Blessings and Privileges
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Genesis 18
In Genesis 17 we learned how God revealed Himself to Abraham as the Almighty — the One who can and will fulfil His promises of blessing in spite of every difficulty. In the light of this revelation Abraham is to walk before God and be perfect, having no confidence in the flesh.
In Genesis 18 we are permitted to see the blessings and privileges of one whose walk is consistent with the revelation of God as the Almighty. The chapter unfolds four great privileges that such an one can enjoy. First he has the personal manifestation of the LORD to him (Gen 18:1-8). Secondly, he has the assurance of the coming blessing through the promised heir (Gen 18:9-15). Thirdly, he is treated as a friend to whom God confides what He is about to do (Gen 18:16-21). Fourthly, in confidence and nearness to God he can intercede on behalf of others (Gen 18:22-33).
Divine Visitation (Gen 18:1-7)
The first great privilege that the believer enjoys, who walks before God in the light of the revelation that God has given of Himself, and who has no confidence in the flesh, is the personal manifestation of the LORD.
The chapter opens with Abraham sitting at his tent door. As a stranger with his tent he is at rest outside the strife of this world. Is there not a danger, in this our day, of believers being distracted and excited by over-occupation with the events taking place in the world? Would that we knew more of the rest of spirit that is the outcome of answering to the call of God and taking the outside place in confidence in God and having no confidence in the flesh! To such an one God comes, as in the case of Abraham, to commune in the most intimate way. The manner of His coming is striking. Abraham looks up and sees that "three men stood by him." As the story develops we learn that two were angels who in due course appear as such in the gate of Sodom (Gen. 19: 1). The other, we know, was none less than the LORD, Himself, appearing in human form, a foreshadowing of the time when the Son of God becomes Incarnate and dwells among the children of men.
Divine Ministry (Gen 18:6-8)
Apparently there was no outward token by which Abraham, or others, could have discerned the presence of Jehovah. All that the world would have seen were three men appearing at his tent door. Abraham, with the spiritual discernment of a man of faith walking in nearness to God, distinguishes the LORD from the two angels, and in reverence bows himself to the ground and addresses Him personally, for he says, "Lord, if now I have found favour in Thy sight, pass not away, I pray Thee, from Thy servant." He asks to be allowed to wash their feet, and invites them to rest under the shadow of the tree while he sets refreshment before them.
Abraham is permitted to do as he had said. A meal is prepared and set before them, "and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat." Today, if walking in the yet deeper knowledge of God revealed as Father, is it not possible for believers to enjoy this sweet and intimate fellowship with Divine Persons. Not, indeed, in the particular manner in which the LORD appeared to Abraham: but, by the Spirit, Who has come from the Father, can we be led into the most blessed communion. Little, indeed we may know of it, but, nonetheless it can be known.
On that last night, in the Upper Room, the Lord intimates that when He left the disciples it would still be possible for them to enjoy in the power of the Spirit, an intimacy far deeper than any they had known while the Lord was present with them. Having spoken of the Spirit that the Father would send, He says, "At that day," the day in which we live, "he that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him," and again the Lord adds, "If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him and We will come unto Him, and make Our abode with him" (John 14: 16-25).
Here, too, for the first time we have the mention of feet washing in Scripture. Here as elsewhere the thought of feet washing is to refresh the one whose feet are washed. Abraham has the high privilege of washing the feet of the One who, in the years to come, will become flesh and, in the greatness of the love that delights to serve others will, in His condescending grace, wash His poor disciples' feet.
Divine Communication (Gen 18:9-15)
The Lord takes this occasion by this moment of holy intimacy to confirm the faith of Abraham by assuring him of the coming birth of his son. This concerns Sarah, 50 the LORD asks, "Where is Sarah thy wife?" Then the LORD says, "I will certainly return unto thee at this time of the year; and lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son" (N. Tr.). For any but a Divine Person to have spoken thus would have been mere presumption. We cannot count upon a day. God can say, "I will certainly return." Thus the faith of Abraham is confirmed by the assurance of the LORD'S own words. And still the Lord delights to assure our trembling hearts with the certain word of the One who can say, "I will." "I will come again, and receive you unto Myself." "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you" (John 14: 3-18).
Abraham hears this great promise with the full realization of the glory of the One who speaks, and therefore expresses no astonishment, raises no difficulties, and expresses no doubt. In marked contrast Sarah's faith and discernment is not equal to her husband's She hears what is said, but has little realization of the glory of the Speaker. She doubts what is said because of what she finds in herself. She is old and her body worn out, therefore she argues that what the Lord has said cannot come true, and in her heart she laughs in unbelief at the very suggestion of having a son. She is rebuked for her unbelief and Abraham is reminded that, however impossible the fulfilment of the promise on the ground of nature, there is nothing too hard for the Lord.
Charged with her unbelief, Sarah is ashamed to own the truth. As so often, fear of consequences leads to lying and deceit. She "denied, saying, I laughed not." It may have been true that she did not laugh aloud; but she laughed in her heart and has to learn that she is in the presence of One who can read the heart and see behind tent doors.
Divine Prophecy (Gen 18:16-20)
Very blessedly, in the years to come, God speaks through the prophet Isaiah of Abraham as "My friend" (Isa. 41: 8). In this scene we see God treating Abraham as a friend. Truly, as it has often been said, to a servant we speak of things that concern his work, to a friend we speak of that which we may be about to do, though it may have no direct concern with our friend. Here then Abraham is treated as a friend, for God says, "Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?" The reason that God treats him as a friend is very blessed, for, the Lord says, "I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment." The one that the Lord treats as a friend is not only one that believes in the Lord, but also orders his household in the fear of the Lord. To us the word of the Lord is, "Ye are My friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you"; and He adds, 'Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you" (John 15: 15).
Treating Abraham as a friend the Lord tells him of the judgment that He is about to bring upon the cities of the plain. But let us remember that these communications come to the man who, as we have seen, lives apart from the world, has renounced the world, and gained the victory over the world. Unless we escape the corruptions of the world we shall be saying with the mere professor, "Where is the promise of His coming?" The Apostle Peter warns us not to be in ignorance of the solemn fact that the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night bringing judgment upon an ungodly world.
Already we have learned that "the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly" (Gen. 13: 13). Now we learn that their sin cried out to the Lord for judgment, for it was "very grievous." God waits and bears long with the wickedness of men, but He is not indifferent to sin. It cries out to Him until at last it is ripe for judgment. But, even so, the Lord is slow to judge. First we read of the two angels, that they "rose up from thence, and looked toward Sodom" (v. 16); then they "went toward Sodom" (Gen 18:22); finally, we read, "there came two angels to Sodom at even" (Gen. 19: 1).
Intercession (Gen 18:22-33)
Two angels have passed on to execute the judgment of the Lord on the doomed cities. Abraham is left alone standing before the Lord. At once he takes the place of the intercessor. He intercedes on the ground that it is impossible to destroy the righteous with the wicked. Therefore he pleads with God to spare the city if there are found therein fifty righteous men. Then he pleads for it to be saved if there are forty-five righteous men; then he comes down to forty, thirty, twenty, and at last he pleads if there be only ten men. Each time God, in His grace, grants his request; until, at last, it is Abraham's faith fails to draw upon that grace of God that, where sin abounds, grace does much more abound.
At a later date God could say to Jeremiah of the doomed city of Jerusalem, If you can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it" (Jer. 5: 1). We know that Man has been found: Christ is the "One mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus who gave Himself a ransom for all." Through this Man we are bidden to intercede for all men ( 1 Tim. 2: 1-6).
What is the garish world to me —
Its tinsel and its joys?
Thy glory and Thy grace I see,
My soul is satisfied with Thee,
And earth no more annoys.
Thou hast the Father's name declared,
The Father's love hast shown;
And I Thy heavenly voice have heard,
Thy powerful life-imparting word
My inmost soul hath known.
Thou art my shelter, loving Lord,
The bread on which I feed,
My rock with living water stored —
Forever be Thy name adored,
My soul can know no need.
Yea. Thou art everything to me,
Star of the morning bright;
Thy love declared in death I see,
Thy glory and Thy victory
In resurrection light.
Love not the world: its smiles, its hopes
May lure thee on;
But cup of joy, and dream of bliss,
Will soon be gone.
Those dreams will fade, as mist in morn;
Those hopes will die;
And in that cup of seeming joy,
Deep sorrows lie.
Love not the world: it, with its lusts,
Must pass away;
Its pleasures sweet, its hopes so bright,
Must all decay.
Its glories, too, must have an end,
Must pale and die,
And all its empty bubbles burst;
They're Satan's lie.
But he who does the will of God,
For aye will live,
And drink the streams of heaven's delights,
Which Christ will give.
He'll weep no more on that blest shore;
No marvel this,
For joys well up, and fill his cup,
There's naught but bliss.
Dear fellow-pilgrim in the path,
Look up! look on!
There waits above, a home of love,
Where Christ is gone.
And pleasures bright in courts of light
Will satisfy
A heart at rest, supremely blest,
With Jesus nigh.
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