To Know Us

“To know” is the way sexual intimacy is described throughout the Bible, but Hebrew word means so much more than that. It also carries the meaning of “experiential knowledge.” It’s not just knowing about something, but it’s also having lived it out.

For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.
Genesis 18:19 (KJV)

‎Here in Genesis 18:19, God says “I know him” about Abraham. It is יָדַע. Yadah.

‎This says so much.

In the previous chapter, where Abraham and God entered a two-way covenant, with God committing himself to Abraham and Abraham going through the commitment of circumcision, we see a change. God is now with Abraham, not merely next to him.

I think “yadah” is the key to understanding what’s happening in Genesis 18. Perhaps the text isn’t showing us three men/angels with one of them being God. I know it appears that way, because only two men show up in the next chapter, but I think something else is being shown to us.

Now the Lord appeared to Abraham by the [b]oaks of Mamre, while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day.
Genesis 18:1 (NASB)

Perhaps Abraham sees three men, but he understands that God is there in the midst of them. That’s why Genesis 18:1 is written the way it is. It’s not a chapter heading. It’s a statement of awareness, given the new in-dwelling relationship with God.

The chapter continues with the interactions of Abraham and the men, and then in the middle, God just shows up again in verse 13.

But the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I actually give birth to a child, when I am so old?’
Genesis 18:13 (NASB)

I think the right reading of the passage is this: when one of the men asked about Sarah, Abraham understood it to be God’s words, and that these three men were messengers of God.

Later, when the men leave to investigate the city, God tells Abraham that He will go to the city, and that if the outcry is not true, He “will know.” It’s that same word: יָדַע. Yadah.

I will go down now and see whether they have done entirely as the outcry, which has come to Me indicates; and if not, I will know.”
Genesis 18:21 (NASB)

‎But also, if it is true, wouldn’t God also certainly know? Either way, He will experience it. But how?

What does it mean to be a messenger of God? We typically think of someone who is God’s spokesperson to humanity, but doesn’t a messenger bring a message back to God as well? Don’t they return with a report of what has happened?

This makes me wonder if the true reason only two angels show up to rescue Lot isn’t because the third one is God, and that God remained behind. Remember, as messengers, they all three represent God.

Perhaps one actually went ahead first before the other two… and suffered violence.

For we are about to destroy this place, because their outcry has become so great before the Lord that the Lord has sent us to destroy it.”
Genesis 19:13 (NASB)

The two angels who came to rescue Lot were on a mission to get him out of the city. The text says they were set to destroy the city, not because of the attempted violence against them, but because of the outcry. The cries for help.

And this is what God knew. It’s what God experienced.

A God who knows our suffering is a God who experiences our suffering. When God says He knows Abraham, I think he’s also telling us that He knows us: our wounds, our pain, the violence we have suffered.

And he’s inviting us to know him.

Hospitality

There are debates over the reason for the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19. Some point to the specific actions of the men involved in the story and see a link to homosexuality. Others point to Ezekiel, and the treatment of the poor and needy:

Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had arrogance, plenty of food, and carefree ease, but she did not help the poor and needy. So they were haughty and committed abominations before Me. Therefore I removed them when I saw it.
Ezekiel 16:49-50 (NASB)

I’m inclined to go with Ezekiel’s answer, because it’s written quite plainly. However, there’s another bit of context in Genesis 18 that lends to this view.

It’s given to us in the form of narrative contrast.

Look closely at Genesis 18:6-8:

So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Quickly, prepare three measures of fine flour, knead it, and make bread cakes.” Abraham also ran to the herd, and took a tender and choice calf and gave it to the servant, and he hurried to prepare it. He took curds and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and set it before them; and he was standing by them under the tree as they ate.
Genesis 16:6-8 (NASB)

Do you know what “three measures” means? Some translations render it as “three seahs,” which is very helpful, because this is a specific unit of dry-measure, calculated by volume.

1 seah is about 7.7 liters. Or 1.75 gallons.

When you convert this into weight, based on how much grain weighs, you get about 10 pounds per seah.

So Abraham, who just said “let me get you a *piece* of bread” in verse 5 has Sarah whip up a batch of bread consisting of THIRTY POUNDS of flour.

And not just that!

It’s not as though Sarah had a bag of flour handy. Flour was only prepared based on immediate use, or else it would spoil faster. So she (and probably her servants) had to grind out thirty pounds of grain into bread-making flour right away.

And not just that!

The text says Abraham went and took a calf from the herd. Abraham didn’t offer breakfast leftovers. He had a cow slaughtered right then there. That’s some fresh BBQ!

And not just that!

The text says that Abraham was sitting at his tent door in the heat of the day. According to the rabbis, nobody was out and about in the heat of the day, and yet here is Abraham, sitting his tent door, LOOKING TO SEE IF ANYBODY WAS OUT THERE who might need food and water.

All this to say, we are shown a comically ridiculous display of hospitality and generosity, providing the most lavish spread of food and drink for these currently unidentified men who are not even named in the text. For the purpose of the story, they are STRANGERS.

We’re told by Ezekiel later that Sodom did not care for the poor and needy. We’re told in this chapter that there’s an “outcry,” or za’aq (זַעַק), which is the same word that describes Israel’s outcry due to their affliction in Egypt: The weak are being oppressed.

So what we see in Abraham is the contrast. It is the opposite of oppression of the weak. Abraham is wealthy and capable: his actions display how one should treat the travel-weary, the hungry, and the thirsty. And in verse 8, he stands with them.

This is righteousness.

Weeping with God

The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do…?”
Genesis 18:17 (NIV)

The word “hide” in Genesis 18:17 isn’t the word khabah (חָבָא) that Adam used in Genesis 3:8-10. Khabah means to hide away to avoid being seen. It’s secretive.

God uses the word kasaw (כָּסָה), which is the same word used to describe Japheth and Shem covering Noah, shielding him. They aren’t trying to conceal their father. They are protecting him from shame and grief.

Similarly, God is not musing over obsecuring the truth from Abraham. It’s heavier than that. God is about to break Abraham’s heart by bringing him into the same grief that God experienced back in Genesis 6. It’s a spiritual and emotional burden.

So the Lord was sorry that He had made mankind on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
Genesis 6:6 (NIV)

Now, in the prior chapter, the rabbis suggest a special union was made between Abraham and God through Covenant. This brought in the divine Presence and in-dwelling of God into Abraham and changed the relationship. In this new relationship, God says: “You will share in my glory; and you will share in my heartache.”

So when God asks, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do,” this marks the first instance where a man of God is being brought into that heartache on a personal level. Abraham’s response gives us a clearer picture of God’s heart.

When God destroyed the world by flood, the text says that the thoughts and intents of the heart of all man was evil continually, except for Noah. Would God have destroyed the world if there were even more righteous people?

Look at Abraham’s words that reveal God’s heart.

Abraham approached and said, “Will You indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous people within the city; will You indeed sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from You to do such a thing, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?”
Genesis 18:23-25 (NIV)

So when Abraham pleads with God, asking “What if there are 50 righteous people in the city? What if there are 40? 30? What if there are only 10?”, we are shown the kind of consideration God gave back in Genesis 6. God’s own heart broke over the rising wickedness.

Later, fire falls from the night sky to destroy the cities.

We have to picture Abraham watching and weeping, coming to the realization that there weren’t even ten righteous people in the city, just like there weren’t even two righteous people in the world before the flood.

Abraham weeps. God weeps.

Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?

If you walk with God, you will weep, too.

Miry Clay

Now the Valley of Siddim was full of tar pits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and they fell into them. But those who survived fled to the hill country.
Genesis 14:10 (NASB)

So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah the king’s son, which was in the court of the prison, and they let Jeremiah down with ropes. And in the dungeon there was no water, but mire. So Jeremiah sank in the mire.
Jeremiah 38:6 (NKJV)

He also brought me up out of a horrible pit,
Out of the miry clay,
And set my feet upon a rock,
And established my steps.
Psalm 40:2 (KNJV)

“Tar pits” (or bitumen pits) can also be understood as “pits of miry clay,” which we see echoed in Jeremiah 38:6 and Psalm 40:2.

The rabbis say that the kings mentioned here did not “fall in,” but threw themselves in, in the way one “falls upon their face” (Numbers 16:4).