Genesis 18 explores Abraham’s growing faith, hospitality and intercession. Abraham’s faith matures as he trusts God’s promise of a son, a foreshadowing of the Messiah’s miraculous birth. Abraham’s radical hospitality reflects God’s love, shown through Abraham and Lot’s care for strangers. God’s revelation of Sodom’s fate underscores His justice and mercy, inviting intercessory prayer. These moments point to Yeshua (Jesus), who embodies divine compassion, intercedes for humanity, and fulfills God’s promises. Believers are encouraged to deepen their faith, emulate God’s love, and participate in His redemptive plan through prayer and action.
Starting after Sukkot 2024, Hallel Fellowship switched to a three-year cycle of Torah and parallel Bible readings (2024–2027), outlined by TorahResource. While there’s ancient evidence for a triennial cycle, a major benefit is to provide more time to mine more of Scripture for lessons.
Genesis 18 emphasizes divine-human partnership in righteousness and covenant fulfillment, with messianic undertones in the birth of Isaac. Isaiah 33:17–34:12 portrays God as both the beautiful King and the holy Judge, with messianic hope found in His ultimate rule and justice. These passages connect God’s covenant faithfulness with eschatological promises of redemption and judgment.
Genesis 18
This chapter includes Abraham’s encounter with the three visitors, widely interpreted as divine beings or a theophany.
Theophany and covenant: שְׁכִינָה Shekhinah
Key term: שְׁכִינָה Shekhinah — “dwelling (presence).” While not explicitly used here, the concept of God’s presence is central. Abraham’s hosting of the visitors reflects a divine visitation tied to covenantal blessings.
Example: Genesis 18:1 uses the phrase וַיֵּרָא אֵלָיו יְהוָה vayera eylav YHWH (“The LORD appeared to him”), signifying divine revelation.
שְׁכִינָה is derived from the root שָׁכַן shakhan, meaning “to dwell” or “to reside.”
Key biblical passages:
Exodus 25:8:“And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell (וְשָׁכַנְתִּי, v’shakhanti) among them.” This verse establishes the divine presence in the Tabernacle.
Exodus 40:34-35: The glory of the Lord fills the Tabernacle, signifying God’s dwelling with His people.
1Kings 8:10-13: The cloud of God’s glory fills the Temple built by Solomon, echoing the same imagery of God’s indwelling.
These texts associate God’s presence with specific places, such as the Tabernacle and the Temple, and use שָׁכַן to convey the idea of God “dwelling” among His people.
Justice and mercy: צְדָקָה וּמִשְׁפָּט tzedakah u’mishpat
Key term: צְדָקָה וּמִשְׁפָּט tzedakah u’mishpat — “righteousness and justice,” central to Abraham’s intercession for Sodom (Genesis 18:19). These terms emphasize God’s character and Abraham’s role as a partner in upholding divine justice.
Messianic hope: בְּרִית brit
The promised son (Isaac) prefigures the messianic child.
Key term: בְּרִית brit — “covenant,” foundational to the Abrahamic promise.
Isaiah 33:17–34:12
This section contrasts the vision of divine glory and the devastation of divine judgment, offering both hope and warning.
Messianic vision of glory: מֶלֶךְ בְּיָפְיוֹ melekh b’yofyo
Key term: מֶלֶךְ בְּיָפְיוֹ melekh b’yofyo — “King in His beauty.” This phrase evokes a messianic vision of God’s glory and the beauty of the ultimate redeemer ruling over a redeemed world.
Example: Isaiah 33:17 portrays a glorious future when the righteous behold God’s majesty.
Judgment and redemption: קָדוֹשׁ qadosh/kadosh, נָקָם naqam
Key term: קָדוֹשׁ qadosh/kadosh — “holy.” God’s holiness is central to His judgment on Edom and other nations.
Key term: נָקָם naqam — “vengeance.” This reflects divine justice against oppressors.
Example: Isaiah 34:8 describes “the day of the Lord’s vengeance” (יֹום נָקָם לַיהוָה yom naqam la-YHWH), tying judgment to covenant faithfulness. See also Isa. 34:1–12.
Isaiah 34:11 mentions the desolation of Edom using symbolic birds like the owl (יַנְשׁוּף yanshuf) and raven (עֹרֵב orev). These creatures symbolize chaos and divine judgment.
The Torah reading וַיֵּרָא Vayera (“he appeared,” Genesis 18–22) grabs readers’ attention with its gripping account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the scandalous consequences of Lot’s choices. This seems at odds with “God so loved the world” (John 3:16).
This study explores the importance of trust (faith), the power of prayer and God’s mercy balanced with justice. We’ll see that God’s desire is to save humanity from divine judgment that must come to bring to an end the forces dragging humanity toward death. Mercy indeed triumphs over judgment for those who learn to trust their Creator….
One of the Creator’s names is YHWH Yireh (Jehovah Jirah), translated as “the LORD sees” or “the LORD is seen.” And one of the key times Yeshua haMashiakh (Jesus Christ) is foreseen is Abraham’s near-sacrifice of is “one and only son.” The mercy and sacrifice of God is on full display in this week’s Torah portion, וַיֵּרָא Vayera (“he appeared,” Gen. 18:1–22:24).
We look on in dismay at how degenerative American culture and politics have become, fret how so many of our fellow Americans vote for politicians and laws that accelerate that decline. It’s very tempting to harden our hearts against such people.
But via the Torah reading Vayera וַיֵּרָא Vayera (“he appeared,” Genesis 18–22), God calls us to be like Abraham, who walked in faith, depending completely on God’s mercy yet acknowledging God’s justice as he watched Sodom and her neighboring cities go up in flames. Abraham’s heart was so sensitive that he implored God to save them all — even the…
The account of Lot is one of the most salacious tragedies in the Torah, but from it we can learn precious lessons about the things that can sneak up and destroy us when we’re not paying attention. We are told in the reading וַיֵּרָא Vayera (“he appeared,” Gen. 18:1–22:24) that he was a righteous man, but he was incapable of teaching his own wife, family and community how to walk uprightly with God and with their neighbors.
Abraham, on the other hand, was also a righteous man, but Abraham stood out in God’s eyes. Abraham was righteous and he also had the…
Does God judge the nations based on what they don’t know? The Torah reading וירא Vayera (“he appeared,” Genesis 18-22) illustrates through Abraham’s dealings with Sodom-Gomorrah and Philistia that Heaven judges the Gentiles by their conduct, specifically on how they take care of other people, aka the Golden Rule.
Abraham and Lot offer the world concrete examples of radical hospitality. Both of them had an overflowing love for their fellow man that was stronger than the fear and “stranger danger” that holds most of us back from helping those in need.
Many focus on illicit behavior, but Sodom’s utter lack of hospitality and its culture of fear is why God wiped them off the map, destroying them so utterly that their lush valley is now an ocean of salt.
Torah reading וַיֵּרָא Vayera (“[and] he appeared,”) is a fair warning to us in our day. We must be careful when responding…
The Torah reading Vayera (“and He appeared,” Genesis 18–22) aptly describes how the Creator of the Heavens and Earth shows up “in the fullness of time.”
We will see messianic parallels between the “days of Lot” in Sodom, the “days of Noah” and the Day of the LORD preceding the return of Yeshua (Jesus), the Son of Man (Matthew 24; Luke 17).
God “shows up” all over the place in events recorded in the Bible and today, but He is not passive. Rather, the LORD is active in Earth’s affairs.
A pattern of behavior we see in the Torah reading וַיֵּרָא Vayera (“and He appeared”) is that when people are in “fight or flight” mode, they usually make very poor decisions. Lot’s “bright idea” to give his daughters to protect his guests from a vile mob, Lot’s daughter’s “bright idea” to get pregnant by their father a mere few days after they escaped from Sodom’s flames, and later Abraham and Sarah’s decision to lie…
Why is Abraham considered our “father of faith” when so much of his biblical biography shows examples of his utter lack of faith? He laughed in God’s face about a son from a barren wife, circumvented God’s prophesy for that son and lied to two different kings about his relationship with Sarah, putting her in real danger.
In the Torah parashah (portion) called Vayera (“He appeared,” Gen. 18:1–22:24), we learn that despite Abraham’s (and Sarah’s) ups and downs, their faith was growing, not shrinking. That is why God Himself not only credited Abraham’s trust as righteousness but also made them patriarch…
Do we trust God in His promises? We can come up with all sorts of ideas about God. But if we don’t really trust Him and His leading, why bother following? These are questions tackled in this discussion on the Torah portion Vayera (“and He appeared”), covering Genesis 18-22. Abraham is shown to have trust issues up to his great test of faith. At that point, he sees something. This passage is all about the Promised One — the Mashiakh (Messiah) — represented by Abraham’s son Yitzkhak (Isaac).
The eight days of Chanukah (Festival of Dedication, John 10:22–39), historically parallel the eight days of Sukkot (Festival of Tabernacles). But there is a startling parallel to eight women in the Bible for whom having children would have been miraculous — including the mother of Yeshua (Jesus) — yet these women dedicated themselves to God’s mission to restore the Earth.
