Genesis 18:1-15
A Son Is Promised to Sarah
18 The Lord appeared again to Abraham near the oak grove belonging to Mamre. One day Abraham was sitting at the entrance to his tent during the hottest part of the day. 2 He looked up and noticed three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he ran to meet them and welcomed them, bowing low to the ground.
3 “My lord,” he said, “if it pleases you, stop here for a while. 4 Rest in the shade of this tree while water is brought to wash your feet. 5 And since you’ve honored your servant with this visit, let me prepare some food to refresh you before you continue on your journey.”
“All right,” they said. “Do as you have said.”
6 So Abraham ran back to the tent and said to Sarah, “Hurry! Get three large measures[a] of your best flour, knead it into dough, and bake some bread.” 7 Then Abraham ran out to the herd and chose a tender calf and gave it to his servant, who quickly prepared it. 8 When the food was ready, Abraham took some yogurt and milk and the roasted meat, and he served it to the men. As they ate, Abraham waited on them in the shade of the trees.
9 “Where is Sarah, your wife?” the visitors asked.
“She’s inside the tent,” Abraham replied.
10 Then one of them said, “I will return to you about this time next year, and your wife, Sarah, will have a son!”
Sarah was listening to this conversation from the tent.11 Abraham and Sarah were both very old by this time, and Sarah was long past the age of having children. 12 So she laughed silently to herself and said, “How could a worn-out woman like me enjoy such pleasure, especially when my master—my husband—is also so old?”
13 Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh? Why did she say, ‘Can an old woman like me have a baby?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”
15 Sarah was afraid, so she denied it, saying, “I didn’t laugh.”
But the Lord said, “No, you did laugh.”
When I was in India on a mission trip I became incredibly unwell. The food had disagreed with me and I was in bed sick with a fever for a few days. I decided I needed some British food and went to the local shop. The closest thing that I could find to comfort food was spicy tomato crisps and so I decided that these would be good enough. However, as I went to the till I discovered that there was no queue or any kind of system to buying the crisps. There was a swarm of people pushing to get to the front and, unwell as I was, I realised that I simply couldn’t do it.
As I stood there, defeated, I felt a warm hand take mine. I looked down and saw an old lady. She pulled me to the front of the crowd and led me straight to a till where I paid for my food. I turned around to say thank you and she had disappeared. To this day I wonder whether I had met an angel.
Angels are spiritual messengers from God and protectors of his people. Throughout the Bible we see them bring messages to God’s people. God’s presence was so holy and powerful that people could not stand in it, so he communicated through messengers. It was believed that when the Messiah came to Israel that he would be protected from attack by angels and lead the nation to victory (Psalm 91:11-12).
There are still angels today. They worship God, the help people to move forwards and they protect us from evil. We don’t think a lot about angels but they are working on behalf of God in this world. They are mysterious and there are a lot of different stories about them. However, whatever you face today, you do not face it alone. There are angels alongside you.
