Is it Abram or Abraham?
Abram means “father of many”, while Abraham means “father of a multitude.” It’s not much of a change, but it is significant when you only have one kid. God changed Abram’s name to Abraham when he promised him that he would be the father of many nations. Abram always was called Abraham from that time on. And God also changed Sarai’s name to Sarah—from “princess” to “queen”.
How did Abraham treat God?
Abraham saw three strangers on the road—he didn’t know they were angels. But he treated them like kings, just because they were travelling by and they were clearly in need—they were in the middle of nowhere with no water or food on them. And so Abraham treated them with great honor and a lot of food, even though they didn’t look any more divine than you or I. And this is one of the reasons for Abraham’s reward—because he treated the poor with honor. For this reason, the book of Hebrews in the New Testament says, “Treat strangers with hospitality, for some have welcomed angels without them knowing.”
How could God look like a person?
The text says that God was walking down the road. Some say that it was Jesus, before he was born. But sometimes powerful angels can look like people and represent God. These three were angels, but they were also called “men” here.
How could Sarah have a baby?
Sarah was past menopause—and so it was physically impossible for her to have a baby. Modern skeptics scoff at this. But notice that Sarah (and, in a earlier chapter, Abraham) also scoffed at this idea. It is simply ridiculous to think that a post-menopause woman could have a child. But nothing is so ridiculous that God couldn’t do it.
Why did God destroy Sodom?
Sodom was evil, of that there was no doubt. Part of that evil was homosexuality, as the book of Jude in the New Testament speaks to. But most of the Bible says that the sin of Sodom was oppression of the poor. They would take strangers, who are helpless, and they would rape them and kill them. In this way, they wouldn’t have immigrants coming to their city. This was evil, and many of those oppressed prayed to God and asked for justice. Thus, God was sending two angels to see if this outcry was true, and if so, Sodom would be destroyed.
Why did Abraham defend Sodom?
Abraham defended Sodom partly because Lot lived there. Abraham assumed that Lot wasn’t taken up in Sodom’s sin, and he hated to see Lot destroyed with all these evil people. Then Abraham also thought that there might be more than just one righteous person. In a city the size of Sodom’s (perhaps a thousand), couldn’t there be many good people? So Abraham wanted to see if God would destroy the righteous with the wicked. Of course, God wouldn’t. But God was still determined to destroy Sodom for it’s wickedness, so he pulled the righteous people out.
Why did Sodom do these evil deeds?
Because Sodom was afraid of immigrants, even as Egypt would be in later years. Immigrants brought in new ideas and new languages. They were sometimes thieves and they presented danger. So Sodom was just protecting itself by raping and killing the stranger. Fear often causes people to do the most evil deeds.
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