Genesis 18-19

Notes compiled from my BSF group

GOD AND TWO ANGELS VISIT ABRAHAM (Genesis 18:1–15)

Abraham treats his visitors with the best he has (Genesis 18:6-8)
Abraham received the famous three visitors. This first was the Lord Himself, and the other two were angels who had an assignment the following day at Sodom and Gomorrah. When Abraham received them, he gave them "three measures of meal" (Genesis 18:6). From that day to this, in both the Jewish and Arab cultures, the "three measures of meal" are emblematic of a fellowship offering.

Along with three measures of meal, Abraham also brought out some of his best offerings: a choice, tender calf, curds, and milk.


God promises Abraham that in a year, he and Sarah will have a son (Genesis 18:10)


Genesis 17:21
"But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year."

Genesis 18:10
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 doubts God's promise (Genesis 18:11-15)
Sarah listened to God reiterate His promise to Abraham in a hidden place. She expressed doubt because she did not think it was possible for such a promise to be fulfilled because both she and Abraham were well beyond child-bearing age. Sarah thought she was alone with her thoughts, but God still heard her and told her that He knew she doubted Him, despite Sarah lying about it to try and cover up her guilt (Genesis 17:15).

By faith, Sarah gives birth to Isaac

Hebrews 11:11
"By faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered Him faithful who had made the promise."

Perhaps it was this incidence that allowed Sarah to finally be able to have faith in God's promise! By having faith in the fulfillment of God's promise, she became the mother of a great nation.

Luke 1:45
"Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!"

With man, things may be impossible -- But with God, nothing is impossible
With Sarah, we see that often times, what we may not think is possible can be easily fulfilled by God. Our faith in God ought to be stronger than our doubts about human abilities, because God is UNLIMITED.

Genesis 18:14
"Is anything too hard for the LORD?"

Mark 10:27
"Jesus looked at them and said, 'With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.'"

Luke 1:37
"For no word from God will ever fail."


ABRAHAM IS A FRIEND OF GOD (Genesis 18:16-19)

God reveals His plans to Abraham (Genesis 18:17-19)
Because Abraham was a "Friend" of God, God told Abraham about His judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah.

God reveals His plans to those who are His Friends
Abraham was a Friend of God in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, the disciples were Friends of Jesus.

"Friend" is a title given to people by God who have complete faith in God and trust God completely. And to His Friends, God shares His plans with them.

Here, we see God telling Abraham about His plan to judge Sodom and Gomorrah. God did not have to reveal His plan to anyone. However, as we see here, God keeps no secrets from His Friends. This is why God told Abraham about Sodom. This is also why Jesus told His disciples about 

Have the ears to hear

In order to hear what God has to say, we must be willing to listen. We must be open to the truth. We cannot just choose to listen to what pleases us. If we are not willing to learn or to listen, then we will not hear from God.

Mark 4:24-25
'"Consider carefully what you hear," he continued. "With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.'"

John 16:13-14
"But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you."



GOD'S JUDGMENT (Genesis 18:20-33)

1. God pronounces judgment when there is grievous sin (Genesis 18:20).

2. God does not judge the righteous (Genesis 18:22-33).

Abraham intercedes for the righteous (Genesis 18:22-33)

Because of Abraham's intercession, Lot (Abraham's nephew) was saved.

Genesis 19:29
"When God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived."

BSF asked, "Since God already knew the number of righteous men in Sodom, why do you think He let Abraham continue in his prayers?"

The question should not "why do you think God let Abraham continue in his prayers." 

Prayers are our way of communicating with God, telling Him our problems and fears, just talking to God in general. God is not going to stop us from praying just because He knows the answer. A parent would never tell her child to stop going to her for help just because the parent knows what is going on.

As long as we seek God with a sincere heart, there is no reason to be afraid of going to God with our questions. We see in the passage that Abraham approached God with great sincerity. He did not mean to be annoying or joking around just for fun. Abraham was truly worried about the death of the righteous people, and he prayed to God to have those righteous lives be spared.

We are God’s children. We do not always know what’s going on, and through Abraham, we learn that when we don't understand what’s going on, we can ask God, and God will answer us.

The Holy Spirit guides our prayers

Romans 8:26-27
"In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God."

We may not always know what to pray for. And if we don't, ask for help. This should be our base attitude. Any time we do not know how to do a certain thing or if we don’t understand a certain thing, we should just go to God and seek for His understanding. Through the Holy Spirit, God will guide us to maturity, and we will learn the answers to the questions that we have.


LOT BARELY ESCAPES GOD'S JUDGMENT (Genesis 19)

Lot could not influence the men of Sodom (Genesis 19:9)
Lot asked the men of Sodom to not bother his visitors. However, they disregarded Lot's plead and told him to "Get out of our way" and went on to break down his door.

Lot could not influence his sons-in-law (Genesis 19:14)
When Lot told his sons-in-law to leave because God's judgment was coming, they thought he was joking. In contrast, Noah received full respect from his family and was able to save his entire family from the Flood judgment.

Lot could not influence his wife (Genesis 19:26)
Lot and his family were warned to not look back as they leave Sodom and Gomorrah, but Lot’s wife could not help herself. She looked back and became a pillar of salt.

By looking back, Lot's wife lingered for the materialistic belongings that she had left behind. Instead of looking forward to her eternal life, her behavior showed that she valued those short-lived worldly treasures more.

Lot should have heeded past signs
When Abram and Lot parted ways (Genesis 13), Lot knew people of Sodom were wicked and sinning greatly against the Lord (Genesis 13:13). However, Lot still chose to live among the wicked.

Had Lot followed God and heeded God’s warnings, Lot could have avoided such a tragic ending.

God shows Lot mercy
Despite Lot's bad choices, God still provided a safe pass to him. When Lot requested to be relocated to a small town nearby, God also granted his wish.

Build ourselves as Christians solidly based in Jesus

1 Corinthians 3:10-15
"By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames."

In this passage, Paul is telling us about how to build ourselves as Christians.

Our foundation is always based on Jesus (1 Corinthians 3:11). As we continue to build, we have the option of using "many different types of materials," from high quality gold to cheap straw. High quality gold is used to symbolize wise, godly decisions, whereas cheap straw is used to symbolize weak faith or the lack of God in our decisions. 

When we build with high quality materials, the house that we build will be able to withstand the worst kind of weather. That is, when we have solid faith, Satan may try and attack us and shake our faith, but we will be able to fight Satan off with our faith in the Lord. However, when we build with cheap straw, a simple small fire can burn the whole house down--the simplest of Satan's attacks would deter us from walking with Jesus.

"The Day will bring it to light"
Why does Paul say, "The Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames."

The Day refers to the Day of the Lord, when God releases His Wrath to judge Earth and Earth-dwellers. During this time, the quality of what we have chosen to build our lives with will be revealed by God's Fire.

"If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward"
If we built upon Jesus and lived a life devoted to following God's Will, our faith will stand the test. We will not be judged at the Great White Throne but will be rewarded for our works at the Bema seat of Christ.

"If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames."
If we have accepted Jesus but still go through life making ungodly choices, following our will instead of listening to God's Will, continuing to sin even though we ought to know better, although WE WILL NOT LOSE OUR SALVATION, we will, as Paul described, merely escape through the flames. We will suffer loss -- We will lose the worldly treasures that we hold dear -- but at least our salvation will allow us to survive God's fire.

The point Paul is illustrating here is do not be like the one who just barely escaped the fire. God gave us a strong foundation, and when we build upon Him, we should do so with care. We should choose carefully the materials we continue to build, as we become more mature Christians. If we were once an alcoholic, and we become a Christian, do we keep on drinking alcohol? No, we should switch over to a better material: Instead of relying on alcohol, we should start relying on Jesus with our worries and problems. When we have anger issues and are extremely impatient and unforgiving, and we become a Christian, do we still go on behaving in an ungodly manner? No, we should switch over to a better material: We should be more loving, more understanding; essentially, learning to be more and more like Jesus.

In Lot’s case, God had given him many blessings. However, Lot chose to live among the most ungodly people of Sodom. And look what happened to him: He barely escaped. His wife got turned into a pillar of salt and his daughters had incestuous relationship with him because they both lost their husbands (Genesis 19:30-38).

When we are not careful with the materials we choose to build our lives with, we will not lose our salvation, but we will end up in situations that leave us with very little comfort and a lot of trouble.

Paul warns us not to be those who barely escapes. Paul encourages us to be those whose works can stand the test of fire.


NOTHING GOOD COMES FROM DISOBEYING GOD

When Abraham and Sarah took matters into their own hand and had a son, Ishmael, through Hagar, history shows that Ishmael became the father of one of Israel's greatest enemies.

Here, we see also that by not following God's will, Lot also gave rise to two nations (Moabites and Ammonites) that to this day remain enemies of Israel (Deuteronomy 2:9; 19; 23:3-5; Numbers 25:1; Judges 3:29; Ruth 1:4; 4:13-17; Nehemiah 13:1-2; Jeremiah 48:47; Zephaniah 2:9; Matthew 1:5-6).