The Three Visitors

The Lord appeared again to Abraham while he was living in the oak grove at Mamre. This is the way it happened: One hot summer afternoon as he was sitting in the opening of his tent, he suddenly noticed three men coming toward him. He sprang up and ran to meet them and welcomed them.

"Sirs," he said, "please don't go any further. Stop awhile and rest here in the shade of this tree while I get water to refresh your feet, and a bit to eat to strengthen you. Do stay awhile before continuing your journey."

"All right," they said, "do as you have said."

Then Abraham ran back to the tent and said to Sarah, "Quick! Mix up some pancakes! Use your best flour, and make enough for the three of them!" Then he ran out to the herd and selected a fat calf and told a servant to hurry and butcher it. Soon, taking them cheese and milk and the roast veal, he set it before the men and stood beneath the trees beside them as they ate.

"Where is Sarah, your wife?" they asked him.

"In the tent," Abraham replied.

Then the Lord said, "Next year I will give you and Sarah a son!" (Sarah was listening from the tent door behind him.) Now Abraham and Sarah were both very old, and Sarah was long since past the time when she could have a baby.

So Sarah laughed silently. "A woman my age have a baby?" she scoffed to herself. "And with a husband as old as mine?"

Then God said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh? Why did she say 'Can an old woman like me have a baby?' Is anything too hard for God? Next year, just as I told you, I will certainly see to it that Sarah has a son."

But Sarah denied it. "I didn't laugh," she lied, for she was afraid.

Abraham Pleads for Sodom »

TEXT SOURCE: (Genesis 18:1-15) The Children's Living Bible, ©1970 Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187
TITLE SOURCE: The New Student Bible, ©1992 Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids Michigan 49530