Abraham addresses one of the three: 'My lord, if I have found favor in your eyes, do not pass your servant by.' The polite request — do not pass by, do not leave before I have served you — is genuine and urgent. The form of address ('my lord') is respectful but not yet specifically theological; at this point Abraham is offering hospitality to travelers. The recognition of who these visitors are may come gradually, or Abraham may sense something that his language does not yet name. Revelation 3:20 pictures Jesus standing at a door and knocking — the invitation not to pass by but to enter and share a meal is the same dynamic here in reverse: Abraham is the one pleading for the guest to stay. The application: the eagerness of Abraham's invitation — 'do not pass by' — is the posture of a host who genuinely wants the presence of the other. Is that your posture toward the presence of God — urgent invitation, or casual assumption that he will show up on his own?

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