Please let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. And I will bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh your hearts. After that you may pass by... (Gen 18,4-5)
It was twenty-four years, twenty-four long years, before God could come to visit Abraham in this way. Abraham, of course, used to experience God's visitation from the beginning of his journey, but his relationship to God was first that of a stranger. Abraham did not know God, did not know how He thought, how He felt. But with God, it is not just about experiencing visitations; it is about experiencing rest. Even later, God visited his people through prophets, sending words, sometimes signs. But he did this to bring them to a different path, for he was not in agreement with them. There was no friendship between them, He could not rest among them - because they were not at peace with Him.
God did come to Abraham, but at first it was like a river rolling over an arid plain and flowing away again. Abraham did not know how to stay before God. There were so many things in which he had to grow and change inwardly in order to keep himself from losing God. He always had the impression that he had drifted away from Him after one experience or another and had to come back again; he did not know how to dwell with Him.
But his persistent following, the experiences he made along the way, the good (with God) and the bad (with himself) helped him to know God and become more than just His worshipper or obedient servant. The ever-present strife of man towards God ceased in his heart, and Abraham began to experience "harmony" with God. And then God did not have to leave. Abraham was becoming God's friend (see James 2:23).
God's messengers were now sitting down under the tree waiting for Abraham to prepare a banquet for them. Three times we are told how he was in a hurry while trying to do it "quickly." Just imagine a hundred year old man running around in the midday heat (and not here, but in Israel!) preparing a meal completely from the slaughter to the roast. It must have taken several hours for the messengers to wait to be honored by Abraham, as was the custom in those days.
But friends are willing to wait. Because we like to be guests at our friends'.
