Dr. Dean Alley PhD: Alright, Chaplain Dean Alley here. I had a moment. Folks, I hope you're doing well. I am going to walk through chapter 18 in a continued series of Genesis. We're in chapter 18. there's a really good point I want to pull out of this and and look for these nuggets that help us today. And Just to continue to build on our foundation and our our see. I'm starting from the beginning and the reason for that is I want that foundation secure. And then obviously like once I get through Exodus, we'll speed up a little bit and then we'll get into the New Testament. But those first two books are extremely important. Exodus, I mean, some people will tell you if you know Jonathan Prager, he he had an accident, but he's He's he's Jewish writer. I have several of his books back here. I don't know where they're at. Back there. Anyways, he devout Jew, very smart, and I don't know if you've ever seen Prager or Prager U. But anyways, when he wrote his commentary on the Torah, he started in Exodus. And I loved his analogy on how he was talking about how they were exiting the situation, then he goes back into Genesis and finishes through. He's still got one more to go. I think it's Leviticus to finish it out, but I have read all of them and they're very good. He's a very good writer. I write it I read it from my lens of dispensational Christian. And he's giving both viewpoints throughout the thing. So anyways, So, anyways, I I I bought all of those and and spent all the money on all that. So you don't have to. But at the same time, he is very good. So I just I point that out that once we get through Genesis, my my philosophy is give you the beginning, give you the exodus of the people of Israel, each of these dispensations, two big ones, right? The innocent stage and all these things, and we're gonna get up to the church age and we're gonna get into the gospels and then shoot through. My goal is to get through the the the Paul epistles and then revelations and kind of close that gap a little bit. So I won't be spending as much time on the minor and major prophets. And the reason for that is I'm giving you the beginning, then I want you to see the ending. And the prophets are warnings and things throughout there. But there's still great information in there. I'm not saying skip those. I'm saying that there's there's even in Levitical. When you start reading into that and getting into that deep dive of study, you end up seeing things that you've never seen. So just a synopsis of how we got to where we are of what I've done. I've been pouring into chapter eighteen. I've been reading the Treasury of Scripture knowledge, which gives you a comparison of where those verses land in different parts of the Bible. I have I'm gonna read here. in a minute, I've been cross referencing specifically eighteen with in John. John gives us some good pieces where we learn that God is our friend and Abraham no excuse me, yeah, Abraham is able to negotiate in this chapter with with with God and it's it's it's really profound. He he It's an accessory type prayer. And I love how they they go back and forth about that and we'll talk about it as my fingers stick here. what he was trying to pull out of here or what he was saying to God. And some reason my fingers in the Bible is here we go. Okay. All right, so let's You know me, I love context. I like to set the stage in eighteen. You know, we can just read to read, or we can read to understand. And that's what of my intent is to try to show you. So when we get into chapter 18, Yahweh, he appears where? He appears to Abraham. And we know this because he is near the oaks of Mamre. I even did a study on Mamre and it's listed nine nine different times through Genesis. which the oaks while he was resting at the entrance of his tent. And remember in my last episode, I talked about you know, when he goes down to Egypt and comes back, they they stay at the same place they did prior to that because either it was good grazing, it was good water, it was a great location or whatever. So he's he's he he goes to where he knows. So So he's resting. What is he doing? He's chilling out. He's at his tent, right? And then Abraham he sees three men and rushes to greet them, offering them water and food. So he instructs what? Sarah to prepare the bread, to select a choice calf for the meal. So they were going to have a big meal. And the men eat, and Yahweh informs Abraham that Sarah will be bearing a son. within a year. And ev despite her old age, she's up there. And Sarah starts to laugh or you know, at this promise and doubting her ability to conceive. you know pretty much doubting God at some point. But Yahweh reassures Abraham that nothing is too difficult for for him. And so when we get through they get through the meal then he prepares to leave for Sodom. Now you're gonna get two different takes here on the first part talks about she's gonna be pregnant, it's gonna be Isaac, and then there's going to be a point here where they talk about Sodom and what goes on there. So his intention is to investigate the city's grave sins. He wants to go see it for himself. So these are these three men will earn are angels, but they're gonna go and they are gonna go to the city and Abraham intercedes with questioning whether the righteous should be destroyed along the wicked. So should the should the bad and good all be destroyed at once is kind of what he's saying. So he pleas with Yahweh or with God and negotiates a number of the righteous individuals to be spared in the city. And he starts at fifty. So he starts at fifty. If I find fifty people, will you be able to not destroy sodom he's just trying to intercede for this this this these cities now keep in mind that sodom had probably four or five little cities around it okay called counties or whatever you want to call them but different parts so you'd have like you know you know a city like let's just say Washington DC then there's a bunch of little counties around it so kind of think that way when you see about when you think about Sodom because Gomorrah's So it's not just one, but it's two there, but there's some cities there. And so he's pleading for the 50, but he ends up having going down to 10 because can you find the righteous? So that that should give you pause to acknowledge that God will spare the righteous and he's willing to listen. He's a righteous God, but sin is sin and he can't deal with it. So Yahweh. agrees to spare Sodom if he finds the righteous simply. This goes back to my atheist friends who say he why if he's a loving God, why is he killing, murder, and all folks, you're taking it out of context. And as always, they like to go back to Canaan in that time frame where we see Joshua and J and Caleb when they go in to take it's called the conquest time. And they are going to remove the evil from that area because that is the chosen land that's given to Israel. And they were very, very, very, very bad. So God can only put up with it so long. So it's the same. let's fast forward to 2020 2026, folks. How much longer will God put up with the sin that he sees in this world? When will he come and will he when will he judge? And then cast his you know, the death and reign of it. You know, how long? Get we see it in the Old Testament, which points to the New Testament. Probably gives you a good sense because we talk about it in the gospels and and Paul talks about it as well. he's coming. So if it happened, it's gonna happen again. And that's where a lot of my folks lose me they lose they they get lost here because they lose they don't have faith. They don't believe it and they struggle. And That's going to be between them and the maker. But, anyways, so my point here is the chapter basically he he agrees to spare Sodom, but and then the chapter will conclude with Yahweh departing and Abraham returning to his place and highlighting the themes of hospitality, faith, and divine justice. These are some core things we'll pull out so. From a high point of view, he he gets the three people that comes and visits him, tells him he's gonna bear a son. The chapter moves into the second part where he's talking about Sodom, I mentioned, and then God stands firm. Excuse me, Abraham stands firm and he argues with God and he insists the war the world a just judge of the world must do justice is what he's saying. So let me give you some historical Background doctrine, and you're not, you know, that's my that's me. So we're talking about the year 2067 BC, documented, and it can be established from the biblical accountability in the plains of Mamry. Well, Mamry is Hebron, if you think of it from a looking at it from a map. So then Abraham at the time of this chapter, he's ninety-nine, and Sarah is eighty-nine. So he gets the three visits, right? This is the historical part. He gets Yahweh and two angels that come. And it's a Near Eastern hospitality. This is kind of what they did. They sat at the tent at the door in the heat and run to greet, wash their feet, shade, then food. Folks, if you've been to the Middle East, why you always see why do they wash their feet? Well, number one, you get a lot of sand and dust into but when they go into tents and things, they put rugs down and they usually wash a person's feet before they go on it. Or take think of it as taking your shoes off before you go in the house. Think of it that way. so Sarah is in the tent, in her part of the tent, and the promise of Isaac at the time of her life, which would be that next year. So after the meal, the two go to Sodom and Yahweh remains with Abraham and discloses judgment. And Abraham walks them part way, then stands with the Lord, and then he starts to bargain the fifty, remember? And he goes to ten. So that's the historical piece behind this chapter. The doctrinal pieces that we're pulling out of here, the Theophany is Yahweh or God, he appears as man. Eats, he speaks, and he knows Sarah hidden, her knows Sarah's hidden laugh. He's omniscient, means he's all knowing. So he knew she was laughing. We know that nothing is too hard for him. Mike 18, 14 will say it. The promised seed. Who's the promised seed? Promised seed is Isaac. Isaac will be the promised seed, and it'll be by a miracle, right? Because of their age. It will not be through flesh. So we can look that up in Romans and Galatians. But he's a friend to God. And Yahweh will not, or God will not hide what he does. And the household covenant, Abraham, must command his children in the way of what? The Lord, folks. We learn it'll be divine justice, justice of all the earth does right. Will not slay the righteous. He will not kill the righteous with the the wicked. So kind of get that out of your head. That's why when you say to me, Well, Chapman Dean, why are you a pre pre-millennialist and you use why do you think you're not gonna be here when all this tribulation and stuff and the bad stuff? Well, I think of this. I think here here it is in eighteen twenty-five, you will not slay the w righteous with the wicked. intercedes with effectual with God's revealed will. I think his will is not to create any issue with or or put his people or his body of Christ through any kind of wrath, any kind of difficulties, he will take us out of that before he brings the wicked or starts to bring on the tribulations. 'Cause we're not appointed to it. That's my take. So He's a he's a he's a righteous child. So he will not slay the wicked, I mean the righteous, right next to the wicked. He's not gonna kill everybody right next to him. He'll save And remember, when the rapture comes, my belief, when the rapture comes and everybody's taken off this earth, and the people still left, there is no more Holy Spirit. You cannot have intercede Holy Spirit. One one third of the Godhead of the Trinity is now weak. the Holy Spirit goes with his his elect, his his church and Some people have a theory when that will happen. Well, we know one third of the angels were cast out of heaven. And we know we're coming back to fight in the tribulation with Jesus. Some say when we get the numbers of what the fallen angels are, that'll be the times that the Gentile the the the time of the Gentiles has been fulfilled. Just a theory somebody threw out there. I don't know if But I just tell you, I tell you that because there are some theories on that. But we're not going to be, I don't think we're going to be slain. he leaves two for Sodom and one in in one remains. And and we know that's Jehovah. And we'll see that distinction. We'll talk a lot a lot more about that in chapter 19. So the inspiration here Abraham runs, he bows, he serves, he stands, he draws near, right? And then what does he do? He pleads. Sarah laughs at unbelief, right? We see that. Then gently exposed and still includes in the promise. So he hears it, sees it. So God invites man of dust and ashes into his council. So when they're sitting there and they're having a meal together, he's in the presence of God. The righteous remnant, even the tent, can stay judgment. Faith takes God at its word when the body is dead. We are. We are of the elect. We are with waiting for the hope. We are in Jesus. We are in Christ. And we are at a point where we know that we can dwell with God. And we know that faith takes God at His Word. part of the application, I guess I could I I can cover that at the end, but let's just get into the verses. Let me read them, read them out. Let me read the scriptures to you. First, it's important we read the Bible. I read these scriptures to you that you hear them and let the Holy Spirit do the work as you hear that, and you hear these, and then we'll talk about them as they as we go. And it says in chapter eighteen, and the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre, and he sat in a tent door in the heat of the day, and he lifted up his eyes and looked, and lo three men stood by him, and when he had saw them, he He ran to meet them from his tent door, and he bowed himself towards the ground, and said, My Lord, if now I have found favor in your sight, in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee from thy servant. Let a little water I pray ye to fetch and wash your feet, and rest yourself under the tree, and I will fetch a morsel of bread and And comfort ye your hearts after that he shall pass on. For therefore are ye come to your servant, and they said, So do as thou hast said. So go do what you say you're gonna do. And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, he gave goes in there, and said, Make ready three measures of fine meal, need it. and made cakes upon it, the upon the hearth. And Abram ran unto the herd, he fetched a calf, tender and good, and gave it to and gave it unto the young man, and he hastened and he dressed it. So he killed it and he dressed it and he cooked it. Then he took the butter and the milk and the calf which had dressed it and set it before them, and he stood by them under the tree And they did eat. Verse nine. And they said unto him, Where is Sarai thy wife? And he said, Behold, in the tent. And he said, I will certainly return thee according to the time of life. And lo Sarah and no, Sarah Ly thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door which was behind him. Now Abraham And Sarah were old and well stricken in age, and in it ceased to be with Sarah, after the man manner of a woman. So in other words, she's passed her her time to have a child. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old, I grow old, I have pleasure, my Lord, being also old and old also. And the Lord said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh? Saying shall she sh shall I of surety bear a child, which I mold to question. Is that is any anything too hard for the Lord? Is the question, rhetorical, because you know nothing is. At the time appointed, I will return unto thee according to the time of the life, and Sarah shall have a son. Then Sarah denied saying, so she's denying to God that I didn't say that saying, I laugh not. For she was afraid and she said, Nay, but thou didst laugh. And he said, No, you laughed. the men rose up from there or thence and looked toward Sodom. And Abraham went with them to bring them them on their way. And the Lord said said, Shall I hide from Abraham that which I do? So he he was Yes, secret. Seeing that Abraham shall surely become the great mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him, for I know that he will command his children and his household after him, that they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he had spoken. And the Lord said unto And the Lord said, Because of thy cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous. I mean, you st you start seeing grievous. it must be bad. I will go down, I will see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me, and if not, I will know. So he knows that there's something going on. So this is where Abraham jumps on and says, Well, wait a minute, hold on, Lord. And the men turned their faces and they went there, and they went toward Sodom. But Abraham stood yet before the Lord. So the Lord hadn't gone. And Abraham drew near, and he said, Will thou also destroy the righteous and the wicked? So there's a question here. And then he says, Peradventure. When you see peradventure, it means perhaps. So perhaps. There may they be fifty righteous within the city, there be in the city. Will thou destroy and not spare the place if fifty righteous that are therein, basically in the city, that be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked. So he's intercession, he's having a conversation with the Lord, the mighty Lord, God, and That it be far from his sight to slay the righteous with the wicked, and that the righteous should be a be as wit they the wicked and should be judged from thee. Shall not the judge of all the earth do the right? So he's throwing out some some bombs here. And he says in twenty-six, and the Lord said, If I find in Sodom, Abraham, fifty righteous within the city, I'll spare all that's in place. For their sake. So he's essentially saying, Then Abraham answered and he said, Behold, which means, look, now I have taken up me to speak unto the Lord, which I am, but dust and ashes. He's recognizing he's a he's nobody. He comes from dust and ashes, as we all all have, just like Adam, and we're gonna we're gonna go back to the dust. And then he says, In twenty eight, pervent peradventure, or perhaps there shall lack five of the fifty righteous, wilt thou destroy all the city for the lack of five? And he said, If I find there are forty-five people, I will not destroy it. This is what God tells him. And he says, And he spake unto him again, and said, Well, perhaps so perventure, there are forty found there. And he said, I will not destroy it if there's forty sake. And he said unto him, let the Lord be angry, not be angry, basically, saying, and I will speak. Perhaps there shall be thirty that are found there. And he said, I will not destroy it if I find thirty there. Behold, now I have taken up with me to speak unto the Lord. Perhaps they there shall be twenty found there, and he said, I will not destroy. If you find twenty righteous people, Lord, will you not destroy these cities? And he said, No, I won't find me twenty. and I will speak. but this one's pervention ten shall be found if there's ten lord and he says and he said I will not destroy it if there's ten people that are righteous in this city So those are the verses there which is very profound when you start thinking about here is Abraham negotiating with God. Right. So So I'm gonna pull this out of the way for a second. Okay, so we just broke that bad puppy down. So let's run run through it. So starting up in verse one, and the Lord appeared and sought Abraham and what? Friendship, right? He starts out with some friendship here. And then then Abraham sat and bowed his head and meditated. He gave him respect. Then Abraham served and met the needs of the people. And then basically he looked and he noticed that the men nearby, and then he ran eagerly. And what did he do? He runs to meet them and he bows courteously, being courteous and respectful. With the sound of help, spend time with them. He showed what? What was the things that he showed him in his chapter? Well, number one, he offered water for cleansing and refreshing, so cleaning his feet. Give him something to refresh, offered rest. Come here in the shade, let's rest. Then he offered food. So hospitality is very big here. And I would say when we get down to like verse six or so, he involved his wife in serving. So his wife helped serve. And and he says, And and I picked that up from six. And Abraham hastened or quickly went in the tent unto Sarah, Sarah, and said, Make ready a meal. That's my point there. So he involved his wife in the serving process. So she's involved. And then he gave the best of what he had: the veal, the young calf, right? He fetched the tender good and he gave it to the young man just to get ready. So he serves the men and becomes personally involved as he's serving. So he is hosting. And then he demonstrates humility and he stood nearby a servant. as a servant would. So he's standing there serving these people or these angels, these two angels and God. Abraham was to believe that the great promise of God and the promise seed. So we're gonna pick it up where he says concerned Abraham's wife as well as himself. And he was absolutely certain of the promise. The Lord promised himself he would return and perform a miracle and give a son. What does that sound like? That sounds like the rapture. I will return and gather you caught up with me. I will bring you with me. This is what we see in the New Testament. This is kind of a analogy here. And he'll perform that miracle and give that child to Sarah. We see Abraham and Sarah had conquered unbelief. And this is where Sarah says the causes of her unbelief. Sarah said Sarah was beyond childhood or she was un she was she's beyond the years of a normal person having a child. and Sarah was allowed a negative thought. So she thought negatively. Do you think loving negativity today? Yes. Is it normal? Sure. It's part of being human. the answer of unbelief, God's omniscient, so he knows everything. He's all knowing, all all knowing of everything, his knowledge of all things knew that Sarah was on was in unbelief. He knew it because he knew her heart. And excuse me, God is omnipotent, all powerful. His power, nothing is too hard for God. He the conquest of unbelief, Sarah lied and then she denies it to the god to God and has this guilt. And then God demands the confession from her and in her repentance. And she basically sir denied it, saying, I laugh not for she was afraid. This is fifteen. And she said, Nay, but thou didst laugh. So he he called it to the carpet right there. Picking it up in 16. So Abraham yearned to walk with God step by step and longed for his presence. So the men looked and walked toward Sodom, and Abraham joined with them partially. And Abraham thought of God's great call and purpose for his life. What is his purpose? And Abraham was led to think of his call and purpose. Abraham was led to think of his duty. And his duty was to teach the way of the Lord. What is your duty today? Well, one of is to teach the way of the Lord. To who? Your children, your grandchildren, to your friends, to your family, to anybody that'll listen. Teach the way of the Lord. And number two, the duty is to teach what is right and what is just. That's difficult in today's world. There's a lot of corruption out here. And it's It's it's sad to see and I mean you could get caught in a in a lie where we talked about you change the lie to the tr to to to be true and it and the truth to a lie. you can say that and there's no accountability. You can steal millions of dollars from the taxpayers, get exposed, but nobody does anything. What's the word? Let the process play out. Nothing ever plays out. I never see them get caught. Anyways, so Abraham was led to think of the faithfulness of the reward. And and he thought about that call. And then we see where he talks about in verse 20, he says, Abraham sensed the pain of God's heart over the wicked. So God is saddened by seeing people that are in sin. It saddens him. And he could see the pain. And this is where Abraham could see because of the righteous outcry against the sin wickedness. And because of the outrage of the sin is really great. This is Sodom and Gomorrah. which by the way, archaeologists have discovered the little sulfur balls of the the which came from the destruction of those two cities, and they could cor corroborate the existence of Sodom and Gomorrah through the archaeology of today. And I know that that that pains all the all the Big Bang Theory people or the evolution. you know, how can you believe in evolution? Think about it, monkeys. Right? Why do we still have monkeys if we came from a monkey? wait a minute, I'm a thinker. I thought about it. Think people, don't let people tell you what to think. Read the Bible, study. Because of the impending judgment of the cities. And all the persons must be examined and judged. So everybody will be judged. This is the sense here. And Abraham stood boldly before L the Lord in prayer, refusing to leave the the Lord's presence. Abraham he draws near and he's going to do some interceding here, expresses his concern for who? The righteous. And ask God to spare the city if he finds fifty people in it. And that's a challenge as we read we we just read. And Abraham's acknowledgement to God is just and righteous. And God answers Abraham's prayer. So how does he do this? So Abraham laid hold of the open access of the door into God's presence. So he's this is a sense of in the presence of God. Abraham acknowledges his unworthiness because he basically says, I come from dust, I'm a nobody. I say that about myself. I'm the biggest sinner there is. Then Abraham asks. God to spare the city if there was forty-five purchased righteous. And God continues to answer his his his prayer. So he's he's giving, he's saying, I'm I'm gonna do this for you. And he continues to do this. So Abraham continues to pray and beg God and says, praying on and on, never giving up, never giving up on the people. And then he talks about the forty righteous, where you save the city. And then God says, Yeah, I'll save the city. So Abraham's preserved in a concerned Prayer for these people. And when we pray for people, pray specifically for what it is that we want God to do. And He's wanting them to spare them. And then and then Abraham preserves meekly, he pleads again to God, Don't be angry with me, is what he says. But he goes on to say, continue hearing his prayer. And he talks about the 30. And God says, I won't destroy if it's 30. And then He gets answered. God's answering the prayer, right? He says, I'm not gonna destroy it. So he's getting all these prayers answered. And then Abraham he can comes again and he says, he asks, What about twenty if you find him righteous? And then he gets his prayer answered again. He says, I won't destroy the the the cities if you if they're fine you find you know these ten people in there, or excuse me, these twenty people. And then he goes on to say, the last he asked for. The ten righteous persons, will you not destroy the city? And and God basically he answers his prayer and says, No, I won't. Well, we all know that the city's destroyed because they couldn't find even ten people in the city. That's how wicked they were. So that is that's sad. That's sad. And you know what? I think that there's a lot of wickedness in this world, and I think that God is grieved. He doesn't want anybody to be To suffer the consequences that are coming. He doesn't want them to do that. but remember, if you're in if you are in hell, right, just remember you got what you wanted because you chose not to believe. It's as simple as that. Believe and turn away from your sin and Live for the Lord. Let I mean I the you know the Holy Spirit has to do it, but you need to let in. So let's talk about the application. We'll close it down. So practice prompt, costly hospitality that you may entertain the Lord awares. You never know if you're talking to an angel. Never. Angels come and go, they appear and disappear. Yes, I believe. I give you one example of belief. There was a church that needed X amount of money to bill for their ministry. And after one service They checked the offering and it was a full cash drop of like twenty grand. And that day they remembered there was a new person they never recognized. He just put twenty grand in the plate. So you can't trace it. You didn't know who did it, but you assuming that he'd put that in there. nobody knew this person and they never saw him again. He never showed up again. That could have been an angel. I I do believe that. And so you have to you have to in a you have to be ho hospitable. Is our country hospitable today? No. You have to believe the promise when circumstances contradict it. You have to stay on the promises. Because why, folks? Because it's not too hard for God. He can do it. He's God. You have to lead your house in the way of the Lord. So that the covenant blessings rest on your children and your families and people that you're praying for. You gotta draw near and intercede for the wicked city or people. Start with what you know about God's character. He won't destroy the righteous. We learned this in this chapter. And do not deny the heart of God that already sees. Don't lie. Confess it. Stand on his word. You are not I always say it, a good lie never lasts long. And if you're lying about simple things like that, you'll lie about anything. you know, I knew somebody that would stand in a grocery line and turn to the other person, make up a total diff total story about, I'm a doctor, I do this, I do that, and completely false. Think it's funny and go out the door. Folks You will be accountable for let your nay be nay and you know your your yay be yay, which means you'll be accountable for your words, your rec what you have to say. So if you're running around making all these false accusations or making things thinking it's funny, you're gonna probably have to be held accountable for that at some point. But anyways, so that is what I have today. Sorry about my dog barking in the background. I hope this was a blessing. This is chapter eighteen of Genesis. We'll Pick it up in chapter nineteen. God bless. Take care.