In Genesis 18, God appears to Abraham again. This time Abraham sees three men and ran to meet them, saying "My Lord, if now I have found favor in Your sight, please do not pass Your servant by." Abraham invited them to stay and rest, have their feet washed and have a bite to eat, in order to "refresh" themselves. I found it interesting that the passage alternates, referring to the visitors in the singular form ( the Lord, He, the LORD ) and sometimes in the plural form ( "they" , "them", 'the men" ). The Lord told Abraham that Sarah would soon have a son, but Sarah laughed upon hearing this. But the Lord asked, "Is anything too difficult for the LORD?" He also reminded Abraham that he would be blessed as a great and mighty nation, "for I have chosen him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about him." Then "the men" stood up and looked down toward Sodom, as Abraham was seeing them on their way. When God saw that Sodom's sin was exceedingly grave, Abraham asked, "Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked (in Sodom)?" Then Abraham said, "Far be it from You to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?" After a prolonged dialogue between Abraham and God about this, the Lord said He would not destroy all of Sodom if there were a few righteous there. This passage reveals God's faithfulness to keeping His promises to Abraham and also His mercy and justice in dealing with Sodom.