Seder 17: Genesis 19 and Matthew 14---Hospitality in the Evening

 After visiting Abraham, two angels headed on to Sodom, arriving in the evening (Gen 19:1).  The question of why they arrived so late in the day was asked by the sages.  After all, angels are not subject to the constraints in space and time faced by humans.  

One suggested answer is that they were not anxious for the cities of the plain to be punished.  They wanted those towns to have every opportunity to repent and escape destruction.  This answer is consistent with God's merciful nature and desire that as many as possible come to repentance (see 2 Pe 3:9).  As Frank Fenton pointed out in a short teaching at Church of the Messiah on February 24, 2024, the Day of the Lord is not necessarily something to which to look forward (see e.g. Amos 5:18).  He urged us to help as many as possible find the Messiah before that time comes.  

A major theme in Genesis 18 and 19 is hosptality, as exemplified by both Abraham and Lot, who "entertained angels unawares" (Heb 13:2).  In a sermon at Church of the Messiah on February 24, 2024, Kyle Kettering looked at the feeding of the 5000 as an example of hospitality.  

This famous miracle occurred shortly after the death of John the Baptist (Mt 14; Mk 6).  Jesus had wanted some time alone, perhaps to come to terms with what had happened and consider how John's death would affect his own ministry (Mt 14:13).  But a large crowd, perhaps a crowd including a number of John's disciples, had other ideas.  

Jesus had compassion on this crowd "because they were like sheep without a shepherd" (Mk 6:34).  And so he exercised hospitality in providing for them.  Biblical hospitality, Kyle pointed out, often means putting aside our own wishes and plans.  He urged us to "show hospitality to one another without grumbling," as Peter instructed in 1 Peter 4:9. 

Seder 10: Genesis 12:1-9---"...The Land that I Will Show You"

 God directed Abram to go "to the land that I will show you" (Ge 12:1).  We are not told how much advance information Abram was given about his destination.  Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik suggests that the journey was meant to develop Abram's "spiritual radar" for detecting holiness.  In this scenario, Abram followed the lead of this radar until he reached the intended destination, and then God appeared to him and confirmed his choice (Gen 12:7).  

Abram would have entered the Promised Land in the north, the most fertile region, but he continued on to the arid southern part of the land (v 9).  This raises the question of why Abram didn't stay in the north.  One proposed answer is that the holiness of Jerusalem drew him to continue southward.  

On his journey Abram came "to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh" (v 6).  Soloveitchik notes that in the patriarchal narrative, the word for place (makom) sometimes refers to a place of prayer (e.g., Ge 19:27; 28:11).  Perhaps Abram prayed  that his great-grandchildren would resist the possibility of assimilation with the Shechemites raised by Hamor's proposal (Ge 34:9-10). Perhaps he also prayed that his descendants would come again safely to the oak of Moreh (Dt 11:30) to confirm the covenant there. 

Seder 17: Gen 18-19---The Trial of Sodom and Gomorrah

One biblical passage that may puzzle readers at first is Gen 18:20-21, where God says, "How great is the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah and how very grave their sin!  I must go down and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me; and if not, I will know."

At this point in the narrative, God has just demonstrated his omniscience by reading Sarah's mind (vv 12-15), so there is no question that he knows what is going on in Sodom and Gomorrah.  But it seems that he wants to model, for Abraham and all his descendants (vv 17-19), how to conduct a proper judicial proceeding, with a public trial based on the eyewitness testimony of multiple witnesses.  (One scholar who has explored this approach to Gen 18-19 is James Bruckner.)  Conducting such a trial also gives the people of Sodom and Gomorrah one more opportunity to repent.

The evidence is presented in Gen 19, when two angels arrive in Sodom.  The first person to be examined is Lot, who shows great hospitality to his guests (vv 1-3), much as Abraham had in Gen 18.

However, that night an angry mob came to Lot's house, demanding that Lot surrender his guests to them.  Lot could not dissuade the mob from its evil intentions, and the angels finally immobilized them by striking them blind.(vv 4-11).

At this point the evidence was in, and the cities of the plain were destroyed after Lot and his two daughters escaped to safety.

As readers we struggle to make a fair evaluation of Lot.  Lot initially settled at Sodom because of the wealth in that region (Gen 13:10-13).  Was he wrongly valuing wealth and ignoring the spiritual problems there?  The fact that he offers his virgin daughters to the mob (Gen 19:8) suggests that his own morality has been compromised by his time in Sodom.

The Genesis narrative implicitly compares Lot to Abraham in a number of places, and the comparisons tend to be unfavorable to Lot.  For example, while Abraham is a father of many nations (Gen 17:4-6), Lot is the father of two, and they both begin with acts of incest (Gen 19:30-38).  Lot is saved from the cataclysm partly for Abraham's sake (v 29). He seems to be an example of 1 Cor 3:15, someone who is saved but whose work does not survive the fire.

On the other hand, Lot can be seen as a kind of Noah figure, maintaining a righteous witness before a corrupt society.  The apostle Peter later described Lot as "a righteous man greatly distressed by the licentiousness of the lawless" (2 Peter 2:7).

Rob Wilson shared further reflections on Lot, Christian witness, and "radical hospitality" in a sermon on Seder 17 given on July 11, 2020.

Seder 16: Genesis 18---Abraham's Mysterious Visitors

Genesis 18 begins by mentioning an appearance of God to Abraham.  Historically there have been two main interpretations of Genesis 18:1.  In one reading, the verse speaks of God coming to see Abraham, perhaps to comfort him after his recent circumcision.  According to this interpretation, three men arrive while Abraham is communing with God.  In verse 3 Abraham says to God, in effect, "Don't go away.  I need to take care of these visitors, but I'll be back."  He treats the men with great respect and rushes to prepare a banquet for them (Gen 18:1-8).

We soon learn that these are not ordinary visitors During the meal God announces again that Abraham and Sarah would soon have a son (vv 10-15), even though Sarah is past menopause.

God has a second momentous announcement to share with Abraham.  It is time to deal with the great evil coming from the nearby towns of Sodom and Gomorrah (vv. 16-21).  After this announcement, "the men turned from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the LORD" (v 22).

Chapter 19 then begins by noting, "The two angels came to Sodom in the evening."  So two of the men are, in fact, angels.  What about the third?  One possibility is that the third is also an angel but is not needed at Sodom.  Perhaps he goes to Gomorrah instead, or on to whatever his next assignment is.  

Another possibility is that the third is the Lord who had announced the coming birth of Isaac and stayed behind to talk with Abraham.  In this scenario, Genesis 18:1 is saying that the visit of the three men constitutes an appearance of God, and he addresses one of the three men in verse 3.  

In this second reading, the third visitor's coming might have been a Christophany, an advance appearance of the Messiah.  Many Christians through the centuries have affirmed this interpretation, going back at least to Justin Martyr (c. 150 AD), who proposed it in Chapter 56 of his Dialogue with Trypho.

Those who identify the third man as the Messiah often point to Gen 19:24:  "Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven."  This verse seems to mention two "Lords", one presumably on earth and the other one in heaven.

The text does not tell us when Abraham recognized the special nature of his two visitors.  If he did not realize this at first, then his lavish hospitality is all the more remarkable.  Heb 13:2 seems to be a reference to Abraham and his visitors:  "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares."

On the other hand, if he quickly picked up on the fact that his visitors were more than human, then he can be credited with excellent powers of spiritual discernment.

In a sermon on July 4, 2020, David Waddle reflected on Abraham's example in Genesis 18, both his remarkable hospitality and his faithful intercession for Sodom.