GENESIS 18:16-21
Abraham's faith grew and developed through the spiritual exercise of testing. This is also
why God permits our faith to be tested. First Peter 1:7 says the purpose of testing is so
"the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be
tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of
Jesus Christ."
In Genesis 18 there are some very significant statements about Abraham. The Lord
said, "Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; seeing that Abraham shall surely
become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in
him?" (vv. 17-18). The Lord was going to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, but
He told Abraham first. Truly, Abraham was the friend of God.
God said of Abraham, "For I know him, that he will command his children and his
household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and
judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him" (v.
19).
What a tremendous statement—and to think it was spoken by God Himself? God knew
Abraham intimately, and He knows every detail about us. Are we determined to do His
will at any cost? Does He have first place in our lives and thinking? Do we command our
children and our household after Him?
He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he
instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye (Deut. 32:10).
Theodore Epp
www.backtothebible.in