GENESIS
Lesson 18 - Chapters 18 and 19
Last week we started the story of the 3 men suddenly appearing to Abraham, that he brought
them to his tent, and that they sat down and ate what was prepared for them. There is much
disagreement on whether these were men, or angels, or some of each. No matter, something
supernatural was happening here, although exactly what that was in difficult to discern.
Permit me the folly of offering my own opinion: I have said on a number of occasions that while
on the one hand I fully subscribe to the general notion of the Trinity (that is that the Godhead
consists of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), I do NOT subscribe to the notion that, therefore,
every manifestation of God must embody ONE of these 3 persons of God in the strictest
sense. Yet, could it be that the strange visitation of these 3 individuals was as a model of the
3-part Godhead?
Maybe. But, it really messes with the traditional Christian concept of what the Trinity amounts
to if that is the intent. For instance, when have we ever heard of the Holy Spirit assuming ANY
physical form? Christian tradition is that ALL physical forms of God are supposed to be Jesus.
Did we have 3 Jesus’ standing before Abraham?
What else could these 3 have represented? What was the burning bush? What was the
Shekinah? What was that cloud that led Israel through the wilderness? What was that “Angel
of the Lord” who identified Himself as God Almighty to Hagar? Who wrestled with Jacob? And,
now, what are we to make of these 3 non-descript men who are somehow part of an
appearance of Yahweh Himself? I think we do a great disservice to ourselves when we attempt
to artificially limit the possible manifestations of God to 3, just so it satisfies and kind of makes
Christian doctrine nice and tidy. And, I think it is utter foolishness to believe that we can
honestly subject God to any limits whatsoever. He exists in a way that we cannot fathom. He
exists in a dimension we cannot enter. We comprehend but the tiniest fraction of who God is;
and sometimes we just need to get comfortable with that, and leave some mysteries as
mysteries.
The prophets who had visions of things far into the future; or others, like John, who got a
glimpse of Heaven, found these things so difficult to describe and communicate to others. They
had no choice but to use descriptive words of things they were familiar with…. animals, precious
stones and metals…fire…. stars and the moon; what else would they use? Yet, what they were
seeing was either spiritual in nature and therefore human words would NEVER be able to
capture it; or they were seeing so far into the future that words had not yet been invented to
describe things that had not yet been invented.
I think we have a similar situation here. Clearly, there is some kind of God thing going on, but
there are simply no words to describe it. So, the writer did the best he could. And, you can be
1 / 8

sure that some future writer probably tried to help the words a little bit, and has made it all the
more difficult for us, now. And, I also doubt that Abraham could make heads or tails out of what
was really going on, either. It happened. They said what they said. It came true. And, that is
that.
Now, let’s get back to something we can wrap our fleshly minds around a little better.
In verse 9 is an example of a kind of statement we see often in the Bible; and these words are
put into God’s mouth or the mouth of an angel. One of the 3 individuals says to Abraham
“Where is your wife, Sarah?”. This is a rhetorical question. This is simply a nice way to open a
conversation about Sarah. It’s not that these men don’t know the answer. The fact is, spirit
beings, and particularly God, and has to dumb things down pretty severely to communicate
with humans. So, we get a lot of rhetorical and figurative statements subscribed to God and
angels. Don’t go off on some tangent ascribing human attributes, frailties, imperfections, and
weaknesses to angels or to God because of these kinds of statements.
Now comes the purpose for this mysterious visit: in verse 10 one of the 3 informed Abraham
than he was coming back in a year, and that Sarah will have given birth to a son by then.
Yahweh’s promise to Abraham of a son has been coming about, step-by-step. First, back in
Genesis 12:2, God tells Abraham that he’ll make Abraham into a great nation, which tells
Abraham he will have many children. Second, in Gen. 15:4, Abraham is promised an heir, and
that the heir will be natural-born son of Abraham. Third, in Gen. 17:16-21, Abraham was
assured that his wife, Sarah, would give him a son. And, now, here in 18:10, it is time to fulfill
all those promises.
Now watch this basic and elegantly simple God-principle in action; notice how each of God’s
promises build upon earlier promises. And, how each covenant is built upon earlier covenants.
A new promise or new covenant doesn’t replace or countermand an earlier one; it simply
takes the sum of the earlier ones to the next level. When one builds a house, it starts with
preparing the ground. Over that prepared ground a foundation is built. One can no longer see
the ground under the foundation, but it’s still there. Upon that foundation the first floor is built.
One can no longer see the foundation, but it’s still there. Upon the first floor, the 2nd floor is
built, and so on. One thing built upon the former. Without the ground you can’t have a
foundation; without the foundation you can’t have the 1st floor; without the 1st floor you can’t
have the 2nd.
Yet, if one could somehow, magically, remove the prepared ground from under the foundation,
the building would collapse. If you could remove the foundation from under the first floor, the
building would fall. If you could slide the 1st floor out from underneath the 2nd floor, the
building would instantly become rubble. Each portion of the structure of the house is
dependent on the other; leave one out, or remove one, and the house is destroyed. This is how
God’s covenants work. The New Covenant, the Covenant of Jesus Christ, is not a covenant
that replaces the earlier ones, nor does it stand-alone. The New Covenant is dependent on
ALL the earlier ones, and it is the fulfillment of all the earlier ones…each covenant built upon the
ones preceding it. The promises of God to Abraham in bringing about an heir sets up this
pattern of bringing about His will in stages.
2 / 8

Well, Sarah… who was curious about these 3 guys, as anybody would have been…was listening
through the tent walls (not very hard to do) and heard what was said. She about dropped over
from trying to stifle the laughter that wanted to burst out of inside her. Believe me, this was not
an “Oh boy I can hardly wait for the baby to come” kind of laughter. This was a “who are
these yo’yo’s and have they got one good brain between’em all ?” kind of laughter. In other
words, Sarah laughed in ridicule. Uh-oh. Yahweh says, why did Sarah laugh? Busted. God
makes it clear that Sarah WILL have a son……because He’s decided it. And, it’s going to
happen within a year. Sarah then does the natural thing: she denied that she laughed. God,
says, oh yes you did.
As odd as this encounter has been; even ending with Yahweh having a little argument with
Sarah……it continues in yet another vein.
From Abraham’s tent, the 3 men set out for the wicked city of Sodom, and Abraham
accompanies them for a short distance. In verses 17-19, we get a glimpse into something that
we rarely do in Holy Scripture: we see into God’s mind, so to speak, and we are given the
reasoning behind a decision of God. I’ve told you on more than one occasion, not to seek
WHY in the Scriptures, but rather to seek out patterns. Here, for one of the few times, we are
told WHY. And, the WHY is about God’s treatment of Sodom and Gomorrah, and whether or
not Abraham should have foreknowledge of God’s plans.
And, at least one thing we should take from this is that God does not keep His plans for
mankind a secret. He does not keep the reasons for His judgments on people and nations
secret. He does not keep the reasons for giving out blessing, secret. And, a second thing that
we see is that God will do His revealing, and bring about His purposes, almost exclusively
through His Hebrew people…..beginning right here with Abraham, the first Hebrew.
When Abraham finds out God’s plan to devastate Sodom, well aware that his nephew is living
there, he goes into a typical Middle Eastern bargaining session with God. But, what we are
actually seeing is many things. First, we are seeing that Abraham cares about more than
himself. Second, we are getting a glimpse into God’s definition of justice and righteousness.
Third, we are getting a glimpse into God’s mercy when justice or retribution would seem to be
called for.
Now a 4th thing we see is absolutely fascinating: repentance does not play a role in the story
of Sodom, any more than it played a role in the Flood story of Noah. I have mentioned on a few
occasions that, much to people’s surprise, the notion of dying and going to heaven is nowhere
to be found in the Old Testament. Well, in fact, the entire concept of repentance is nowhere to
be found, yet, in Genesis….and it will be some time before we do see it develop. The only issue,
thus far revealed, in God’s justice system as regards mankind’s behavior is: is that person
righteous in God’s eyes, or not. The wicked remain wicked, and the righteous remain
righteous. We don’t find Noah pleading with the wicked to repent; we don’t find Abraham
pleading with the wicked to repent. In Abraham’s pleadings to Yahweh, it’s not about whether
the people who are doing wrong might REPENT and turn from their evil; it’s ONLY about
whether those who are NOT doing wrong will be judged right along with those who ARE doing
wrong.
3 / 8

We also see that long before Moses and the Law of Mt. Sinai, God is applying some universal
standard to all human behavior. The Hebrews refer to this standard as the 7 Noachide Laws.
And, in this chapter, we see that Sodom has crossed over a line of wickedness, that violates
that standard, and that God will no longer tolerate it. And, since that line has been crossed, the
ONLY possible outcome is for God’s wrath to be visited upon them. Now, the specifics of
Sodom’s sins can be, and regularly are, argued over; but, what is clear is that they are
moral…..or better, immoral…..in nature. Later, as Lot enters the picture again, we’ll get a couple
of specific sins mentioned…..like sodomy and homosexuality…..but we never get a laundry list of
Sodom’s evil acts. Let me also quickly inject that Sodom was but the primary city, and
government seat, of a 5-city district that was under common rule; Gomorrah was one of those
5 cities. So, when ONLY the name Sodom is mentioned, it is just that Sodom is representative
of the whole district. When destruction was finally poured out, it was upon all 5 cities.
There have been all manner of allegorical sermons and teachings about the purpose of this
verbal wrestling match. But, here’s the thing I personally take from it: God does not destroy
the righteous, along with the wicked. That is not to say that when God allows a conquering
army to discipline His people that righteous people don’t get killed, too. No, what I’m talking
about is when God pours out His supernatural divine wrath, like the Flood for instance, and
soon on Sodom and Gomorrah, He doesn’t allow the righteous to die along with the wicked.
There is a major difference between God pouring out His supernatural wrath, and His
permitting bad things to happen, by which all are affected. For instance, let’s say that “the big
one” hits San Francisco; that 9.0 earthquake that is utterly devastating levels the city, and
thousands are killed. Now, we all know that in our time, San Francisco is held up as a kind of
Sodom and Gomorrah. So, are we to take this hypothetical 9.0 earthquake as an outpouring of
God’s wrath on that city? No. That the earthquake occurred, in a way, was indeed allowed by
Yahweh, but it was not an ACT of Yahweh. The good WILL be killed along with the wicked as
occurs with all these cataclysmic events that have happened over the centuries. But, the
earthquake fault has existed for millions of years, and earthquakes of that size have occurred
before along that fault-line. It’s just that now, millions of people live there, whereas they didn’t
before.
The outpouring of God’s wrath is when God SENDS a catastrophe. It is unique. Its scope is so
far beyond what nature could normally do, and it occurs at a time that God ordains. The Flood
is one example. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is another. At the end of the world,
the earth’s population will see phenomenon never before seen by man; and the Bible clearly
states God is sending it as a judgment.
Further, an outpouring of God’s wrath is preceded by ample warning. It’s not sudden and
unannounced. And, when it is God’s destructive wrath, the good are divided away from the
wicked. Again, the Flood and Sodom and Gomorrah are our examples. And, as we read
Revelation, we see the same pattern; those who are in Christ, will be protected as the wicked
are singled out for destruction.
This is a pattern of God’s behavior that we can count on; yet, there was another pattern that
baffled the prophets and the sages. Why, they often asked, does God allow the wicked to
prosper? And, the answer, though mysterious in most ways, has something to do with their evil
4 / 8

actions either being part of a stage in God’s plan being fulfilled by means of that wicked
activity, or some benefit coming to His people by means of the Wickeds’ actions (though it is
most certainly not the intention of the wicked for God’s people to benefit). So, even though
Yahweh allows bad things to happen to good people, we can also be certain that God is not
going to pour out His wrath on the wicked, and let His people also die, in a supernatural
destruction; because that is simply not what God does; it is not within His character. The
purpose of the Rapture is to whisk His chosen away to safety.
Before we move on to chapter 19, and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, let me point
out a common misquote of the dialogue between God and Abraham: the final bargaining
number was 10 innocent people, not 1. And, we’ll find in later books of the Bible that 10 is a
common minimum number for a useful congregation size. To this day, Jews generally will not
conduct a service, nor even pray in a group of less than 10 individuals; in Hebrew this is called
a minyan. So, Yahweh was saying that providing there was a minyan in the midst of the
wicked population, He would stay His hand of judgment.
Now, the conversation is over, and it says in verse 33 that “the Lord” departed. Actually,
the original Hebrew says, “Yahweh departed”. That Yahweh departed is something to
keep in mind as we begin the next chapter.
Read Genesis chapter 19:1 - 14
In Chapter 19 we get the answer to a question raised in Chapter 18: Who are these 3 men who
came to Abraham? We already learned that one of the 3 was God Himself: Yahweh; for his
personal name, Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh, YHWH, Yahveh, is the actual original Hebrew text in verse
3 of Chapter 18. In the first verse of Chapter 19, we are told that the other two are
messengers. The Hebrew word used in this regard, malach, does not of it itself mean angel. It
means messenger and is MOST often used in the Bible as referring to a human messenger. It
is from the context (that is, these messengers blinded the men of Sodom and performed other
supernatural feats) that we understand they are actually Heavenly Messengers……what we term
angels.
Now, let me warn you: we are going to get into some pretty difficult territory this week, and
perhaps next. I’m going to challenge some doctrines that have been taken as truth for
centuries; but, as so many doctrines of men are, they bear little relation to what is said in the
Holy Scriptures.
So, what can we learn about Yahweh and/or about angels from this event? For one thing,
angels have the ability to take on physical dimension. In fact, if we can point to one concrete
thing we can know about angels from Scripture, it is that USUALLY they take on human form
when they interact with humans. Generally speaking, the humans in the Bible story don’t
realize at first that these “men” they’re seeing and talking to aren’t really men at all, but
rather are angels. Often we will see that once the humans realize that these “men” are angels,
fear sets in, and the humans fall on their faces in worship or literally feint from fright….. which is
apparently the main reason the angels take on human form in the first place. That is, so they
5 / 8

don’t, quite literally, scare humans to the point of utter disorientation or even death.
Interestingly, while the Church has had the tendency to call all spiritual servants of God
“angels”, that is not really the case. Angels……messengers, malach, are apparently somewhat
lower spirit being who don’t always have free will nor freedom. They are sent from Heaven to
do specific tasks under specific orders from Yahweh. They have no latitude or option to
exercise their personal wills in the matter. That is why they are, indeed, messengers. They
don’t create the message, they simply transport it. And, the message can be in the form of
destruction, of which they apparently can have almost unlimited force at their disposal to
accomplish.
So, angels are just certain specific spiritual beings, and they are at the lower end of the
spectrum. At the upper end of the spectrum are the Cherubim. These are beings that are
literally God’s closest servants. They are the beings that protect God’s Holiness; they are the
ones that Ezekiel speaks of, with multiple faces and several wings. Cherubs are NOT angels.
They are HIGHER than angels, and serve a different purpose than angels. And, there are other
kinds of spirit beings that are listed in the Bible, but we won’t get into that right now. I simply
want you to understand that when we think of spirit beings, it is NOT that all spirit beings are
simply one class or another of angels. Rather, angels are just one TYPE of spirit beings, of
which there are several types of spirit beings.
But, what about this situation, in our story of Abraham and Sarah, whereby Yahweh has a
similar human form as the angels? Let’s stop and think about that for a minute. Since Yahweh
took on physical, human form here……why didn’t He do the same thing with Yeshua? Or did
He? In other words, the implication here is that this “man” form that God took on was done in
the same manner that angels took on human form; that is, the human form was not a REAL
man in the sense that he started life as an infant, grew and mature, and then eventually
became “possessed” or “employed” by God’s Spirit. This was not a man in its truest sense,
some unsuspecting flesh and blood man who was simply going along in a normal life when
God suddenly entered and took over the use of his body so that Yahweh could appear to
Abraham. This was apparently an apparition of a man…… a man who otherwise had not existed.
Not a ghost, and yet not a man who came from the womb…….but a flesh and blood apparition.
Yeshua on the other hand, WAS born of a woman, grew and matured as any normal child, was
part of Jewish society and eventually became an adult Jewish male. He was a singular and
unique human person, as any of us in this room are. Just as there is not another Becky
Bradford, or Tom Gamble, or Patti Bryan that has ever been born or ever will be, so there is
ONE Yeshua of Nazareth, Messiah, who has ever been born or ever will be. But, Yeshua was
not apparition of a man, like what appeared to Abraham; nor was he a regular man, like you
or I, whose physical form suddenly became a usable vessel for God Almighty. Rather, God’s
own pure essence substituted for what normally should have been a human male’s seed, and
that pure essence of Yahweh impregnated Miriam (Mary), and the result was this composite
being that we call Jesus, but His real Hebrew name was Yeshua, or even more correctly,
Yahshua. I say composite being, because His father was God and His mother was human.
Yahshua was as unique as it gets.
6 / 8

Now, as regards Yahweh appearing to Abraham as a man, I don’t want to draw conclusions
where there is simply no evidence that can lead us to a firm conclusion. But, I also want to
state that I do NOT believe this was Yeshua who appeared; for one thing, the Bible calls this
man, Yahweh. Yet, it is also difficult to just leave this strange appearance of Yahweh and the 2
angels without considering the implications deeply.
I think the problem dealing with the matter of Abraham, Yahweh, and the 2 angels, we have
created for ourselves due to our modern construct of the Holy Trinity…..one which is entirely
absent from the earliest days of the church. In an effort to explain God, the modern Church
says that He is composed of 3 persons. This “3 persons concept” has tended to create in our
minds a vision of a God who has all the characteristics of a Science Fiction movie like
Independence Day whereby we have a Mother Ship…or in our case a Father Ship… which
remains stationed at a distance from earth……and a couple of very powerful, but smaller,
vessels who are kind of an organic part of that Mother ship; but they can, when needed, be
detached and go and do the bidding of the intellect that controls the whole entity. The smaller
vessels are subservient to the Mother ship, even though they are part of it; and so they bring
the presence and power and authority of the alien Mother Ship into contact with various life
forms……mainly humans. Of course, there are also times that the Mother Ship……all the parts of
it……chooses to come as a whole to deal with men.
I don’t think this kind of understanding of who God is, is very helpful.
Our basic problem is that we are restricted to thinking in 3 (4, really) dimensions, so we think of
God in pieces……various pieces that together form the whole….the sum of the parts. We cannot
envision ……well, I sure can’t……how something can be one, but more than one. Yet, that is
exactly what the Torah says God is. How can Yeshua be a man and be God at the same time?
How can Yeshua be God on earth and God in Heaven at the same time? How can Jesus be
subservient to Yahweh, yet be able to say that if you’ve seen ME, you’ve seen the Father? I
mean, think about the enormity of that statement: Yeshua is basically saying if you’ve seen the
part, you’ve seen the whole.
He also said that He and the Father are one. One, in what way?
Now, let me state right here, that I’m not challenging the idea of God the Father, God the Son
and God the Holy Spirit. What I’m challenging is the way this idea has been generally
presented to us and the way it has been structured. And, in order to preserve that particular
way, or doctrine, some things have been done to the translations of the Bible from Hebrew to
all the other languages, which perpetuate some notions that simply do not jibe with Scripture.
And, perhaps the greatest lapse concerns the use of God’s name.
Some of you who have been with me for a while have heard me say that in the Old Testament,
God’s name is used more than 6000 times. Now, the Hebrew Scriptures tell us that God’s
name is Yahweh. Long ago, gentiles started using the word “Jehovah” instead of Yahweh.
Whether or not Jehovah is a fair and correct substitution for Yahweh is not the point of this
dissertation; the point is, if you open your Bibles and start counting the times the word Yahweh
or Jehovah is used, it is but a handful. Some Bible versions use God’s name less than 10
7 / 8

times. Others may approach 100. But, that’s about it. So, what happened to the other 5900
times God’s name was used in the original Hebrew Scriptures?
God’s name was substituted with the words Lord or God. Why this was done is also not the
point, but just realize that this is true. And, I’m not telling you something new or radical; this is
not disputed by Bible scholars, nor is it a secret. You can pick up ANY competent Hebrew Old
Testament, and look for the Hebrew word Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh…..which spells Yahveh
(Jehovah)…..God’s name, and count it up for yourself.
But, one question this leads to……and probably won’t be answered to anyone’s satisfaction,
today, including mine……is this: who or what is Yahweh? Is Yahweh God the Father, in the
sense that the Godhead consists of the 3 elements we call the Holy Spirit, Yeshua as the
Messiah, and Yahweh as the Father? Or is Yahweh the name for the total Godhead? The
name for the sum of the parts? Plus, we find MANY names for God in addition to Yahweh……El
Shaddai being the earliest.
This problem doesn’t really appear to be much of a problem when God’s name is replaced in
our Bibles by the less specific words Lord and God. That is, because Yahweh is called Lord,
and Jesus, Yeshua, is also called Lord, just who is being referred to when the word Lord is
used? Is it Jesus, or is it Yahweh? Therefore, by using the word Lord, the distinctions between
God and the Messiah kind of disappears. Therefore, when our New Testaments refer to Jesus
as Lord, and then we go back and look at an Old Testament prophecy that seems to be about
the Messiah and it, too, uses the word Lord, it’s rather easy to assume that we can simply stuff
Jesus’ name in it’s place, and all the pieces fall together rather well. And, in fact, that’s
exactly what has been done for century after century.
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
8 / 8