Abraham entertains three visitors and they tell him that by the same time next year, Abraham and Sarah will have a son. At this Sarah laughs, as would any woman in their nineties.
And the LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.” Gen 18:13-14 NKJV
As an aside, just as the men were leaving Abraham's tents, they looked over and saw Sodom and Gomorrah. There had been rumors of what was going on in those fair cities...rumors may have even reached Abraham's ears. Abraham knew the Lord and his demand of righteousness. He may have feared for Lot before, but now his ears really perked up. Something was going to happen, and it probably wasn't going to be good. And Abraham came near and said, “Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there were fifty righteous within the city; would You also destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous that were in it? Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” Gen. 18:23-25 NKJV
After a bit of haggling, God promised Abraham that if only ten righteous people could be found in Sodom, he would not destroy it.
These two incidents may seem unrelated, but they are not. Earlier, when Abram and Lot's herds grew to be more than their land could support, they went their separate ways, and Lot chose to live among the cities of the Jordan plain while Abram remained in Canaan. The plain was like a well watered garden with the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah shining as the crowning jewels. If you looked closer, you would see that their prosperity barely covered the stench of their wickedness, but they were beautiful to look at. Their beauty and prosperity was so attractive that when the angel of the Lord told Lot the cities would be destroyed and to get his family out of Dodge, Lot could not even convince his two son-in-laws that they should leave. Abraham might have been counting on Lot and his family to be the ten who had not succumbed to the cities charms, but even they had been caught up in the prevailing lifestyle. All Lot could muster to leave with him were his wife and two daughters. Even then, after they left the city, Lot's wife could not resist looking back with longing at all she was leaving behind and you know what happened to her.
There is a recurring theme in the New Testament that Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. (Romans 4, Galatians 3, James 2) Abraham certainly wasn't perfect, He was always lying about Sarah being his wife, he had a child with his wife's servant, and his wife laughs at emissaries of the Lord. But he believed God and that set him apart from all of those in the beautiful cities who had chosen to believe in their own works and prosperity.
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