Who were the three visitors who came to Abraham's tent in Genesis 18? Abraham must have known they were divine messangers. When he sees them he bows low to the ground. He commands Sarah and his servants to lay out food before them, and treats them as his honored guests. There is no mention of their names, or where they come from. We only know that Abraham noticed these three men standing close by his tent after the Lord appears to him.
During their meal, one of the visitors announces that Sarah will give birth to a son within the year. Sarah over hears this and laughs. (It isn't surprising then that Isaac's name means laughter) After the meal is over, God reveals his plan to destroy Sodom and Gemorrah. As Abraham pleads for the lives of the innocent, two of the visitors who shared the meal with Abraham, now referred to for the first time as angels, enter the city of Sodom. What happened to the third visitor? Was he an angel too?
I did some research online and found mixed results. Many medieval and renaissance paintings depict the third visitor as God himself. Other scholars see the visitors as three angels, the third one not being mentioned in Genesis 19 because his one role was prophesying the birth of Isaac. I feel the real importance lies in that this is the first time they are mentioned in Scripture. They also play an extremely active role in the story. They may appear as men, but the way Abraham and Lot interact with them proves their divine nature.
Though Lot does not know these men, he also greets them by bowing down to the ground. Once they enter the city of Sodom, Lot insists that they seek shelter in his home rather than sleeping in the town square. He also prepares a meal for them, at which time they east unleavened bread ( the first time this recurring them is seen in Scripture) The cruel townspeople surround Lots house, threatening to break down the door in order to have sex with the angels. I was unable to understand God's need to destroy Sodom until I read this passage. It's hard to come up with anything more sacrilegious then sexually assaulting an angel.
"Look I have to daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you and you can do what you like with them. But don't do anything to these men, for they have come for protection under my roof."~ Genesis 19:8 When I first read this passage, the feminist in me became incredibly angry. I momentarily lost all of my respect for Lot's moral character. But after reading it over and meditating on it, I remembered that Lot had no sons, which means that his daughters would have been his most precious assets. Their lives and their purity would have been extremely important to him as their father. His daughters' safety would have normally been his number once concern. Reading it over once more through the eyes of Lot, rather than with my own feminist 21st century mind, I realized this statement speaks more to the divinity of the angels than it does about the degradation of women. A girl's virginity would have been considered the most important and pure thing. A father would want to protect it above all else. But the angels are so divine, pure, and full of light that his daughters' innocence does not even compare to that of these divine messengers. Lot will protect the angels at all costs.
What he doesn't understand is that the angels are their to protect him. He does not understand their power until the evil townspeople break down the door, and the two angels strike them all with blindness. They had in fact been sent to deliver Lot and his family out of the city. Through these two divine men, God is able to keep his promise to Abraham that he would save the righteous from the city.
No comments:
Post a Comment