867 - Les Feldick Bible Study - Lesson 1 Part 3 Book 73 - Theophanies - Part 3

https://lesfeldickbiblestudy.com Through the Bible with Les Feldick LESSON 1 * PART 3 * BOOK 73 THEOPHANIES: GOD THE SON APPEARING IN HUMAN FORM - 3 Genesis 17:1 and Various Other Scriptures We want to welcome our TV audience and thank you for everything that you do on our behalf: the prayers, your gifts, and everything. We’ve been on a lot of seminars lately. What a joy to meet people person-to-person. I guess the favorite word we hear is “I watch you every day.” That word “every” just sort of puts the frosting on the cake. There’s a gentleman right there, and we like that, that they get interested in the Word and not Les Feldick, but it’s the Word of God that is interesting. All right, Genesis chapter 18, we’ll start back at the beginning, again. We’re still talking about the Theophanies, where God the Son steps out of the invisible Godhead and becomes a visible appearance to these men and women in the Old Testament. Remember, that once we get to His birth at Bethlehem, we call it the incarnate. And I didn’t realize until the other day that incarnate is not a biblical word. You know, we’ve got a lot of words we think are biblical and they’re not. Trinity is one. Sovereign is one. And this is another one. You don’t find the word incarnate in the Scripture, but all of the things that it pertains to are. So anyway, once we get to the incarnate Christ after His birth at Bethlehem, we’ll have no more Theophanies. Don’t need to, because He now appears in a literal, physical body. All right, so Genesis 18, we have another theophany in verse 1 where it begins “The LORD.” Now, here it’s all four letters capitalized, so it’s Jehovah, God the Son, the great I AM. Genesis 18:1 “And the LORD appeared (visibly) unto him (that is Abraham) in the plains of Mamre: (Which is down there south of present day Jerusalem toward the area of Beersheba.) and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day;” Now this is Middle East. This is desert. And of course Middle Eastern customs have been the same for centuries upon centuries. And part of the desert culture was hospitality. When strangers came by, it was only natural to offer food and drink. And this is what you have here. You have a typical Middle Eastern act of hospitality. Abram had no idea, or Abraham now, he had no idea who these three men were. Genesis 18:2-3a “And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men (doesn’t say angels) stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself to the ground, 3. And said, My Lord,…” Now, as I mentioned in the last half-hour, this was merely a term of respect, recognizing a stranger and giving him welcome. Genesis 18:3-4a And said, My Lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee from thy servant: 4. Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched,…” Now, I don’t have to tell you that water is the chief commodity in the Middle East. And we find that out especially during some of the times we’ve been over there. The Sea of Galilee is way, way down, and we were clear down at Petra. Here was water all the way down to the far end of Petra and the washrooms and everything were still flushing. And I asked one of the guides, “Where in the world do you get the water. Here we are in the middle of the desert?” Where do you suppose? The Sea of Galilee. That was all part of an agreement between Israel and Jordan—that Israel would provide so many millions of gallons, or so many acre-feet, of water from the Sea of Galilee. And even though it was drying up, they would not relinquish those contracts. You’ve got to remember that Israel has to put up with an awful lot that the world knows nothing of. But they kept their word and provided the water. But, my point is made. When you get into the deserts of the Middle East, water is preeminent. All right, so he says: Genesis 18:4-5 “Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree: 5. And I will fetch you a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that ye shall pass on: (He wasn’t expecting anything more.) for therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do, as thou hast said.” So he does. Now, I don’t know how in the world he got a calf dressed and fixed this quickly, but maybe they were there longer than we thought. But anyway-- Genesis 18:6-8 “And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and made cakes upon the hearth. 7. And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetched a calf tender and good, and gave it unto a young man; and he hasted to dress it. 8. And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, (Now this really blows you away.) and they did (What?) eat.” #LesFeldick #BibleStudy #Bible