Who’s Laughing Now

A Divine Visit at the Oaks of Mamre

If you have a Bible, go and grab it. Turn to the book of Genesis. We are continuing our series through the book of Genesis. If you don't have a Bible, you could use the pew Bible in front of you. If you don't own a Bible, we're very glad that you're here. We would ask you to just keep that Bible; we would love for you to have that Bible as a gift that you could take home with you so you could read God's word for yourself. We'd love for you to be able to have a copy of God's word that you could read.

We'll be looking at the very first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis, chapter 18, verses 1 to 15. As you read, I want to ask you to pay particular attention to location—to where people are in this story. Starting from verse number one:

The Lord appeared to Abraham at the oaks of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance of his tent during the heat of the day. He looked up, and he saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the entrance of the tent to meet them, bowed to the ground, and said, “My lord, if I have found favor with you, please do not go on past your servant. Let a little water be brought, that you may wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree. I will bring a bit of bread so that you may strengthen yourselves. This is why you have passed your servant’s way. Later, you can continue on.”

“Yes,” they replied, “do as you have said.” So Abraham hurried into the tent and said to Sarah, “Quick! Knead three measures of fine flour and make bread.” Abraham ran to the herd and got a tender, choice calf. He gave it to a young man, who hurried to prepare it. Then Abraham took curds and milk, as well as the calf that he had prepared, and set them before the men. He served them as they ate under the tree. “Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him.

“There, in the tent,” he answered. The Lord said, “I will certainly come back to you in about a year’s time, and your wife Sarah will have a son!” Now Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent behind him. Abraham and Sarah were old and getting on in years. Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. So she laughed to herself: “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I have delight?” But the Lord asked Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Can I really have a baby when I’m old?’ Is anything impossible for the Lord? At the appointed time I will come back to you, and in about a year she will have a son.” Sarah denied it. “I did not laugh,” she said, because she was afraid. But he replied, “No, you did laugh.”

— Genesis 18:1-15 (CSB)

Let's pray. We pray that you would help us not to have a heart that denies your truth out of fear, cynicism, or coldness. We pray, Lord, that you would help us, even as we look at this passage, to recognize where we are, to place our faith and trust in you. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Where are you at this morning? The Lord appears to Abraham once again. I wonder what you would do if the Lord appeared and showed up to you where you are, knocked on your front door, or came to your place of residence. More importantly, how would you feel if God showed up to you? What would be going on in your heart? What would be the thoughts that go through your mind? Would it be frustration? Would it be honor? What would the inside of your heart reveal?

In this passage this morning, we see two locations: the tree where the Lord is, and the tent where our heart is. And we see a God who sees everything. So, where are you at this morning? We have two points today. First, God's tree. Second, Sarah's tent.

God's Tree: Abraham's Eager Hospitality

Let's look at point number one: God's tree. Read with me from verse number one: "The Lord appeared to Abraham at the oaks of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance of his tent during the heat of the day." This is where Abraham lives. These oaks, these trees—that's where Abraham has been living ever since he returned from Egypt. And that's after he circumcises his whole tribe. He's sitting at the entrance of his tent.

Abraham isn't living in a tent because it's the most convenient way to live. This isn't like he's enjoying camping permanently with all of his people. Abraham is a sojourner. This isn't a permanent place where he's living. He hasn't built a home for himself. Every single time Abraham goes in and out of this tent, it's a reminder of the fact that he hasn't permanently settled in the land that God had intended for him. He promises him a place, a people, and power—and he is not in that place. He has checked into the fabric equivalent of a hotel, not an actual home.

So he sits at the entrance of this tent, lounging. I mean, have you ever been bored before? I hope not right now. And I don't mean like sitting around doom-scrolling on your phone, and I also don't mean taking a nap. I mean actually being bored with nothing to do, just sitting alone with your thoughts. It's no wonder that time-outs are just pure torture when you're a kid. You could try it as an adult, and you might find it just as bad.

Abraham is lounging. He's chilling at the entrance of his tent, just enjoying the shade. But you would not guess who is coming to dinner based on verse two. Read with me: "He looked up and he saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed to the ground." Abraham looks up and suddenly he's startled by the image of the Lord. He sees three men.

But in verse one, it says that the Lord appeared to Abraham. So you have three men show up to Abraham, and yet the Lord appears to Abraham. Do you see what God's hinting at here?

Who Are These Three Men?

I hope not, because that is not the Trinity! That is a fun little Bible trivia thing; I might have gotten you there. It's not the Trinity. For one, I want you to notice how many times Moses describes these three guys as men. They're called "men" in verse 2, verse 8, verse 16, and verse 22. Any guesses as to what these guys may be? The answer is they're men, right? They're called men. They are men, but they are also angels.

If you just skip down to verse 22 in this chapter, it says that the men got up and looked over Sodom and went there. Then chapter 19, verse 1 says that two angels entered Sodom in the evening. So these men are also angels, or messengers of the Lord. I want to take some time that I won't have next week to do a quick little theological essay here on what exactly these men are and what they aren't.

What are we supposed to do with the rest of verse 22? You see in chapter 19, verse 1, how many angels enter into Sodom and Gomorrah? Two, right? And then in verse 22 of chapter 18, you see the men turn from there and go towards Sodom, while Abraham remained standing before who? The Lord. So how is Abraham supposed to remain with the Lord while these angels go into Sodom? What are we supposed to do with this? Is this a theophany, or a manifestation of God in physical space? Is this a picture of Jesus before Jesus was born? Maybe, but probably not.

Really, I want us to be careful about what the Bible says and what the Bible doesn't say. Because I don't have time to get into this next week, I want to address who this man is and how we should think about the Lord appearing in texts like this. Consider this a sidebar, like when you read a textbook and you see a little gray box addressing a different subject. This is kind of that. Who is this man? There are four statements for us to know.

Number one: Jesus's incarnation is the moment that God becomes flesh. God becomes flesh one time; that only happens once. That's part of what makes the incarnation such an incredible act—that God Almighty, all-knowing, all-powerful, all-present, took on flesh and dwelt among us. This isn't a situation where Jesus comes into being and, after ascending into heaven, hops into a time machine 2,000 years into the past and shows up in front of Abraham's tent. That is not it. There is one point in human history where God became flesh and dwelt among us, and it happened when Jesus was conceived in the Virgin Mary. Which means whoever this man is in Genesis 18, he is not Jesus as truly God, truly man. That's not him.

Number two: the Lord and the angel of the Lord are used interchangeably in the Old Testament. Often in the Bible, we see "the Lord appeared," and he will also be identified as "the angel of the Lord." In fact, this happens multiple times in the book of Genesis. An example is actually two chapters earlier with Hagar and Ishmael in chapter 16, verse 7. Who finds Hagar? It says in chapter 16, verse 7, "the angel of the Lord." And yet, after interacting with this angel, Hagar says and names God El Roi, "the God who sees," saying in verse 13, "In this place, have I actually seen the one who sees me?" So Hagar sees the angel of the Lord and equates it with seeing the Lord.

Number three: the angel of the Lord is not the Lord. Look at Judges 13. When Manoah tries to present an offering to the angel of the Lord, the angel responds, "If I stay, I won't eat your food. But if you want to prepare a burnt offering, offer it to the Lord." In other words, the angel of the Lord himself says, "Don't feed me; feed the Lord." You know what that means? That angel is not the Lord.

Number four: the Bible understands even moments when the Lord appears to actually be angels. This is a little bit of a complicated thing, so bear with me for a second. It is not just that the angel of the Lord is considered the Lord appearing, but that other passages in your Old Testament that say the Lord appears are later understood in the New Testament to actually be angels appearing.

The clearest example of this is Mount Sinai in Exodus 19, when the Ten Commandments come down, when God's presence descends on this mountain and Moses goes up to receive the law. Exodus 19:20 says that the Lord came down on Mount Sinai, and that's where he gives Moses the law, the message, and the commands that Israel must follow. So we know that to be true: the Lord descends on this mountain in Exodus 19. Except in the New Testament, Holy Scripture doesn't attribute the giving of the law just to God. The New Testament actually understands that this law that Moses received came from angels.

You see that in Galatians chapter 3, verse 19, which says that the law "was put into effect through angels." So Moses ascends Mount Sinai to meet with the Lord, and yet Paul identifies the Lord meeting with Moses as given through angels. You see the author of Hebrews doing the exact same thing in Hebrews 2:2. So those are just four points of information for you: Jesus becomes a man once; the Lord and the angel of the Lord are used interchangeably in the Old Testament; the angel of the Lord is not the Lord; and times where God appears are later revealed in the New Testament to actually be angels giving the law to Moses.

In light of all this information, what do we make of Genesis 18? Who are these men? Well, it seems like two of them are angels of the Lord who then go to Sodom, and one is the angel of the Lord who remains with Abraham afterwards. Anything more than that, I don't know. I don't know, and I want to warn us this morning against reckless speculation about things that the Bible doesn't say. Particularly because if we misidentify the Lord our God, we can actually be sinning against him. This is not just some kind of innocent theological exercise; it could result in sinning against God.

Just two verses for you in the New Testament for me to warn you as your pastor. This is why Paul says in Colossians 2:18, "Let no one condemn you by delighting in ascetic practices and the worship of angels." So imagine if you misidentify who the angel of the Lord is and you worship him. Paul is saying you are in sin. You're committing idolatry if you worship this angel. Second, in Revelation 22:8-9, you see John make that exact mistake. John tries to worship the angel who speaks with him, and the angel sharply rejects John's worship, saying, "You must not do that. I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers, the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God." So in summary, I'm trying to say, just be careful. Be careful to notice what the Bible says, and be careful not to say what the Bible doesn't say. Does that make sense? Okay, that lesson is over. I'm setting that off to the side and going back to the sermon.

Serving the Lord and His Body

In any case, Abraham sees these three men. He recognizes who they are from, and he treats them with dignity and respect. Not only that, he goes from a position of lounging at the entrance of his tent and immediately springs into action. Let me read again from verse two: "He looked up and he saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed to the ground..."

Abraham rushes over to them. He runs out to meet them and bows to the ground. Koreans have this thing that we do on New Year's Day where we bow to our parents. I've always wondered if it was idolatrous, but the idea is that you bow to your parents, they say really nice things to you, and you don't really care about any of that because the main thing you're looking for is the cash they give you afterwards, right? You receive money, but the idea is that you get to show honor to your parents and relatives, and in turn, they are able to verbally bless you. I think that's really similar to what you see going on here with Abraham bowing down to the ground. He's eager to show honor to his guests, and that hospitality is evident throughout everything that Abraham does. He begs them to sit down so that he can serve them.

In verses 6 through 8, you're able to see the extent of Abraham's service. First, you can see that Abraham's service is urgent. Every second counts for Abraham. Do you see how many words describe the intensity and rapid pace of Abraham's service? He ran to meet them. He hurried into the tent. He ran to the herd. And the young man hurried to prepare the calf. Abraham is not wasting any time when it comes to his service. He's not dragging his feet.

Second, Abraham's service is abundant. He tells Sarah to knead three measures of fine flour to make bread. That is over 20 quarts of flour! It's a lot of bread. It's like sourdough-during-COVID amounts of bread. Third, Abraham's service is excellent. He doesn't just give his guests meat; he gets a tender, choice calf. We are talking A5 Wagyu beef. And think about this meal that Abraham prepares for these men. It is an absolute feast of steak, bread, and cheese. If you love that kind of meal, it's not just good food; it is a biblical meal, and it is very good in the sight of God.

Abraham's service is urgent, abundant, and excellent. That urgency, abundance, and excellence reveals the eagerness with which Abraham serves his guests. And the question is: why? Why be so hospitable with these guests? Why spend that much money, that much stuff, and that much time for these three guests? If I randomly showed up at your doorstep and waltzed into your living room, would you bust out caviar for me? I doubt it, but if you're nodding, I'll be at your house soon!

Let's be real. If you knew that someone you respected, someone you admired, was coming over for dinner, you would probably do the same thing. Because when a person deserving of honor comes to your home, it is an honor to serve them, not the other way around. When you have someone you look up to, someone you actually care about, and you have the opportunity to show them love, that becomes a delight. I mean, if Charles Spurgeon somehow showed up and agreed to come over to my place for dinner, I am not grumbling while I prepare dinner. That is an absolute privilege! There's no complaint in my heart thinking, "Oh, Charles Spurgeon, making everything about him." No, it would be an honor to just be in his presence.

How much more for the Lord of lords and the King of kings? It's no wonder that Abraham says, "If I have found favor with you, do not go past me." Abraham understands that a servant is who he is. He's not there to be served; he's there to serve. But more importantly, he knows who God is. He knows that if God is true, if God really is the one who is giving all of these promises to him, then to be able to serve him even with a meal is the greatest honor there is.

What would you do if the Lord came over to your house? If you saw him from your front porch, I can tell you, because the way you would receive the Lord is the way you would receive the least of your brothers and sisters in Christ. In Matthew 25:40, Jesus says, "Whatever you did for the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me." A Christ-changed life necessarily transforms the way we treat brothers and sisters in Christ—especially the hungry, the thirsty, the unfamiliar, the naked, the sick, and the imprisoned.

This is exactly why the author of Hebrews explains in Hebrews 13:2, "Don't neglect to show hospitality, for by doing this, some have welcomed angels as guests without knowing it." We want to treat every single person in the body of Christ as though they are the most honorable, the most deserving of respect. We want to have the humility, as Paul says in Philippians 2, to consider others as more important than ourselves. It's exactly why Jesus says that if anyone wants to be great, as in Matthew 20, they must first be your servant: "whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

Do you engage in servant-minded, honor-giving hospitality? Are you eagerly, urgently, abundantly, and excellently seeking to serve the Lord and those who are part of his kingdom? That might look like having someone over to your house for dinner and talking about how you came to know the Lord. It might look like helping someone move, like some of you did this last week. I pray that we can be a church that continues to labor to outdo one another in showing honor. It's exactly what we've committed to do. Our church covenant says that we further promise to watch over one another in brotherly love, to remember one another in prayer, and to aid one another in sickness and distress.

Do you have that kind of spirit? You might not have a home that has enough space to invite people in, but does your heart lean in? Does it run, like Abraham's does, at the opportunity to serve others? Abraham gets it. He's been given an incredible promise from God—the promise of a child. And that promise of a place, a people, and power is so great, so overwhelming, that he is willing to circumcise everyone in his household. He is willing to get up from laying down and sprint out of his tent to meet the Lord under the tree. Can you do that as a 99-year-old man? The Lord knows. The Lord came, and Abraham sprints.

Sarah's Tent: The Sound of Cynicism

But Sarah, while hearing the same promise from the same God, doesn't respond in the same way. Rather than responding in hope and eagerness, she responds from the depths of cynicism, which brings us to point number two: Sarah's tent. Look at verse nine: "Where is your wife Sarah?" they asked him. "There in the tent," he answered. The Lord said, "I will certainly come back to you in about a year's time, and your wife Sarah will have a son." Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent behind him.

God asks where Sarah is because he promises her a great future. God will certainly come back in a year, and Sarah will have a son. Notice where Sarah is at: she is in the tent, and she is snooping. Her ear is on the door. She is listening at the entrance of the tent behind him, completely out of view. And while the Lord provides a promise of certainty, Sarah is lost in her cynicism. You can see that in verse 11: "Abraham and Sarah were old and getting on in years. Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. So she laughed to herself: 'After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I have delight?'"

Sarah is 89. At the point of this conversation, menopause had come and gone a long time ago, and she is worn out. Not just her body, but her spirit. She's been waiting years for this child that God has promised to her. She's so worn out that she has to laugh at the absurdity of anything happening anymore. She's completely hopeless. It's in this moment that God decides to call her out in verse 13: "But the Lord asked Abraham, 'Why did Sarah laugh, saying, "Can I really have a baby when I'm old?" Is anything impossible for the Lord? At the appointed time I will come back to you, and in about a year she will have a son.'"

God responds to Sarah's retort by saying, "I hear you." Sarah thought she was safe in the tent. She thought God couldn't see her, let alone hear her. While she may have been overhearing the Lord's conversation with her husband, it turned out that God was the one who could hear all of her thoughts—which is always true, by the way. God hears everything. He sees everything. And we should never confuse God's patience with ignorance.

Confronting Sin to Conquer It

Think about it: is anything impossible for the Lord? I mean, if God really is God, if he's actually who he says he is, is there anything that happens in the world that is outside of his control? Is there ever anything that's outside of his power? No. Everything, whether it comes to supernovas or to electrons, is under the command of God Almighty. It doesn't matter if it's a virgin's womb or an 89-year-old womb; it is no match for the almighty power of a holy, all-powerful God.

But Sarah is plagued with inconsistencies. I mean, she blames God for her plight in Genesis chapter 16, and now in Genesis chapter 18, she laughs at the thought of him being able to do anything for her. But God makes no mistakes. Everything is going exactly according to plan. From God's appointed time, everything from joy to sorrow, from success to failure, from birth to death, is under God's appointed rule. And there are no delays. Nothing is impossible for God.

Sarah's unbelief in God's power leads to a denial of her own sin. Verse 15: "Sarah denied it. 'I did not laugh,' she said, because she was afraid. But he replied, 'No, you did laugh.'" Sarah is caught like a deer in headlights. She is put on blast by the Lord Almighty. And her response, as you see, is, "No, I didn't." Do you ever see a kid do that when you confront them on something they did wrong in the house? "No, I didn't." It says here the reason why she did that was because she was afraid. She was afraid—afraid of God's power, afraid of what God would do to her now that she was exposed in her unbelief.

When you're afraid, you will do anything to save yourself, to preserve yourself. Even if it means covering yourself in the fig leaves of lies, you will do anything you can to cover yourself from the searing light of God's holy truth. But God's truth, his word, cuts through every single veneer that we could possibly put up. He goes from the third person to the second person. Did you notice that? He goes from asking, "Why did Sarah laugh?" to, "No, you did laugh." God moves from the third to the second person to pierce Sarah's self-denial.

If Abraham ran to the tree and Sarah stayed in the tent, God now is verbally moving into the tent. He's going into her safe space, exposing her heart and her excuses. Where are you at this morning? Are there doubts that swell in your heart that you'd be embarrassed if others heard? If others knew the inner thoughts that go through your mind, could you stand on that final day when God looks at you and exposes all of the inner darkness of your heart? Are you right now moving to justify or rationalize or repel God's shining light, saying, "No, I didn't. No, it's not that serious. It's not that big of a deal"? It is a twisted irony when the same heart that fears God's punishments doubts God's power. We can try to hide in our home, in our careers, in our own mind, and God will see and hear it all.

Where are you at this morning? You can either hide for the rest of your life, or you could relinquish your illusion of control and give it all to the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And the amazing thing about the Lord's work is that when he exposes you, when he confronts you about who you really are, he actually lets us drop the act and receive God's grace. And can you see what's going on here? Sarah is stiff-arming God's promises, and then God startles her back into the promises of God. That's what the Lord is doing. God will confront our sin so that he can conquer it.

Sarah's cynicism is so pervasive in her mind, she can't even pay attention to the promise that God actually gave her: "You will have a son." It's precisely because of her cynicism that she's unable to see the goodness in what the Lord is doing for her. But God loves her too much to let her stay in that state. And God loves you too much to let your own sin block you from receiving the blessing and grace of God. Sarah's cynicism is confronted so that God can conquer her cynicism with the promise of a son. The Samaritan woman's adultery at the well is confronted with Jesus's all-knowing truth so he can conquer her sin and shame with the good news, the promise that he is the Messiah.

God will confront you with your sin, expose it for what it is, so that he can apply grace to the real you, the unfiltered you, the doubting you, the sinful you. That is precisely why Jesus came. He didn't come for the healthy; he came for the sick. The almighty God didn't just expose our sin—he stepped into our tent. He took on flesh and dwelt among us. He lived the perfect life that we could never live, and on the tree, Jesus bore the curse of sin for everyone who would believe. He rose from the dead three days later, victorious over sin and death. This is not just good news about you leaving where you are to go to him; this is about God who comes to you.

If you feel stuck in your tent, in the thought loops of unbelief and cynicism that darken your world and chain you to sin, I have good news for you: the Lord knows exactly where you're at. And the Lord came to you. Is anything impossible for the Lord? Nothing! Jesus can wash away all of your sin because he satisfied the wrath of God completely for all who believe. Which means you and I, we can drop the act. We don't have to double down. We don't have to do whatever it takes to be able to cope with this dark world. We don't have to just survive; we can actually trust. We could trust that God's ways are better than our ways, that nothing is impossible for him, and that we could turn away from our sin and unbelief and trust in God's providential, saving care.

When we drop the act and let God's saving grace overflow in our hearts, that's when we can leave our introspective tents and go out to the one who actually saved us. That promise, that truth that we've received, is what can strengthen our hearts and give us a fire so we can focus on honoring the one who has done so much for us. This is not just survival—this is thriving. This is real service. And we can urgently, eagerly bring out the best, the most abundant of all that we have, and give to him because he's given us everything that we ever need.

See, all of our service, everything that we do for the Lord this year and for the rest of our lives—whether it's to one another, whether it's to God himself—it all flows out from God's promises. It's from the grace he gives us. It's from the honor and the dignity that he restores within us. It's because of this remarkable good news that we've received that we could change where we're at. So, where are you this morning? Let's all go to the cross where love and mercy meet, where we can receive joy, righteousness, freedom, and peace, where we can walk through even the hardest parts of this life knowing that it is God who strengthens us. As we believe that it is Christ who strengthens us, we in turn can sing all the glory evermore to him.

Let's pray. We pray this morning that you would help us to trust in your promises. Help us, Lord, to move from our tents of cynicism into your piercing, holy, gracious light. We ask, Lord, that if there's anyone here even now who struggles with belief, help us in our unbelief, and strengthen us to be able to follow you. We pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.