God & Abraham’s Covenant Relationship

Transcript

GRS 2-5
12/5/2004
God & Abraham’s Covenant Relationship
Genesis 16-19
Gil Rugh

We are continuing our walk through the Book of Genesis surveying several chapters at the time just to give the broad picture of God’s workings as revealed in this Greek foundational Book of the Bible. So we are going to be beginning with Chapter 16 together. Important to remind ourselves these just aren’t interesting stories from Israel’s early history, not matters of minor significance, but they are really foundational to everything else that happens in the Scripture. All the rest of the Bible is built on these events that are taking place in the Book of Genesis. What is happening in the section before us beginning with Chapters 16 and is really part of the whole section going back all the way to Chapter 12 is the unfolding of the plan of God to bring about a great nation in which and through which He will manifest Himself to the world. That nation will be founded by the man Abraham and his wife Sarah for it will their descendants that will be built into the nation Israel. And that’s what’s taking place in the events. So while they are interesting stories and enable us to see God working on behalf of Abraham and his family, keep in mind what is the central core issue going on. God is showing how He has prepared Abraham and his family, how He preserves Abraham and Sarah and brings about the fulfillment of what he has promised. And at times it seems like we come to the brink of disaster and yet God’s hand is faithfully there, so that His covenant promises are fulfilled.

In Chapter 15 God’s unconditional covenant with Abraham was fully established but remember Abraham dividing the appointed animals in two lanes, one-half of the animals in one side, the other on the other side with a path in between. Then Abraham goes into a deep sleep and in the vision he sees as God speaks to him and then God in the form of a flaming torch, smoking furnace passes through those divided animals firmly establishing the covenant. Abraham does not walk through as normally would have been done when they cut a covenant, but God does and the complete responsibility for the fulfillment of this covenant in all of its provisions rest upon God. After so many great highlights in Abraham’s life saying how God worked, reviewed Himself in Chapter 12 and brought Abraham into the land of Canaan, promised him that covenant relationship, reinforced that in Chapter 13, Abraham met with Melchizedek after delivering his nephew Lot in the battle of the four kings with the five kings and rescuing Lot and his family, that awesome experience with Melchizedek which becomes so foundational to the New Testament priesthood of Christ after the order of Melchizedek. It’s disappointing to come to Chapter 16 and see images stumble on Abraham’s part as he and Sarah attempt to help God out of a dilemma. The dilemma being they have no children. And so Abraham has no heir from his own family, though Sarah and Abraham, Sarah with Abraham’s agreement come up with an alternative plan, the well-known account of Hagar. So in the first 6 verses unfold Hagar conceiving a child by Abram and then in 7 to 16 you are going to talk about God intervening on behalf of Hagar. Then you see the grace of God at work. He will undertake on behalf of Hagar even though what has happened with Hagar is not part of His plan for Abraham and Sarah in the fulfillment of his covenant in that sense. He is gracious toward Hagar and the son she conceives with Abraham.

The opening verses, verse 16, now Sarah, Sarai, I at this point Abram's wife had borne him no children; she had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, “now behold, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Note the recognition here. The Lord has prevented me from bearing children; it is in the hand of the Lord. If it had been his will, I would have conceived and bore children, but it has been the hand of the Lord that is kept this from happening. Please go into my maid; perhaps I will obtain children through her. Abram listened to the voice of his wife. Verse 3, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Abram's wife Sarai took Hagar, the Egyptian, her maid, and gave her to her husband Abram as a wife. First instance of a godly man in the Bible practicing polygamy is the man of faith Abram. Now you note that they have been waiting a long time, ten years.

So we go back to Genesis 12 where we have the first presentation of God’s covenant with Abraham, the promise of multiply descendants and so on. Ten years have gone. It was bad enough that Abraham was 75 in Genesis 12 when God gave that original promise. Now he is 85. Abraham and Sarah are not getting any younger. It’s time to move things along. We will reach a point where humanly speaking, it will be hopeless, but you will understand we are still 15 years away from the birth of the promised descendant of Abraham. God is in no hurry and you cannot rush God. He always works on His schedule. It would be 25 years from the giving of the promise initially in Genesis 12 to the birth of Isaac. You have to wait when Abraham gets to be a 100 and Sarah gets to be 90. I mentioned that because that’s not an excuse for what happens in Chapter 16, but we can understand how it could happen that Sarah despairs and Abram can see logic in her position that enough years have gone by, we need to do something. Now this practice seems strange to us and our society that a wife would take a servant girl and say to her husband, why don’t you produce children with her? But it wouldn’t have been so uncommon in the time in which Abraham and Sarah lived. And of course, there will be other examples of this in the descendants of Abraham, particularly when you get to the 12 sons of his son Isaac; they come out of multiple relationships with wives and the servants, girls of wives. So it wasn’t strange that may seem to us, it would have been an acceptable practice in the culture of the time. But the point is it wasn’t God’s plan. This is Sarah’s plan to which Abram agrees, but it is not God’s plan. And it will only bring difficulty, the difficulty of course continues down to today.

In the New Testament, we are not going to take the time to tour there. But in Galatians Chapter 4 really verses 22 to 29 use Hagar and her child as an example of that one born after the flesh, there is an example of self-effort and the result of self-effort in religion and in conflict, incompatible with the way the spirit works. So you can’t contrast the work of the flesh in the child born after the flesh as Galatians refers to Ishmael with the child of promise, which is according to the work of the spirit. So this is clearly an action that is in conflict with the plan of God. Abram listened to the voice of his wife and in to that extent, he abdicated his responsibility. The responsibility would have been provided godly leadership here for a home because that would have been best for Sarah, because Hagar is not going to be a blessing to Sarah after this. Abram should have explained to Sarah, no that’s my God’s plan.

God has promised that you and I will have a child; we just have to wait for God’s plan to be accomplished. But Abraham agrees and so in verses 4 to 6, you have Abram going into Hagar, she conceived, and as soon as she conceived, now she despises Sarah. She looks down on Sarah. Remember particularly in the biblical world to be childless for a woman with a disgrace. Now you have this woman who had been the maid, the servant for Sarah conceiving a child by Abram, Sarah’s husband. Sarah is still the prime wife here, but she looks down on Sarah. You are not as much a woman as I am, you are not as much a wife as I am. You have not been able to produce a child for Abraham, but I have. So she despises her mistress and now you just can’t win. Now Sarah is going to say to her husband what you did was wrong and now you just cause me grief. And you see the result; Hagar despises Sarah in verse 4. Sarah blames Abraham in verse 5, Sarah said to Abram, may the wrong done me be upon you. And the Lord judged between you and me, the verse ends. The problem I am having with Hagar is your fault. Well it was your idea Sarah, that doesn’t matter and there is an element of truth here. Abram did the wrong thing in this case that there are consequences.

Abram abdicates his responsibility again in his sight, what do you going to do? I don’t want to say anything that gets me in trouble, but it’s hard enough to keep one wife happy. Abram doesn’t want to get in the middle of two wives. I mean you can’t win with one, you are not going to be with two. So he just says to Sarah, do you love with Hagar? Abram hasn’t developed any special bond in that sense with Hagar. And he says, look, she is your servant, even though Abraham took her as his wife, there is still a clear distinction. Sarah rules the house; Hagar has become the wife of Abram who serves under Sarah. So Abram abdicates his responsibility and so Sarah takes advantage of that to treat Hagar very harshly, going to let her know who rules in the home.

Verses 7 to 16, you see God intervening on behalf of Hagar and on behalf of the child she will bear. And a very interesting section here because you think with an account like this will really off track the certain things happened here. The angel of the Lord is referred to for the first time in verse 7 and the first person said to have confronted the angel of the Lord is none other than Hagar, the Egyptian maid. Hagar runs away from her mistress Sarah, probably thinking she will return to Egypt. Remember, she is an Egyptian, going to get away, going to get back home, not going to live under this kind of overbearing treatment, but the angel of the Lord found her. The angel of the Lord is a theophany.

In verse 13 of Chapter 16, she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her; You are a God who sees, recognizes the angel of the Lord, the messenger of the Lord as He manifests himself, here is none other than a manifestation of God, what we call a theophany to urge the word for God and the word for manifest. The manifestation of God in visible form and it would have been the pre-incarnate Christ; I take it manifesting himself here. He tells Hagar 3 things, verses 10 to 12, she would have many descendants. Verse 10, the angel of the Lord said to her, I will greatly multiply your descendants. You see prerogative of dead are claimed by the angel of the Lord here because he is the pre-incarnate Christ. I will greatly multiply your descendants, there will be too many to account. She is going to have a son and she should call his name Ishmael in verse 11.

Again God sovereign, even names the son and then tells something of his character in verse 12, he will be a wild donkey of a man. His hand will be against everyone, everyone's hand will be against him; he will live to the east of all his brothers. Talking about the Jews, the descendants of the son yet to be born of Abraham will be the son of promise, living in the land of Canaan, the land of Palestine as we know it. But you go east of that, that’s were all the descendants of Ishmael will be spread out. You note similarities to the promise given to Abraham regarding the seed of Abraham that would be in fulfillment of the covenant of promises. But there are no promises of spiritual blessings here. There is no covenant established in that sense between God and the descendants of Hagar as there is between Abraham and his descendants. Ishmael means God hears because verse 11 says that you will call his name Ishmael meaning God hears because the Lord has heard your affliction and of course Ishmael is the father of Arab peoples. And we can appreciate verse 12, he is a wild donkey of a man, his hand against will be everyone and everyone’s hand will be against him. The wild donkey is a beautiful and swift animal as it would have been in biblical times the animal described here, fleet of foot, very difficult to catch.

Job 39, verses 5 to 8 speak about that problem. It portrays the love of freedom of the Bedouin people, nomadic and roaming, un-rooted in that sense. What a contrast? Still a contrast in many ways in that part of the world. Some of you have traveled over there and aware of the difference, for example you live in Israel, you go to Israel and seems like you are in modern cities, there would be not that different than the cities where you used to. Then you travel into the Arab parts of the world and I don’t say this in an interrogatory way. The fact of the matter is they still live like no man’s there, so I give step back in time. In many ways to biblical times you see this on the news with the cities and so on. And the picture has been true of the descendants of Ishmael. How that Abraham knows that this seems like, well what’s the big issue? I mean wasn’t the right thing to do of this relationship with Hagar, we produced the son. Eventually that son will be sent away 3000 year later, which is the biggest problem we here on the news that has to be resolved, the Arab-Israeli problem or the Palestinian-Israeli problem, the Palestinians being just Arabs, understand there were no Palestinian people back then, the non-Jews, they weren’t even call Palestinians. I don’t believe until the six-day war, but the Arabs peoples are descendants of Ishmael and their conflict there, his hand being against to everyone and everyone’s hand against him.

Chapter 25 verse 18, we are referred to that same fact of this character or nature of him. There will be 12 princess descendant from Ishmael and how many descendants will come from Abraham’s son Isaac? We have the 12 tribes. You see certain similarities, but Ishmael is not in the line of the covenant promises. You are aware that the view of the Arab peoples on this is that the Jews change the text of the Bible. It was really Ishmael who is the son of promise and the Jews states it is the Isaac, but they are really the ones in promise, but that is not the case. In verse 13, you know this is awesome. Here you have an Egyptian maid and God has chosen to reveal Himself to her so clearly and fully. So in verse 13, then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, You are a God who sees; have I seen, have I even remained alive after seeing Him. So she called the well Beer-lahai-roi and refers to the living one, the well of the living one who sees me. Ishmael means God hears, now she names this well in reference to the God who sees. God both hears and sees. She has experienced both. God heard her cry, God sees her distress, who has acted her on behalf.

So verses 15 and 16, Hagar returns, submits to Sarah a son is born. Abram was 86 yeas old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him. For the next 13 years, that’s the only son. He is not the son of promise, but that’s all they have. I wonder what their family life was like because Chapter 17 opens up. Now when Abram was 99 years old, 13 years past in silence between verses 16 and 17. Hagar continues to live in the house. The tension doesn’t go away because you are aware of where the story is going once Isaac is born and weaned, Hagar and her son have to go. Sarah will have them living in the same house. Imagine what it would have been like, for those 13 years. 13 years is a long time. You know, we just move along in this account and say well things really move along, 13 years, every day and it is going on and now we come to Chapter 17. The Bible has got interested in just filling in interesting details that will satisfy our curiosity just to bring the important features along that will help us to understand how God was working to bring the fulfillment of covenant with Abram in to play.

Well Chapter 17, you have the provision of circumcision and the sign of circumcision given as the mark of God’s covenant with Abram. Now when Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him. Now how often God had appeared to him in these intervening 13 years, if he had so on, we are just not told. Abram and Sarah had to go on. They are living a life here. They are doing all the things that had to be done in normal life in this time in this part of the world. The Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am God Almighty. We are familiar with this name for God, L should I. L being God should I being almighty. I am God Almighty and He is going to reaffirm the covenant that He promised with Abram and He is going into great detail. We say well, why did he need to do this? Well you and I read it just as moving from one Chapter to another. Remember Abram didn’t have a Bible at that time. 13 years have gone by.

You might begin to wonder has God decided just to move on, may be you wonder that Ishmael may be after all will be my only son. Now when Abram, you and I, we get tired of waiting for the second coming of Christ, easy for us to get distracted, to caught up into things. We have to have our attention refocused, to be reminded God’s promises are sure. They will come about. Yeah, but it has been a long time we have been talking about the Lord’s coming, the Lord’s coming, the Lord will come. Abraham is 99, it had been 24 years since God had promised him a son in fulfillment of the covenant. Here these reaffirmations of the covenant reminded Abram nothing’s changed. God’s promises are sure. I am God Almighty, walk before me and be blameless. You know Abram is 99 years old. God says I am God Almighty and I am the all-powerful God. We don’t know what went on in Abram’s, but it is easy to say yes, where is the fulfillment? I will establish My covenant between Me and you, And I will multiply you exceedingly. This covenant has been spoken off on at least for previous occasions. Chapter 12 has referred to twice, Chapter 13, Chapter 15. The only previous use of the word covenant, you know there have been references to the covenant, but the word covenant has been used once, Chapter 15 verse 18

Now in Chapter 17, the word “covenant” is going to be used 13 times. There is a strong emphasis here on the covenant and the relationship between Abram and his descendants in this covenant relationship. I will establish My covenant between Me and you, I will multiply you exceedingly. Abram fell on his face and he is in the presence of the living God who is speaking to him. God talked with him saying as for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, you will be the father of a multitude of nations. Nothing has changed. Abram’s gotten 24 years older, now he is 99. Sarah is 89. Nothing has changed in the promises of God. No longer will your name be called Abram, but your name shall be called Abraham; and his name has changed from exalted father to the father of a multitude. That change of name connects him with the promises here. So you will always be reminded with his change of name of this affirmation of the covenant. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, I will make nations of you and kings will come from you.

It is not only going to be the Jews who come from Abraham. Of course, the Arabs people who are going to come from him, but in Chapter 25 many further years down the road Abram will take a second wife after Sarah dies by the name of Keturah and he will have numerous children with her and a number of nations will come from them. "I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojourning, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession.” No questions biblically who owns Palestine, the land belong to the Jews and will throughout eternity. And most important of all in this, the last statement of the end of verse 8, I will be their God. God has a special relationship with Israel that He will have with no other nations. And that is as a nation, the nation is chosen to belong to Him. He has chosen them. This is God’s promises.

Verse 9 begins God said to Abraham, now as for you, that’s the counterbalance of what we had in verse 4, As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and here is all that I am going to do, down through verse 8 everything God is going to do. Now verse 9, now as for you, usually you should do, you must do, you should keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you. "This is My covenant, which you shall keep, and all your descendants, all the males shall be circumcised. And the end of verse 11, the circumcision will be a sign of the covenant between you and Me. So now circumcision is given as required for Abraham and his descendants and it will be a sign of the covenant relationship to God has with Abraham. This will be required of all of Abraham’s male descendants even those who are not part of the covenant line of Abraham. For example, Ishmael will have to be circumcised. He is not in the line of the covenant promises in that sense, but he is line of Abraham.

As a testimony of Abraham’s relationship with God in covenant, all the descendants, all the males and Abraham’s household, all the servants who had no physical connection to Abraham, they still have to be circumcised because Abraham is the man in covenant relationship with God and that is marked out with the covenant. But the prime issue will be for the descendants of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob and the sons of Jacob. The circumcision becomes a big issue for the Jews from this point on. The problem is this physical sign, which was to be a mark of a heart relationship to God replaces the heart relationship and the Jews began to think just being a physical descendant of Abraham and having the physical sign of circumcision guarantee salvation for you. That’s what salvation was. Being a physical descendant of Abraham and having been circumcised. And you could convert the Judaism, but full conversion required you then as a male to be circumcised as well.

Some other passages, we won’t take time to turn there, Deuteronomy Chapter 30 verse 6 and Romans Chapter 2 verses 28 and 29, Romans Chapter 4 verse 11. The Deuteronomy passage in particular since it’s closely related to what we have in genesis, Moses being the author of these books, indicates the circumcision was to takes place in the heart, not just in the flesh. And later we will find the prophets requiring Israel, circumcise your hearts. I mean without a change in heart, the physical sign of circumcision would be nothing, even though it is required. But physical circumcision did not bring salvation in another self. There had to be change of heart, which was to be manifested in circumcision. Alright, so we go through that and the explanation of it, you come down to verse 15. God says regarding Sarah, as for your wife Sarai, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah. No change in meaning here really. Sarai means my princess, Sarah just means princess. But even that change connects her to this covenant, so will always be, why there was Sarai’s name changed to Sarah? Because of the covenant God established with her and Abraham, if the Abrahamic covenant, but she is a crucial part because Abrahamic covenant can only be fulfilled through the child that will be born of Sarah. I will bless her, I will give you a son by her. Then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.

Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, "Will a child be born to a man 100 years old? Will Sarah, who is 90 years old bear a child?” I mean this is remarkable and there seems to be some skepticism as you read that Chapter 17 on Abraham’s part because he says, "Oh that Ishmael might live before you!" verse 18. But we go to the book of Romans Chapter 4 in the New Testament, Romans Chapter 4, the beginning about verse 19. They were told it was an act of faith on Abraham’s part. Abraham believed what God said here. So even though there may have been some skepticism, the wonder this could happen, he did take God and His word.

There is some question about how does Ishmael fit into this. God says it is going to bless Ishmael, but the promises can’t be fulfilled through Ishmael. So in verse 18, Abraham said to God, Oh that Ishmael might live before You. God said, no God said, No, but Sarah, your wife will bear you a son. Ishmael can’t fulfill the promises. So you get an idea of how Abraham’s thinking may have gone over those 13 years since Ishmael was born. The longer you go on, the more you begin to think this son is probably the son that will be my heir and whatever promises will be fulfilled will be fulfilled in him. Even here, Abraham gives God an out, so to speak, because when God reinforces the promises, Abraham said, oh it will be enough for me, if they are fulfilled to Ishmael. I would desire him to lead before you.

New way of saying I have desired to see him fulfill this. God said no, Sarah will bear you a son, you will call his name Isaac and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. So the covenant to Abraham has to be fulfilled through Isaac, from Isaac through Jacob, and through 12 sons who make the 12 tribes of Israel. But as for Ishmael, I’ve heard what you said. I will honor Ishmael be in fulfill your request. I will bless him, will make him fruitful, I will multiply him, he will become the father of 12 princes, I will make him a great nation. Mighty people, I mean he multiplied into millions. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac. See how clearly it’s established here.

Verse 19, I will establish My covenant with Isaac. I will establish My covenant with Isaac. So I am going to bless Ishmael, but it is not the blessings of the covenant. The covenant is limited to Isaac. When Sarah will bear you at this season next year, after talking God departs. How did you do this? God went off. Evidently there we have another theophany here, where God comes and appears before Abraham. This is going to happen again in Chapter 18 and He talks to Abraham and then leaves. This would also be the pre-incarnate Christ who is the person of the Triune God, who manifests more fully and clearly God before men. Then Abram obediently does what God has said and institute circumcision in verses 22 to 27, Ishmael is 13 at this point, Abraham is 99. We come to the Chapter 18. You are going to have a reinforcing of the promise to Abraham and then you are going to give Abraham have opportunity for interceding on behalf of the Lot because God is going to bring destruction on Sodom and Gomorrah.

First 15 verses talk about visitors from Heaven. Abraham is sitting in the tent door and these three men come journeying along. He asked them, again in eastern hospitality, well here something of this being continuing in the news with the conflicts that were involved in over in that part of the world with Arab people and so on. We say, why don’t they turn over some of these people? I said well in that region of the world that will be the last thing they would do because they require to show hospitality and then protect and defend those that you are showing hospitality too. So these things go back a long ways. It is true in Old Testament times, here in the times of Abraham. So what happens is here, some strangers come by. Well, Abraham wants to show them hospitality and will become clear to him in the course of things that he is dealing with heavenly visitors. One of them will be again the pre-incarnate Christ accompanied by two angels. They are going to be the angel of Jehovah and two other angels. And he says let me show your hospitality; now provide a meal for you and son on. So they said, yes, we will do that. You know it’s hard for us to imagine. You go and tell your wife now in verse 6, get dinner ready. I mean the wife wives would say why did you invite him for a dinner? We don’t have anything. Well here they got to start from scratch. Look what she’s got to do.

Verse 6, quickly prepare three measures of fine flour, knead it, and make bread cakes. You don’t even have to get bread out of the freezer, you know. You got to start from scratch, get the bread ready, knead it, get it done and make some bread. Then he runs out, picks out one of his choice calves, gives to a servant, they slaughter it and prepare it. I mean everything is going to be fresh. They got fresh bread, fresh meat, this is fresh, little slower pace in that part of the world, which some of that continues even down to today these kinds of people. Certain things are more important to them, hospitality, the time that would take, we want to know how long is the dinner going to be, we are invited to someone’s home. How long will it be? What time we get there? What time do we go home? And we are wondering how long will our guest stay? How long will they get out? Here you have a rather long time. You got to sit and pass the time a day while you make the bread. Well, they kill the calf, slaughter it, cut it up, cook the meat, and put everything together in a good meal. Well, this is all going on, they said to sit him. Verse 9, where is your wife? She is in the tent, which has often made humors account as we sometimes think a wife’s interest might be, she’s got her ear at the tent door and she is going to hear everything that goes on. She is not invited into the conversation directly, but she is the key part of it.

Verse 10, I will surely return to you at this time next year, and behold, Sarah your wife will have a son. You see the one speaking here is Divine because when He says I will to you, means God is going to intervene. He is going to come to fulfill His promise and Sarah will conceive and at this time make sure she will bear a child. Sarah was listening at the tent door, which was behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; Sarah was past childbearing, yet hadn’t any children up to this point. There is no reason to think she is going to start at 90. She laughed to herself saying, after I become old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also? The Lord said to Abraham, why did Sarah laugh? Saying, shall I indeed bear a child when I am old? The Lord knows what is going in her mind, that’s what she is thinking. Sarah becomes defensive over this. She denied it, said, I didn’t laugh because she is afraid. Now she is struck by the supernatural character of these visitors that one can know what was going on in her heart and mind. She thought, you know, this is ridiculous. I mean, she is laughing to herself, that this is silly.

Verse 14, is anything too difficult for the Lord? At the appointed time, I will return to you, at this time next year Sarah will have a son" Abraham was not rebuked for his laughing previously. Sarah may indicate that generally Abraham trust the God as he reinforced these covenants. There was more doubt on Sarah’s part and I don’t want to read into it more than it is, but the fact is that Sarah is rebuked here and the way that Abraham was not. And we may be able to understand that humanly because humanly speaking all hope is gone. There is no reason to think that Sarah is going to bear children after all these years. It would be remarkable enough if she had born children earlier in her life. But this is someone who had been barren and unable to bear children and all of the sudden she is going to become fertile and enable to enjoy a sexual relationship with her husband that will result in a child. She finds it preposterous. After that encounter, a reminder, we need to remind ourselves of it. We talked about in our study of psalm 3, the issue is, is there anything is too difficult for Lord? That‘s the question to be answered. Is this situation too hard for the Lord? We will figure it out now how many 90-year-old woman do you know who had born children? I mean there was something in the paper, wasn’t there? Recently about a lady who was around 57, who just have twins. My question is good, having the most one thing, that’s amazing, amazing woman, vow, and keep in mind now we think that’s amazing. One could have done with the some sign of intervention of science. This lady who had the twins recently at 57 is 33 years younger than Sarah. Oh, well we move on Chapter 18 verse 16 change of subject totally, I mean we go from one awesome event to one totally different. The men rose and looked down toward Sodom and they were in the elevated area, they could look down over the well-watered plains.

The Lord said, verse 17, so clearly you see the Lord is one of these visitors the pre-incarnate Christ Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed. For I have chosen him, literally I have known him. I mean that background for the use of the word know in the context of foreknowledge when used of God in the New Testament. I have known him, doesn’t mean I have chosen him. I placed My favor on him. So he may command his children, his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken of him. You know, God will fulfill these promises as He has promised, but Abraham and his descendants still have the responsibility. And Israel, the descendants of Abraham live under the chastening discipline of God today because they have refused to be obedient, respond in faith to him.

Now we talk about God has promised, He will fulfill this, it is all rest upon Him, but that does not mean there is not responsibility on Abraham and his descendants. And the failure to carry out their responsibility will bring discipline, but it will not nullify the covenant. So what God tells Abraham is that He is going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. I am going down and see what is like. Now he knows and Abraham understands, God is going down to bring judgment on this city. These cities of the plain because of their wickedness, their sin is great in verse 20, it’s exceedingly grave. God mixed His revelation to Abraham, why? And I have listed several things. #1. It showed the extent of depravity and sin, that reveals the seriousness of the matter. God is aware. Sometimes wonder, why doesn’t God do something? He does in his time, revealed his holiness to Abraham. This is totally unacceptable. I will deal with sin, demonstrates his justice in judgment and it also provides Abraham the opportunity to be intercessor. Abram’s concerned what in his family live in Sodom? God goes down to wipes out those cities. Lot and his family will be included. So Abraham appeals to God on the basis of God’s character as a just judge.

Verse 25, far be it from You to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are judged alike. Far be it from you, shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly? He is not lecturing God. He is appealing to God on the basis of his character. If there are fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, You wouldn’t destroy those fifty righteous. I know You wouldn’t God, because it be contrary to the character of yourself that You have revealed to me. So that’s a fit argument. It’s ones acceptable to God, it doesn’t show any lack of respect at all. He is not accusing God of being in danger of doing something. He is appealing to God. And you see that in his attitude because the next statement God says if I find fifty righteous, I won’t destroy the city and you note Abraham’s attitude here, can truly humility.

Verse 27, Abraham replied, behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord, although I am but dust and ashes. So he is not telling God what he has to do, he is appealing to God on behalf of any righteous who may be in the city of Sodom. He is appealing not because they deserves something, but because God always deals righteously and He wouldn’t deal in the same way with the wicked as you would with the righteous and we are aware Abraham keeps reducing the number. He ends up going, starting at fifty and keeps asking what about if I reduce the number, what about reduce the number? So he gets o down into 10. Verse 32, Lord don’t get impatient with me, I just ask You one more thing. If there are ten righteous, would you spare the city? Now Lot has been living in Sodom for some time, surely his influence in his family and some associates has resulted in ten people. So when he gets down to it, it doesn’t matter if there is only three or four people in the city. God will destroy the righteous with the wicked. So God never intended to destroy the righteous with the wicked and even though Abram was satisfied as if there is ten righteous in other words, if there is less than 10 and you destroy them out of the city. I guess I would understand that. There is not enough righteous to spare the city. God won’t despair the city, but He will still despairs righteous in the city.

Abram and God part ways and two angels were sent to the city of Sodom. Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19. The angels come to the city in first 22 verses and then judgments exercised in verse 23 to 38. You are well familiar with the city, what we have here is a Canaanite civilization. Sodom, Gomorrah and other cities on the plain that had become servile in their sin that God will not allow them to continue any longer. So he brings their existence to an end. These cities become an example in the New Testament of the reality of coming judgment on sin. Sad, you come to verse 1 and you find Lot sitting in the gate of Sodom, now noted that progression that many others have taken note of.

Back in Chapter 13, verse 10, he lifted up his eyes and beheld the well-watered plain, what a desirable area this is to live. Now he chose that is the place he would take his family, then he settled in the valley and moved as far as Sodom. Then in Chapter 14, verse 12 when the four kings battle with the five, we found Lot and his family living in the city of Sodom. And now you come to Chapter 19, verse 1 and Lot has become a part of the city in an important way. Sitting in the game, where the important men of the city conducted business. This is where Lot now is part. Say vow, here we have Lot. He has risen. Good to have a man in his position. He has been devastating for Lot, been devastating for his family. He has had no influence. Now we think we compromise our lives and we will be more effective and then we will rise the positions, we get influenced, we are successful, we think oh boy, look at and what a cast, as Lot the example, you want a pattern life after. I want my family to be like Lot’s family. What a miserable compromise he made with his life. There is open homosexuality practiced and the men of the city won’t let strangers come in unless they are open to practice this sin with them.

So in verse 5, where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have relations with them. They literally want to have sexual relations. This is so gross, so vile. Yes it is. And that’s the situation. Verse 8, it is hard for us to understand, but he we are back to this issues of Mideast hospitality, the worst thing that could happen is that someone comes under the protection of your house is harmed in some way. Lot is willing to give his two daughters, who are virgins over to this lustful mob, so they can satisfy their sexual desires, to preserve these men. Again hard for us to understand that, but in their culture that would be nothing worse than that these guests who have come into Lot’s house would suffer any kind of harm. You know where Lot is now. He’s chosen to live in this city, now what a position he has. Offer his daughters as a sacrifice to these wild lustful men to preserve the strangers that have come. And there has not been a cast in Lot’s character living in this city. He has no influence. Now we don’t gain greater influence for our testimony for the Lord by compromising. Look at verse 9, the men of the city said to him, stand aside, furthermore, they said. This one came in as an alien, already he is acting like a judge; now we will treat you worse than them and no respect for Lot. The man seemed to rise an important of being somebody, but it doesn’t take any for them to turn on like that.

Verse 10 Lot’s pulled into the house and verse 11 the angels strike the men with the door with blindness. They are not able to find the door any longer, but they keep looking. Now the angels tell Lot, get your family together, we are going to destroy the city, you have to get out. So that’s the account, he has no influence left. His daughters are engaged, their men are called son-in-law’s because engagement was binding, but we were told these daughters haven’t had relations with men. They think he is joking, we have to get out of the city, judgment is coming. We reminded, the New Testament tells us Lot was a righteous man. He vexed his soul every day, it plagued him to live in such a wickedness. But I think that it was probably the most comfortable place, humanly speaking, materially speaking to be in these prosperous cities. But he has no influence. Here is future son-in-law’s, they have no ears to hear him, tell them now about the eminence of judgment.

So verse 15, the angels tell Lot, you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go, we can’t wait and take your wife and your two daughters or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city. That is the danger, verse 15 and they tell them to flee. They brought him outside the city and escaped to the mountain, so you will be swept away and he asked that may be he will be allowed one city. You know, here you got two angels are telling you what you have to do to escape the judgment of the city and Lot saying, you know, that won’t work. We won’t be able to make it to the mountains. You have to tell the angels, who come from the presence of God, their business, all in all, we won’t be able to make it to the mountains, we will be destroyed. So the angels didn’t know what was necessary to be served them, Lot will go and flee to the City of Zoar, but do you know what will happen? We will very quickly find out, I got to get to the mountains and that is where you are going to end up anyway. So their word, don’t look back you and you’ve got to be done with the city.

Verse 17, they told him escape for your life; do not look behind you and they start out. Lot’s wife hates leaving home, gotten the like it was. I mean these are the best people in the work, but you know, it’s been a good life for us. My husband has been successful, he sits in the gate, you note the prosperous husband; remember the husband of the wife in Proverbs 31, he sits among the elders in the gate, he is an important person. And we have done well here. Now you want me just to pack up my belongings and take off and leave all my friends and all we have behind. And she makes a terrible mistake, she turns back and looks at the city and she becomes the pillar of assault and she becomes an example in the New Testament. Look Chapter 17, of those who would hesitate and get caught up in the judgment. Hebrews Chapter 10 verses 38 and 39, who would pursue on to salvation, but turn back to destruction. Chapter is terrible in its ending. Lot’s family has been corrupted by his wife in Sodom. We think, oh no. You know, we will be influenced by, you know, it’s not just Lot, his two daughters end up getting their father drunk, having sexual relations with him and each conceived a son. The Moabites come as the descendants of one the Ammonites as the descendant of the other as the chapter ends. It is a kind of chapter in the Bible; you don’t even want to read. It’s just seemed it’s so wild what goes on in what’s recorded here and the awfulness of what takes place. It was bad enough for the city of Sodom and thereby we can just not want to find Lot and his daughters end up like this. It tells me, one of the terrible price that Lot paid to make his decision based on anything other than what would be spiritually best for me and my family.

Second Peter Chapter 2 verses 6 to 9, Jude verse 7 talks about the awful decision of Lot, the example of that righteous man. We will have the Old Testament, we probably think Lot was the lost man, but Second Peter Chapter 2 tells us that he was a righteous man, who troubled his soul day after day living in that wild situation, but he stayed there. Worldly success becomes its own trap and can #. We are moving the line along. We will have to stop here. Chapter 20 will brings us to another law point in Abraham’s life to the brink or destroying the possibility of Sarah bearing the son that could fulfill the promise to bring about the covenant God had made with Abraham, only divine intervention keeps Abraham from ruining the plan of God. The only glad thing is our destiny is in God’s hands. Abraham is known as the man of faith.

Let me tell you, the accomplishing of God’s promises to Abraham depend on God. If it depended upon Abraham, there would be no promise descendants and on the very brink of the birth of the son of promise, he turns his wife over to the harem of another man for the second time, but in this all, we see, what? God is sovereign, working through all the events. we only touch some of the key plates to see how God is working, preserving Abraham, preserving Sarah, determine that His promises will be fulfilled exactly as He gave them, there can be no other way and He is El-Shaddai, God Almighty. He can do it. You and I are to be encouraged. We serve this God. He is our God. His promises will come about, but it has been a long time, doesn’t matter. Someone say God is slow, but never late, so we think will it ever happen? God is always on time. He is always doing exactly what is best for us. Always God is right. We learn to trust him and believe that believe that He will do exactly as He has promised.

Let’s pray together. Thank you Lord for you hand upon Abraham and Sarah, the promises given to them. Lord, it’s easy for us from the perspective of the position of thousands of years later to see how all came together in Your plan, but as they day by day lived with nothing, but Your promises, they had to live by faith. Lord, we have the privilege of seeing how You fulfilled Your promises to them. We are the recipients of the blessings of those promises in the coming of seed of Abraham in Christ, provided for salvation blessings for all the nations. Lord, we as Your people today have Your promises regarding the coming again of our Savior, scoffers mock and say all things continue as they had been from the beginning, but we know better. Judgment has occurred and will occur again, deliverance will come to Your people. Lord, we need to walk with You as Abraham and his descendants had the walk. We need to walk in obedience. It doesn’t matter the long time is passed since the promises were given. You are the God who keeps His word. You are the God who cannot fail. You are the God for whom nothing is too hard. And so we rejoice that these promises are sure. Our destiny is settled. We pray that our lives might be a testimony to Your grace in the world in these days, we pray in Christ’s name, amen.