Abraham, Father of Faith Part 10 “Under the Oak in the Heat of the Day”
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1 And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day;
Introduction
Introduction
Traveling to Carols funeral
Pawnee Meetings
9/11-9/15
Galena Meetings
9/25-9/29
Abraham has been on this journey for a long time. He was 75 when God called him, and now he’s almost 100 years old.
At this point he had no idea when he would have a baby. Every sign pointed against it.
I can imagine, after about twenty years, somebody come by and said, “Father of nations? Huh! Abram, you said your name was ‘Abraham,’ which means father of nations. Just how many children do you have right now, Abraham?”
(The more revelation he received the more pressure he was under.)
That didn’t stumble him a bit. The Bible said, “He staggered not at the Word of God, through unbelief.” He went right ahead making ready, keeping all the booties ready and the birdeye and everything, he was “going to have the baby.” That’s all. 65-1126 - "Works Is Faith Expressed"
20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
Word Studies in the New Testament Chapter 4
20. Staggered (διεκρίθη). Rev., better, wavered. See on Acts 11:12; Jas. 1:6; 2:4. The word implies a mental struggle.
The Greek Word “strong” implies growing in strength.
21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.
Abraham would receive one last sign before his body change.
1 And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day;
Notice three things:
Who
Where
When
The LORD appeared.
7 And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him.
1 And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.
רָאָה (rāʾâ). vb. to see; to appear; to show. Used to denote the act of seeing in both literal and figurative senses or the act of appearing, showing, or perceiving.
How did the Lord appear?
2 And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground,
3 And said, My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant:
Now, watch the 18th chapter now. Immediately after the changed name, God appears, to reveal Himself in flesh. After the Name is made known, Who He is, God appears in flesh.
Abraham, one hot day, just a few weeks or months before Sodom was burned and Isaac come on the scene. And, notice, Abraham is setting out under his oak.
And Lot is down in Sodom, and they’re enjoying the pleasures of the world. Yet, he is Pastor Lot, was probably had him a nice little congregation down there.
Whatever he did, the Bible said, “The wickedness and sins of the time vexed his righteous soul.” So he must have had like a lot of modern Lots today, but he knowed he couldn’t say nothing about it.
But Abraham, after He had been revealed to him, now, Elohim was Who had been talking to him. Now he is setting under the oak, and here comes three man, walking like human beings.
Watch the effect of the revelation, of Who God was, had upon Abraham, what it did to him. After his name was changed from Abram to Abraham, he seen three Man coming, and he called the three, One, “my Lord.”
Three of them, being One. Not so with number six, Lot; he seen two coming, and he said, “my lords.” Abraham’s vision and revelation showed him that He was the All-Sufficient Elohim. His Seed is to receive the same thing.
Notice how He revealed Himself, how He made Hisself known, whether he was right or not. Notice, to the true believing, what sign He did. What did He happen, to make him know that that was Elohim?
Now, he said, “my Lord.” It’s capital L-o-r-d. Any scholar, you know it; any scholar knows that’s Elohim, the All-Sufficient One, Elohim. A man said to me, one time, “You don’t believe that was God?”
I said, “I sure do. Abraham said It was God. He talked to Him; he should know.” Yeah.
“Oh,” he said, “you mean God standing there eating that flesh of that calf, and drinking the milk from the cow, and eating corn bread, ever what you want to call it there?”
I said, “He did it. Why, you just don’t know our God.” Well, my, He could just…Why, He just reach over…
We’re made out of sixteen elements; petroleum, cosmic light, and potash, and calcium, and so forth, just sixteen elements. He just caught it together, and breathed into it, and walked down in the earth.
I’m so glad He’s that sort of a Father. Though the skin worms destroys this body, yet He’ll call you. He promised He’ll do it. He is Elohim. Jerked another handful, and said, “Come here, Woodworm,” or whatever it was, the Angels, “and come down. Let’s go down and look at Sodom, see what’s going on.”
And Abraham, after the revelation, he seen it and he knowed that there was one God. And he seen it, and he said, “My Lord, come aside, sit down, let me wash Your feet.” 64-0403 - "Jehovah-Jireh #2"
It was the Lord who appeared.
13 And the Lord said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old?
This was God in flesh body, revealing the secrets of Sarah’s heart.
28 Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;
29 But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.
30 Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.
This was fulfilled in our day.
The secrets of the heart was made known.
That was one to a generation (more on this at another time).
Now you might not be able to do this. We have one of them in one generation. There was one Moses; none of the rest of them didn’t have to turn saw-…dust into fleas, and so forth, and water into blood. There was one Moses; the rest of them just believed what he said. 64-0412 - "A Court Trial"
I don’t say your pastor or anybody would be taking the gift of discernment. They don’t have to do that; that’s not their calling. That’s not their calling, to do that. That’s to be one in an age. 64-0621 - "The Trial"
It is your calling to reveal the Son of man, just not as a prophet. The Son of man was revealed in the flesh of a prophet, but He also wants to be revealed in your flesh.
“And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of man. And as the days of Lot,” when a modern Billy Graham and Oral Roberts went down into Sodom and preached to them Sodomites, and blinded their eyes, see, with the Gospel.
One Angel stayed back, a Messenger with Abraham and the Elected group, and what kind of a sign did He do? See? And what did Abraham call Him? Elohim, God manifested in flesh.
Jesus showing that He Himself, God in Him, will be manifested in His Bride in the last days! 63-0728 - "Christ Is The Mystery Of God Revealed"
27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
Now, remember, that was not Jesus talking to Abraham there, that could discern the thoughts in Sarah’s mind behind Him. That was not Jesus, He had not yet been born. But it was a Man in human flesh, that Abraham called “Elohim, the great Almighty.”
Showing…And Jesus said, “As it was in the days of Sodom,” now watch close, “in the days of Sodom, so will it be at the coming of the Son of man, when the Son of man is being revealed.”
Not no more as a church, see, not no more; the Bride is called, see. “In that day the Son of man will be revealed.” What? To join the Church to the Head, unite, the marriage of the Bride.
The Bridegroom call will come right through this, when the Son of man will come down and come in human flesh to unite the two together. The Church has to be the Word, He is the Word, and the two unites together, and, to do that, it’ll take the manifestation of the revealing of the Son of man.
Not a clergyman. I don’t know, I…Do you see what I mean? See, it’s Son of man, Jesus Christ, will come down in human flesh among us, and will make His Word so real that it’ll unite the Church and Him as one, the Bride, and then She’ll go Home to the Wedding Supper. Amen.
She’s already united, see, we go to the Wedding Supper, not to the marriage. “…fill your flesh…self, of all the flesh of mighty men, ’cause the marriage of the Lamb has come.” But, the Rapture, is going to the Wedding Supper.
When, the Word here unites with the person, and they two become one. And then what does it do then? It manifests the Son of man again, not the church theologians.
The Son of man! The Word and the Church becomes one. Whatever the Son of man done, He was the Word, the Church does the same thing. 64-0816 - "Proving His Word"
2. He appeared in the “plains of Mamre”.
2. He appeared in the “plains of Mamre”.
Abraham was only here because he gave Lot his choice, and Lot went to Sodom.
Because thou hast chosen the narrow path, the harder way, thou hast walked of your own choosing, thou hast picked the correct and precise decision, and it is MY WAY.
Because of this momentous decision, a huge portion of Heaven awaits thee. What a glorious decision thou hast made!
This, in itself, is that which will give, and make come to pass, the tremendous victory in Love Divine. 65-0124 - "Birth Pains"
The Son of Man is only revealed when you choose the harder path.
The Son of Man is the Word, and the Word is revealed through a prophet, and through your life.
“In the very day that the Son of man is revealed.” Revelation 10:1 to 7, read it when you get home, “the seventh angel’s Message, opening up the Seals.” What is it? Not the angel is the Son of man; but the messenger is revealing the Son of man.
Can you get it separated now? That’s where it seems to be so hard for you, you see. Not the Son of man, Himself; but the seventh angel, the seventh messenger, is revealing to the public the Son of man, because It’s left the shuck. He can’t organize It. It’s the Grain, Itself, again. 65-0725M - "The Anointed Ones At The End Time"
The Son of man revealed in the Seventh Angel, now the Son of man revealed in preachers and teachers and housewives and factory workers.
The word “plains” is actually better translated “Oaks”
1 And Yahweh appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre. And he was sitting in the doorway of the tent at the heat of the day. (LEB)
He was under the shade of a mature tree, in the heat of the day.
He heard the Word in the right atmosphere, even though the day was hot.
This was a fully restored Bride tree, that Abraham was sitting under.
Now, notice, he was waiting, years had passed, the beauty had faded, and she was old, and he was old, and one day Abraham, still keeping separated, representing the Seed of Abraham today, separated from the world, called out, set aside.
That’s Christians, real believing Christians, set aside, called out. Now, Abraham, setting up there on the hill, things wasn’t going too good, he wasn’t rich, cattle was starving.
Lot was doing fine, he was down in Sodom, mayor of the city and, oh, he was, his wife belonged to all the clubs, and they, his daughters belonged to all the societies, and, my, I imagine they was just like Sodomites. So there they was, down there in Sodom.
So then, one day, while Abraham, setting in the shade of the oak, where his tent was pitched, he seen three men come walking. There is just something about a Christian, when you see Christ, you can recognize. 61-0516A - "Jesus Christ The Same Yesterday, Today, And Forever"
4 That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; And that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; And that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten.
25 And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, The cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, My great army which I sent among you.
Four messengers of death and four messengers of Life.
What is on the tree?
Fruits - Palmerworm (Brotherly kindness, joy etc.)
Leaves - Locust (Fellowship)
Bark - Cankerworm (Doctrine)
Pulp - Caterpillar (Life, Spirit)
Abraham is sitting under the shade of a restored Bride Tree and he recognizes that the one who is speaking is more than a man, It’s God speaking the promise of a changed body.
The Message is the method by which God will change our bodies.
14 Is any thing 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.
Get ready Abraham, this is your last sign.
3. He appeared in the Heat of the Day.
3. He appeared in the Heat of the Day.
When you feel the heat, know He is about to reveal Himself.
People do one of two things in the heat. Either they come together at a cooling source, or they separate.
25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
You know, when the heat of the day is on, the sheep all get together. And they stand against another, and they make shade for each other, and they support each other.
So that’s the way the sheep of God should do, kind of stand together, close places, and support one another with our faith. 56-0401M - "The Mighty Conqueror"
Sheep are funny little creatures in one way. Here’s another thing we might learn of sheep tonight. When the weather is real hot, did you ever see sheep? They won’t separate themselves, and one be at one place, and one at another.
But right in the heat of the day, the sheep will all stand together. You know what they’re doing? They’re making shade one for the other. They’re having fellowship.
And wouldn’t it be good if all God’s sheep, when the heat was on, would stand together. When the trials are real hard, and the heat is on, and everything going on everywhere, if all of God’s little sheep would just stand together, we’d have the coolness of the shade of each other, the comfort, to lean upon each other.
Now, someone said, “Is that necessary, Brother Branham?” It certainly is. There’s nothing like having a real good dependable friend, that when the troubles are blazing, the heat’s on, you can go to this friend, and set down, and just explain it to them, talk it over in personal confidence, and then kneel down and pray together, and know that this person is a good God-saved man or woman that you can put confidence in.
Oh, it’s good to do that. “Come, let us reason together,” saith the Scripture. Or, “Come, let us stand together.” 57-0308 - "The Good Shepherd Of The Sheep"
If you want friends, huddle with the sheep.
24 A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: And there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.
15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
And one day…It was right in the heat of the day, about three or four o’clock in the afternoon, I suppose, when the Western sun was shining down hot there in Canaan. And the direct rays of that heat can raise blisters quickly.
And he was setting out there in the tent door with his head down, perhaps studying, or thinking about God. And he raised up his eyes, and he seen three Men coming. And somehow, Abraham wanted to be friendly.
So he thought them Fellows walked kinda strange, yet dusty from the road, and ordinarily dressed, and they come walking up. And Abraham went out and invited Them.
In otherwise, something like this. “Sirs, You’re tired. Your feet must be weary. Now, I have a nice shade tree here. Won’t You come in and set down here under the shade tree, and I’ll fetch a little water, and I’ll wash your feet for you. It’ll refresh you. Get you a good cold drink, then you can go on your journey.” 59-0416 - "El-Shaddai"
Abraham was friendly, and He became God’s friend.
23 And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.
Abraham, setting out there, not expecting anything, he was in the poorest of the land, it was in the heat of the day, a odd time for something to happen, but he seen a Man come walking, three of them.
Something in his heart told him It was God, and he held on to it. He wouldn’t let them pass by. O God, may that happen here! Don’t let it pass by, hold on to it.
“Come in, sit down under the oak. I’ll fetch a little water, I’ll be a servant to You, let me wash Your feet. I’ll bring You a morsel of bread, You satisfy Your soul, then You may go on.
For this reason my Lord has come to me.” Yet, not too sure, but he knew that there was something sparked in his heart, “It must be the time.” 60-0326 - "The Unchangeable God"
There was Abraham, the called-out, having life kind of hard, persecuted, made fun of, setting out in the wilderness on the bare ground in the shade of the oak tree.
But when the hour of the Message came, he looked out in the heat of the day, and he seen three men coming up, dust all over their clothes, and Abraham looked again, he knowed there was just something about it.
A real borned-again child of God knows the Spirit of God when It strikes. Yes, sir. “My sheep know My Voice.” 60-0708 - "Sir, We Would See Jesus"
It was hot, he might have been ill tempered. Sarah was tired, but he was under a tree, and he had the right response, he entertained the Angels God sent.
Conclusion.
Conclusion.
Who is it? The Son of Man. Where is it? Under a restored Bride Tree. When will it happen? In the heat of the day.
(Animals in India sensing an earthquake)
In the heat of the day, the sheep left every man made shelter, and stood together in the middle of the field.
Can’t you see, Spirit-filled people, something is fixing to happen? Don’t look for some great big universal something sweeping; nothing but the Coming of the Lord Jesus. Remember, just remember the Words and promise of the Lord.
Won’t you come on in right quick? Get away from them big walls. The resurrection is near at hand now. 65-0410 - "The Easter Seal"
Mamre was the place of the resurrection. Abraham was in the right position, so are we. All things are ready, let the fire fall.
