While God's justice was on display in his destruction of the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, so was his mercy. In fact, it is God's mercy to save from sin that is emphasized in his destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah because the focal point in the narrative is God remembering Abraham in God's treatment of Lot. The event and its subsequent place in the history of God's revelation to his people through the prophets and apostles highlights God's mercy as displayed in his patience with undeserving sinners and his wrath against unrepentant sinners. In these two emphases we see how we are to think of what it means that God was faithful to his covenant with Abraham, and thereby remembering him. It all serves to call us to entrust ourselves to the only merciful God, and to recognize that God's mercy forces us to have to deal with the eternal and infinite God, who alone saves from sin.

God called Abraham out of Ur, promising to bless him so that he would be a blessing to all the nations. In Genesis 14 we read that this meant, among other things, Abraham fighting for and rescuing the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah and their people. Now in Genesis 18 God makes it clear that their sin, or rejection of him as their authority for living, is awful and it is time for the Lord to bring judgment against them and their sin. Both the reality of a final judgment of death against the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the change of Abraham's relationship to these cities creates questions in Abraham's mind. Abraham asks his questions to God, persisting in obtaining a word from the Lord so that he might understand the Lord's character, and what it means for him to be a blessing to all the nations. Through this we see the intimate union between God's word and prayer, as well as what it means to demonstrate humility.

God chose to set his love, his covenant mercies upon a particular people. From the very beginning of the demonstration of his mercies given to Adam and Eve, God promised that there would come one from the seed of Eve who would crush the serpent's head. The continuous fulfillment of this promise is highlighted in Noah and Abraham. This is the only hope for the people of the whole earth--God's covenant people through whom God brings righteousness and justice. In Genesis 18:16-21 God announces the purpose he had in choosing Abraham. In particular, it has to do with what Abraham and his descendants are to be doing. By addressing a question to the angels that have accompanied him in his visit to Abraham, the Lord is calling upon Abraham to participate with him in the Lord's establishment of righteousness and justice on the earth. This will mean two basic things for Abraham and his descendants: Instruction in God's word and Intercession in God's world. We too must answer the question: Are we concerned with what concerns God--the establishment of righteousness and justice on the whole earth?

To receive God's covenant blessing means we have fellowship with God that changes us to be like God. This is what took place with Abraham and Sarah, and has continued taking place with all those who truly believe in the God of Abraham for salvation. How this does take place and how we know it is taking place with us is revealed, in part, in Abraham's welcome of three visitors who turn out to be a visit from God himself. Abraham's visit from God indicates that to be God's child means we will be generously hospitable, sacrificially giving and responsible within our relationships. Through it all we learn that these characteristics are nurtured in God's covenant children because God is all knowing and all powerful, and thereby able to change sinners to be like him.

After God declares his identity to Abram, and commands him, God changes Abram's name to Abraham. Thus, God's identity determines who Abraham is, and this means it determines and defines what Abraham will do. All of this means that God will do something for and through Abraham that the latter believes is laughable (17:15-21). Abraham must accept that how God will accomplish his covenant with Abraham will put God's power on display, not Abraham's. In the final verses of the chapter, we are told of Abraham's obedience. The features of Abraham's obedience reveal that to be a true child of Abraham one will endure a painful and purifying obedience to God's word within God's covenant community. This has profound implications for the relationships God's people have to each other.

After giving Abraham a new name and the covenant sign of circumcision, God speaks again to Abraham telling him that Sarai's name will be changed to Sarah, because she will be blessed by God, along with Abraham; together they will have a son. Through this son given by God to Abraham and Sarah, God's covenant promise will be fulfilled. Abraham is overcome by this announcement; he falls down and laughs, and literally cannot think straight. Abraham's response reveals what he thinks of HOW God will accomplish his covenant promise. Abraham believes that it is preposterous that he and Sarah could have a son. But this is how God will reveal that the fulfillment of his covenant, while involving the obedience of his people, nonetheless occurs only through God's supernatural power. By Abraham laughing and then declaring, "O, that Ishmael might live before you!" he reveals that though he believes God's promise will be fulfilled, he does not understand that HOW it will be fulfilled will only put the supernatural power of God on display. By this we see how much of our sin is revealed in our attempts at looking to ourselves to adopt ministry methods that rely on our strength rather than God's.

While a sinner can be saved from sin apart from the signs and seals of God's covenant nonetheless these signs and seals are not unimportant. They reveal the essential character of our salvation. Circumcision as the covenant sign to Abraham was given after he had been declared righteous by God and followed upon God declaring to Abram who He is for and to Abram, and what God would do for and through Abram. Thus, as the sign of God's covenant to Abraham, circumcision is a thoroughly doctrinal matter that revolves around who God is in saving his covenant people. In particular, circumcision reveals the representative nature of God's covenant through males, the doctrinal nature of God's covenant through God's word, and the holy nature of God's covenant through blood sacrifice. In these three essential characteristics of our salvation we see and experience the underemining of three idols of American culture--individualism, choice and feminization.

We must learn to trust God and this means, among other things, waiting on God to do what God alone can do for us, in us and then through us. God's covenant is HIS covenant, and thereby the fulfillment of it is HIS doing. The fulfillment of God's covenant is God giving himself to those who are the objects of his covenant mercy and grace. In other words, God who IS the covenant maker and keeper makes his people who they are and thereby equips them to do what he has blessed them to do. It all means that who God is determines and defines what he does which in turn determines and defines who his people are and what they do. It tells us that in the Christian faith and life, the indicative determines and drives the imperative, doctrine determines and drives duty, and correct theology leads to correct doxology.

Abram and Sarai tired of waiting on God to fulfill his promise decide to make it happen themselves by adopting a strategy they borrowed from the Canaanite culture in which they lived. When we fail to trust God by ordering our lives according to God's word we don't go without an object of faith or a way of living. Instead, we conform our thinking and living to the world around us. Instead of courageously, wisely and humbly correcting Sarai, Abraham repeats what Adam did in the Garden of Eden, and again, the consequences are disastrous. Dissension and division result between Abram, Sarai and Hagar when Abram fails to correct Sarai. Once again, God's sovereign mercy is displayed through his word reaching Hagar and restoring order.

After Moses tells us that Abram believed God and God credited it to him as righteousness, God declares that he is the one who brought Abram out of Ur to give him the Promised Land. Abram then asks God how he will know that he will possess it. Abrams question addresses God's method and Abram's assurance. God's answer draws attention to Him and His word. God then ratifies his covenant with Abram. Here is the Gospel in perhaps its most vivid display-God obligating Himself to keep His covenant both for Him and Abram.