Cynicism and Wonder
The Life of Abraham 6.0 
Genesis 17:1-17 & 21:1-7 
by Eric Stillman
August 6th, 2006

We’ve been looking at the life of Abraham the past few weeks and talking about rediscovering the idea that the life of faith is supposed to be an adventure of faith, full of twists and turns, ups and downs, times you want to give up and times it feels like all hope is lost, but that in the end you are a better person for it because of how you’ve met God on the adventure.  The best adventure stories typically have some plot elements in common – there’s a goal in sight that the main characters are heading for, but there are serious obstacle in the way, and just when it seems like hope is lost, something miraculous happens that makes you want to stand up and cheer.  Gandalf returns, or the Millennium Falcon shows up and sends Darth Vader’s spaceship spinning, or someone else saves the day.  And this isn’t just true for the movies, but is also true in real life – the best stories are those that seem like they are headed for a doomed ending before the miraculous intervenes and saves the day.  A life headed for suicide before someone intervened; a daughter running as far as possible from God before He gets a hold of her and turns her around, a life of loneliness lived before a true friend or lover shows up.  These are the stories that amaze us and make us want to stand up and cheer.

The story of Abram & Sarai is one of those stories.  As we pick up the story in chapter 18, we find an elderly couple – he’s approaching 100, she’s approaching 90 – who has been childless because the wife is barren, and is now past childbearing years.  25 years earlier, God told Abram that he would bless him with more descendants than he could count, that he would indeed have an heir coming from his own body.  But that was 25 years ago, and certainly as Abraham approaches 100, hope is flickering out once again.  They even tried to force God’s hand by having Abraham sleep with Sarah’s maidservant, which succeeds in producing a son, Ishmael, but it becomes clear that Ishmael was not the child of promise, not the solution God had in mind.

In the previous chapter, God has appeared yet again to Abram, 13 years after he last appeared.  He again reinforces that what he has promised will come true, and signifies it by changing Abram’s name to Abraham (father of a multitude) and Sarai to Sarah.  More importantly, he informs Abraham that the long-awaited promised child is going to come the following year, and that the baby will be named Isaac.

Let’s read what happens next in the first 8 verses of Genesis 18:

Genesis 18:1-8  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 fine 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.

Three strangers appear to Abraham, and being the gracious host, as was the custom in the Ancient Near East, Abraham offered them what most travelers would want – water, a foot bath, and a meal.  Maybe he wondered if one of them was actually the Lord, but more likely he was just being the gracious host.  Let’s continue reading verses 9-11.