“Now the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day. When he lifted up his eyes and looked, behold, three men were standing opposite him…He said, ‘I will surely return to you at this time next year; and behold, Sarah your wife will have a son’….Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, while Abraham was still standing before the Lord. Abraham came near and said, ‘Will You indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?… Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?’” (Genesis 18:1-2,22-23,25, NASB).

Genesis 18 is a theological nexus that reveals the link between God’s mercy and wrath, between human rebellion and redemption. And it does so in a most dramatic way.

Three defining moments occur in this chapter that reveal the cosmic interaction between mercy and wrath, between human rebellion and divine redemption: 1) the announcement of the birth of Isaac; 2) the plan to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah; and 3) God’s restraint for Lot and his family.

One day while Abraham was sitting on the front porch of his tent, God paid him a visit. God appeared in front of Abraham in the form of three men (a theophany). Some think the three men signify the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The text indicates that two of them were angels so at least one of the three persons appearing at Abraham’s tent was God Himself,  “the Lord” (see vs. 1, 13, 17, 20, 26, 33, 19:1)!