2/14 Through the Bible in Devotions

Genesis 18 Deliverance!

(Gen 18:1 KJV) And the LORD appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day;

The Bible says it was the Lord that appeared unto Abraham, I believe this was an Old Testament appearance of Christ, and there were many others! Notice that Abraham worshipped Him, (18:2), and then called Him “Lord” (v. 3), more specifically,“my Lord.” Angels cannot accept the praise of man, they are not to be worshipped (Rev. 19:10), and Abraham was man of God enough to know this, I’m sure. You will notice too, that, after talking with Abraham, only two angels enter into Sodom (19:1), while three appeared before him on the plains of Mamre. (18:2). Then, note the question in v. 25(b), “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”, and you too will realize that this was God (Christ) Himself, appearing in a human body. There were several Old testament appearances of Christ mentioned in the Bible. We spoke of one already concerning Melchizedek and there were yet others. Christ is eternal and existed long before He came to earth in the form of a babe, and others have met Him in the old days.

Notice here though, that the righteous do not suffer as do the wicked! The “Judge of all the earth” is just, He does do right! God does not judge the righteous with the (judgment of the) wicked, but delivers them, as He did with Lot in the following chapter. It is unbelievable that in a city this size, God could not find ten righteous people. A close reading of the text will reveal that there were (at least) ten relatives of Lot’s in that very town! If his entire family were godly men and woman, they could have spared the entire town! Are your relatives saved? Have you tried to witness to them? If not, why not? Do you see the importance of it? God will deliver His own out of judgment, will you be in that number? Will your loved ones? It may be up to you, you may make the difference between Heaven and hell for someone, and maybe even save an entire city from destruction.