FULL Exegesis: Who Were The 3 Men Who Visited Abraham? | Genesis 18-19 | @shamounian

​​Next time always read 18. Because here one of the three men is Yahweh, and he eats human food. You got to know this. Here, let's look at it. Then Yahweh appeared to him by the Oaks of Memre while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day. And he lifted up his eyes and looked,

behold three men were standing nearby. Three men he saw and he ran from the tent door to meet them and he bowed himself to the earth and he said, my Lord. Now again here's where people get confused. The word ‘my Lord’ doesn't mean he recognized they were heavenly beings, that it was Yahweh and two angels.

Because it was the custom—this is a fact. It was the ancient custom that when strangers visit your city and you're the judge of the city, that you would go and be polite and invoke them to stay and show them hospitality. Because at this point Abraham still doesn't know who these three men are.

He doesn't know. Later he's going to figure it out so don't be confused. And how do I know this? Because if you go to Genesis 19 which I'll show you in a minute verses one and three, when the two men showed up were angels. Lot did not know they were angels. And he did the same thing.

He bowed to them and called them ‘my Lord’ and he goes, “Come and stay with me. Let me give you hospitality. This was ancient near Eastern custom. Like when Jacob bowed before Esau or Abraham bowed before the Canaanites. This was a what we call an oriental ancient near eastern custom to show respect

and when you were the judge of a place, a ruler like Lot who was at the city gate. And this is confirmed by archaeology. Don't take my word for it. Get a good commentary with the archaeological background confirming this. Those who stood at the gates were the judges and rulers of the city.