Ah, not to be insensitive here...but this is what came up when I Google-Imaged the words: "God visits Abraham." Make of it what you will.
Then the Lord said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know." [Genesis 18:20-21]
Do you think God really has to go down and see to know? I don't. Lord knows that He knows. So, question one is -- why does He go? For us. We need Him to see. I mean, did His Son really have to come down to know what we experience? No. But we needed Him to come and see and be here. So then the next question obviously is God lying about why He's really there? No. Nor is He telling a half truth or stretching the truth or spinning it. He needs to go down and see to know but not for Him to know. It's for us to know. For us to know and believe, God did this knowingly. Abraham sees God before Sodom and Gomorrah see destruction.
I mean, something terrible is about to happen. Two communities are going to be wiped out. It's horrific. Equalled only by the horrific things that were going on in that place. So God shows up at Abraham's on the way. So that there is no doubt about who or why this horrible thing happens.
The Lord shows up to give Abraham and Sarah a birth announcement and Sodom and Gomorrah a death pronouncement. I don't take any of this lightly. I mourn for the loss of Sodom and Gomorrah just as I mourn for the loss during the Flood and the loss at Jericho. My sorrow and horror are only assuaged by trust in God and my personal belief that punishment on this earth does not constitute punishment for eternity.
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