Three-ophany? Abraham and Sarah get 3 visitors

I seldom get unexpected visitors, but Abraham and Sarah got three one day.

• One was the leader, a man of power with a divine aura about Him.

• The other two were strong and had business on their minds.

• They had a blessing to deliver and also a warning.

Read on and learn what the blessing and warning were..

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Abraham Serving the Three Angels,

Rembrandt, 1600-166, Public Domain

Three-ophany? 1897 BC Abraham and Sarah get visitors

Soon after his name change, Abraham* (1996-1821 BC) experienced another theophany, this one unique and extensive:

An asterisk* after a name means the person is in SPIRITUAL LIVES.

And the LORD appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; He lifted up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him… Genesis 18:1-2

Who were these three?

Well, the text tells us the LORD appeared to Abraham. The capitalized word LORD appears 7,242 times in the King James Bible. It was to represent the tetragrammaton. The Tetragrammaton refers to the four-letter Hebrew name of God, represented as YHWH (יהוה). It is derived from a verb meaning "to be" and signifies God's eternal nature and existence. Christians understand it to mean "the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost."

Serious Bible scholars have been looking at these theophanies for a long time:

Procopius of Gaza, (465-528) wrote, Some say they are three angels, others that one of them is God with two angels, and others that there is a figure of the Holy Trinity.

Jewish commentators explain the number by saying that, as no angel might execute more than one commission at a time, one of the three came to heal Abraham, the second to bear the message to Sarah, and the third to destroy Sodom.

More correctly, one was “the angel of Jehovah,” who came as the manifestation of Deity to Abraham. The other two were his companions, commissioned by him afterwards to execute judgment on the cities of the plain, The number three pointed also to the Trinity of Persons in the Godhead, and is therefore read by our Church as one of the lessons for Trinity Sunday.

  – Charles Ellicott's (1819-1907) Commentary

This appearance of God to Abraham seems to have had in it more of freedom and familiarity, and less of grandeur and majesty, than those we have hitherto read of, and therefore more resembles that great visit, which in the fulness of time the Son of God was to make to the world.  – Joseph Benson  (1748 - 1821) 

Abraham may have been unsure at first of the identity of these visitors, but by verse 3 we see that he recognized one of them as the LORD:

and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground, And said, My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant: - Genesis 18:2-3

Augustine of Hippo, 354-430, has this to say:

We can ask why, when there were three who appeared to him, he called him Lord in the singular, saying, Lord, if I have found grace in your sight. Is it perhaps because he believed that one of them was the Lord and the other angels?

Or rather, perceiving the Lord in the angels, he chose to speak to the Lord rather than to the angels, because when there remained one with Abraham, the other two are sent to Sodom and Lot speaks to them as if he were speaking to the Lord? --

However, that may be, we have here the first explicit instance of the Lord appearing as man to man, and holding familiar conversation with him. – Barnes Notes on the Bible. Barnes goes on to say this reminds him of Jesus appearing in the storm to His disciples:

But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.  – Matthew 14:27

I don't see that here. The LORD does not identify Himself or try to put the couple at ease.

Three-ophanypart 2 Abraham bargains with the LORD

The theophany continues in verses 3-8. Abraham and Sarah start to prepare a meal and then serve it to the visitors. This must have taken some time because Abraham had a servant choose a calf from the herd and prepare it for the meal while Sarah kneaded the meal into cakes and baked them. 

It is a domestic scene, and reminds me of Jesus' visit to Martha and Mary at Bethany.  Rembrandt captures this perfectly in his painting, which surely depicts the Lord Jesus at the center.

After they had eaten an undefined "they" asked for Sarah, and immediately after "He" said, "I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him

Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age; and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women.

Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?.... verses 11-13

And the LORD said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old? Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son. verses [14-15

Then Sarah denied, saying, I laughed not; for she was afraid. And He said, Nay; but thou didst laugh.

Some think Sarah's laugh was of doubt or sarcasm, but the Jewish rabbis say it was a laughter of Joy. And it turned out to be so. She named the child "Isaac, which means laughter. Although here it seems she was doubting, the New Testament puts her in the Faith chapter, Hebrews 11, saying

 Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.

At this point, the three men got up, looking to go toward Sodom,and Abraham went with them to show them the way. He knew it well. Twenty-four years before, Lot had chosen to go there when he and Abraham's flocks were too large for them to stay together.

Abraham asked Lot to choose first, and he looked at the lush plain surrounding Sodom, and chose to go there. This was a mistake on several levels.

1. Abraham was his uncle and senior, and should have chosen first.

2. Abraham was his spiritual father and mentor, and leaving him was dangerous.

3. Abraham stayed in the land the LORD had promised him, while Lot relocated to the east

4. The men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly. -Genesis 13:13

Writing about this F.B. Meyer notes that first Lot looked to Sodom, then moved his tent to Sodom, then moved into the city itself, became an alerman there and married his daughters to Sodomites. Meyer issues his comments as a warning to us to not be decieved what the world offers to lure us away for Jesus.

Abraham stayed where God had placed him and lived a separted life. The Lord appeared to him again and again.

Seven years after Lot moved to Sodom, the city was captured and looted by five kings from the north. Lot and his family were taken prisoner. Abraham got 386 of his servants together and went after them, defeating the five kings and setting the king of Sodom and his people free. Abraham refused to take any of the wealth he had recaptured but gave the tenth of all to Melchizedek, king of Salem, a mysterious "priest of the most high God." link to previous article

This was an opportunity for Lot to renew his covenant with his uncle, who was still lamenting that he had no heir, but Lot stayed in Sodom. Nevertheless, Abraham loved him, and sensed the two angels on their way to Sodom were going to destroy.

He pleaded with the LORD for the sake of the righteous in Sodom, asking Him if He would spare the city for the sake of fifty righteous people, and the LORD agreed. Abraham pleaded Him down to forty-five, then forty, then thirty, then twenty, and finally ten, and the LORD said,

I will not destroy it for ten's sake. 

And the LORD went his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham: and Abraham returned unto his place. - Genesis 18:33

But the angels were on their was to Sodom>

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this is the eighth theophany we have looked at so far. In each one God has a purpose for revealing Himself to someone He loves and also something to teach us today.

The LORD came Himself to Abraham and Sarah to encourage them and show them He had not forgotten His call to them twenty-five years and one-thousand mile away. He had not forgotten His promise that they would have a son, even though Sarah was ninety years old and Abraham one-hundred. He assured them this was going to happen and even gave them a date. Sarah trusted Him to be faithful, the New Testament tells us.

The LORD came to warn them that someone they loved was about to judged. Hebrought tow angels with Him to carry out the judgment. His love and purpose were the same here, in 1897 BC as they were 2000 years later when Peter tells us that God...is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 2 Peter 3:9

Isn't He wonderful?

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When Ab­ra’m, full of sac­red awe,

Before Je­ho­vah stood,

And with a hum­ble, fer­vent pray­er,

For guil­ty So­dom sued—

With what suc­cess, what won­drous grace,

Was his pe­ti­tion crowned!

The Lord would spare, if in the place

Ten right­eous men were found.

And could a single pi­ous soul

So rich a boon ob­tain?

Great God, and shall a na­tion cry,

And plead with Thee in vain?

Are not the right­eous dear to Thee

Now, as in an­cient times?

Or does this sin­ful land ex­ceed

Gomorrah in her crimes?

Still we are Thine; we bear Thy name;

Here yet is Thine ab­ode;

Long has Thy pre­sence blessed our land—

Forsake us not, O God.

Eli­za­beth Scott, 1769.