Genesis 18:22

A PERSEVERING INTERCESSOR

‘And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the Lord.’

Genesis 18:22

Even under the Old Testament, there were certain visits of Christ to our world which we cannot but consider as earnests or shadows of His great advent. It is clear that in very ancient times God appeared to His servants in the form of a man.

I. From many passages in the Old and New Testaments (notably Isaiah 63:8; John 8:56) we are led to believe: (1) that Christ exercised great concern in the affairs of the Old Testament Church; (2) that He did at certain periods discover Himself in the garb which He was afterwards to assume, and which when assumed He went on to wear for ever; (3) that He was the superior angel whom we find speaking under that manifestation, and to whom, always, Divine honours were paid.

II. The narrative in this chapter opens by telling us generally that ‘the Lord appeared unto Abraham.’ How the Lord appeared is related in the rest of the chapter. (1) To all his three guests Abraham was kind, hospitable, reverential; but to one he was more. From the first that one attracted his regard. He addressed him at once as ‘my Lord.’ (2) In the conversation which ensued there are certain things which all said together, and certain things which only one says. The former are comparatively trivial; the latter most important. (3) When the men were gone, we have these very discriminating words; ‘Abraham stood yet before the Lord.’

III. Note some points in Christ’s character and work brought out in this chapter. (1) He was accompanied by the ministration of angels. (2) He condescended to receive from man. (3) He exercised the two offices of a promiser and a reprover. (4) He came to Abraham as a Friend in sympathy, but He came also as a mighty Deliverer and an avenging Judge.

—Rev. Jas. Vaughan.

Illustration

‘My praying is conformed too little to the pattern which Abraham has set me. It is too selfish. My outlook should be much larger. My soul should be less wrapped up in its own wants and its own sorrows. I belong to a kingdom of priests—priests who are intended, who are set apart, to make supplication for saints and for sinners, and for sufferers everywhere. “Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God; and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God.” And the language of love, its mother tongue, is prayer.

“A frequent intercession with God,” says William Law, “earnestly beseeching Him to forgive the sins of all mankind, to bless them with His Spirit, and to bring them to everlasting happiness, is the divinest exercise that the heart of man can be engaged in.” It must be a divine exercise; for not only did Abraham, the father of the faithful, practise it, but my Lord Jesus Christ abandoned Himself to it often and gladly. And let me seek to learn better the blessed art.’