FAITH AND SPIRITUALITY AS SEEN IN ABRAHAM (3)
[p. 296] FAITH AND SPIRITUALITY AS SEEN IN ABRAHAM (3)
Genesis 17: 1 - 27; Genesis 18: 1 - 33
JT We were unable to complete the 17th chapter yesterday, so it is thought that we should take it up again today, and in connection with it chapter 18. Chapter 17 is very rich with thoughts which should engage us. We have first, God taking on the name of Almighty with Abraham, and then His changing his name from Abram which meant “high father” to Abraham, meaning “father of a multitude”. God then made a covenant, and then the truth of circumcision was introduced, far reaching in its effect. Sarah also is brought into these changes; so that it is a question of learning to change, learning to take on change. We get it on God’s side, and we get it on man’s side; clearly the resurrection will mean an immense change taken on by each of us, but then there is also added to that the thought of, not only what was seen in the Lord during the forty days after He rose, but what He is now. That is to say, His body of glory, one of the most wonderful things to think of; not simply His body of resurrection, but His body of glory; that is to say, His glory as alluding to ascension, and, we may add as to chapter 18, some allusion to Deity in the three men that came to Abraham. Although two of them were angels, yet there is a suggestion of the Godhead in the three; much is added as to Abraham himself, and certain moral qualities that came out in him, in chapter 18. There is too, the great place that God takes as to judgment, the Judge of all the earth, which is another element that has been peculiarly before us of recent weeks; that is, the idea of God being Judge of all, and all that is opened up to us in the book of Revelation as to it,
[p. 297] so that added to the great positive thoughts of God we have in that book the thought of judgment in all its phases, including the great white throne, as it is called. So that it is a question of our being able to take on these thoughts and speak of them, each in its place, for we learn in part.
Ques Would the term Almighty God be a fitting prelude to these great matters?
JT I think it would. We begin in Genesis 1 with God, although there is that which in a sense is greater in Genesis 2 where the name Jehovah is added to the thought of God. As we follow up the name Jehovah through the Scriptures, we see that it works out in what Jesus is, according to Matthew, which is something that enters into the assembly, and the truth related to it.
JC-S Is the title, Almighty God, drawn as it were from that feature that marks God?
JT Well, just so; it is a question of power. The thought of power is introduced at the outset, but now God is taking on a name. We have the very title God, which implies power, in a certain sense, in the early chapters, but God is taking on a name which conveys all that.
AJG Peter in his second epistle says, “As his divine power has given to us all things which relate to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that has called us by glory and virtue”. Does that enter into this?
JT Very good. I am glad we are able to bring Peter in, because his part in the dispensation is not to be overlooked, especially as he is able to contribute his estimate of Paul, saying, “Our beloved brother Paul”, and thus showing that he regarded Paul’s writings as Scripture. This shows that Peter was advancing in the truth, writing without personal feelings, which is a very important matter that we should always keep [p. 298] before us.
PHH Paul brings in the term Almighty in 2 Corinthians 6, when it is a question of coming out and being separated from what is unsuitable. “I will be to you for a Father, and ye shall be to me for sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty”.
JT It is connected with the idea of promises, so that we should purify ourselves in the light of them.
Ques “Perfecting holiness in God’s fear”, is that what was being accomplished in Abraham?
JT I think accomplished is the thought, because it is a question of development. We are proceeding here on the line of development, and it is a question of higher and higher yet in the truth. The service of God must be in keeping with what we get in the early chapters of Genesis, for it is introduced in that book, and is to proceed “higher and higher yet”.
CHH Does God’s revelation of His name here as the Almighty link on with the change of Abraham’s name, in relation to the great things that God has in the economy?
JT We shall see that. Abraham is the great father, the father of us all, indeed, as Paul is willing to say (Romans 4: 16), showing how the Spirit of God deals with terms and names and dignities, how they can be used with discrimination and liberty; so that we are taught to be in liberty in dealing with divine things, to know how to speak of them with liberty and dignity, not losing anything, not using one thing to interfere with or damage another; and I believe that is what Peter has in mind in his epistle, in saying “But for this very reason also, using therewith all diligence, in your faith have also virtue, in virtue knowledge, in knowledge temperance, in temperance endurance, in endurance godliness, in godliness brotherly love, in brotherly love love”. I think it will be agreed that the allusion made to Peter added to this will help us as to the [p. 299] dispensation, and to see that he has part in the formation of the dispensation too, with all the other apostles.
PL So that in referring to the mount of transfiguration Peter uses feeling and worshipful expressions, which would perhaps fit in with your thought of suited selection of expressions that fit into any moment. He alludes to “such a voice being uttered to him by the excellent glory”, and then “the holy mountain”.
JT “Such a voice”. So that we are reminded of what enters into that particular section of Peter. It refers to the sonship of Christ. We might have expected it before, but we do not get it. It is important to keep that in mind, because the sonship of Christ has had a peculiar place in our own times, bearing on the whole of the truth, and Peter does not mention it really until he comes to that particular section, that is the first chapter of his second epistle.
AJG Would that show that what there was in Peter’s soul is brought forward at the right time to support and amplify Paul’s teaching?
JT I was thinking of that. How beautifully it merges. It was Paul who preached the Son of God at the commencement of his ministry. Peter too has the light of Christ’s sonship at the outset, but in his ministry it is not alluded to until you come to the second epistle.
JC-S Peter speaks of the “untaught and ill-established” as wresting the Scriptures. Would that be where perhaps one idea is exaggerated to the detriment of another thought in Scripture?
JT Just so.
PL “Holy men of God spake under the power of the Holy Spirit”. Would that lit in?
JT Quite so. You can say more about that. Brethren who are accustomed to minister generally [p. 300] ought to have something to bring out at such a time as this, something, we might say, constructive, bearing on the whole matter. We are in a time when the whole matter of the truth is being opened up. It is a question of each contributing to it.
Rem Peter says, “If any one speak — as oracles of God”. I was thinking it came home to everyone who ministers; as undertaking it that should be their standard.
JT Yes, speaking as oracles of God. The psalmist says, to “inquire of him in his temple”. We are now together in a place of inquiry; there is room for it; and for answers too, there are those who are able to answer, but there is to be inquiry; and if we can add an answer we do better than the question.
PHH So what goes along with the pronouncement of the sonship of Christ is the prophetic word. “And we have the prophetic word made surer”. Would that be another feature of the present time?
JT Very good. It is a word that has come into our vocabulary peculiarly during the past few years; that is, the prophetic ministry. God has helped us in it, too.
Rem You are thinking of the development of the truth. The Lord has brought these things out in ministry, and the saints were able to respond to it.
JT I think so. I think that could be shown from the outset of the revival. Not the least and not the greatest is the truth of eternal life. The term was misused, in 1890, and it was said, ‘Eternal life is the Person of the Son’, which was a distortion of the truth. God has saved us from it, and the truth of eternal life is brought to its proper level, its proper relation in the whole scope of truth, and I hope we shall not overlook what a great place it has in the truth, and how things are mentioned, and it is for us to follow them up and be constructive in the use of [p. 301] them, so that we may become profitable to each other. We may all speak one by one, as the word says, and the Spirit of God is with us, and if one has anything, there is the spirit of liberty. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty”.
Rem So that you would expect at any given time there would be some emphasis laid on the truth, and it is well to be in the field that is being reaped.
JT I think it is; to keep the thing in line, so to say. It is said of the Spirit, “He shall guide you into all the truth”, and the truth of eternal life is certainly a great and important part of it.
Ques Is there spiritual alacrity with Abraham to take on the change that God indicated to him? I was thinking of what you said in regard to circumcision; in verses 23 and 26 of chapter 17 it refers to “the self-same day”, showing that although it was a very serious matter he embraced it immediately.
JT That is, he acted in obedience, at once. An important matter had been introduced; that is, circumcision; and it had been introduced dispensationally, you might say. Abraham immediately uses it and applies it himself, which is very important; if you get the truth into your mind, apply it and you will become enlarged.
JC-S Is that taking on what we spoke of as change?
JT Well, that is the idea. Abraham is able to change over, to take on the truth, to become part of it, as it were, because the Bible is one whole. Although human instruments were used, the Spirit of God has formed it, and it is a constructive matter; it is the development of the truth.
AED Does the passage in Philippians bear on it, “that your love may abound yet more and more in full knowledge and all intelligence, that ye may judge of and approve the things that are more excellent”? The overseers and ministers are addressed in that epistle.
JT Very good. I would say that. It is the peculiar place that the overseers and the ministers have, and the fact that Philippi had such a peculiar place in the unfolding of the dispensation. I am speaking now of “God’s dispensation, which is in faith”. Philippians has a peculiar place in it, and they were proceeding, proving the things that are more excellent.
PHH Do we have to wait for Paul to get the full light and meaning of circumcision?
JT I think it is not given elsewhere so we had better get the good of it in his writings, and it is in the epistle to the Colossians; that is where we get the truth of circumcision.
PHH I was thinking about the preliminary remark too, in the end of Romans 2. “He is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither that circumcision which is outward in flesh; but he is a Jew who is so inwardly; and circumcision, of the heart, in spirit, not in letter”.
JT You would notice that the word circumcision there refers just to the Jews; it is brought down to a concrete thought there, but it is not really a part of the truth of Romans.
CFI You stated yesterday that the Lord intended to make the end of the dispensation spiritual. Is this matter of circumcision essential to it?
JT It is. It is a great Colossian thought; it is properly Colossian in its full bearing. It is not a Roman thought properly; Paul has written about circumcision and it is properly set out in his epistle to the Colossians; we do well to pay special attention to it, because we will only get the full thought of it from Paul.
Rem So that whilst we get the doctrine in Colossians, we have the formal statement in Philippians.
“[p. 303] We are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God”.
JT Well, there we have the concrete thought; it is an example, certain ones are said to worship by the Spirit of God, and boast in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. He is giving an example of what the thing really means.
Ques That is the result, do you think, of the Colossian doctrine being taken on?
JT Quite so.
JC-S So that this would involve a great change, and the saints took on the change, really filling out the idea of the pillar and base of the truth, and confirming it.
JT Quite so. It is a question of whether the idea is at all in our minds, this thought of circumcision. We are not to go so far as saying we are it, but have we got the thought of it at all? We have baptism in Romans and it would be in that book that I would look for the truth relating to baptism, but circumcision belongs to Colossians properly and it gives character to the epistle and in effect gives character to the whole of Christianity.
PHH Would it be right to say, therefore, that we take all these thoughts back to Genesis in our minds now, when we read of circumcision?
JT That is the idea, exactly; that is the only way, as I understand it, whereby we can utilise Scripture properly for public readings, I mean the Old Testament. Generally people do not understand, therefore we have to stop and refer to the New Testament, because the New Testament is the answer to everything, only the Old Testament is typical and has its own meaning and own usefulness. Hence the word, “Every scripture is divinely inspired, and profitable”, and it is a profitable thing to look into the Old Testament, because of the use God makes of it Himself in a typical [p. 304] sense.
PL Circumcision in its bearing has in view the service of God, that God may have man pleasurable. Is that so?
JT I have heard you were giving quite a little about it lately, and I should like to hear more from you now, please. You will pardon me for asking for it; what was your thought about it?
PL Well, I was thinking of Genesis 18, God having man pleasurably before Him, and the power Abraham had to detain divine Persons complacently. Would not circumcision involve that God must have man without all that he is in the flesh, must have him according to another order of man for His pleasure in view of His service?
JT Yes, quite so. That is how it is, in the putting off of the body of the flesh in the circumcision of the Christ, that is the idea of it.
CFI Have we, in circumcision, first the putting off in Colossians, and then the positive feature in Philippians of moving in the power of the Spirit?
JT Very good; the positive feature, but it requires the negative side of Colossians or you would not have it at all. It refers to the death of Christ, that is the truth, and we must look into the matter of the death of Christ, what it really means. It is not a mere thought to be used at a Bible reading like this, but rather something by which our spirits are to be affected; by the terribleness of the death of Christ in putting off the body of the flesh.
EB Would that be implied in the use of the word covenant, circumcision being the covenant, the death of Christ being such a basic matter?
JT Quite so. The covenant has a great place with Abraham. We have had one already, but now we are having others.
WSS I was wondering whether the reference to circumcision in Joshua as a necessary basis for [p. 305] eating the old corn of the land and moving into what was spiritual, would be helpful.
JT It would indeed. I have often used that myself in referring to the idea of circumcision, going to Joshua about it, not simply dealing with Colossians, but going to Joshua, because it was enforced, and the instrumentality of it was sharp knives made out of stone. It was a really difficult matter to make sharp knives out of stone, but they were made showing what difficulties there are, that when we are dealing with the truth at such a time as this how much is involved in it, how much has to be gone into about it, so as to get at the roots of it.
WSS The impossibility of moving forward apart from it?
JT Just so.
DJM “Put to death therefore”, is that the working out of it practically?
JT Well, there it is, “Put to death therefore”.
Ques Would there be a certain dividing up of things in the Old Testament for us? Circumcision in relation to Abraham being in view of further divine communications; in the case of Moses to fit him for service, and in the case of Joshua to take the people into the enjoyment of the inheritance. Does that amplify the truth of Colossians in its bearing practically? Between the time Moses was commissioned and his meeting Aaron, God reminded him of circumcision.
JT Quite so, the matter had to be gone into. We are now dealing with realities, and if we look at circumcision we are looking at death in some sense as to the reality of it. Would you mind referring to the scripture?
Rem Exodus 4 verse 24 says, “And it came to pass on the way, in the inn, that Jehovah came upon him, and sought to slay him”.
JT Now, think of that, the great servant Moses, and God sought to slay him! Why should that be, why should it even be written down? What have we to learn from it as in the service? Nearly all of us here are more or less in God’s service and what do we learn by such a thing as that? The severity of God. We must not only think of the goodness of God but His severity, and that thought must come home to ourselves sometimes. It is not all grace. It is a question of God in His severity.
Rem “Thou, thou art to be feared”, said the psalmist, “and who can stand before thee when once thou art angry?” Psalm 76:7.
JT Very good.
JC-S Speaking of the severity of God in relation to circumcision, have we ourselves to take up that idea and to deal with ourselves in severity?
JT That is the whole point in Colossians, “Put to death therefore” was a word to themselves. It is a question of ourselves.
PHH Is there some encouragement in the fact that Jehovah said to Joshua, “This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you”?
JT Just so. It is what God does. It is a great relief when God does something that you cannot do.
PHH Does that set them free and set God free to go forward with them in all His thoughts?
JT Exactly, Then the man with the drawn sword, what about him? Would you be kind enough to refer to that? Where does he come in?
PHH The end of Joshua 5 reads: “And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, there stood a man before him with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went to him, and said to him: Art thou for us, or for our enemies? And he said, No; for as captain of the army of Jehovah am I now come”.
JT [p. 307] That is to say, Joshua was the partisan there. That is the point that one thought it would be well to bring up here. He was just a partisan in the light of all that precious truth. “Art thou for us, or for our enemies?”. But the man with the drawn sword says, “As captain of the army of Jehovah am I now come”. It is a question of God.
PHH Does that mean, referring to Colossians, that not only is circumcision an established matter, but there has to be the putting to death and the putting off, definitely on our part?
JT That is just what I was thinking, and why that man with the drawn sword is there. That is in Colossians really for us, indeed in this room now for us, as to whether we are partisans in any way, locally or generally, as regards the truth. There is no such thing admissible in the service of God as partisanship.
AJG Is the whole assembly what is really referred to as the army of Jehovah?
JT That is what I would say, perhaps you will enlarge on that.
AJG I was thinking of what you said as to the danger of partisan outlook. True service has the whole assembly in view, has it not?
JT That is what I was thinking. And if you are setting out in the service, whether it be in America or Africa, what is in your mind is universality, the universality of the work of God. So that we are not in any whit taken up with any side or any nation or any set of circumstances, that would be partisan.
WSS You would say that circumcision is absolutely necessary to that end. If there is partisanship, there is a lack of apprehension of the truth.
JT You see that in regard of the truth of the Lord’s supper. We have the very thought of schism, introduced in Corinthians, for they were partaking of the Lord’s supper professedly and there were divisions and sects among them.
JC-S Is it important to note that the ministry of reconciliation is one of Paul’s ministries? Without it the opening out of the truth which he has relative to the assembly would not really be reached in power.
JT That is the truth.
Ques May I ask whether there is a further amplification of what we have already had when the man says, “No; for as captain of the army of Jehovah am I now come”?
JT Well, it is just that; he would say, I am now come, and I am ready for whatever it be. It is a matter of war, war with the flesh.
Ques Does it mean that the man waited until certain things had happened before coming into that position?
JT Well, but now is stressed there. “Am I now come”. He is not on partisan lines. He is in connection with the army of Jehovah and that is a very great army. You get it in Ezekiel, an army risen from the dead, really that is what God has in His mind.
DJM Would holiness exclude partisanship? “Loose thy sandal from off thy foot: for the place whereon thou standest is holy”.
JT Just so.
SHB Why does the apostle in Philippians introduce the idea of seeing to things just before he brings in this matter of circumcision? “See to dogs, see to evil workmen, see to the concision. For we are the circumcision”.
JT The concision is a thing particularly to notice, that is to say, the not going all the way with the truth, it is a half way measure. That is the idea of the concision, whereas circumcision is a whole [p. 309] way measure. To go the whole length of the truth is what is required.
SHB Is that in line with what you were drawing our attention to last night, that we take up the feature of putting all out?
JT Quite so. Putting all out.
RHC Was David in the full gain of it as he approaches Goliath? “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?”.
JT Just so. He is applying it to the Philistine, and later he will have to apply it to himself, and every one of us will have to apply it to himself, if he is to be anything permanently for God. Psalm 51 shows how David applied it to himself.
JC-S Do you think it would apply particularly to those ministering, where they may have developed peculiarities in their ministry which may even militate against the presentation of the truth?
JT So that we are in the whole truth or we are nowhere. God has greatly blessed these meetings such as we are having but He has blessed them because those attending them have the whole truth in their minds, and that is what the Lord says as to the Comforter, “He shall guide you into all the truth”. These meetings ought to have that in mind always.
WSS I was thinking that the connection between circumcision (chapter 17), and the changes of the names seems very instructive, for if we are to take on this change to which you have drawn attention, circumcision must be accepted.
JT That is exactly what the chapter teaches and so Abraham goes fully into the thing. He has a new title, but he is not thinking of that, he is thinking of the application of the truth, that is the point, the application of the immediate truth, and he acts at once. “Abraham took Ishmael his son,
[p. 310] and all who were born in his house, and all who were bought with his money — every male among the people of Abraham’s house — and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin on that same day, as God had said to him”. That is to say, he is obedient in the application of the truth, at once. It was a question of the present truth.
PL So in Philippians we read, “So that, my beloved, even as ye have always obeyed, ... work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you”.
JT Very good.
GA Why is the numeral 13 introduced? You referred last night to the numeral 12. It says, “And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised”. I was wondering why the Spirit of God sees fit to specify his age on this occasion. Are we to look for the teaching of the matter in such wise that the thing is applied to the mind of the youth growing up amongst us?
JT He is thirteen, it is a question of his age and what kind of a boy he was, as the truth developed later, which required that Sarah should use the word of Scripture and say, “Cast out this bondwoman and her son”.
ET Is the severity of God in this matter indicated in verse 14?
JT Quite so, “And the uncircumcised male who hath not been circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that soul shall be cut off from his peoples”. Think of that, that a boy should be cut off from his peoples, showing how severe God is in enforcing His truth. We are not to be slow about it, but to enforce it at once.
CHH It says Abraham was ninety-nine years old, and Ishmael thirteen. I wondered whether these names being mentioned and their ages, conveyed [p. 311] that, as the word of God came to them, the thing was done whatever the age.
JT Quite so. It is a question of the truth and the enforcement of it and we are speaking now of circumcision, and that it is to be enforced, and if I need to enforce it, begin at once, even if I have to make a stone knife, a difficult thing to use as the instrumentality, but it is to be done; I cannot afford to wait.
AED As to the suggestion in the second verse of a covenant “between me and thee”, God and Abraham, is all this side of things a necessity in view of the development of that?
JT God comes down to His servant, to His child as we might say, because he is believing. It is believing Abraham we are dealing with, and it is a question in God’s mind of “me and thee”. It is very beautiful, I think, and how God would encourage us in unfolding things to us, even dignifying us, because it is that here, a matter of dignity conferred upon him, how God would have us take it on cheerfully and how He would show that He is with us in the thing. It is a matter to be cheerful about.
Ques Do you get that, too, in verse 7, “to be a God to thee” and in verse 8, “I will be a God to them”? Is there abundant encouragement in the goodness of God over against His severity?
JT Just so. He will be a God to them.
PHH I would like to ask about God going up from Abraham. “He left off talking with him; and God went up from Abraham” (verse 22).
JT It is something to be taken account of in the chapter. We have it later that God went away (chapter 18: 33), but now it is a question of going up; that is to say we are touching heavenly ground in the idea of going up. We shall soon all have to do with that, joyfully, when the Lord comes. It will be a question of [p. 312] going up.
WSS In the meantime, does what is suggested in the beginning and pretty well all through chapter 18, indicate that we may move intelligently in relation to divine Persons consequent upon this exercise?
JT Quite so, intelligently; that is a good word. Paul says, “I speak as to intelligent persons”. The service of God requires intelligence, and the Lord’s supper begins it, and we are addressed on the ground that we are intelligent; that is to say, we know what we are doing, and why we are doing it.
AJG Do you mean that God’s going up from Abraham was intended to give him the idea of spiritual elevation that he himself was to take on?
JT Yes; he went and dwelt at Beer-sheba (Genesis 22: 19), but then it does not say that Isaac went to Beer-sheba. The suggestion is that he has gone up, too. That is really the suggestion in the truth of the scriptures as unfolded, because the idea of going up must enter into it. After Christ has died, He must go to heaven; that is what John 20 means. He says, “I ascend to my Father”.
PHH In a foundational way does circumcision prepare us for the going up?
JT I would say that. Hence the great place Colossians has in the truth, because you have in Colossians 2: 5, “joying and beholding your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ”. All that must be founded on circumcision.
JC-S The apostle, after opening out the glories of Christ in Colossians speaks of his own distinctive place in completing the word of God, and brings in reconciliation between the two points.
JT Will you enlarge on that?
JC-S I was only thinking of the glories of Christ as presented in the chapter, and then how he brings in reconciliation as if to indicate that it must really be known in the soul before we can appreciate what he brings in under the term of completing the word [p. 313] of God. Reconciliation involves the truth of circumcision; see Colossians 1: 22 and 2: 11.
JT Well, let us examine what you say. What are the glories of Christ referred to?
JC-S He says in verse 14, “In whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins; who is image of the invisible God, firstborn of all creation; because by him were created all things, the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones, or lordships, or principalities, or authorities: all things have been created by him and for him. And he is before all, and all things subsist together by him. And he is the head of the body, the assembly”.
JT I think that opens up much for us, especially as to the deity of Christ, which you do not get even in Ephesians, it is a Colossian thought. That is the first point, now the second is what?
JC-S It says in verse 24, “Now, I rejoice in sufferings for you, and I fill up that which is behind of the tribulations of Christ in my flesh, for his body, which is the assembly; of which I became minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given me towards you to complete the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations”. Reconciliation comes between the two.
JT Quite so, very good. I am sure we all agree with that. The epistle to the Colossians brings in the deity of Christ, and then that He is “head of the body, the assembly; who is the beginning, firstborn from among the dead, that he might have the first place in all things: for in him all the fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell”. Marvellous thought. Then again we have it in verse 9 of chapter 2, “for in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily”. The earlier verse reads. “for in him all the fulness was pleased to dwell”. The words “of the Godhead” are an interpolation, and not in the original. What [p. 314] is stated is a question of the word fulness, the peculiar glory of Christ, the word fulness there. Whereas the idea of “bodily” in chapter 2 is bringing it within our reach.
JC-S I think you have said elsewhere that He is brought within our range in the second chapter.
JT Just so.
PL Would this circumcision involve the development of spiritual taste, the calf tender and good, and the sweet milk, and then delicacy of feeling?
JT Yes, you are referring to Genesis 18. There is not time to go into that now, but it is something to think of, what Abraham did and how God was pleased to place Himself so that He could be within Abraham’s reach. Because that is what has to be read into the passage in chapter 18. The three who visited Abraham took up a certain position so that they should be, you might say, available to him. It is said he “lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold, three men standing near him”. The word standing is said to mean stationed themselves; that is, they are not simply standing, but are taking up the position definitely and clearly to be available to Abraham.