{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-5730","native_reference":{"book_number":10,"chapter_from":18,"chapter_to":18,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":14,"verse_to":14},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Bede</b>: \"Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.\" With this statement heard, all doubt was so removed, and her faith so confirmed, that the Apostle rightly says of her: \"By faith even Sarah herself received power to conceive.\" But when he says \"I will return to you,\" and added \"with life as a companion,\" he speaks in a human manner, as if he were to say: \"If life is a companion.\" But it should be understood more deeply that the angels always converse with life as a companion either in heaven or descend to earth, certainly with that life that says: \"For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son also to have life in Himself;\" by whose vision and enlightenment the angels and holy men are perpetually blessed. Indeed, this place seems comparable by contrast with the deeds of the first man; for after his transgression, he did not see the Lord God but is said to have heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden; here, the future blessing's faith, hope, and love inflamed he saw the Lord standing, because surely with this he was to remain, the contemplation of divine clarity having departed from him. Hearing the voice of the Lord God, trembling he hid himself because he truly blushed at his error. Here, having seen the Lord, he immediately joyfully ran, believing that by the merit of obedience he had pleased Him. He on the cool of the day, this one at the very heat of the day; because this one burned with the fire of divine love, the other by sinning had driven away the light of divine protection and love from himself. This one receives and entertains the Lord as a guest, to show with the carnal feast provided that he would foster Him with spiritual feasts in his heart by living devoutly, according to what the Lord Himself promised about His lovers: \"Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me\" (Revelation 3:20). The other, that is, the first man, who ate what was forbidden, lost those delights which he could have had perpetually in the presence of the Lord and His angels, also being visibly excluded from the tree of life so that it might be openly shown that he had lost the incorruptible fruit of wisdom, which he used to enjoy invisibly. And because the blessed Abraham by the merit of pious devotion had already tasted the fruit of wisdom and life, which is Christ, rightly he is said to have seen and received the Lord standing under a tree. There Eve, having abandoned the fear of God, having neglected her husband's counsel, rashly approached the serpent, in which the devil was speaking, by whom she was deceived into eating what was forbidden, and also made her husband complicit in her transgression; for which reason, receiving the sentence of just condemnation with her husband, she heard among other things: \"In pain you shall bring forth children\" (Genesis 3:16); and first she bore Cain, the cursed son and fratricide. Here Sarah, submitted to the fear of God, following likewise the religious faith and deeds of her husband, awaited at home the Lord's appearance until her husband came and learned what should be done; but also with the dishes prepared for the Lord's reception, she nevertheless modestly remained at home and rejoiced in having her husband go ahead with them to the Lord and offer the gifts of her devotion and his own. Therefore both received the reward of their kindness with a promised offspring; and not just any offspring, but indeed the one in whom all nations would be blessed. And rightly so, for there the guilt of transgression was punished with due retribution in the first Adam; here the time of redemption through the second Adam was both foreshadowed and prepared. It follows:<br/><i>— Commentary on Genesis (Hexaemeron)</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: AT WHAT SIGN DID ABRAHAM AND SARAH RECOGNIZE THE ANGELS? — But Sarah denied, saying, I did not laugh, for she was afraid . How could they think it was God who spoke if Sarah dared to deny that she had laughed, as if God could ignore it? Maybe Sarah thought they were men; Abraham, on the other hand, believed that he (the angel) was God. But he too, in carrying out those charitable actions of which I have spoken before, which could only be necessary for the fragile flesh, must have thought at first that they were men. But perhaps you will say that Abraham believed that it was God who spoke through certain visible and perceptible signs of divine majesty, as the Scripture testifies which were often seen in men of God. But there is still the problem of knowing, if that is the case, how they knew afterwards that they were angels. And the answer is that perhaps they knew it when they went to heaven in their presence. [<br/><i>— QUESTIONS ON GENESIS, Q. 36 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"89af1698e58ffc280a5e71eb53fba442ef712185bb8c085f97fe81e4e45bbc27","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":5730,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"8589dc7ee1a126adae714c8d25500e2e359a5fe40bfd40db265327247c9a9837","translator":null,"work":null}