Genesis 18

Genesis 18:1

Gen. 18. Isaac, the interpretation of whose name is Laughter, was conceived about the same time that Sodom and the other cities of the plain were destroyed, and he was born soon after their destruction. So the accomplishment of the terrible destruction of God’s enemies, and the glorious prosperity of his church, usually go together, as in Isaiah 66:13; Isaiah 66:14, “As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem - and when ye see this, your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like an herb; and the hand of the Lord shall be known toward his servant, and his indignation toward his enemies.” First the enemies of the church are destroyed, and then Isaac is born, as that prosperous state of the church is brought about, wherein their mouths are filled with laughter, and their tongue with singing. So the Egyptians were first overthrown in the Red sea, and then Moses and the children of Israel rejoiced in peace, and liberty, and sung that glorious song of triumph. So first Babylon is destroyed, and then the captivity of Israel is returned, and Jerusalem rebuilt. So when the heathen Roman empire was overthrown, then commenced that prosperous and joyful state of the church that was in the days of Constantine.

So when antichrist is destroyed, there will follow that joyful glorious state of the church we are looking for. Isaac was the promised seed of Abraham, the father of all the faithful, the blessing he had long waited for, and when Sarah brought him forth, it represented the same thing as the woman in the 12th chap. of Rev., “And there appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars; and she, being with child, cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.” The accomplishment of the prosperous state of the church is in Scripture often compared to a woman’s bringing forth a child with which she had been in travail. It is so in particular by our Savior, John 16:19-22, “Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him, and said unto them, Do ye inquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and ye shall not see me; and again a little while, and ye shall see me? Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice; and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come; but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. And ye now therefore have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.” Hereby is especially represented the accomplishment of the church’s glory, joy, and laughter, after the destruction of antichrist, or the throne of Rome, that is spiritually called Sodom. Gen. 18. Concerning the burning of Sodom, etc. Diodorus Siculus, b. 19. where he describes the lake Asphaltites, says, “The neighbouring country burns with fire, the ill smell of which makes the bodies of the inhabitants sickly, and not very long-lived.” Strabo, b. 16. after the description of the lake Asphaltites, says, “There are many signs of this country being on fire, for about Mastada they show many cragged and burnt rocks, and in many places caverns eaten in, and the ground turned into ashes, drops of pitch falling from the rocks, and running waters stinking to a great distance, and their habitation overthrown; which give credit to a report amongst the inhabitants that formerly there were thirteen cities inhabited there, the chief of which was Sodom, so large as to be sixty furlongs round; but by earthquakes and fire breaking out, and by hot waters mixed with bitumen and brimstone, it became a lake, as we now see it. The rocks took fire, some of the cities were swallowed up, and others forsaken by those inhabitants that could flee.” Tacitus, in the fifth book of his history, has these words: “Not far from thence are those fields which are reported to have been formerly very fruitful, and inhabited by a large city, but were burnt by lightning, the marks of which remain, in that the land is of a burning nature, and has lost its fruitfulness; for everything that is planted or grows of itself, as soon as it comes to an herb or flower, or grown to its proper bigness, vanishes like dust into nothing.” Solinus, in the 36th chap. of Salmasius’s edition, has these words: “At a good distance from Jerusalem, a dismal lake extends itself, which was struck by lightning, as appears from the black earth burnt to ashes. There were two towns there, one called Sodom, the other Gomorrah; the apples that grow there cannot be eaten, though they look as if they were ripe, for the outward skin encloses a kind of sooty ashes, which, pressed by the least touch, flies out into smoke, and vanishes into fine dust.” Grotius do Verit. b. 1. sect. 16. Notes.

Gen. 18:18-19

Genesis 18:18-19

Gen. 18:18, 19. By these verses it is manifest - (1.) That absolute promises already made may yet, in a sort, depend on future conditions; for the promise here mentioned had been made already absolutely over and over. But yet Abraham’s future commanding his children and his household after him, is mentioned as the condition of it; and then after that [there] remains another condition - viz. , that they keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment. (2.) That the promise is absolutely made before the performance of all the conditions, because the performance of the future conditions is so certainly connected with what was already found in Abraham, that it was certainly consequent, and taken as already fulfilled. This may illustrate the dependence of a sinner’s salvation on his future universal obedience and perseverance, though it be already absolutely promised. (3.) Hereby it is manifest that, ordinarily, a thorough care and endeavour in the education of children will be successful. (4.) That when God admits children into covenant with their parents, and so admits them to be the subjects of the visible seal of the Covenant, it is, as it were, on a dependence on the future religion and piety of the children, as so ordinarily consequent on it that it may be looked upon as virtually included in it.

Chapters 19-27 Gen. 19:1