth and said, Oh Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought up, wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree while I bring a morsel of bread that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on, since you've come to your servant. So they said, Do as you have said. And Abraham went quickly into the tent to Sarin said, Quick, three sea is a fine

flower, need it, make cakes. Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf, tender and young, and gave it to a young man who prepared it quickly. Beal, I guess you would call that. Then he took curds and milk in the calf that he prepared and set it before them. He stood by them under the tree while they ate. They said to him, Where's Sarah, your wife? And he said, She's in the tent. The Lord said, I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah, your wife will have a son. And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years, the way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, After I'm worn out, my Lord is old, shall I have pleasure? The Lord said to Abraham, Why did Sarah laugh? And say, Shall I indeed bear a child now that I'm old? Is

anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time, I will return to you about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son. But Sarah denied it, saying, I didn't laugh. For she was afraid. He said, No, but you did laugh. Oh, that's, but you did laugh. Then the men set out from there, and they looked down towards Sodom. And Abraham went with them to set them on their way. The Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham what I'm about to do? Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a mighty and great nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him, I have chosen him that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him. Then the Lord said, Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and their sin is

very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me, and if not, I will know. So the men turned from there and went towards Sodom. But Abraham still stood before the Lord. Then Abraham drew near and said, Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city, will you then sweep with a place and not spare it for the fifty just who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked. Far be that from you, shall not the judge of all the earth do what's just? And the Lord said, If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake. Abraham answered and said, Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who

am but dust and ashes. Suppose five in the fifty are righteous. Five of the fifty righteous are lacking, will you destroy the whole city for lack of five? He said, I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there. Again he spoke to him and said, Suppose forty are found there. He answered, For the sake of forty, I will not do it. Then he said, Oh, let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak, Suppose thirty are there. He answered, I will not do it if I find thirty there. He said, Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, Suppose twenty are found there. He answered, For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it. Then he said, Oh, let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there. He answered, For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it. And the Lord went his way. When he had finished

speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place. The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, rather, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed himself with his face to the earth and said, My lords, please turn aside to your servant's house and spend the night and wash your feet. Then you may rise up early and go on your way. They said, No, we will spend the night in the town square. But he pressed them strongly so they turned aside to him and entered his house. He made a feast and baked unleavened bread and they ate. But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man surrounded the house. They called to Lot. Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them. Lot went out

to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him and said, I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. Behold, I have two daughters who have not known any man. Let me bring them out to you and do to them as you please. I keep reading without comment. It will come. Okay, but only do these do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof. But they said, stand back. They said, this fellow came to Sodom, speaking of Lot here. In other words, he's an immigrant and he has become the judge. Now we will deal worse with you than with them. Then they pressed hard against the man, Lot, and drew near to break the door down. But the men, that is the angels, reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them and shut the door. They struck with blindness the men who were at the entrance of the house both

small and great so that they wore themselves out for groping for the door. Then the men said to Lot, have you anyone else here? Sons in law, daughters, sons, anyone you have in the city, bring them out of the place. We're about to destroy this place. They outcry against its people, has become so great before the Lord, the Lord has sent us to destroy it. So Lot went out and said to his sons in law, who were to marry his daughters. Up, get out of this place for the Lord is about to destroy the city. But he seemed to his sons in law to be justing. And as morning dawned, the angels urged Lot saying, Up, take your wife and your daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city. But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought

him out and set him outside the city. And as they brought them out, one said, Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills lest you be swept away. And Lot said to them, Oh, no, my lords, behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness in saving my life. But I cannot escape to the hills, lest the disaster overtake me and I die. Behold, this city is near enough to flee to. It's a little one. Let me escape there. Is it not a little one? And my life will be saved. He said to him, Behold, I grant you this favor also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken. Escape there quickly, for I can do nothing till you arrive there. Therefore the name of the city was called Zohar. Zohar means little city. The sun had risen on the earth when

Lot came to Zohar. Then the Lord reigned on Sodom and Gomorrah, sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven. He overthrew those cities and all the valley, all the inhabitants of the city, and what grew on the ground. But Lot's wife behind him looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord, and he looked down towards Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley, and he looked and behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace. So it was that when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived. We're not quite done. Verse 30, Now Lot went up out of Zohar and lived in the hills with his two daughters for he was afraid to live

in Zohar. So he lived in a cave with his two daughters. And the firstborn said to the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of all the earth. Come let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father. So they made their father drink wine that night, and the firstborn went in and lay with her father. He did not know when she lay down or when she arose. The next day, the firstborn said to the younger, Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine tonight also, then you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father. So they made their father drink wine that night also, and the younger arose and lay with him. And he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.

Thus, both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father. The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day. The younger also bore a son and called his name Ben Nami. He is the father of the Ammonites to this day. All right, that is a lot to take in, especially the chapter 19. But let's start with 18, 18 and 1. Bear with me. I'm reading through these scriptures. I'm going to read through section by section now and then comment. All right, 18 and 1. Let's read carefully, because it's setting the stage for chapter 19. The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, and he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, bowed himself down

to the earth, and said, O Lord, if I found favor in your sight, don't pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, wash your feet, rest yourselves under the tree, while I bring a morsel of bread that you may refresh yourselves. And after that, you may pass on since you have come to your servant. So they said, Do as you've said, and Abraham went quickly into the tent to Sarah and said, Quick, threesie is a fine flower, need it, make cakes. Abraham ran to the herd, took a calf, tender and young, gave it to a young man who prepared it quickly. Then he took curds and milk in the calf that he prepared and said it before them, and he stood by them under the tree while they ate. Okay, this location, the oaks of Mamre, have been mentioned before. It's where Abraham built his first altar after leaving Egypt. That's in chapter 13, all right. This monumental story begins at

the site of a tree. Don't really know why Scripture mentions these oaks. But I suppose when the Bible's about to tell a really important story, I like to think it starts with a tree. Any tree huggers in here. By the time this story is over, God's judgment will be poured out. And Genesis, the story of the fall of mankind begins with a tree and man's salvation is going to involve a tree. And it seems like whenever Scripture's going to tell us a really important story, there's some kind of tree involved. The same was true with the story of Gideon, which we'll get to months from now. But here we are. Abraham has a tent in what we are to imagine as a shady grove created by tall old oak trees. And it's the heat of the day. We don't know what time of year it is exactly, but we can imagine that it's very hot. This would be a time after the work

has been done from the morning. And before the work is going to be done in the evening, there's that time in the middle of the day when it's hottest. And in the Middle East, typically people go find some cool place to lay down and take a siesta. And this is what Abraham was probably doing. He was no doubt under the shade of one of those trees in his tent. And then maybe he's nodding off outside the tent. And then all of a sudden, three men are standing in front of him. Now, Abraham doesn't necessarily know yet whom he's dealing with. We, the reader, know who he's dealing with. Why? Because 18-1 said what? The Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre. Okay, the Lord appeared. So we already know. We know more than Abraham knows at this point. We know that this is the Lord Abraham does not. He just sees three men. Suddenly appeared. Maybe he thought I was sleeping

and then I woke up and here, whoa, three guys standing in front of me. Notice what Abraham does. Even though he doesn't necessarily know the identity of these people, he still is hospitable. He's hurrying around. He does refer to one of them as my Lord. But that's just a polite, it's out on eye. He says out on eye, which is just another way of referring politely to somebody who's either your social equal or your superior. And he says, he sees these three men standing there. It's blazing hot outside. It's the middle of the day. They've probably been journeying, he thinks. So they're probably hungry. They need refreshed. His instinct is he doesn't ask who they are first. You're not supposed to ask before you take care of somebody. You don't ask their identity. This is true if you open up in the the Iliad and the Odyssey written, composed by Homer, 3,000 years ago, you don't ask the identity of the person that

you're going to serve. You serve them first and then you ask their identity. Abraham doesn't ask. He just starts hurrying around. You're supposed to imagine, here's this 90-something year old man. He's 99 now. And he's hurrying around in the heat of the day. He goes from standing to all of a sudden bustling. And he runs into the tent. You can just see him open up the flap of the tent. There's Sarah in there. He doesn't even have time for verbs. He just says, quick, three C's a fine flower. I love it. That's so, it's so well told. He doesn't even say no verbs. Just quick, three C's a flower. There are three men out there. Cia is like two, two courts. Sorry, two, two leaders. That's a lot, a lot. Like he's going to, he's going to put on a lot of food for these people. And he doesn't know who they are. Then he goes over to his herd. He takes out

a young calf, probably one that he's noticed before. That would, that would make really good eating. It's tender at this age. And he hands that calf over to his servant and says, prepare the calf. And then he himself goes over to the herd and takes some milk that he probably had procured that morning. And yogurt, curded milk. And he, and he, he just creates this. He and Sarah and his servants create this incredible meal for these three strangers. And then he's not done. Look at what verse eight says. He took curds and milk and the calf that he prepared and set it before them. And he stood by them under the tree while they ate. In other words, he's acting like a servant. If you go out to eat, a waiter will stand there. Now they're usually busy serving other tables. But if you go to really expensive restaurant, there's a waiter or a couple that are assigned to your table only. And

they stand by unless they're called upon. They stand there and just wait. So here's a man who in the previous chapter, Yahweh called great father of nations. And he's running around for three strangers all over the place making yogurt and standing by serving them like a waiter. I, we're supposed to notice the hospitality of Abraham. This might not seem like a really important virtue in our day, but it was really, really important back then. Okay, travelers didn't have hotels to stop at and there weren't restaurants to stop at. There might occasionally every hundred miles or so or maybe every 50 miles be a well with some, you know, a village. But few and far between. If you were on the road, you were at the mercy of the weather. You're at the mercy of strangers. And in the ancient world, hospitality was one of the great virtues. In our age, it's something like tolerance or mercy or justice. In that day, it was

all of those things, but even just as importantly was hospitality to people. And Abraham is, is just, he's just doing everything right. This is the kind of man he is. It's also the kind of man he displayed himself to be with Lot. He went and took off after Lot and took care of Lot, rescued him from Damascus, and he's rescued the people of Sodom and Gomorrah before. And at one point when he had a dispute rising up between his family and Lot's family, his nephew's family, he let Lot choose wherever he wanted to go. It's just, this is an extraordinarily gracious human being. And here he's displaying hospitality to people. He doesn't know, all right. And I think we should step back from that for just a moment. This is not what a classic theological point, but hospitality is super important. God still seems to honor hospitality. 1 Timothy chapter 3 says this, the saying is sure whoever wants to be in the

office of a bishop desires a noble task. What a bishop must be above reproach, married once, temperate, sensible, respectable, apt to teach, and hospitable, hospitable. Isn't that something? He's supposed to be a good teacher. He's supposed to be, he's supposed to be respectable. He's not supposed to be a drunk. He's supposed to be, he's not supposed to be a philanderer and hospitable. Titus chapter 1 and 7 says along the same lines, a bishop, as God's steward, must be blameless. He must not be arrogant, quick-tempered, addicted to wine. He must not be violent or greedy for gain. But he must be hospitable, hospitable. Hebrews 13, you might remember this one well, be hospitable for some have entertained angels unaware. This is the author of, the book of Hebrews is saying, be careful that you're hospitable to people because you don't know when you're entertaining angels. And some in the past have entertained angels. Okay, hospitality, super important. I suppose we don't do as much

visiting maybe as we once did. The human beings, we don't necessarily go over to each other's houses as often as we once did. But think back to some time when you were invited to somebody's house or you went over somebody's house. Maybe you weren't even invited, but you showed up for some reason. And look at the difference in the reception that you may have received. Maybe you were treated with indifference and how that stuck with you. And then remember those times where people went out of their way to help you to make sure you were comfortable, to make sure that you were refreshed and restful at going over to see them. All right, so this is not just an Old Testament thing. It's not just an ancient thing. It's something that the Apostolic Church is commander of the New Testament to be. People are supposed to be. And especially if you're in any kind of ministry, hospitable to people. How do you greet

people when you first see them? Think back about you walk into a room. You're seeing somebody for the first time in a while and you're watching for their reaction. And if you saw, what did you think? You were supposed to get, Hi, it's good to see you. So good to see you. How you doing? Smile and everything. And you got this. What did you think? I'm not welcome here. This person's not excited to see me. What am I doing here? That sort of thing should not be in the church as a, as a, as a, as a people supposed to be hospitable. And this goes all the way back to Abraham. So important. So if you ever have people over to your house, be kind to them and be respectful. And it's not just your house, but we have people who come here who've never been to church before. How do we treat them? Do we welcome them? Or do we just stay

with our own familiar people? I know it's comfortable that way. And you get into all these awkward situations. Like I don't, I won't know what I'm going to say to this person. And there's that awkward silence in there. And you don't know quite know what to say. And you're also afraid of asking too much information. And you're also, you're afraid of not asking enough. And so you're always being tested. And so it's just easier to avoid the whole situation and just stay to yourself and to the people you're familiar with. But hospitality demands that you're friendly to people, that you're kind to people, especially to strangers. This is the going, this is the faith of Abraham. I mean, God exalts this, this demonstration of hospitality for a reason. All right. And the reason, one of the reasons is it's going to be a great contrast to Sodom and Gomorrah. Look at how they treat strangers. Okay. All right. Okay. Let's go on to

the next, it's verse nine, chapter 18, the next section. They said to him, they, that is the three men, we know one of them is the Lord Yahweh appearing in human form. They said to him, where is Sarah your wife? Now remember, Abraham doesn't know who these men are. He regards them as strangers, but suddenly one of them or all three of them say, where is Sarah your wife? Now if he, they just said, where's your wife? You can kind of guess that, but knowing the wife's name. This is probably when Abraham is, oh, oh, I'm glad I was on my A game. And Abraham said, she's in the tent. The Lord said, and it's almost like watching all this hospitality. He says, I will surely return to you and about this time next year. And Sarah, your wife shall have a son. Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him listening, right? So she's already, she's already taken the flower and

she's made cakes. And now she's still sitting inside the tent. Abraham's out there underneath the oaks, standing there as a kind of waiter for these three men, and they're having this conversation. And it seems that the Lord in human form has his back to the tent. I'll show you why here in a second. He has his back to the tent, but Sarah's right at the flap of the tent listening to the conversation. The word listen, by the way, in Hebrew is to listen is the name, it's a name, Ishmael, to listen. And remember, Hagar named God the one who hears, the one who listens to me. And then she named her son Ishmael. He listens. All right, Sarah's listening outside or inside the tent. That'll be important in a moment. Now Abraham, there's a little parenthetical note from the narrator. Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. She's 90 or almost 90. He's almost 100. The way of women had ceased to

be with Sarah, that's Hebrew euphemism for she had already, she was not only, she was not in menopause, she was after menopause. So Sarah laughed. She heard about this having a son, so she laughs. The Hebrew word for laughter is Isaac. To laugh is the Hebrew word, Isaac. So she was listening, Ishmael, and then she laughs, Isaac. It's just, it's really interesting. And there, and the two of them are not going to get along. Isaac and Ishmael, the two sons of Abraham later on. All right, it's almost like there's this little foreshadowing of the rivalry to come in the, in the, in the Hebrew words that are being used right here. But anyway, she laughs, but she doesn't just laugh out loud. She laughs to herself. That's important. And she says, after I'm worn out and my Lord is old, shall I have pleasure? Okay, this is probably a reference to sexual intimacy, but also have the pleasure of raising my own child

after I'm old after. And notice what she said, put, put up on the screen. Verse 13, oh, it's on already up. There we go. Put up verse 12, the previous verse. You had it up there. Look at this. Sarah laughed to herself, saying, after I'm worn out and my Lord is old, shall I have pleasure? What does she call Abraham? My Lord. She's talking to herself. And she refers to him, my Lord. Now, normally you would give a title to somebody only when you're speaking out loud to them, but she's speaking to herself and she doesn't call him Abraham within her own inner speech. She calls him, my Lord, in her speech, inner speech. All right. Why that's important is Peter in the New Testament picks up on this. Look at 1 Peter chapter three and verse one. We're going to do a little reading from 1 Peter three here. It goes throughout. There's a whole section here and I will get to

the part where he mentioned Sarah. Watch this. Wives in the same way, accept the authority of your husbands, so that even if some of them do not obey the word, they may be won over without a word by their wives' conduct. When they see purity and reverence of your lives, don't adorn yourselves outwardly by braiding your hair. That's braiding gold in your hair and by wearing gold ornaments or fine clothing. Rather, let your adornment be the inner self with the lasting beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit. In other words, wear jewelry, but let the jewelry be your spirit. Okay. And that's what Peter's saying. It's very precious in God's sight. It was in this way long ago that the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves by accepting the authority of their husbands. Thus Sarah obeyed Abraham and called him Lord. So Peter picked up on that right there. Oh, let's keep reading. You have become her daughters as

long as you do what's good and never let fears alarm you. Then he goes on to speak to husbands. Husbands in the same way show consideration for your wives in your life together, paying honor to the woman as the weaker sex, since they too are also heirs of the gracious gift of life so that nothing may hinder your prayers. All right. So Peter, Peter has this whole section here on, here's how husbands and wives ought to relate to one another. And in the middle of that, he uses Sarah as an example. Sarah called him Lord, meaning she used the respectful term for him in her inner speech, meaning that she had a deep reverence for him. A deep respect for him that followed her, not just when she was speaking in public to people or to him out loud, but when she was speaking even to herself, she regarded him respectfully. All right. So this story of Abraham, that little word she laughed

to herself, said all kinds of things for the Apostle Peter, but it plays an important part in the story that's unfolding in Genesis 18, because it signifies to Abraham and Sarah for sure they're speaking to the Lord, because watch what God says next. The Lord said to Abraham, why did Sarah laugh? Why did she say, shall I indeed bear a child now that I'm old? Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time, I'm going to return to you about this time next year, and Sarah's going to have a son, and then Sarah denied it. She said, I didn't laugh. All right, it sounds like a lie, but in Sarah's defense, she didn't laugh out loud. She was like, I think if I laughed inside my own mind and somebody accused me of laughing, I would be able to say I didn't laugh, right? I kept it in. So I think she's good there, and the Lord didn't rebuke her. He

just said, not too severely, but it was a gentle, no, but you did laugh, did laugh, right? And he's done. Oh, I should mention, verse, look at verse 15, Sarah denied it saying, I did not remember the Hebrew for laugh is Isaac, the word Isaac. I did not Isaac. She was afraid. And he said, no, but you did Isaac. In other words, there again, play on that name. Your son's going to be Isaac. He's going to be, his name's going to be laughter. All right, oftentimes, oftentimes, you know, following the Lord, if you were to know what following God entailed for your future, you would laugh. No way. No way could that possibly happen to me. No way, no way could things turn out that well. But when you live for the Lord, you follow the Lord. There's laughter at the end. I've said this before, say it again. The name Abram has two letters added to it. Okay. And the name Sarah,

or the name Sarahi has two letters, a letter introduced in another letter shifted around. The two letters added to Abram's name is HA. And the two letters shifted in Sarah's Sarahi's name is HA. Ha, ha, you think that's a coincidence? No, it's very unlikely that it is. It's the shape of the universe. My wife called it the other day, the story that's in the shape of a smile. She said she didn't want to watch the Leo Tolstoy adaptation of the movie Anna Karenina because there's a suicide at the end. She said, I like stories that are in the shape of a smile. You start out high, and then something bad happens. But by the end, it's great. It's all fixed. It's all better. I don't like stories in the shape of a frown. Our universe is in the shape of a smile. It's perfect in the beginning. And then there's this low point. But then there's Calvary. And from Calvary on, shape of

a smile, it's going to end and laughter. I love that old song. I think I should have, I should have saying that one too. At the beginning, he could have brought joy. That would have been enough. He could have brought love. That would have been enough. But he put laughter into my soul. Amen. All right. Verse 16. Then the men set out from there. It doesn't look like we're getting to chapter 19, does it? Then the men set out from there and they looked towards Sodom and Abraham went with them to set them on their way. The Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham what I'm about to do, seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I have chosen him that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice so that the

Lord may bring to Abraham what's promised. Then Lord said, That's really, really interesting right there because in verse 19, God is speaking of why he needs to tell Abraham what he's going to do. And then he doesn't wait around, it seems, for the angels to respond. Just go straight into verse 20. Then the Lord said, Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know. That's what he's saying to Abraham. Okay, so Abraham is like a good host, they're done eating, they've wrapped up the meal, and the three men or the angels, one of them being the Lord says, All right, we got to go, we're headed towards Sodom. And Abraham does like good hosts do, walks with them out to the front porch, probably walks a couple steps down the driveway,

down the path, down the road, and, and it's just saying goodbyes. And the Lord turns to the two angels that are with him, Abraham's probably out here behind them somewhere. And he says to the angels, should, should I tell Abraham what we're going to do with Sodom and Gomorrah? Abraham's really mixed up in this because Lot is in Sodom and Gomorrah, or Sodom. So his family's there. Should I tell Abraham, plus Abraham, I'm making him the father of many nations, I'm putting a great deal of responsibility on his family. He's a key to the future of the world. Should I tell him what we're about to do? In other words, should I involve him in the knowledge of our future plans? That's really interesting. Why is God asking angels what he should do? And then you remember Genesis chapter one, don't you? Let us make man in our image after our likeness. Isn't that what God said? Who was he talking to? He

was speaking to his counsel of angels, just like he did here with Abraham. Shall I hide from him? What I'm about to do? God doesn't need information from angels. He made them. God doesn't need their counsel, but yet he asks for it. Why? God could have created mankind without any let us to the angels, but he chose to. And the reason seems to be that God involves his children in helping him with his business. His business is creation. It's the world. And so he takes his sons and daughters and he involves them. He allows them to partake in the responsibility of the world. It's amazing. So here he did with the angels. He's involving them in the management and the supervision of this creation. And later on God is going to do this with human beings. You might ask, why does God need me to pray for somebody? He already knows what the problem is. He could heal them if he wants to.

Why does he need me to pray for this person? Why? Because you're his son, his daughter. And he's trying to grow you up to the point where you have his feelings about things. You take on his responsibility. You see yourself as responsible for people. You're partaking in his creation. He doesn't just want you to be children forever. He wants you to grow up in maturity. So he gives you responsibility. So you pray, you take care of people. God could drop a bread down from heaven to cure hungry hunger. But but he doesn't do that. He gives the responsibility to people because for the same reasons that he asked the council of the angels here with Abraham, because again, he's raising up sons and daughters to be like him. Amen. Well, that's probably a good place to end. We didn't get very far halfway through chapter 18, but it's there's a lot of rich material in here. We can we can do this for

a few more weeks. I think last thing I'll say on that God is making Abraham great. He's going to make him the father of nations. So he wants to involve him in the council about the future. Think about think about as we close, think about what God might be wanting you to pray for and wanting you to take care of the rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel was once asked, where was God during the Holocaust? And this rabbi who went through the Holocaust to prisoner of Auschwitz, he said, the question is not where was God in the Holocaust? The question was where was man? We are brothers keeper. If something's going to be done, it's up to us to do it. Principles are going to have to be put into practice by God's people. So we have this responsibility and creation and we have a real agency in how the future unfolds. That's an awesome responsibility, terrifying in one way, that my actions actually affect

the future. God ordained that in some way, shape or form, we have real impact upon the future. We can really be God's hands and feet in his mouth, sons and daughters. Amen. Okay. Well, let's stand and pray.