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1 Then the Lord appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. 2 So he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground, 3 and said, "My Lord, if I have now found favor in Your sight, do not pass on by Your servant. 4 Please let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. 5 And I will bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh your hearts. After that you may pass by, inasmuch as you have come to your servant." They said, "Do as you have said." ~ Genesis 18:1-5
Today, we begin our study of Genesis 18 where we find Abraham resting. What a picture provided for us because this happened on the heels of Abraham experiencing depth in his relationship with the Lord. This happened after the Lord gave to Abraham circumcision which was an object to remind him of God's unconditional promise to him. In this chapter we shall see the fleshing out in the life of Abraham what it looks like to have a heart that has been circumcised by the Spirit and trained by the grace of God.
In v.1 of today's passage we read, "Then the Lord appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day."
Yet again, God actually appeared to Abraham physically. Note the name translated "Lord" is YHWH in the Hebrew. YHWH, the covenant keeping God of the Bible appeared to Abraham by the terebinth trees of Mamre in the heat of the day. These are all physical descriptions and they demand a bodily appearance of the Lord before Abraham as he "was sitting in the tent door."
In v.2 of today's passage we read, "So he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground."
This happened soon after God had given Abraham instructions to circumcise the males in his family. And, since Abraham had already met the Lord on several occasions, he knew this was the LORD who had come to meet with him. With the LORD, came two angels who appear later on in the narrative to Lot in connection with the destruction of Sodom. This is one of those mysterious appearances of the Lord Jesus before He came to take upon Himself human life. He appeared as a man, accompanied by two angels in human disguise.
As soon as Abraham saw these three men, he ran right up to them and made the customary bow. This is how a believer with a circumcised heart responds to the presence of God in his life; he runs and falls down in worship in His presence. Abraham's worship resulted in him serving. This is the nature of our worship, it leads us to lose sight of self and causes us to adopt a heart that looks out for the needs of others.
In v.3 of today's passage we read, "and said, 'My Lord, if I have now found favor in Your sight, do not pass on by Your servant.'"
Abraham knew exactly which one the three was the Lord and it was it to Him alone that Abraham spoke. The greeting, "my lord," with which Abraham addressed the central figure underscores that he knew this was God. When he spoke to Him, he said something that will occur many more times in the Bible. It is found the words: "if I have now found favor in Your sight." Finding favor in the eyes of God is the ultimate experience in this life.
In v.4-5 of today's passage we read, "4 Please let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. 5 And I will bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh your hearts. After that you may pass by, inasmuch as you have come to your servant."
Abraham was, as we’ve seen in the past chapters, an immensely wealthy man and his words here were words of extreme modesty. He offered "a little water to be brought to wash their feet" and then they could rest under the tree in the cool shade.
While relaxing Abraham offered to bring these three just a "morsel of bread" instead of bragging that he would have offered them a big feast. Even though at that time Abraham had 318 servants of his own, he served these three men. Abraham's guests agreed to his offer in a simple exchange of words. It’s awesome to imagine that the same Lord who accepted a meal from Abraham stands and waits for each one of us to offer a similar invitation to Him.
In Romans 12:1 we read, "I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service."
Everything from Romans 12 until the end of the book of Romans is conditioned upon that one prepositional phrase, "by the mercies of God." The more we come to see the mercies of God, the more we will long to submit ourselves to Him and to obey Him. The Greek word used for mercy here means to supply forgiveness and compassion for past failures. Mercy is what God pours out upon us through the Lord Jesus Christ. Mercy is our only hope because there is nothing we can do to make us acceptable before and useful to God. The mercy of God counters the fact that we deserve hell for our violent rebellion against God.
The most difficult prayer for the believer in Christ is, "Not my will, but Thine be done." When we learn to die to self, we discover the "abundant life" the Lord Jesus offers. This life is accessed by depending upon God, who provides much more than we can imagine. When we die to self, we discover the freedom of a life freed from a life of self-obsession, and we become more preoccupied by loving others. This moves us away from "the self life" and we find ourselves wanting to serve God by serving others. It is then much easier to pay attention to the concerns, interests and needs of other people when we are no longer preoccupied with ourselves.
