Another Practical Guide to the Logic, Philosophy, and Thoughts of Christianity

Section 1 - Article 19

Article 19 - Righteousness and bravery begins with selflessness (from Genesis 18)

In Genesis 18, Abraham meets the Lord Who visits him in his tent. As the chapter progresses, there are significant learning points from this account of events. First, Abraham goes to great length to prepare for the feast for the Lord. We get a few verses of seemingly theologically pointless details of Abraham telling his wife (v6) to make cakes, as well as preparing a calf (v7), and he stands there by the Lord under the tree while the Lord's representatives enjoy their feast. There is quite a fair amount of detail even if it was contextually culturally relevant. This is especially so when everything could be simply packed under "and Abraham prepared a feast himself". So why the seemingly irrelevant detailed account? Here there are 2 reasons that I can think of (no doubt there would be more).

Firstly, in terms of scholarship, it is widely accepted that Moses is the likely author of the first five books of the Old Testament. Moses was not born at that time, and since Abraham did not write the account himself, the account had to be revealed to Moses by God or at the very least passed down in some form (most likely orally) from Abraham to Moses (this itself is not exclusive that God Himself revealed truths prior to the Exodus to Moses). Of course the critic may take this chance to claim that this is evidence that everything was made up, but I beg to differ here. My reasons are simply that Abraham has been established to be a historically real person, and there are evidences supporting the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah reported later in the following chapters. Of course, it would be hard to proof if Sarah did make cakes, and a calf was slaughtered on that specific day, but such details could only be: A) Revealed by God; B) Passed down as story to later Hebrews; C) Made up completely by Moses or whosoever was the writer of the account. But in all honesty, if it was C), the details of the feast have very little relevance and value, and would only be open to critics. And if Genesis was truly written by Moses, there is no lack of critics and unbelievers during the 40 years of wandering. So personally, I accept A) and B), which are not mutually exclusive.

Secondly, the reason for the detail is a testament to Abraham's character. Abraham had no lack of men who would take his orders. He could easily get someone to slaughter the biggest calf and prepare the feast and join in the feast while attended by Sarah and his numerous men (Genesis 13:5-7). One can also see such an order in the "Parable of the Prodigal Son" in Luke 15:22 by the father. Abraham, being a man of authority himself and as a "head of the household and many servants", knew it was the Lord, and decided to honor the Lord by being a servant himself to the Lord. He thought it not his right to dine with the Lord, but only as a servant, thus he stood by the side. This was his righteousness and humility before the Lord.

In this, we have one example on how we ought to behave to any messenger of the Lord, and how we ought to abandon everything we are doing to attend and give the Lord our humblest service.

Later on in Chapter 18, Abraham could be seen bargaining with the Lord on the number of righteous people to spar Sodom and Gomorrah. There is a point here that is often missed and is in Genesis 18:21. Here the Lord says He will verify if the cries of Sodom and Gomorrah were as bad as reported. For some, it is hitting a field mine on the omnipresence and all-knowingness of the Lord God since God needed to verify. And it confuses the reader given that many verses (Hebrew 4:13, John 21:17, Proverbs 15:3) clearly speaks of His omnipresence. Some misled individuals may also see this discrepancy as "proof" that Abraham had a different god, and Christianity did not have its roots from Abraham etc. Nonetheless, I shall explain what I believe this particular verse means to do.

Firstly, this verse is one of the few where God stoops down to our human level to converse to us. Like an old professor speaking baby language to his/her grandchild, the Lord tells Abraham that He has now come to judge Sodom if it was truly as wicked as He had "heard". This is so as to facilitate Abraham's bargaining on the destruction of the two wicked cities. The account of the bargaining is not so much solely for Abraham's benefit, but also for us – the readers of this account many thousands of years later to learn.

Secondly, the reason that the Lord revealed His intent to Abraham in such a manner, is likely to fit Himself into Abraham's understanding of God. In the Old Testament, the Lord makes many appearances to the people in many accounts where in the post Jesus Christ era, there are no reported physical manifestations. This I believe, has to do with progressive revelation where the Lord gradually reveals more of Himself as time passes and understanding of the Lord had gradually increased. As a baby, we cry when we do not see our mother. In child psychology, children below a certain stage of development do not understand object permanence. They cry and cannot comprehend that a thing is still there if they do not see it. We cry as babies when our mothers or care-takers are not in our sight. However, as we grow older, even if they are in another room, across the country, or across the world, we are gradually able to know that they are still there, able to help us to their best effort in our times of need. So there is the contrast of the baby who cries when they cannot see the mother, to when they are old enough to be in school, but know that their mothers are at work or at home. Given this, what more of the omnipresence of our heavenly Father? We do indeed have a gap in our knowledge of omnipresence because in our physical world, other than CCTVs, we have nothing close to that. Surely the Creator is better than sitting in a CCTV room?

I propose that in Abraham's and that some of the early Hebrews' time, their understanding of God's omnipresence is somehow lacking compared to that of later Hebrews and Israelites in Isaiah, and also in David's Psalms. One can read about how without Moses to guide them when he was receiving the 10 commandments, the Hebrews quickly built themselves a golden calf to worship – this was done despite them seeing all the Lord had done for them in the plagues of Egypt. Though we must acknowledge that Abraham was a friend of God, a title that no one else was given, the relationship between Abraham and God was unique and incomparable. In this, God could be A) "fitting Himself" in the role of Abraham's understanding of God; B) Being a friend to Abraham; and C) Setting the ground for the bargaining to come for our benefit. All questions on God's omnipresence or all-knowingness should not be further entertained based on reasons A to C.

In the actual plea for the sparing of the two wicked cities, the reader is put through a lengthy exchange on how Abraham brings the number from 50 to 10 righteous people before God spars the wicked city. One here must first remember that Abraham understands and sees himself as a servant of the Lord. Very few servants would bargain with their master in such a way, much less the Lord Almighty Who Abraham loves and fears. It is not fair for me to use the word 'bargain' since the word is traditionally associated with personal gain, and Abraham certainly does not have anything to gain from the sparing of the two cities apart from Lot's survival. Abraham was clearly not bargaining for Lot's survival here, but really for the wicked cities. To bargain with the Lord, one risks incurring the wrath of the Lord, thus it takes a lot of courage. To be specific, one needs a lot of righteous courage, not simply foolish ignorant courage. A robber has courage to rob a bank, but that is hardly righteous courage. The courage to bargain with the Creator of the universe face-to-face really requires righteous courage. Abraham was being selfless, and his love and concern for his fellow man gave him courage to risk incurring the wrath of the Almighty to bargain. Surely Abraham was righteous and selfless in this account. Truly, Abraham deserved to be the Patriarch and "friend of God" in where his righteousness and bravery stemmed from his selflessness.

This short yet wonderful account of the great Abraham did not merely have such simple points. One more point is how before the great Lord, he asked only to serve the Lord. He did not ask for gold or silver, or even offspring. He asked to be of service to the Lord. When pleading before the Lord, Abraham pleaded not for himself and his gain, but for the forgiveness of others at the risk of his mortal life. Surely, we have much to learn from our father Abraham not only in our attitudes, but also in our prayers to the Lord.