Angels in Scripture: Abraham and His Heavenly Visitors

Angels in Scripture: Abraham and His Heavenly Visitors.

“Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” (Hebrews 13:1-2).

Father Abraham was definitely a man after God’s own heart. He was uniquely called a “friend of God.” One of the reasons Yahweh chose Abraham to be on the point for the eternal Covenant that established the Chosen People in his family, was that Abraham possessed the qualities of fatherhood that would be so crucial as the Faith was handed down from one generation to the next. (Genesis 12:1-3; 17:1-7). It appears that father Abraham reflected the heart of Father God, including Abraham’s generous spirit of hospitality. In fact, there is a famous scene when the Lord came upon Abraham on his front porch near his tent, his porch being under a shade tree. (Genesis 18).

“May the All-Merciful One bless this table at which we have eaten. May it be like the table of Abraham our father; All who are hungry may eat from it, and all who are thirsty may drink from it.” (from a traditional Sephardic Jewish Passover liturgy).

Abraham, that towering Patriarch who continues to be the grandfather of the faithful, was known in ancient rabbinic circles as one big Welcome mat. According to a Hebrew saying as old as the hills, “Abraham always had all four of his tent flaps open.” He is the epitome of that sacred virtue known as hospitality… a magnanimous heart, an open spirit that welcomes all comers, known or unknown. This reflects the heart of God, for sure.

The Three Heavenly Visitors. The story most often mentioned in this light is that scene in Genesis 18, when he and Sarah “entertained angels without knowing.” (Hebrews 13:2). Well, if Abraham did not know he was serving heavenly visitors at the start of this scene, he certainly knew it by the time they were haggling over numbers on the road to Sodom. In fact, we wonder if he knew from the beginning of their interaction that his guests were perhaps not just three garden-variety angels, but perhaps the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit themselves in the flesh.

What did Abraham do to deserve his reputation as the ultimate host, Mr. Hospitality? Let’s take a look at the scene, and see what Abraham was made of…

1. He was on the look-out. Abraham was comfortably relaxing on his front porch, and he “looked up.” He noticed. He was able to welcome his guests only after he was aware enough to notice their presence. Hospitality begins with the conscious decision not to turn a blind eye, but instead to look up and notice, and then act. What might keep us from being observant? Too busy? Tired? Just plain cheap? Father Abraham starts us out sweet and simple… just look up.
2. He gave more than enough. Talk about extravagant and over the top! He sent Sarah and the servants off to the kitchen to get 20 quarts of fine flour, enough bread to feed 100 people! And that wonderful custom of killing the fatted calf (rf. to Prodigal Son story)? This was traditionally the “feast calf”, and was intended to feed a small village of about 100 people as well! So here is Abraham, the host who seems generous to a fault, reflecting the very heart of the Host of the Universe, who welcomed us to His world, providing more than we could ever need, way more, simply out of extravagant, even wasteful love.
3. He was at their service. Don’t you love this picture of Abraham standing near his guests while they are eating his food, the towel tastefully draped over his forearm, eager to make his guests feel at home, fat and happy? He was so busy being the host that it appears he didn’t even eat at his own feast! In his mind, it wasn’t self-denial or noble sacrifice. He was happy only when his visitors were satisfied. So it appears that hosts sometimes go hungry. One could always eat leftovers later, right?
4. He completed the welcome. There is something very sweet about Abraham “seeing them out,” walking them out to the road away from their tent when the feast was done. What a perfect time to personally confirm your care for the guests, a time for a final handshake or hug, a genial good-bye, and providing that extra bit of friendliness to complete the welcoming care.

If only our front porch would reflect the values of father Abraham, who in turn demonstrated the values of Yahweh Himself! We pray that anyone in need who approaches our house will experience the refuge of God, the hospitality and generous spirit of father Abraham, a man after God’s own heart.

“Then they turned away from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord. And Abraham came near and said, ‘Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:22,25).

Quite the Conversation. There was a momentous conversation between Abraham and the Lord as they stood on the edge of a ravine that looked over the city of Sodom. God had come down personally to take a look at Sodom to determine if the people were as desperately wicked as it seemed. Evidently, the people of Sodom were as depraved as expected, and God decided to destroy the whole population. Abraham had the audacity, standing right there with Yahweh, to challenge God in His decision. Certainly, Abraham declared, you wouldn’t destroy the righteous within Sodom with all the wicked, would you, Lord? What if you found fifty righteous, would you still destroy Sodom? No, I will refrain from Sodom’s destruction if fifty righteous were found in the city, says the Lord. And then Abraham began his brazen act of bargaining with the Almighty God. What about forty-five righteous, Abraham asks. Or forty? Or thirty? Or twenty? Or ten? Would you save the city of Sodom if ten righteous people were found? The Lord finally closed the bargaining session with, Yes, I will spare Sodom for ten righteous people. As it turned out, the Lord could not find even ten righteous people in Sodom, and the entire city was destroyed. Because of Abraham’s advocacy, though, the Lord’s angels did rescue Abraham’s nephew Lot and family from the destruction. This unique, unexpected scene brings many questions to mind:

What gave Abraham the right to challenge God? Call it the “right of friendship.” Abraham was known down through Biblical history as the friend of God (2 Chron. 20:7; Isaiah 41:8; James 2:23). The Lord had just stated before the Sodom conversation that He “knew” Abraham (Gen. 18:19), which underlined an intimate personal relationship between the two of them. Besides that, God had just introduced this whole episode with a rhetorical question, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing?” (Gen. 18:17). In other words, like all close friends, God wasn’t about to keep a secret from His bosom buddy Abraham. And, as in any solid friendship, they are free to challenge each other in a spirit of respect and trust. God didn’t consider Abraham to be insolent or impudent. Abraham was audacious, but not disrespectful. God and Abraham seemed to be reasoning together, which is what good friends do.

Was Abraham questioning God’s character? Up to this point, Abraham was mindful of God’s power, wisdom and righteousness. Perhaps what Abraham was wondering about was the extent of His mercy. Abraham wanted to test the waters and see how far God would go in being merciful. Will God be merciful in His justice? God had just told Abraham that He wanted Abraham to teach his children how to be righteous and just (Gen. 18:19). So Abraham reminded God, as if He needed reminding, that He is obligated to remember righteousness in His actions, in addition to justice. Abraham mentioned the words righteous and justice often in their conversation over Sodom. Now, Abraham wonders, where does mercy fit in ? By the time God was bargained down to ten righteous, and then especially after Lot and his family were rescued, Abraham had no doubts that God was a merciful God and Savior.

Was Abraham advocating for the righteous or for everybody in Sodom? It appears that Abraham was advocating for the whole wicked city of Sodom. He could have asked God to merely spare the righteous and let the wicked be destroyed. But he kept asking for the whole city to be spared if righteous were found in it. Abraham wanted the city to be spared if at all possible. Perhaps he wanted the righteous to be spared as an act of justice, and the wicked to be spared as an act of mercy. It’s easy to see why the Lord chose Abraham to be the pioneer of the Chosen People of the covenant. His heart was untainted and uniquely pure. He wanted Abraham to raise his next generation to be as righteous and just and merciful as he was. With maybe a couple of weak moments, Abraham was a true spiritual hero of the Faith.

Does God want us to intercede for the guilty, to advocate for the wicked, like Abraham did? There is little doubt that this would be in the spirit of Jesus. It is said that God doesn’t want any to perish (2 Peter 3:9), and Yahweh has gone on record in Scripture as saying, “As I live, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.” (Ezek. 33:11). Jesus often advocated for the sinful, even going so far as to ask the Father to forgive all those responsible for His death (Luke 23:34). So it is very much in the spirit of Christ to intercede for the guilty, just like Abraham. It is very much in character for believers to care for the homeless, visit the prisoners, and forgive the enemy, unconcerned about the levels of guilt or sin that brought the person to that predicament. We realize that we are guilty sinners as well, no better than  the wicked, and are only declared innocent because of the saving blood of Christ. We are to care for those in need, regardless of the person’s responsibility for the situation. We are to pray for God’s mercy on the guilty.

Was Sodom really all that bad? According to the just Judge of the earth, it was. The whole city was hopelessly depraved. When Lot hosted the angels in his home in town, “The men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter, surrounded the house. And they called to Lot and said to him, ‘Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them.” (Gen 18:1-5). All the men in Sodom wanted to commit a homosexual gang rape. The depravity of the city was only highlighted even more later when Lot and his two daughters were rescued and were recovering in a nearby cave as the city burned. Both daughters panicked. They thought they were never going to see another man, so they both got Lot drunk and lay with him on consecutive nights. Both daughters became pregnant through their father. Neither of those daughters had any moral restraint as they committed incest with their father Lot. Sodom’s morals were so depraved that the people were somehow irredeemable. In this situation, the Lord’s sense of justice kicked into high gear.

Does God want us to challenge Him like Abraham did? God certainly wants us to be honest with Him, whether our challenges are legitimate or not. If we are harboring questions about God, we might as well tell Him forthrightly, since He knows what we’re thinking anyway. It’s healthy for us to voice our human concerns with God. All of us have human questions about how God acts or doesn’t act. On the one hand, to question the all-knowing and all-powerful Lord seems absurd. And for the most part, God’s actions are not exactly explainable, and we should simply trust and believe. One also needs to consider the spirit of the challenge or question. Is it respectful, submissive, trusting? Is the questioning done as a matter of ultimate faith in God? There are plenty of psalms of David that include what even might be considered a brutal cross-examination of God. David was a man after God’s own heart, so it was merely an aspect of the human believer asking human questions in the face of a sometimes  inscrutable God. To question God out of scorn, or distrust, or anger, or unbelief, would seem to be the wrong way to go about it. If you question God like you would a close friend who has saved your life, God would certainly welcome that.

Was God really changing His mind when complying with Abraham’s requests?  In other words, was Abraham really talking God into His final decision? Did God already know that His limit was going to be ten righteous people in Sodom, or was God sort of teasing the situation out for Abraham’s benefit somehow? Perhaps the Lord knew all along about what His bottom line was, but He wanted Abraham to be a part of the reasoning process. It seems that God set the scene up so that Abraham would challenge Him. God gave Abraham permission to speak, to be on the inside of Sodom’s judgment. Rabbi Jonathon Sacks believes that God wanted Abraham to be the defense attorney for the people accused of these moral crimes. Perhaps in God’s eyes, the courtroom of justice demands a counterargument. Sacks writes, “God needs humanity to become His partner in the administration of justice. He needs to hear a dissenting voice. Justice involves conversation, dialogue, argument, a “hearing.” As the prosecutor in this courtroom. God made His case against Sodom, while Abraham defended the accused. And as the ultimate Judge, God finally  laid down the law.

Angels to the Rescue. “The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed himself with his face to the earth and said, ‘My lords, please turn aside to your servant’s house and spend the night…’ But before they lay down, all the men of the city, young and old, surrounded the house and called out to Lot, ‘Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, so we may have sexual relations with them!’ As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, ‘Up! Take your wife and your two daughters, lest you be swept in the punishment of the city! So the angels seized Lot and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought them out and set them outside the city.” (Genesis 19).