Only the LORD
In the Beginning: A Study in Genesis • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 26:47
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As we journey along with Abraham and Sarah, a trek we began the first Sunday of the year (January 1, 2023), we have seen that their life is quite interesting. Abraham and Sarah were already fairly old when the LORD called them to leave their homeland and venture to a land He would show them.
Their life (the part of it recorded for us here) has been a series of ups and downs. Some incredible moments, and then some incredibly strange moments.
This—Genesis 18—I think qualifies as an incredibly strange occurence. It’s odd, of that there’s no question. But there is an unmissable lesson in these first 15 verses. Let’s jump in!
If you have your Bible (and I hope you do) please turn with me to Genesis 18. If you don’t have your own Bible, please let me know; I’d love to give you a Bible you can keep.
If you are able and willing, please stand with me for the reading of God’s Holy Word.
1 The Lord appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. 2 Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.
3 He said, “If I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, do not pass your servant by. 4 Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. 5 Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way—now that you have come to your servant.”
“Very well,” they answered, “do as you say.”
6 So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. “Quick,” he said, “get three seahs of the finest flour and knead it and bake some bread.”
7 Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice, tender calf and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it. 8 He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared, and set these before them. While they ate, he stood near them under a tree.
9 “Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him.
“There, in the tent,” he said.
10 Then one of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.”
Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. 11 Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. 12 So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?”
13 Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”
15 Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, “I did not laugh.”
But he said, “Yes, you did laugh.”
May God add His blessing to the reading of His Holy Word!
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I told you it was a little odd, didn’t I? It begins when three random men show up, and Abraham goes into full host mode.
Abraham didn’t know who they were initially; Abraham was being hospitable to these strangers, hospitality in that day being highly important.
If guests showed up, even if they were strangers, you stopped what you were doing and offered to them what you had.
Well, our friend Abraham has everything. He’s very wealthy, so these three get quite a lot: water for their feet, a ton of bread and meat for their bellies, and some milk to wash it all down.
Abraham had Sarah and their servants prepare a literal feast for three people.
Three seahs of flour is 36 pounds of flour. That’s a lot of bread, some 30-40 standard loaves. For three people.
An entire calf. Curds and milk. For three people.
Abraham’s actions suggest that he viewed these three men as exceptionally important. He ran/hurried to them. When he met them, he bowed low to the ground.
Abraham regarded these three visitors as worthy of great respect.
The simple description of the visitors as three men is intriguing.
No attempt is made describe them beyond that. Nothing given to us about their appearance. No comment is offered on the significance of the three visitors.
Obscurity is story’s way of getting us to the truth. To make us think. To consider. To wonder.
The next chapter—Genesis 19—tells us who this trio really is.
This is where we have to do the work. It’s not “look at the notes in your Study Bible time” or “ask the Internet time.” No, it’s read your Bible time.
Like other books, if you don’t know who a character is, keep reading.
Who are these three men?
When we keep reading, we find that two of the three men are identified as angels:
1 The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground.
The third fella is identified for us:
22 The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord.
It’s the LORD Yahweh in some visible form. In fact, depending upon the translation of your Bible, verse 10 of our text for today says as much:
10 The Lord said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him.
Beyond that, the chapter begins with this verse:
1 The Lord appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day.
The LORD appeared to Abraham.
Even though I read that when I first looked at this chapter to prepare for this sermon, I still asked myself, “Who are the three men?”
But that question forced me to read on. To figure it out. To decide what in the world was going on here.
This—the LORD appearing to Abraham—is referred to as a theophany.
THEOPHANY (θεοφάνια, theophania). A visible appearance of God to humans.
In the OT, God may assume human form and allows Himself to be seen in such form by human beings.
This is the one theophany in the Abraham cycle in which Yahweh appears to Abraham with others at his side.
Older Christian interpreters seized upon the number three in verse 2 and identified them with the Trinity. That’s reading way too much into the text; that forces upon the text an interpretation the text itself will prove false.
If you just keep reading, you’ll see the other two “men” are angels (Gen 19:1), not the other two members of the Trinity.
For now, though, the LORD and His angels conceal their identity from Abraham.
However, when the three men are identified, we realize: the LORD is not aloof or distant.
We know this very well because we live in the time after the incarnation. We live after the time when God took on flesh and made His dwelling among us.
We know the LORD is not aloof or distant or uninvolved in the details of our lives. We know this because Jesus, the Son of God, the eternally-existing Second Person of the Trinity, became one of us to save us.
Please don’t expect a divine visit to your tent or to your house. That’s not going to happen, primarily because we no longer need that.
We have no need of intensely personal revelation like Abraham did.
Redemption has been accomplished. We have the full written revelation of God in the Bible. And we enjoy the means of grace in our gathering (the Word preached, communion observed, baptisms witnessed).
This is the lesson for Abraham and for us:
Only the LORD Gives Himself to His People
Only the LORD Gives Himself to His People
The LORD came to Abraham as a friend, to bring him a message.
The LORD came to us, one who would lay down His life for His friends.
The LORD is with us, always, forever.
Only the LORD cares enough about His people to share of Himself. Only the LORD.
No other god or deity or idol shares any part of themselves with their worshippers. Only the LORD does such a thing.
Only the LORD gives Himself to His people.
>I love the little clues we have about who these three men are as we read along.
As the three men ate this excessive meal, Abraham stands to the side. The polite dinner conversation turns omniscient, all knowing.
9 “Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him.
“There, in the tent,” he said.
Asking “Where is your wife?” would be one thing. But knowing her name is quite another.
The information that follows removes all doubt—or should—about who this is.
Some of your Bibles in verse 10 have: Then one of them said...
Other translations rightly supply the words “The LORD”: Then the LORD said… or they capitalize the pronoun “He” which signals that this is the LORD.
10 The Lord said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him.
Even if your Bible doesn’t introduce this sentence as being spoken by “the LORD”, it’s nearly impossible to not see that this is the LORD.
He knows Sarah. He knows the timing of Sarah’s eventual pregnancy. He knows Sarah will have a son. And so it will be.
Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent. She’s listening and laughing.
This tells us that either Abraham had not yet told his wife about the promise the LORD had made (Gen 17:16, 19), or that Abraham had failed to convince her of the LORD’s appearance and promise.
Sarah’s doubt is on full display here. And why wouldn’t it be?
In college, when we had to preach in class for evaluation, a group of my friends in the class had an agreement. Immediately before each of us would head up to preach, one of the other guys would hand a piece of paper with a word or a phrase written on it.
The agreement was that you had to, in the course of your sermon, include that word or phrase. “Shoddy ductwork,” “synthetic cheeseburger,” “My Little Pony,” and “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” are some examples of words and phrases I easily fit in.
The one word given to me by my good friend, Derek…the one word I couldn’t find a way to work in: “menopause.”
If only I had remembered this part of Abraham and Sarah’s story, I may have been able do it.
Sarah is doubting and laughing at the visitor’s pronouncement because, as anyone can admit, this an absurd scenario: a 90-year-old post-menopausal woman and her 100-year-old husband are going to have a son?!?
It makes perfect sense that Sarah would laugh about this. Her doubt is just good, common sense.
Sarah didn’t believe this line from the visitor—Sarah your wife will have a son. I wonder if Sarah knew this was the LORD.
Even if she did, I’m not sure Sarah had come to realize or believe that the LORD can be trusted, that what He says will come to pass, that whatever the LORD has promised will be.
Beyond that, a promise is sometimes hard to believe. In the course of one’s life, how many promises are broken or betrayed?
There is no person, no friend, no spouse, no family member who keeps their promises perfectly, 100% of the time.
A lot of promises are broken easily and quickly.
Only the LORD Makes Promises We Can Trust
Only the LORD Makes Promises We Can Trust
None of the gods and goddess of the religious pantheon in their day, none of the gods and goddesses of the people around them made promises.
If they did make a promise, they couldn’t be trusted; everyone of those “deities” is flaky, wishy-washy, fickle.
Ultimately, no one makes trustworthy promises but the LORD Yahweh. Only the LORD.
This promise, we know, like all the promises the LORD makes, will come to pass. Sarah will have a son.
Right before the birth of their son, we read this:
1 Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised.
The author of Hebrews highlights this part of Sarah’s story and the promise of God:
11 And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise.
Because she considered Him faithful who had made the promise.
There it is! That’s the key. The One making this promise—all-knowing, ever-present, all-gracious—is FAITHFUL.
Warren Wiersbe writes:
Of course, whenever we doubt God, we are questioning both His [truthfulness] and His ability.
Does He keep His promises? Does He have the power to do what He says He will do?
The answer to both is a resounding “yes!”
Only the LORD makes promises we can trust.
Only the LORD is Able to Fulfill His Promises
Only the LORD is Able to Fulfill His Promises
This promise to Abraham and Sarah sure does seem absurd. If you take your faith and belief and personal experience with God out of the reading of this story, this promise is absolutely, positively, 100% whackadoodle.
It doesn’t make sense. But the LORD is insistent on doing things in His own impossible way.
The LORD here knows Sarah’s thoughts. The Lord knows Sarah thinks this whole scenario is laughable. Knowing this, the LORD asks Abraham:
Gen 18.13-14 “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”
Is anything too hard for the LORD?
We know the answer to this rhetorical question. Heck, we know this is a rhetorical question (it doesn’t require an answer). But Sarah didn’t know the answer…
Is anything too hard for the LORD?
No, of course there’s nothing too hard for the LORD. But don’t start to believe that God will do anything for you if you simply exercise enough positive thinking (close your eyes, fold your hands, banish all negative thoughts).
All that’s just ridiculous, if not pagan.
What verse 14 teaches is this: God will do what He has promised though it seems impossible.
The LORD is able to fulfill His promises.
Abraham believed this. Paul writes this about Abraham’s faith:
20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.
Is anything too hard for the LORD? Of course not!
If you need proof, listen to Job who declares:
2 “I know that you can do all things;
no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
The prophet Jeremiah believed this:
17 “Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.
The LORD Himself assured Jeremiah:
27 “I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?
The angel Gabriel spoke and reassured Mary about the coming birth of Jesus, when Mary couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Gabriel said:
37 For with God nothing will be impossible.”
If God makes a promise, you can be certain He has the power to fulfill it.
The LORD, of course, kept His promise to Abraham and Sarah. The LORD gave them a son. Something only the LORD could have brought about.
Why does the LORD sometimes insist upon doing things like this?
Because the LORD wants to show that what is done can only be His work.
When we read about 100-year-old Abraham and 90-year-old Sarah having a baby, we’re supposed to say, with astonishment:
“Well, only the LORD, only the LORD can do that!”
When we think about the promise of forgiveness—redemption through the blood of Jesus, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace, we’re meant to say, with awe and worship:
“Only the LORD can forgive someone like me! Only the LORD!”
When Jesus tells us (John 11:25-26), “The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” We’re meant to say,
“Only the LORD, only the LORD can give life after death!”
Speaking of our salvation, Jesus says (John 10:28), “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of My hand.” Whenever we read that, each one of us should say:
“Only the LORD, only the LORD can give me that assurance.”
The LORD who works in these impossible ways wants to show us—His people—that nothing is impossible for Him. He wants our faith to be in Him, in His promises. He wants us to trust in His ability to do what He has promised.
Sarah laughed at what the LORD had said. And then she lied to the LORD about laughing—“I did not laugh.” “Yes, you did.”
That’s the end of our text for this morning. But that’s not the end of Sarah’s story.
Because the LORD gives Himself to His people, because the LORD’s promises are trustworthy, because the LORD is able to fulfill His promises, Sarah will soon laugh for joy at God’s grace to her all the while holding her son in her arms.
I believe Sarah would say, along with us, “Only the LORD could do something like this…only the LORD.”
Put your trust in Him, friends.
Believe that He will do every single thing He has said.
He deserves your undivided worship for being faithful to His promises.
Give Him your heart and your life. Only the LORD is worthy.
Only the LORD.