When we consider the beginning of this section, we find that they walked a considerable distance, from the oaks of Mamre which is somewhere near Hebron. It says that the Lord looked toward Sodom, but from our indications, even though He looked there, there is no indication that anybody could have seen Sodom from Hebron. And yet, they went to a place where they could look down toward Sodom and Gomorrah in the plain.
Now I think this is another example of Abraham’s generous hospitality when he not only walked Christ to the door of the tent, but he apparently walked with Him for about ten miles till they could finally get to a place where Abraham, the man, could then see through a cleft in the mountains down to the plains where Sodom and Gomorrah would be in view. So he was generous to a fault, even to the point of walking ten miles with his guest after feeding them a very fine meal.
It might be good to note as to why the Lord told Abraham what He was going to do. I think that there are two reasons. One of them is right here and we will get to that in a second. The other one I think has another basis to it and it is in John 15.
Remember, Abraham was the friend of God. What the Lord did was done in the spirit of friendship. Friends disclose their minds, their innermost being with one another. There is a sharing of things because there is a loyalty that is extended between friends that probably does not exist in other kinds of relationships. A person can expose their strengths and weaknesses to a friend and a friend will accept the other person in spite of the weaknesses. And a friend will reprove in a right attitude the weaknesses of his friend. Because there is that relationship that is special and a special kind of loyalty between friends. We will see something about this when we get to Lot. There is a contrast there.
What Christ did was, I think, first of all done on the basis of their friendship. He was about to do something that was going to affect some of Abraham’s loved ones in a very serious way.
The second reason for this, I think, is equally important. The one that is mentioned right in the context and the basis for this revelation begins in verse 18.
Abraham was going to grow into something very great—a great nation. Now in order to do this of course Abraham had to have a son, and those sons had to have children. In other words, there had to be a family if there was going to be a nation. There had to be a family grown great if there was going to be a nation. So how could a family grow great and carry out God’s will if that family does not follow in the footsteps of their father, Abraham?
God was going to work out His purpose through Abraham and his seed, that is, Abraham and his descendants. Now that purpose could not be worked out unless Abraham’s children were like Abraham. So God called Abraham in order that He teach his children. Now the King James Version says, “for I have known him that he may command his children.” That is not wrong. However, it is archaic enough of an expression that it gives someone using today’s English language a different impression. “He called Abraham in order that.” It makes it more [unclear]. In order that there would be more progeny, seed, descendants that would be like Abraham, following in his path.
So why would He tell him about Sodom? It is a veiled admonition; it is a warning. “Abraham, you better do what I called you for.” And it was a warning to the children of Abraham that “you better do what I called you for or else you are going to end up like Sodom and Gomorrah.” Now that is serious, because Sodom and Gomorrah were going to be a permanent memorial to the children of Abraham of what happens to the ungodly. That is the lesson.
Yes, Abraham I am going to bless you with a child, but I have called you in order that you might teach him, and that he might teach his children, and … . . .
That just about covers everything, does it not? "My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws." Just kind of keep that thought and we are going to turn back to Genesis 18. This is God speaking:
How did Abraham know God's laws since they were not formally written until 430 years later? By God's own testimony, Abraham kept them, and he was faithful in doing what he did. There are two possible answers to this. I will give you a sequence of scriptures. In James 2:23, Abraham is called "the friend of God." That indicates a pretty close relationship. To the best of my knowledge, he is the only one in the Book who is called God's friend. That does not mean others are not God's friends, but he is the only one, as far as I know, so named.
In John 15:14, Jesus said to the apostles, "You are My friends. And, do you know what? Because you are My friends, I am going to tell you what I am going to do." Are you beginning to get the picture?
How did Abraham know God's law? God told him! It says in this verse that we just read in Genesis 25, "Because that Abraham obeyed My voice." How did he know about tithing? God told him about it. It is as clear as anything. Abraham was God's friend, and God wanted Abraham to do the right things. Because He did not want his life to be a mess, He instructed him in His way, His laws, His commandments, His statutes—the whole shmear!
This is talking about generational instruction, which is found throughout Deuteronomy. There are many references to teaching children, or to doing the right things so that it will be well for the children and even the grandchildren. This aspect of teaching children goes back to Abraham, the father of the faithful. God says He knew Abraham "in order that he may command his children and his household after him” (Genesis 18:19). It doesn’t say that God chose Abraham because He knew Abraham would teach his children. That would give Abraham something to boast of. Instead, God called Abraham, and intervened in his life, for the express purpose of Abraham then commanding his children. That’s why God initiated the relationship—so that Abraham would then be able to thoroughly instruct those who came after him.
God wanted a family line, and that meant each generation had to teach the next one how to live His way, and particularly to fear Him, and we will talk more about that fear later. So, these instructions to read the law in the presence of even the little ones for the sake of learning to fear God is an echo of what God started with Abraham. He wants a family, a nation, that fears Him. This mention of the future children of the little ones shows that God’s will is for His way to be passed on to each generation.
This indicates that Abraham knew God's laws. He knew the way of righteousness. And he would certainly have known that human sacrifice is wrong. I mean, just think of it. If Abraham knew the perversities practiced in Sodom were sin, surely he knew that human sacrifice was also sin. So it is this knowledge that he had that makes what he did in sacrificing Isaac so much more poignant and reasonable and faithful. If he knew God forbids human sacrifice, and like I said, I am sure he did, his knowledge of God's character, knowing that He was against it, becomes a piling in the foundation of his assurance that God would not kill Isaac. God does not want human sacrifice. He does not want me to worship Him this way, maybe the logic went in his head. So there must be something going on here that I am not exactly aware of, But I know because I know God God's character, that He does not want me to kill my son. So I will move forward and I will do as He said. But I know that God will find a way out of this. I know He is not going to put me through this. He might have thought, He might take me to the ultimate, which he did. That is, right before the the knife came down across Isaac's throat, He stopped him. But he knew that, ultimately, God did not require him to slay Isaac.
You know what follows after this. I think we understand that Abraham's concern was expressed in his beseeching God, which immediately preceded the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. His appeal showed that he believed in God's ability to destroy them, but he did not want to see Lot and his family destroyed with people he knew were evil to the core.
Perhaps the memory of the Flood was on Abraham's mind, but then again what troubled him is the very question that we are considering: How much sin, how much leaven, is enough to motivate God to react in this way? Maybe it was the question, "Does the faith of the righteous hinge on whether they are in the majority?" Maybe the question turned another way was, "To what limits can God's mercy be pushed?" Or then again, he might have been considering, "Exactly what is justice?"
I think one thing was certain to Abraham, as well as to us, that there is a great deal of ambiguity to mankind's recorded history. In addition, there is a great amount of ambiguity to God's reaction to sin. One of the greatest problems in understanding the total plan of God is that reward and punishment are sometimes conspicuously absent from our view.
In Genesis 18:19, God is stating something here regarding Abraham. He is stating a purpose for which He called Abraham. Abraham of course, as the head of a family, has the responsibility to God for the benefit of that family.
God is laying a foundation for the purpose that He is going to work out through Abraham. That purpose began with Abraham. It continued on through Israel when they were in Egypt, when they were out in the wilderness, when they were in the land, and all the prophets that God sent, the judges that He sent, right on through all of the Old Covenant up to the New Testament times.
Now we find that God's real purpose is that Abraham is going to have a seed that is spiritual in nature. They are part of a new creation. Though the foundation was laid in Abraham thousands of years ago, we are to follow the way God described as "doing righteousness." We find that this way is outlined by law, but law is not all that this way consists of. The law gives shape and structure, but there is a great deal more than just meets a casual glance. It is the law plus a multitude of attitudes and actions in what is contained within the much broader term "love."
In Genesis 18 God tells in a very short verse why He called Abraham.
God is saying, "I have an intimate relationship with Abraham so that he may teach his household, his children, to keep the way of the LORD, to do righteousness and justice that the LORD may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him."
The way of God is a way of living. It is not confined merely to law. Righteousness is right doing. It is doing things the way God would do it if God were in the situation that you are in. Sin therefore is a turning aside. It is missing the mark of the way God would do it if He were in your shoes. Christ did it so perfectly that He said, "If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father." "If the Father were here, He would do it exactly the way I did."
House meaning "household," appears first in Genesis 18:19 and often thereafter. In the OT it usually means the whole of the domestic staff as well as the family. It is used to mean "dynasty," as in the "house of David."
Once Abraham was called, then his whole household was considered to be in the covenant and the males were required to receive the covenant sign—which was circumcision. God gave a charge of holiness not only to Abraham, but also to his whole household. Here in Genesis 18, we will read verses 17-19.
God commanded various religious requirements to be observed by the household as a unit: the Passover, the sin offering on the Day of Atonement, the sacrifice of the firstborn of the flocks, and tithing were commanded to households to be kept.
That verse encompasses much of the responsibility of a patriarch. In him was vested the authority to keep things moving in the right direction. In him also was vested the authority or the responsibility of educating his family. The “I have known him in order that he command his children” means pass on to them the education, the understanding, the wisdom, that God had passed on to Abraham through the experiences that He took Abraham through. So administration of the family and the education of the family was the patriarch’s major responsibility. Abraham is the father of the faithful.
Abraham was the father of the faithful. God saw in him this quality—that he was the teacher of his children. He taught his children to honor him. What did his children do? They honored their father. And Isaac and Jacob became honorable men. Basically, God said, "I know Abraham. I'm going to bless this man forever, because he's going to teach My way to his children. They're going to obey him; and, in doing so, they're going to honor him. And, because of this, it will be well with them. They will be mighty in the land. They will always be a present factor in the work of God on this earth."
