God appeared again to Abraham at the oak of Mature in three men, who it is not to be doubted were angels, although some think that one of them was Christ, and assert that He was visible before He put on flesh.Now it belongs to the divine power, and invisible, incorporeal, and incommutable nature, without changing itself at all, to appear even to mortal men, not by what it is, but by what is subject to it.And what is not subject to it? Yet if they try to establish that one of these three was Christ by the fact that, although he saw three, he addressed the Lord in the singular, as it is written, "And, lo, three men stood by him: and, when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent-door, and worshipped toward the ground, and said, Lord, if I have found favor before thee,"(1) etc.; why do they not advert to this also, that when two of them came to destroy the Sodomites, while Abraham still spoke to one, calling him Lord, and interceding that he would not destroy the righteous along with the wicked in Sodom, Lot received these two in such a way that he too in his conversation with them addressed the Lord in the singular? For after saying to them in the plural, "Behold, my lords, turn aside into your servant's house,"(2) etc., yet it is afterwards said, "And the angels laid hold upon his hand, and the hand of his wife, and the hands of his two daughters, because the Lord was merciful unto him.And it came to pass,.whenever they had led him forth abroad, that they said, Save thy life;look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all this region: save thyself in the mountain, lest thou be caught.And Lot said unto them, I pray thee, Lord, since thy servant hath found grace in thy sight,"(3) etc.And then after these words the Lord also answered him in the singular, although He was in two angels, saying, "See, I have accepted thy face,"(4) etc.This makes it much more credible that both Abraham in the three men and Lot in the two recognized the Lord, addressing Him in the singular number, even when they were addressing men; for they received them as they did for no other reason than that they might minister human refection to them as men who needed it.Yet there was about them something so excellent, that those who showed them hospitality as men could not doubt that God was in them as He was wont to be in the prophets, and therefore sometimes addressed them in the plural, and sometimes God in them in the singular.But that they were angels the Scripture testifies, not only in this book of Genesis, in which these transactions are related, but also in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where in praising hospitality it is said, "For thereby some have entertained angels unawares." 5 By these three men, then, when a son Isaac was again promised to Abraham by Sarah, such a divine oracle was also given that it was said, "Abraham shall become a great and numerous nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him."(6) And here these two things, are promised with the utmost brevity and fullness,--the nation of Israel according to the flesh, and all nations according to faith.
CHAP.30.--OF LOT'S DELIVERANCE FROM SODOM, AND ITS CONSUMPTION BY FIREFROM
HEAVEN; AND OF ABIMELECH, WHOSE LUST COULD NOT HARM SARAH'S CHASTITY.
After this promise Lot was delivered out of Sodom, and a fiery rain from heaven turned into ashes that whole region of the impious city, where custom had made sodomy as prevalent as laws have elsewhere made other kinds of wickedness.But this punishment of theirs was a specimen of the divine judgment to come.
For what is meant by the angels for-bidding those who were delivered to look back, but that we are not to look back in heart to the old life which, being regenerated through grace, we have put off, if we think to escape the last judgment? Lot's wife, indeed, when she looked back, remained, and, being turned into salt, furnished to believing men a condiment by which to savor somewhat the warning to be drawn from that example.Then Abraham did again at Gerar, with Abimelech the king of that city, what he had done in Egypt about his wife, and received her back untouched in the same way.On this occasion, when the king rebuked Abraham for not saying she was his wife, and calling her his sister, he explained what he had been afraid of, and added this further, "And yet indeed she is my sister by the father's site, but not by the mother's;(7) for she was Abraham's sister by his own father, and so near of kin.But her beauty was so great, that even at that advanced age she could be fallen in love with.
CHAP.31.--OF ISAAC, WHO WAS BORN ACCORDING TO THE PROMISE, WHOSE NAMEWAS GIVEN
ON ACCOUNT OF THE LAUGHTER OF BOTH PARENTS.
After these things a son was born to Abraham, according to God's promise, of Sarah, and was called Isaac:, which means laughter.For his father had laughed when he was promised to him, in wondering delight, and his mother, when he was again promised by those three men, had laughed, doubting for joy; yet she was blamed by the angel because that laughter, although it was for joy, yet was not full of faith.Afterwards she was confirmed in faith by the same angel.From this, then, the boy got his name.For when Isaac was born and called by that name, Sarah showed that her laughter was not that of scornful reproach, but that of joyful praise; for she said, "God hath made me to laugh, so that every one who hears will laugh with me."(1) Then in a little while the bond maid was cast out of the house with her son;and, according to the apostle, these two women signify the old and new covenants,---Sarah representing that of the Jerusalem which is above, that is, the city of God.(2)CHAP.32.--OF ABRAHAM'S OBEDIENCE AND FAITH, WHICH WERE PROVED BY THEOFFERING UP, OF HIS SON IN SACRIFICE, AND OF SARAH'S DEATH.
