A little Water and a Morsel of bread
I would have loved to be around the campfires of Israel or in the city gate listening to the elders tell the story of the three men who visited Abraham as recorded in Genesis 18.
Moses awoke from his nap and through the shimmering heat he saw three men standing at a respectable distance. Though showing hospitality was incumbent, a visitor would nevertheless stay at a polite and safe distance lest their sudden presence appear threatening.
Abraham leaps to his feet and rushes out to meet his visitors bowing before them. He says, “O Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant.” Just who are these three men? Are they the Lord? Is Abraham only addressing them as he would any visitor? Is he saying more than he realizes? Does he have an inkling of their identity? These are questions that the story never quite answers. Yet we come away from the story knowing the answer.
Besides mystery there is humor. “Let a little water be brought.” “Here wash your feet. Refresh yourselves. Have a seat over here in the shade. I’ll bring a bit of bread.
He hurries back to the tent. “Quick Sarah, three seahs of the best flour. Knead it, and make cakes.” A seah is two thirds of a peck. It’s going to be like all-you can-eat Pancake Day at IHOP.
Then he runs to the herd picks out a calf that will make the best veal cutlets and directs a young man to kill, butcher and grill the meat. These guys are going to be stuffed.
Abraham wasn’t done yet. He had some cheese made. Finally, (how many hours did this “morsel of bread take to prepare?) he served the meal to his visitors.
Now for the big surprise. When they had eaten their fill the men ask about Sarah. Of course she was in the tent. “Tell Sarah, when we return a year from now she will have given birth to a son.”
Well, tents aren’t exactly sound proof and perhaps the Lord spoke loudly enough to be sure she heard.
The story teller now lets us in on some information. Abraham and Sarah are old, really old. Sarah had long ago gone through menopause.”I’m worn out and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?” More questions arise. Was she talking about a renewed interest in sex? Or had that never waned and she spoke now of the pleasure of having a child? Who is going to bring up this kid anyway?
So she laughs to herself. I suspect women do a lot of laughing and head shaking at the ways of men. These three men didn’t seem to show any more sense than her husband did at times, like when they went down to Egypt and got mixed up with Pharaoh.
Of course the Lord always holds the highest trump in the deck. “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”
We’ll hear that same line used with Mary a couple thousand years down the road.
Well, you know the rest of the story.
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