In college, in teaching class, we are instructed that the best way to help students to understand a concept is to teach and reteach. As we hear the Word of the Lord again this morning, certainly the concept our Lord would have us to learn, as He teaches and reteaches us, as He speaks His Word and respeaks His Word is that God is the prime mover. It all begins, flows from and ends with the Lord. He gives and we are given to, He does and we are done to. As we move into our text we see that God is the prime mover. He approaches Abraham. He makes a covenant with Abraham. He reiterates His covenant with Abraham. God initiates, God promises and God fulfills His promises.
Our text begins with God’s visit with Abraham, verse one, “1And the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. 2He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth 3and said, “O Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. 4Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree, 5while I bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” 6And Abraham went quickly into the tent to Sarah and said, “Quick! Three seahs of fine flour! Knead it, and make cakes.” 7And Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to a young man, who prepared it quickly. 8Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them. And he stood by them under the tree while they ate” (v. 1-8).
As you hear these words, what you do not hear and what you cannot see in your English version is that the word for Lord is God’s name, Yahweh. Thus, what we are hearing and reading in our text is that this is what theologians call a pre-incarnate Christ, that is that this is Jesus in the flesh before He is born as a baby in Bethlehem. This is Jesus who has come to visit Abraham and Abraham recognizes Him as being the pre-incarnate Christ, as being the Lord, Yahweh Himself in the flesh.
Abraham recognizes the Lord because the Lord has appeared to him before. The Lord appeared to Abraham when He called him and made His covenant with him, a covenant which was not a new covenant, but was a narrowing of the fulfillment of the covenant the Lord made to Adam and Even in the Garden of Eden. God is the one making the covenant. God is the one making the promise. God’s promise in Eden was a Savior for all people of all places of all times, because there was no Jew or Gentile in Eden. Here as earlier, God reiterates His covenant with Abraham with the narrowing of the fulfillment of the promise, that through the family line of Abraham the promised Savior would be born. Here in our text, Abraham recognizes the Lord and in true Oriental fashion offers hospitality.
In confirmation we were taught that angels do not have bodies, but are spirit beings, and as we have been talking about the Lord as being the pre-incarnate Christ, that is that this is Jesus before His immaculate conception and birth, we may wonder about their eating. Concerning their consuming this meal, these incarnate beings, these angels, who are with Jesus, and Jesus, have taken on human flesh, so, although they may not need human food for sustenance, they do eat as regular humans. In so eating, they are accepting Abraham’s offer of hospitality.
Continuing on in our text, God reiterates His promise of a son, picking up at verse nine, “9They said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” And he said, “She is in the tent.” 10The Lord said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. 11Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. 12So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?” 13The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ 14Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son” (v. 9-14).
God had already promised Abraham that he would have a son, that he would be the father of a great nation and that the Savior of the world would be born through his offspring. Here God reiterates His promise of a child and specifically states that this child will be born before the next year is complete.
Now, we are told that Sarah is in the tent, but that she is listening in on the conversation and when she hears this “prediction,” that “about this time next year, Sarah your wife shall have a son,” her response is that she laughs. According to her fallible human nature, understanding the “normal” way of life, she cannot believe that what she is hearing is true. Now remember, to be barren was considered to be cursed, so up until this time Sarah may well have felt cursed and it would be difficult to believe that now, after so many years, and after she has passed child-bearing years, that this would indeed happen to her, that her curse would be removed and she would have the privilege of giving birth to a child.
As always, God always knows what we are thinking and so the Lord hears Sarah laugh and reminds Abraham that with God all things are possible. God reminds Abraham that His promise will come to fulfillment. Notice again, God is the prime mover. God does and we are done to. God gives and we are given to. God promises and He fulfills His promises.
As we heard in our Gospel reading for this morning, God’s promise was fulfilled and we see that fulfilled promise in the ultimate fulfillment of the line of promise to Abraham in the person of Jesus. And even in the birth of Jesus we see that with God all things are possible, because Jesus was conceived, not in the normal earthly way, but by the power of the Holy Spirit overshadowing Mary so that He was conceived, true God and true man. And this Jesus was born, not simply to save His own people, who for the most part rejected Him, but He was born to fulfill God’s covenant given in Eden and reiterated to Abraham, to be the Savior of all people of all places of all times, you and me included.
In our Epistle reading for this morning we hear Paul exhort us to believe in the mysteries of God. These mysteries include, but are not limited to, how God can love us, sinful human beings, so much He would die for us; how can God do such great things through water and His Word, giving, strengthening and keeping us in faith; how can God do such great things through bread and wine and His Word; how can God do such great things for us in our lives and in our world today.
So, what does this mean? Again and again, as our Lord teaches and reteaches, as He tells us and retells us, God’s promise to send a Savior that was given in Eden was given before there was a Jew and Gentile. God’s promise to send a Savior was a promise that was given for all people of all places of all times.
God’s promise to Abraham was not a new promise, not a second covenant, rather His promise to Abraham was simply a narrowing of the line from which the Savior would be born. The promise was the same promise, that God would send a Savior.
So, again, God is the prime mover. It all begins, flows from and ends with God. God created all things out of nothing. God created all things prefect and holy. Humanity brought sin and death into God’s perfect world and immediately God promised to take care of man’s sin. Throughout time and history, again and again God shows that with Him all things are possible. God created all things out of nothing and crowned His creation with the creation of humanity. God cleansed the world with a world wide flood. God scattered the peoples of the world through the confusion of the languages at the tower of Babel. God continued to reiterate His promise of a Savior.
Finally, in Jesus we have God’s fulfillment of His promise to send a Savior. And Jesus too, is an example of the fact that with God all things are possible. Jesus was not conceived in the normal human way, but was conceived by the Holy Spirit so that He is truly God and He was born of the virgin Mary so that He is truly human. And Jesus had to be both God and man. He had to be God in order to be perfect and holy so that He might be able to take our sins upon Himself. And He had to be truly human so that He could live for us and be our substitute. Jesus did obey all God’s commands perfectly and He did fulfill all God’s promises, perfectly. He who knew no sin became sin for us, taking our sins upon Himself and then He paid the price, He suffered the eternal death penalty for us, in our place and He died. But as we know the story, death and the grave had no power over Him and still have no power over Him, so that He rose from the dead and showed Himself to be alive. Before He ascended to the place from which He descended to come to earth, He promised that He would return.
As we await God’s fulfillment of His promise to return we wait in faith, knowing that with God all things are possible, knowing that as the Lord fulfilled His first promise He will fulfill this promise as well. And so we wait, not in fear, not impatiently, but in eager anticipation.
As we wait in eager anticipation, we live lives of faith. We live lives as priests in the priesthood of all believers, offering our lives as living sacrifices for the Lord. Just as Abraham lived his life in glory to the Lord, just as Mary chose what was right and sat at Jesus’ feet and listened to Him, and just as Paul lived out his faith, so too, we today live out our faith when God has His way with us. We live out our faith by being given to by God, by our own sitting at Jesus’ feet and listening to Him through our reading of His Word as well as through our hearing His Word in divine service and Bible Class. We live lives of faith, as living sacrifices as we are always ready to give an answer for our faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and we are ready as our Lord fills us with Himself and the good gifts and blessings He has to give and as He speaks those words with which He has filled us through us, even giving us the confidence, when asked to speak. Because, as we know, with God, all things are possible.
This morning we rejoice because we have seen once again that God is God and that with God, nothing is impossible. We rejoice because once again we have been reminded that God’s promise to send a Savior was His promise to us and Jesus is the fulfillment of that promise. We rejoice because through the very means of Holy Baptism and God’s Word we have been given faith and through the means of our remembering our Baptism, through our confession and hearing His Words of Absolution, through our reading and hearing His Holy Word and through our being given His body and blood, in, with and under the bread and wine in His Holy Supper we participate in His death and resurrection so that His life becomes our life, His death becomes our death and His resurrection becomes our resurrection, and through these means we are strengthened and kept in faith. And finally, through our being given to, we rejoice in the fact that this is giving glory to our Lord. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.
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