2025
Read Through the Bible
Day 11: Genesis 18-19
“And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mare: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground” (Genesis 18:1-2).
Matthew Henry writes,
“How Abraham expected strangers, and how richly his expectations were answered (v.1): He sat in the tent-door, in the heat of the day; not so much to repose or divert himself as to seek an opportunity for doing good, by giving entertainment to strangers and travellers, there being perhaps no inns to accommodate them. Note 1. We are likely to have the most comfort of those good works to which we are most free and forward. 2. God graciously visits those in whom he has first raised the expectation of him, and manifests himself to those that wait from him” (Henry 93).
It’s interesting what Henry makes the following remark regarding Abraham’s hospitality,
“Where, upon a prudent and impartial judgment, we see no cause to suspect ill, charity teaches us to hope well and to show kindness accordingly. It is better to feed five drones, or wasps, than to starve one bee” (Henry 93).
Genesis 18 ends with God’s judgment on Sodom. Abraham pleads for the preservation of the city, if even ten good men could be found there. As Abraham aptly observes,
“[Abraham] returned to his place to observe what that event could be; and it proved that his prayer was heard, and yet Sodom was not spared, because there were not ten righteous in it. We cannot expect too little from man nor too much from God” (Henry 97).
Further in Genesis 19, we are made aware of the events surrounding Lot, after he escaped Sodom. His wife defies the angel’s command and turns back, wherein she is turned into a pillar of salt. Lot goes on with his two daughters. Lot ultimately becomes drunk, and his daughter’s take advantage of his state to commit sin. Of drunkenness, Matthew Henry writes,
“The peril of drunkenness. It is not only a great sin itself, but it is the inlet of many sins; it may prove the inlet of the worst and most unnatural sins, which may be a perpetual wound and dishonour. Excellently does Mr. Herbert describe it,
He that is drunken may his mother kill, Big with his sister
A man may do that without reluctance, when he is drunk which, when he is sober, he could not think of without horror” (Henry 102).
Henry, Matthew. “Volume 1: Genesis.” Matthew Henry’s Commentary On the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition. Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., March 1996.
Holy Bible: Giant Print with Study Aids. Dugan Publishers, Inc., 1984.
© 2025 Angela Hormberg
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