Have you ever thought about having lunch with Jesus? Your mind might immediately be going back to the gospels and how often His disciples and others ate a meal with Him or how often He fed people who had been with Him for days. But did you know that there was another man, thousands of years ago, who also had lunch with Jesus? His name was Abraham and we are told about that amazing meal in Genesis 18:
“Then the LORD appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. So he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground, and said, “My Lord, if I have now found favor in Your sight, do not pass on by Your servant. Please let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. And I will bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh your hearts. After that you may pass by, inasmuch as you have come to your servant.”
They said, “Do as you have said.””(Genesis 18:1-5)
Now you might be wondering how Abraham knew it was Jesus, because we know that He is not called that in the Old Testament and He was not called that in this story either. Jesus actually tells us in John 8:56 while He was having a discussion with the Jewish leaders who were telling Him He had a demon and was out of His mind:
“Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.”
Clearly, Abraham had a very special relationship with Jesus.
So why am I talking about this lunch? Two reasons. First of all, Jesus tells us in Luke 17:28-30 that during the end times and before the start of the great tribulation, the world will be like the days of Lot. So we need to pay attention to what happened in this whole story.
Second, although this lunch and the promises given to Abraham and Sarah in this chapter were no doubt amazing, it was what came after that I want to talk about here. After the meal is over, the Lord and His two angels begin to walk away, and Abraham, obviously not wanting their time to be over yet, follows them. It is during this little walk, that the Lord says the following to Abraham:
“And the LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing, since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?” (Genesis 18:16-18)
What was it that the Lord was doing? He was looking at Sodom (verse 16) and then He looks at Abraham and says this:
“Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave, I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to Me; and if not, I will know.”(Genesis 18:20-21)
Did you notice the word “outcry”? It means cries of distress. God heard those cries of injustice, and suffering in heaven, so He was coming down to look around and see if it was true. That alone is astonishing! But before He looked at Sodom He spent time with His friend, Abraham.
And then the Lord says something to Abraham that we often skip right over or fail to think about. He says to him, should I tell you what I’m about to do? Should I hide it from you? (Genesis 18:17) Why would He ask that? Because He knew that Abraham would intercede. And he did. In verse 23, Abraham draws near to the Lord and says to Him, “Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked?”
But that’s not all Abraham says to the Lord, and this is important. He asks Him the following: “Suppose there were fifty righteous within the city; would You also destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous that were in it? Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:24-25)
And that last question is really the crux of this matter. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? Abraham goes on to barter with the Lord, asking Him if there are only 40 or 30 or 20 or heaven forbid, 10 righteous people in Sodom, would He still destroy it. And the Lord says no, “I will not destroy it for the sake of ten.” But if we go on to read the rest of the story, it becomes clear that there are not even ten righteous people in Sodom! Only Lot, Abraham’s nephew, and his wife and two daughters are considered righteous. And therefore all the cities of the plain are destroyed with fire and brimstone from heaven. If you want to know why, go read the story. What happens next is disgusting to say the least, as the two angels, who look like men, come into the city and spend the evening with Lot. But there is something else that happens that is also really important to understand.
When the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, “Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city.” And while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. So it came to pass, when they had brought them outside, that he said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed.”(Genesis 19:15-17)
Lot, who is clearly struggling with the whole situation, and truthfully, I don’t blame him, is lingering and trying to figure out what to bring with him. But then the angels say something else to him that I really want to emphasize here:
”Hurry, escape there. For I cannot do anything until you arrive there.”(Genesis 19:22)
I want to really focus on this last sentence because it’s so important. They (the angels) cannot bring judgment until the righteous are removed! And that one phrase, when you add it to this whole story, brings me to something that has become such a bone of contention, even division in the body of Christ. I cannot believe how many people, many of them pastors, have mocked the concept, the very idea, that God would remove His bride from this earth before He brings judgment on the wicked. What is commonly called the rapture, has become a mockery in the church.
So I will ask you the same question that Abraham asked the Lord on that fateful day. “Would not the judge of all the earth, do right? Would He really punish the righteous with the wicked? Would He choose to beat the living daylights out of His bride, before He marries her? The answer, according to scripture, is no! He cannot, He will not, bring judgment until the righteous, the church, is removed from the earth!
Just as a small point of reference, in the 7 seal judgments in the book of Revelation, one quarter of the earth is killed. Could you survive that? That’s almost 2 billion people!
If you have been struggling with this whole idea, torn between right and wrong, wondering what is the truth, let me assure you that just as the Lord did not destroy Lot and his family with the wicked men of Sodom, He will not punish you and destroy you either, if you have placed your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you have repented of your sins, been born again, and are filled with the Holy Spirit, you are the bride of Christ. He will not beat you up before He marries you. What husband would do that? Not a good one! And we know that God is good and there is only one who would persuade you otherwise, and that is satan. So don’t listen to the mockers and scoffers. Judgment is coming on the evil and wicked people of this earth. All the signs point to it. May I just remind you of all the rich and famous of the earth who visited Epstein’s Island, to mention just a little bit of wickedness.
But if you are His, you will meet Him in the clouds on that glorious day! Do not allow anyone to steal your blessed hope! (Titus 2:13) I will leave you with this word of comfort from Paul:
“For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.”(1 Thessalonians 4:15-18)
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