Up until now, I’ve been focusing on the dysfunctional effects of sin as it worked itself out in the lives of the people who God had chosen as the lineage for His promised Redeemer. As a result, I’ve essentially been ignoring how God is insuring things come out the way He plans for them to.
In this blog, let’s look at the 10 times God showed up in Abram/Abraham’s life, (or eleven if you count the last two around the sacrifice of Isaac as separate) since that was the most until Moses, and see what we can learn about WHEN GOD SHOWS UP!
1. Genesis 12a: God called Abramto leave his homeland, his relatives, and his father’s house for a new land, promising to make him a great nation and bless him. Why did God choose this man? We don’t really know. But what we DO know is Abram obeyed and left his home with his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot.
God’s Seven Promises: 1. God would make Abram a great nation. 2. God would bless him. 3. God would make his name great. 4. Abram would be a blessing. 5. God would bless those who blessed Abram. 6 God would curse those who cursed Abram. 7. All families on Earth would be blessed through Abram.
2. Genesis 12b, Abram calls upon the Name of the Lord.God appears once Abramarrives in Canaan to reiterate and expand on the promise of the land to Abram’s offspring. This is important to note in that obedience results in further revelation of God’s plan/promises. Abram responded with worship and built altars for regular sacrifice and prayers to God in the two places where he regularly stayed–at the great tree of Moreh at Shechem and in the hills east of Bethel.3. Genesis 12c, God preserves the sanctity of Abram and Sarai’s marriage. Abram went to Egypt because of a famine and told people that his wife, Sarai, was his sister. Because of her great beauty, Pharaoh took Sarai into his palace for a concubine, but God sent severe plagues on Pharaoh and his household while she was being prepared for the wedding ceremony.The plagues led to Pharaoh realizing the truth about the couple. He confronted Abram and sent them away with recompense for his unintended sin against God’s chosen.
NOTE that God acted unilaterally without Abram praying to Him. For whatever reason, GOD had chosen Abram and Sarai specifically, but they weren’t quite ready yet for the promised son. GOD acted when part of His plan was threatened by their fumbling, bumbling actions. I can’t help but think God is also teaching Abram and Sarai about Himself, and how to have a faith relationship with Him.
4. Genesis 13: God reaffirms His covenant promises. After increasing friction between the two growing households, Abram and his nephew Lot split the free range grazing for their flocks. Abram gives Lot his choice and Lot chooses the rich plains, leaving Abram with the hill country. After Lot departed, God appears and tells Abram to stand on the highest point and look around. God further refines His promise about Abram’s descendents inheriting everything as far as the eye can see.
I see this appearance partially to reassure Abram as he was probably very hurt and discouraged about what had happened with his nephew. GOD KNOWS, and GOD CARES!
5. Genesis 15a:Victory in Battle. Abram hears about his nephew and others being kidnapped for slaves and their homes and city plundered. After winning a pursuit battle with the marauding city kings, God appears to Abram who is concerned that he is getting too old and still has no children, so he tells God that his servant, Eliezer of Damascus, is set to be his heir.God tells Abram that Eliezer will not be his heir. Instead, a son from Abram’s own body will inherit everything. God tells Abram to look at the sky. God says his descendents will grow to match the number of the stars. Abram believes God, and God accepts his faith as righteousness–right standing with God.
6. Genesis 15b, God makes a formal covenant with Abram. Godappeared and had Abram set up a formal covenant ceremony with a split row of sacrificed and halved animals. In the evening, after Abram had fallen asleep from keeping the scavenging birds away from the dead animals all day long, God passed between the pieces of the sacrificed animals as a way to ratify their covenant UNILATERALLY.7. Genesis 17: God institutes a covenantal sign and changes names. God appeared and revealed Himself as “God Almighty” (El Shaddai). He changes Abram’s name from to Abraham and institutes male circumcision as a sign of the covenant with God. God also changed Sarai’s name to Sarah.8. Genesis 18: Visitation and Destruction. (and with chapter 19, God shows up three times): Abraham and Sarah were visited by three men that Abraham recognized as messengers of God. They prophesied that Sarah would have the promised child in one year. When Sarah laughed at the idea, (1) theLord appeared and confirmed the promise.
As the messengers prepared to continue their journey, the (2) Lord decided to reveal to Abraham the impending judgment of destruction on Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham bargained with God, finally getting Him to agree that the cities would not be destroyed if 10 righteous men could be found in them. Ten were not found, so the next day, before God rained down destruction,(3) He had the three angels rescue Abraham’s nephew, Lot, his wife and their two daughters.
9. Genesis 20 (three times): When Abraham moved to the city of Gerar, he told King Abimelech that his wife, Sarah, was his sister out of fear that men would kill him to take her. Believing her to be single, Abimelech sent for Sarah and brought her into his household to be a concubine.(1) God came to Abimelech in a dream at night, warning him that he was a dead man because Sarah was a married woman. Abimelech pleaded his innocence to God, stating he acted with a clean heart, and (2) God confirmed He had supernaturally kept the king from touching Sarah. God ordered Abimelech to return Sarah and told him that Abraham was a prophet who would pray for him.
Abimelech rebuked Abraham for the dangerous deception, and Abraham explained it was a half-truth born of his fear. Abimelech returned Sarah to Abraham, and gave him sheep, oxen, and servants as recompense, and then offered him choice land to live in, as long as it was somewhere else! Abimelech also gave Sarah 1,000 pieces of silver as a sign of her vindication. Abraham then prayed for Abimelech, and (3) God healed the king and his household.
10a. Genesis 22: The Sacrifice. (three times): (1) God called upon Abraham to sacrifice Isaac on a mountain as a test of Abraham’s trust and faith in Him. This was the first time ‘testing’ is mentioned in the Bible.10b. Just a Abraham is about to plunge the knife into his son’s chest, an (2) angel (messenger) from God stops him.10c. (3) God appears and explains it was a test of Abraham’s commitment to God versus his love for the son of promise. God commends Abraham’s faith and faithfulness and reiterates the promises for his descendents.
For a more in depth treatment, see the following story blogs:
CONCLUSION: This is how the story of God and Abraham ends as it segues to Isaac, “God HAD BLESSED ABRAHAM in every way.”
The next blog:
In Genesis 12:2-3, God tells Abram,
• “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; • I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. • I will bless those who bless you, and • whoever curses you I will curse; and • all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
Note the repetition of the word ‘bless,’ (four statements) offset by it’s opposite ‘curse’ (one statement). In the ten times when ‘God showed up’ in Abram/Abraham’s life, what were the ‘blessings’ he or others received from God, and what were the ‘curses’?
If this is an accurate ratio, then there should be a ratio of 4 to 1 out of 5 instances. In my next blog, I’m going to run through the ten events again when God showed up with an eye on ‘blessings’ and ‘cursings.’
There are many examples of dysfunction as we move from one origin story to another in Genesis. But since the focus of this series is going to be on the story of Joseph, I’m going to jump ahead to his great-grandfather, Abraham and look at the story of Abram, Sarai, Hagar and Ishmael.
THE STORY:
1. Abraham, Sarah and their Maid, Hagar.
A. God had promised Abram and Sarai a special son. They were an old couple and Sarai was barren. This was the first dysfunction, a physical affect of sin, the ‘death’ of Sarai’s child-bearing abilityB. When nothing still happened, Sarai proposed that her husband Abram have a child with her Egyptian maid, Hagar, and that they would conform to the Egyptian custom of Sarai holding Hagar as she gives birth, thus considering the child as having come from her.
This was dysfunction number 2. First, a lack of faith on Sarai’s part–she had given up hope and thought SHE was the problem, but that her husband–10 years older–could still engender a child.
The second part of the dysfunction was a cultural one–following a pagan custom from other, ungodly people rather than trusting and obeying God. God’s ways are perfect, even if difficult to wait for. Man’s ways are dysfunctional and always result in creating more problems than they solve.
C. As is inevitable when following a sinful path, Sarai’s hope for a son through her maid turned to hate when and she actually became pregnant and she might even have been filled with self-loathing at having this proof that SHE WAS the problem. As a result, she mistreated her maid instead of cherishing and nurturing her. This was the third dysfunction–-a psychological one.
D. God intervened and appeared to Hagar, calling her back from her precipitous flight away from Sarai’s persecution and encouraging her to return to Abram’s household. This was God acting as ‘anti-entropy,’ putting things back to the right.
E. Hagar safely had the baby and they named him Ishmael. Abraham was overjoyed to finally have a child, especially a son. However, Sarah was never happy about Hagar and Ishmael receiving her husband’s loving attentions. Jealousy, another psychological dysfunction caused by sin, had long ago mastered Sarai’s heart.F. FINALLY Isaac, the promised child, was born. The older brother picked on him as they were growing up together (another psychological dysfunction of sin, not much different than Sarai’s persecution of Hagar). This constant threat from the maid’s son crystallized Sarai’s, now named Sarah, jealousy into action.
E. Sarah demanded of Abraham that Hagar and Ishmael be exiled. This was the result of the dysfunction of jealousy where we make people choose between two things or people that they love. “It’s either me or them!”
F. Abraham acquiesced to Sarah’s demands, gave Hagar some basic supplies, and expelled her from the family and the camp. This was the fourth dysfunction, a social one, with a family being broken up instead of coming together.
📋 SUMMARY Children learn what they live. So, to summarize, these are some of the dysfunctions that Isaac grew up with, which would have set his functional moral compass.🧭
1. It’s not okay to not have children. If you can’t have them with your wife, it’s okay to have them with someone else.
2. It’s okay to mistreate and persecute those who are less powerful or less privileged than you are.
3. Passivity instead of leadership. It’s okay not to intervene in family problems, but take a ‘let them settle it between themselves’ approach. Then when the wife makes a demand, the husband acquiesces with a “Yes, dear.” This is not Christian leadership as God intends and as the Bible teaches.
4. If you can’t stand someone for whatever reason and you are in the more powerful position, it’s okay to exile them, kick them out, send them away from the family, to let them take their chances on their own in the unfriendly world, maybe secretly hoping that they will die and no longer be a problem? Just so long as they’re “out of sight, out of mind.”
God actually instituted the practice of exile instead of execution, not because it was a good thing to do, but because it was the best option available in a Fallen, sinful world when dealing with Fallen, sinful people.
Note that even though God said that the day they ate of the fruit from the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil they would die, He didn’t execute them. The first death was the animals killed by God to use their skins as coverings for Adam and Eve’s sin and shame. This was the first substitutionary death.
Abel mimicked God’s act of substitutionary sacrifice when he offered a lamb to God. God accepted it as a substitution for him and his sin, and killed and consumed it as an indication of His acceptance.
The first death of a person wasn’t until Cain killed his brother Abel out of jealousy.
Instead of immediate death, God exiled Adam and Eve from the easy living in the blessed garden. They did eventually die, which leaves us with the question, might they still have died before sinning? Or could it have been that they would have been allowed to eat the fruit of the Tree of Eternal Life when senescence approached?
Of course, we’ll never know, BUT WE who believe through Jesus Christ WILL eat from the ‘Tree of Eternal Life,’ and thus live forever.
🍎 APPLICATION
What moral values did you grow up with that have unknowingly set your 🧭 moral compass differently than how God intends?
I think that’s why there is such an emphasis in the New Testament on the death of the old person and ‘rebirth’ as a new person 👶. For example:
Jesus told Nicodemus that a person must be reborn if they want to be a part of the Kingdom of God that Jesus was bringing. That didn’t make ANY sense to the old Jewish teacher and leader.Jesus compares His followers to seeds that have to be buried in the ground and die before they can sprout and produce any spiritual fruit. This statement left His disciples equally confused.In his first letter to the Corinthian church, Paul uses the language of rebirth to describe how the old passes away and new things come to replace them.
In his first letter to the Corinthian church, Paul uses the language of rebirth to describe how the old passes away and new things come to replace them.
1. First of all, that WE have a responsibility to ‘put off,’ or ‘lay aside,’ our old sinful person…2. That this ‘putting off’ of the old sinful man will then put us in a position for God, through the Holy Spirit, to make us new again = a rebirth.3. …and then it’s back in our court to ‘put on’ this new person God has created for us to be.
In essence, Christian growth is a shared responsibility–God makes change possible, we would never be able to do it on our own–and then we have to obey in faith, make an effort to change, and keep at it in faith.
4. …and then “God causes the growth,” providing the power that actually changes us on the inside, deep down to our core.
A ‘Trickster’ is featured in many cultural myths around the world. A trickster is usually someone who crosses social and cultural boundaries, is morally ambiguous, and often a shapeshifer.
• ‘Tricksters’ tend to be rule breakers. They defy social norms, cosmic laws, and divine authority, sometimes just for the fun of it, but at other times to prompt needed change. 🚫
• ‘Tricksters’ often are capable of shape-shifting for the purpose of disguise. 🐵
• ‘Tricksters’ are both creators and destroyers: They bring gifts to humanity, like fire or wisdom, while simultaneously causing disruptions and chaos. ☄️
Some examples:
Loki, the unpredictable Norse shape-shifting god, is the catalyst for both disaster and divine problem-solving.
Coyote or Raven are Indigenous North American heroes who shape the earth and teach people hard lessons through their mistakes.
In East Asian mythology, the Monkey King rebelled against heavenly beings using cleverness and a magical staff.
Jacob, son of Isaac, meaning “The Supplanter,” exhibits some of the characteristics of a trickster and has been called such. Check out my next blog for his story and see what you think.
This blog is dedicated to my dear Christian brother Marcus, who has finally found his “Sarah,” and her name means “Blessedly Beautiful.” On their journey together with God, may they find joy, even in difficulties; may they always support each other, even when not exactly in the right; and may they give each other the courage to follow where God leads them, especially when the way seems frightening. Amen.
Genesis chapter 20 – The Story
After witnessing the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham journeyed toward the fertile territory of the Negeb and lived between Kadesh and Shur. One day he decided to visit the city state of Gerar, ruled by King Abimelech, taking his wife, Sarah, with him.
When they entered the city, Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” When Abimelech, king of Gerar, heard about this new beautiful woman in his city, he sent some soldiers and took Sarah for his own harem.
But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are as good as dead because of the woman who you have taken as one of your wives, because she is another man’s wife.”
Now Abimelech had not yet gone near her, so he said, “Lord, will you kill a righteous person? Did he himself not say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And did she herself not say, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.”
Then God answered him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against Me. Therefore, I did not let you touch her.
Now then, return the man’s wife to him, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours, even to your kingdom.”
So Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his people and his manservants together, and told them all these things. And the men were very much afraid.
Then Abimelech called Abraham to join them and said to him, “What have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and my kingdom such a great curse? You have done things to me that should not to be done to another man.” And further, Abimelech said to Abraham, “What did you see in us that caused you to do this thing?”
Abraham said, “I did it because I thought, ‘There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my beautiful wife.’ Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father, though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife.
And when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, I said to her, ‘This is the favor you must do for me: at every place to which we come, say of me, “He is my brother.”’”
Then Abimelech took sheep and oxen, and male and female servants to tend them, and gave them to Abraham as recompense, and returned Sarah his wife to him. And Abimelech said, “Behold, my entire land is before you; live in it wherever you please.” (Just not here.)
To Sarah he said, “See this? I have given you and your brother a thousand pieces of silver. It is a sign of your innocence in the eyes of all who are with you, and a sign before everyone here that you are vindicated.”
Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, and also healed his wives and servants so that they bore children again. For the Lord had closed all the wombs of the women in the household of Abimelech, because he had taken Sarah, Abraham’s wife, to be his own.
SUMMARY:
As mentioned in the last blog, Abraham and Sarah (renamed since Genesis chapter 12) faced 10 tests of their faith in God. This chapter details test number 8 – The abduction of Sarah by a Philistine king named Abimelech. (From Inspired Scripture, (open source) see more at inspiredscripture.com)
Although Abraham’s faith had grown, he failed this test. Even worse, this was a repeat of his prior failure when Pharaoh Senusret III abducted Sarah. Abraham showed that he had not learned from his prior mistake. (Sometimes it takes more than once to get it for all of us, right?)
In my introduction to this Genesis series, I mentioned that I had noticed a few things in our Bible study. Let’s look at those general observations as they apply to Genesis chapter 20.
1. We shouldn’t be surprised that sinful people act sinfully. Abraham and Sarah were not any kind of special sanctified saints who lived completely holy and blameless lives. They were sinners, like the rest of us, that God had chosen as the Patriarch and Matriarch of His promised nation that would eventually produce His Annointed One, who would bring God’s blessing to all the nations.So, why did Abraham decide to go to the big city? Was he tired of sitting around and watching his sheep, goats, donkeys, camels and cattle eat grass? Was he tired of settling the squabbles between his servants who were tired of sitting around watching Abraham’s sheep, goats donkeys, camels, etc…?
Abraham sees Sodom in flames by French painter Tissot, circa 1896–1902.
Also, Abraham had just been through a very stressful and traumatic event trying to save the city where his nephew Lot lived from God’s judgment and destruction, but instead, having to settle for just saving Lot’s family. Maybe Abraham needed something to replace the horror in his mind of watching God rain down destruction on the two sinful cities. I suspect this was a side of God, the judgmental and vengeful side, that Abraham had not seen in action before.
Maybe the memory of the trip to Pharaoh’s city–the hustle and bustle, the excitement of new sights, sounds and smells, the myriad riches, the unexpected wonders around the next corner–had stayed with Abraham and he craved some of that excitement amid the boredom of life out on the sameness of the open plains? If so, there was some serious selective memory going on!
For whatever reason, like his prior trip to Egypt that was unsanctioned by God, Abraham made an unsanctioned trip to the nearby city in southern Canaan, Gerar, capital of the local king. In both places, the theft of wives was common. In both places, Abraham had Sarah lie to protect himself. Abraham had apparently failed to learn his lesson in Egypt. Are we any different?
2. The second thing I realized is, Genesis isn’t just about the characters, it is really ‘His-story.’ The real story in Genesis is about God shepherding those He chose from one generation to the next as He furthered His plan for salvation of the world along. Therefore to really understand what is going on, look for when God ‘shows up.’
The first thing that stuck out to me in Genesis chapters 12 and 20 was how and when God acted. Here in Chapter 20, I kept wondering, where was God? For example:
A. Abraham decided to take Sarah and go to what he knew was a “godless city’ where his life would be in danger because of his beautiful wife, and she would be in danger of abduction. No excuse of a famine this time. GOD DID/SAID NOTHING.
B. Abraham and Sarah lied about their relationship when they reached the city. GOD DID/SAID NOTHING.
C. The king took Sarah from Abraham to be his own wife. GOD DID/SAID NOTHING.
God (finally) showed up im the night in a dream to the king. I’m sure it gets your attention when God speaks to you in a dream, but when God leads off with, “YOU ARE A DEAD MAN!”, it really gets your attention. So, let’s look at the dialogue between God and the king again.
GOD: Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is the man’s wife.KING: (Now Abimelech had not yet gone near her, so he replied ) “Lord, will you kill an innocent person? Did the man not himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And did she not herself say, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.GOD: Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against Me; therefore I did not let you touch her. Now then, restore the man’s wife to him, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.POSTSCRIPT: After the king returned Sarah, his wife, to Abraham, then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, and also healed his wives and female servants so that they bore children again. For the Lord had closed all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.WOW! Are you as blown away by the things God said and did as I am? When the king took Sarah to be his latest wife, it didn’t look like God was doing anything about it, but we now can see God did two things behind the scenes:First, God supernaturally restrained the king from becoming intimate with Sarah.Second, God also supernaturally prevented the King’s wives and female servants from conceiving any more children.
First let me say that the punishment very well fit the crime. God’s sense of justice is appropriate, maybe even a little ironic. The king had grabbed up another beautiful woman for his pleasure, but also for the purpose of having quality children. You can get a hint as to how important having children was to them at that time in history by their reaction to their women losing the ability to conceive. So, first, the king was prevented by God from having that pleasure. King 0, God 1.
Next, God prevented every woman there from being able to conceive. King 0, God 2.
So, not only was the King’s immediate purpose thwarted, but his long-term purpose was thwarted, and because everyone under his authority was included in the judgment, he was penalized maybe a thousand times. Moral of the story? You you don’t mess with those who God has chosen for Himself, because then, you’ll find out you’re messing with God, and He wins, every time. King -1,000, God wins!
It is also suggestive here that the events stretched over a longer period than the brief narrative seems to indicate if they had realized that none of the women were conceiving, then after Abraham prayed for their healing, that the women had begun conceiving again.
But the whole thing about supernaturally restraining the king from intimate relations with Sarah says a lot more than that.
In our modern ‘enlightened’ society, people say that premarital and even extramarital sexual relationships don’t matter–they’re okay, they don’t mean a thing. However, it is very clear that the sanctity of Sarah’s womb was important to God.
‘Why was it important to Him that Sarah not have sexual relations with anyone but her husband,’ you might ask? I think partly because that is the way God made things to be between a man and a woman who join in ‘holy matrimony.’ Not only does God sanctify the couple as man and wife, but everything unique to a marriage; i.e., having sexual relations and producing children, becomes holy to Him too.
But I think there was also the element that God had chosen the couple for His Divine purpose. That apparently meant protecting them not only from dangers outside of them, but it also meant protecting them from the dangers of their own sinful self within them!
3. My third takeaway from Genesis last Spring was that we should not spend a lot of time condemning the characters if God doesn’t condemn them. Note in the exchange between God and Abimelich that God never mentions a word of condemnation for Abraham or Sarah. In fact, God actually honored Abraham by calling him His prophet and then by placing the means of healing God’s curse in his hands. I’m sure this elevated Abraham very highly in the King’s estimation.
We learn in the Bible that the three highest positions in a God-centered society–equal, but very different in their functions–are Prophet, Priest and King. By naming Abraham as a prophet, God elevated him to be equal to the king in God’s eyes, and in the eyes of those who revere and honor God, which it seems Abimelech did more than Abraham had thought.
It’s also interesting that there is no record of Abraham having done anything exactly like this before. We saw Abraham negotiate with God’s angel to save Sodom and Gomorrah from punishment, for his nephew Lot’s sake. (Although that didn’t turn out well.) That conversation between Abraham and the angel was not dissimilar from the pushback the king showed when God was speaking to him in that dream.
But for that same God to say that Abraham, once he got his wife back, could pray for the king and his household to be delivered from the curse and then for it to happen! Well, I suspect that not only the king was impressed.
So, it seems interesting that God used the situation that was caused by Abraham’s sin to show him a new supernatural ability that came with God’s calling. I guess it’s really true that God does not waste our suffering. As a result, at the end of Genesis 20, we also get a glimpse of something other than ‘sinners being sinful’–we saw a man whose voice God would listen to. We saw a man of compassion who prayed for the needs and hurts of others. At the end of Genesis 20, we got a glimpse of what a godly man should look like.
The question still remains, though, why no condemnation for Abraham and Sarah? From my previous blog, the answer was that God had chosen them for His plan. There are some implications for that choosing explained by Paul in Romans 8:30 (New Living Translation):
“And having chosen them, He called them to come to Him. And having called them, He gave them right standing with Himself. And having given them right standing, He gave them His glory.”
Paul is saying this about us as Christians, but I think we can see the same things here in God’s relationship with Abraham and Sarah:
First, God chose Abraham and Sarah, and then He called them to leave Haran and go to an unrevealed land.
Second, Abraham believed the promise of God and God counted it as righteousness. Even these two times that Abraham and Sarah were deceitful, there was no condemnation from God, because He had awarded them right-standing with Him.
And third, God gave Abraham part of His glory when He allowed him to pray for the healing of Abimelich and the cursed women, and then did heal them after Abraham prayed for them.
APPLICATION:
So, who are you going to follow in your life? Are you going to live life based on your fears? Are you going to live a life of lies and deceit? Are you going to live for personal gain, no matter what the cost to others? Or are you going to follow Jesus?
If you follow the call of God in Jesus Christ, you have to deny your fears, you have to give up lies and deceit, you have to give up seeking to benefit yourself. You have to follow Jesus willingly, joyfully, obediently and selflessly. Not an easy thing to do, one might say impossible, but all things are possible with God. And the greatest thing is, even when you fail, THERE IS NO CONDEMNATION FROM GOD!
Instead there is forgiveness, there is a chance to learn and grow, there is still a chance to be used by God in His plan. Can you think of anything more awesome than that to give your life to?
THIS WEEK’S SONG:
Godliness for us is defined as ‘Christlikeness.’ Jesus calls us to follow Him, to become like Him. Just like Abraham was called by God and followed that call to Canaan, so too must we follow wherever Jesus leads us.
Here is a simple song of dedication to do just that from my favorite worship song writer. Listen to his message in an attitude of commitment to following our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
When we studied Genesis chapter 26 last Spring, we focused on the similarity between a failed ploy Isaac used to protect himself from the Canaanite King, Abimelich, and a similar ploy his father, Abraham, used to protect himself from the Pharaoh of Egypt and also from King Abimelich; that is, trying to protect their lives by concealing their marriages and saying their wives were their sisters.
So, why did Isaac emulate this ploy of his father, which in fact failed TWICE? Isaac wasn’t even born yet when Abraham did those things. Maybe the stories were passed among the servants and that is what gave Isaac the idea. If so, shouldn’t the failure have also been told as part of the story? That should have given Isaac pause before repeating the failed strategy.
(c) Free Bible Images, used by permission.
What we talked about in our study was a concept called ‘Generational Sin.’ That is, somehow children tend to repeat the sins of their parents. Why is that? Is it a case of “Children learn what they live?” There are also similar concepts called Generational Curses and Generational Trauma. The differences as I understand them are:
1. Generational sins are the repetition of sinful actions by the adult children that they observed their parents doing while growing up. That might be a simple case of modeling and emulation without realizing there may be other options for behavior. People who are caught in generationally repetitive sins can only be delivered by Jesus Christ.
2. Generational curses are similar to the above except it takes into account the curse of original sin, as well as the consequences of individual sin. We as cursed, sinful creatures just keep repeating the same sins generation after generation, and experiencing the same negative consequences of those sins, those are the ‘curses.’ People who are caught in the curse of Adam’s sin as it has mutated through the generations and in different family lines can also only be delivered by Jesus Christ.
3. While doing my research on the concept of Generational Sins last Spring, I ran across a slightly different concept called ‘Generational Trauma.’ The first two concepts were developed by Christian theologians trying to understand and explain Exodus 34:7.
Generational Trauma, on the other hand, is a concept developed by psychologists to explain how trauma to one generation, necessitating extremes of behavior in order to cope, are then passed on to the next generation, even if social or personal circumstances have changed and the extreme behavior is no longer necessary.
Before we delve deeper into these concepts, though, I’ll spend the next three blogs telling those three stories in Genesis and see where that takes us.
THE STORY: Genesis 12
I. God Calls Abram
(c) Free Bible Images, used by permission.
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Leave your country and your kinfolk and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and he who dishonors you, I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
So Abram left, as the Lord had told him, and Lot, Abram’s nephew, also went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
And Abram took Sarai, his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the servants that they had acquired in Haran, and they traveled to the land of Canaan.
(c) Free Bible Images, used by permission.
When they came to the land, Abram passed through to Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites inhabited the land.
(c) Free Bible Images, used by permission.
Then the Lord appeared to Abram again and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.” So Abram built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him and called that place ‘Bethel,’ meaning the House of God. From there Abram moved his flocks and herds to the hill country to the east of Bethel, where there was better grazing, and pitched his tents there, with Bethel on the west and the nation of Ai on the east.
There Abram built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord in daily worship and sacrifices. Eventually, Abram moved everyone on, still going southward toward the fertile valley of the Negeb.
II. Abram and Sarai in Egypt
Now there was a famine in the land of Canaan, but not in Egypt. Because of the seasonal flooding of the Nile, Egypt was rarely affected by famines. So Abram and Sarai and all who were theirs, went down to Egypt to live there for a while, because the famine had become very severe in Canaan.
When Abram and Sarai went down to Pharaoh’s city, Abram pulled Sarai aside and said to his wife, “I know that you are a very beautiful woman, and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘Who is this beautiful woman, is this his wife?’ If I say ‘yes,’ then they will kill me and they will take you by force, for that is how they do things in the godless nations. If we say you are my ‘sister,’ then it may go well with me because of you, and then my life may be spared for your sake.”
When Abram entered the city, the Egyptians indeed saw that Sarai was very beautiful, and the princes of Pharaoh went and praised her to Pharaoh Senusret III.* Then Pharoah Senusert sent for the couple and Sarai was taken into the Pharaoh’s harem. For her sake, Pharoah Senusret dealt well with Abram; giving him sheep, oxen, donkeys, servants, and camels as a bride price.
* Historical research identifies Khakaure Senusret III (also written as Senwosret III or the Greek form, Sesostris III) as the Pharaoh of Egypt at the time of Abram and Sarai’s sojourn there in 1876 BC. He ruled from 1878 BC to 1839 BC during a time of great power and prosperity in Egypt. He would have been ruling for only about two years at the time of Genesis 12, so he would probably have been a young and vigorous man as witnessed by his military victories in extending Egypt’s southern border. (Source, Wikipedia)
Captions translated to English by Google
Senusret III was famous for his realistic portraiture, compared to the idealized portraits of Pharaohs before him. His busts and statues are so realistic that you can see signs of his aging on those made later in his reign. Enough of these survive to this day that a realistic reconstruction is possible.
But the Lord afflicted the Pharaoh and his household with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. When divination revealed the cause of the plagues as his newest wife, the wife and not the sister of the man, Pharaoh Senusret sent for Abram and said to him, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife back, take her and go!”
Then Pharaoh Senusret gave his princes orders concerning Abram, that they send him away with his wife, Sarai, and all that he had with him. And so they escorted him to the border and saw them on their way back to Canaan.
COMMENTARY and APPLICATIONS:
It is said that Abram and Sarai, later renamed Abraham and Sarah, faced 10 tests in their life. The first three are in this passage.
1. The first test was God’s call to leave both their home and their families, and go to a new land that God would show Abram later. They passed this test. They gathered up their household and belongings and headed south, accompanied only by a nephew, Lot, and his family.
God affirmed Abram’s obedience by appearing to him again when he reached Canaan and made a promise that all the land Abram had seen would be given to His descendents. Abram responded appropriately and sacrificed to God and worshipped Him. Even though the Old Testament is very Patriarchical in its presentation, you can be sure that Sarai was involved in worshipping God together with her husband.
This is often the same first test we face in our lives as Christians. Whether it’s after high school, college or some later time in life, God often calls us to leave everyone and everything that we’re familiar with and depend on, and go to a new place. I believe God does this in order to help us turn from depending on the familiar in our lives and turn to depending on Him. After all, that is what having a relationship with God is all about.
I think that if we are also obedient to go when and where called, that God will affirm our decision to go in faith. That is, after all, the meaning of one of the key verses about faith:
Faith and faithful obedience please God, and He will reward us.
2. The next test was the famine in Canaan. Abram elected to go to Egypt, which was almost famine proof. However, he neglected to do one very important thing, that is, ask God what he and Sarai should do because of the famine. There are several reasons why Abram could be excused for not thinking to ask God first. His relationship with God so far had been to worship Him and live according to his understanding of what God wanted His worshippers to do, as passed down by word of mouth from one generation to the next since Noah. God actually speaking to him was a new thing, and had only happened twice, so far.
Also, God had only appeared to Abram at a time of His choosing. It might have never occurred to Abram that he could ask God for guidance and expect that he would receive supernatural guidance in response.
(c) Free Bible Images, used by permission
It might well be that the anxiety of dealing with the famine–as he watched his flocks and herds and servants and their children slowly starve, as he struggled with the decision about what to do, maybe even questioning his decision to follow God into what now seemed to be a god-forsaken land–that all of this stress and anxiety gave him ‘brain lock,’ where he couldn’t decide what to do, where he couldn’t see a way out from a slow, but certain death, and he was just completely filled with anxiety and fear of losing everyone and everything.
I know I’m reading a lot into what was going on here, but I’m drawing from my life and from seeing similar situations in the lives of others. This situation just cries out as one where Abram should have sought God, day and night, on his knees, on his face, sacrificing from his dwindling flocks–whatever it took–until he reached a place of desperate faith and God broke through his miasma of fear and anxiety to reassure him of being protected and also telling him what to do next.
God made the promise to do this for the nation of Israel in Isaiah 41:10. Someone cleverly showed how the foundationsl idea of this promise is F.A.I.T.H:
We as Christians have a similar promise:
3. If Abram had sought God’s will, and going to Egypt was still the plan, the difference would have been that Abram and Sarai would have gone there trusting in God to take care of them. The third test, ‘Pharoah taking Sarai as his wife,’ might have been handled differently. Going with faith/trust in God, there would have been less fear. Granted, it was still a scary situation–two simple shepherds going to the seat of a highly sophisticated civilization–but it would have been easier to cope with that fear knowing your actions were being supported by your God.
(c) Free Bible Images, used by permission
So, instead of going to Egypt in faith and confidence in God, Abram went there in fear for his life because of the beauty of his wife. There is a phrase in Abram’s justification of his strategy of deceit where he said, “Say you are my sister… that my life may be spared for your sake.” Maybe Abram was still wrapped up in the fear he had just experienced facing possible death from the famine?
God had promised to give Canaan to Abram’s descendents. So far Abram and Sarai did not have even one child. If Abram was really understanding and trusting in God’s promise, then he should have realized that God would preserve his life. One wonders if Abram had thought that implication through? But not having done that, one failed test led to another test of faith.
Not to imply that God was just throwing one test of faith at Abram and Sarai after another. The tests will still come in life, no Divine source needed. That’s the fallen world we live in.
The difference is, in my opinion, that if we successfully negotiate one trial, that should put us in a better place in our faith to successfully negotiate the next one.
The opposite is true too, I think. When we’ve been unsuccessful in dealing with one trial, then it will be all that much harder to trust God in the next one. 1 Corinthians 10:13 is a key verse about dealing with trials. Following afterward is my paraphrase of it.**
**In the advanced Bible study class I took many years ago, we were taught to paraphrase a verse or passage at the end of our study of it as a way of showing our understanding of it. Here’s mine for this verse:
Every trial and difficulty that comes your way is the same thing that everyone else goes through. But YOU CAN TRUST GOD! God will NEVER allow you to be tested beyond what you can handle. Along with the difficulty, God will make a path through it. If you’ll just trust and follow Him, you can be confident that you will be able to hang in there and make it through to the end.
In Abram and Sarai’s case, God didn’t forget His promise. One phrase of God’s promise was, “…he who dishonors you, I will curse.” And that is what we saw Him do in Egypt. Pharoah dishonored Abram by taking his wife to be his own, even though Abram and Sarai had lied about their relationship, but that didn’t matter to God. God’s actions are not based on our imperfect obedience to His commands. What God has promised, He will fulfill. As He said in Isaiah 55:11
So, Abram failed his third test of faith–he chose the course of fear and deceit, rather than trust in God and in His promise. What about us? Do we remember to ask God for His wisdom and guidance when difficulties arise? Do we trust God will fulfill His promises? As the Bible says:
When we ask, do we then wait for an answer? Waiting for God is mentioned 34 times in the Old Testament. The most famous verse is Isaiah 40:31:
Let’s make sure we grab hold of these promises from God when we find ourselves in anxiety-causing situations in our own lives, follow the pattern–pray, trust, wait, follow. There is a time to wait on God, and there is a time to act in obedience, with faith and confidence in God’s provision of strength, guidance and protection. I’m praying that we can all learn to tell the difference!
THIS WEEK’S SONG:
When I think about Abram and Sarai wandering through an unfamiliar land, looking forward to some future promised by God, I’m reminded of this 19th century folk gospel song. Even though the lyrics actually refer to the Israelites crossing the Jordan River to claim the rest of the land promised by God, I think the plaintive sound well captures how alone Abram and Sarai might have felt sometimes in their life-long wanderings, and how lonely I have sometimes felt in this world too. At least they had each other!
Wayfaring Stranger, performed by the Hayde Bluegrass Orchestra.
Lyrics
I’m just a poor wayfaring stranger, Traveling through this world alone. Yet there’s no sickness, no toil, no danger, In that bright land to which I go. I’m going there to see my father, I’m going there no more to roam.
I’m only going over Jordan, I’m only going over home.
I know dark clouds will gather ’round me, I know my way is rough and steep; Yet beauteous fields rise up before me, Where God’s redeemed, their vigils keep. I’m going there to see my mother, She said she’d meet me when I come.
I’m only going over Jordan I’m only going over home.
There is a lot going on in Chapter 24 with a lot of people. We see Abraham, the concerned father, making sure an appropriate, believing wife is found for his son, Isaac. We see Isaac in action for the first time since Abraham tried to sacrifice him. We see Abraham’s Chief Steward assigned the task of traveling back to Abraham’s kinsmen to find that wife. We see the young kinswoman Rebekah and her father Laban as they negotiate the marriage arrangements. And at the end we see Isaac and Rebekah meet and marry. A happy ending for the chapter.
1. Notes on Biblical interpretation:
In the 3rd century, Church theologian Origen formulated the principle of the three senses of Scripture (literal, moral, and spiritual) based on the Jewish method of interpreting their Scriptures (our Old Testament) taught in a Jewish school of thought in Alexandria, Egypt.
Origen based his ideas for interpretation on Paul’s approach to interpreting the Old Testament in Galatians 4:21 to 31 in which Paul compares Abraham’s son Isaac as representing Christians.
The three methods of Biblical interpretation are defined as:
• Literal (Grammatical-Historical): This approach focuses on the plain, straightforward meaning of the text, considers the original language, the historical context, and intended audience. It seeks to understand what the text literally says and meant in its original setting.
• Allegorical: This method interprets the text as having a deeper, symbolic meaning beyond the literal. It often sees people, places, and events in the Old Testament as foreshadowing or representing spiritual truths in the New Testament. For example, in 1 Corinthians 10:2, the crossing of the Red Sea is seen by Paul as a symbol of Christian baptism.
• Moral Principles: This approach focuses on the ethical principles that can be derived from the text. It seeks to understand how the text can inform and guide our godly behavior and choices as Christians.
(Note that later Christian theologians added a fourth and then a fifth way to view and interpret the Bible. I find those approaches so ethereal and esoteric that my concrete-thinking brain has problems following them. That is why I just stick to the original three.)
William Dyce’s oil painting of Eliezer (1860).
Eliezer of Damascus, Abraham’s chief steward and presumptive heir before Isaac was born, is the key figure in Genesis 24, so I’m going to focus on His words and actions and in the Application section pull out some principles we can follow as stewards of the grace of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ.
A. The charge:
Scripture: Now Abraham was old, well advanced in years. And the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things.
Depiction of Abraham leaving Nahor with his family, servants, livestock and possessions.
Commentary: Abraham wasn’t sure how much longer he would live and he wanted to ensure the succession of his household and belongings to his son and heir, Isaac. Earlier in Genesis, Abraham is described as being rich in livestock, after all, he was a herdsman/shepherd, as well as rich in gold and silver. An extra-Biblical source states that Abraham owned 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys, plus an unspecified number of goats, and male and female servants.
Scripture: One day Abraham called his chief steward, the servant who had been with him the longest, and said “Swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and earth, that you will NOT take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell, but will go instead to my country and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son Isaac.
Commentary: Abraham wanted a wife for his son who would share the same godly values that he had grown up with back home, and who shared faith in the same God, as well as one suited to rule the women’s side of the extensive household well.Scripture: The servant said to Abraham, “What if the woman is not willing to follow me back to this land? Should I then take your son back to the land from which you came?” Commentary: Eliezer is addressing a realistic concern and asking Abraham for additional guidance in case it happens.
God had promised Abraham that he would have many, many descendants. (c) Free Bible Images, used by permission.
Scripture: Abraham said to him, “DO NOT take my son back there. The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my kindred, and who spoke to me and swore to me, “To your descendents I will give this land,” HE will send His angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there. But if by chance the woman is not willing to follow you back here, then you will be freed from this oath. Only you MUST NOT take my son back there.
Commentary: Note how Abraham falls back on two things to guide his response to his servant’s concern:
1) First, what God had done on the past in taking Abraham from his ancestral home and leading him to this far country.
2) Second, God’s promise to him to give all the land where he now lived to his descendents.
3) Abraham concluded that what God had done with him was meant to continue down through his descendents, meaning, Isaac was supposed to get married, have more descendents, and continue living in the Promised Land.
Also, Abraham had previous experience with God sending angels to carry out His will. It might seem presumptive for him to speak on God’s behalf, but I think it was more of a case of a man of faith in God, and experience with God, knowing how he could trust God to act in carrying out His promises.
Renaissance painting of Eliezer swearing to Abraham.
Scripture: So the servant swore to his master, Abraham, to take on this commission. Then the servant took ten of his master’s camels and departed, taking all sorts of choice gifts from his master; and he departed and traveled to the city of Nahor in Mesopotamia.
Nahor was located in Paddan-Aram in northern Mesopotamia, near the city of Haran.
B. There is a lot glossed over in this last statement. Nahor, where Abraham’s kinsmen lived, was at the top of the arc around the Fertile Crescent (area in green on the map), which would have been a journey of about 550 miles, following the trade routes traveled by caravans. The Fertile Crescent was an area where there was enough rainfall for plants to grow, and therefore to support farming, orchards and grazing. There would be both forage and water for the animals along the way, as well as towns and cities where supplies could be bought.
A modern camel train in the Middle East.
A camel caravan travels between 20 and 25 miles per day. For the distance to Nahor, it would have taken between 22 and 27 days, assuming no extended stops for rest and resupply. So we can say almost a month as an approximate figure for the trip, then the time there negotiating the bride price, and then another month back.
Remember, there was no way to communicate across distance in those days. The reason Abraham chose his most trusted lieutenant to represent him, gave detailed instructions, but kept it simple, was that he was empowering Eliezer to represent him in this very delicate negotiation and trusted his judgment to act as he would have. Essentially, Abraham would be obligated to accept whoever Eliezer brought back with him for his son’s wife.
As we’ll see in the second half of Chapter 24, Abraham chose his representative well.
Camel caravan crossing the Arabian Desert.
C. So, what might have been the composition of the 10-camel caravan led by Eliezer? The chief steward himself would have served as the caravan master and ride one camel. He already had the experience of traveling south from Damascus with Abraham and things in those days didn’t change so much that his experience on the trail would have been out of date.
Just a note about the terrain they traveled over in their journey. The photos I pulled of modern camel caravans in the Middle East all show desert scenes. The trade route used in the Fertile Crescent most assuredly was NOT desert. So, why the camels?
Live action recreation of Joseph and Mary entering Bethlehem.
The only other beast of burden available in those days were donkeys. They were more often used to carry smaller loads of supplies and goods, rather than being ridden, except for short trips, although women and children could ride them, such as a pregnant Mary riding one from Nazareth to Bethlehem, or an injured person could be placed on one, as in the Parable of the Good Samaritan.
A riding camel can typically carry 200 to 300 pounds, so that means the men could ride during the journey and not be worn out from walking. Also each man could carry some water and supplies on their camel, at least enough for the day. The rest of the weight was accounted for by the saddle and woolen saddle blankets.
South end of a northbound baggage camel.
They would have needed at least two baggage camels to carry the provisions and extra water, the gold and silver gifts, and possibly a tent for bad weather and for the women to sleep in on the way back. Baggage camels tended to be bigger than riding camels with corresponding larger carrying capacity around 300 to 400 pounds.
Cameleer leading a camel at a desert safari camel ride festival.
There would have been at least two camel handlers, or ‘cameleers,’ who would have ridden a camel and led a cargo camel each, along with a spare riding camel for the young woman and her maid to ride back on. Their luggage would fit into the area vacated by the gifts given to her family for the bride price.
Drawing from the 1800’s of armed men escorting a baggage camel.
There would have been at least two guards against bandits, although all of the men in the caravan would have been able to fight. The most common weapon for fighting from camelback was a long stabbing spear.
End of the trail for today.
And there were probably a couple of servants who would set up camp each night, prepare the meal, and then break camp in the morning. Division of labor would have the camel handlers seeing to the animals, and the guards patrolling the perimeter of the camp, alert for danger, all under the watchful eyes of the caravan master.
In short, the 10-camel caravan was not so small that it would have been considered easy pickings, having 7 men, with 2 of them dedicated guards, nor would it have been so large that it was difficult to manage on a long journey, or appear threatening to a town or city along the way. It was selected perfectly to meet the needs of the journey as would be expected from an experienced chief steward of that time.
D. APPLICATION:
So, what did we learn about Eliezer? We learned he was from Damascus and was probably hired by Abraham as he passed through on his way from Nahor to the land God was leading him to. He was probably hired as a promising young steward to help Abraham manage his embarrassing increases in livestock and the employees needed to tend them. Here are some of the qualities we can see or infer:
1. Eliezer probably worked hard, as well as smart, to distinguish himself enough to be promoted eventually to chief steward, and he had qualities that resulted in longevity as he is described as Abraham’s oldest servant.
2. Eliezer also demonstrated exceptional loyalty. In the text, he refers to Abraham and his belongings as ‘his master’ or “his master’s’ several times.
3. By being chosen to handle this important task, we see that Abraham trusted his judgment.
4. And we can infer from the efficiency of the 10-camel train for a month’s travel that Eliezer was very competent and efficient, and probably had leadership qualities in order to lead this caravan.
E. These are all qualities we need in order to be faithful stewards of the grace and gospel that God has entrusted to us as Christians. Try doing this self assessment on these qualities.
1.a. Do I work not just hard, but smart, in order to improve my utility as God’s servant?
1.b. Am I committed to serving God for the ‘long haul’ and have I organized my life to facilitate that?
2. Am I implicitly loyal to God and Jesus as my Lord, acknowledging Him as my Master, and realizing everything I have belongs to Him?
3. Have I filled my life and mind with God’s Word so that I exhibit sound, godly judgment in all my decisions?
4.a. Am I constantly improving my skills so that I can be more effective and efficient in my service to God and to Jesus Christ?
4.b. Do I step out and lead in obedience when I am assigned to or put in charge of a task?
Quite an intimidating list, huh? And there is even more in the second half of Chapter 24.
This week I want to leave you with a secular song that I think of whenever I think of a long journey. As a young Christian in the 60’s, there weren’t any contemporary Christian songs yet, so I was drawn to contemporary secular songs that contained references to God or expressed Christian values.
He Ain’t Heavy, He’s my Brother by the Hollies was one of my favorites. I hope that you will enjoy the worshipful sound and message of commitment to helping our brothers along the way as much as I do.
Genesis chapter 15. After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision:“Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.”
But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”
Then the word of the Lord came to him again: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”
Then Abram believed in the Lord and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.
Genesis chapter 17. When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.”
Abram fell facedown in worship, and God said to him, “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram (High Father), but your name will now be Abraham (Father of a Multitude), for I have made you a father of many nations.
“I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendents after you.”
God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai, your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai (Barren One), her name will be Sarah (Princess). I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”
Abraham laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?” Then God said, “Yes, your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac (Laughter). I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.”
Genesis chapter 18. Now the Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day. And when he looked up, he saw three men standing there, and when he saw them, he bowed low to the ground in worship…
After a meal, they asked him “Where is your wife, Sarah?”
“There, in the tent,” Abraham said.
Then one of the men said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.”
Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?” Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”
Genesis chapter 21. Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah, as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.” And she added, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”
Abraham’s head jerked up at the unexpected sound. Isaac leaned back at the sudden movement, rubbing the tears from his eyes and started to ask a question “What…?” Abraham’s hand snapped up in the command for silence as he continued to scan the landscape for potential dangers.
Rustle, rustle…
Both men’s heads turned to look down the mountainside where the sound had come from. A rustle in the bushes could just be a mountain goat foraging for tasty new growth, or it could be a mountain lion looking to feast on a tasty goat. Bears also denned in caves in the mountains.
Rustle, rustle, rustle…
This time the men saw the branches of one of the bushes move in time to the sound. Abraham reached down and picked up his discarded knife without taking his eyes from the suspect bush. He motioned Isaac to go to the left while he began his stalk to the right. Isaac absently removed the loop of the strap still snugged around his wrist and tucked it into his sash in unconscious imitation of his father. He then picked up a fist-sized rock which he could throw with such force and accuracy to discourage many beasts.
Rustle, rustle, rustle, rustle…
The motion had become more violent as they approached the sides of the shaking bush, their hearts thumping just as hard, but what they saw was totally unexpected.
Baaa…, the sheep sounded as he saw them, clearly asking for help from them. Abraham nervously scanned the landscape to see if there was a response to the sound, but seeing nothing, he sheathed his knife and stared at the scene before him. What he saw was not unusual–a young ram not yet used to their newly grown horns, foraging for tender shoots in a bush, as they were used to doing, but then their new horns catching on the limbs as they backed out.
It was also not unusual to see a young ram apart from a flock. Sometimes when the young rams began to feel the first strength of their adulthood and acted too aggressively toward the other rams, and would not submit to the lead ram, they would often be driven away from the flock. The situation was not unusual to the shepherds, but the location was. Sheep were creatures of the plains and meadows. It was not natural that a lone ram would be this far up a mountain.
Suddenly, Abraham straightened and his eyes grew wide. Isaac saw the sudden motion and, after a moment’s thought, his eyes grew wide too, remembering his father’s words on the path up, “The Lord will provide the young sheep for the sacrifice.”
Abraham shook his head to clear the thought and returned to the practical. He motioned Isaac to the rear of the sheep and the young shepherd knew what was needed. He took the strap from his sash, looked down to check the slip knot and suddenly was reminded that just a few minutes ago, it had bound his own hands as a sacrifice. He bound the sheep’s hind legs and then held the animal still while his father bound the front legs. Then Isaac lifted him while Abraham untangled the horns from the limbs. Feeling itself free, the ram tried to get to his feet and run away, but only fell to its side.
Abraham left the foolish sheep to kick and buck until it gave up while he studied the size of the ram and the steepness of the slope–it would take both of them to carry the ram up. As the ram finally lay still, breathing heavily from its exertions, Abraham motioned his son beside him and with a practiced motion they lifted the heavy ram over their heads and settled it on their shoulders, Abraham taking the heavier head end. Putting their arms around each other for stability and holding the ram’s bound feet with their other, arm in arm and step by step, the two men carried the sacrificial sheep up the steep slope to the altar waiting above.
The old man raised his knife high and prepared to thrust it through his struggling son’s chest…
“ABRAHAM, ABRAHAM!”
The voice of God blasted across the mountain top like a windstorm, kicking up sand and debris, and staggering Abraham back from the altar. His hand dropped to his side and the knife fell from his nerveless fingers. Then it was like his joints failed him as he dropped to his knees and then prostrate on his face before his God. He was barely able to choke out a reply past the lump in his throat, “I am here.”
Then God continued, “DO NOT LAY A HAND ON THE BOY AND DO NOTHING TO HARM HIM; FOR NOW I KNOW THAT YOU REVERE GOD, SINCE YOU HAVE NOT WITHHELD YOUR SON, YOUR ONLY SON, FROM ME.”
Abraham lay there a moment longer after sensing the Presence had departed, then he shakily rose to his hands and knees and looked up at Isaac on the altar. The boy was staring up in the direction the voice of God had come from with a look of wonder. He had heard God too!
Getting to his feet, Abraham stumbled over to his son and undid the strap around his feet that he had just tied there, absently tucking it into his sash. Isaac swung around to sit and lifted his bound hands to his father. Abraham still couldn’t meet his son’s eyes as he undid the strap a little, then stepped back to allow Isaac to remove the strap the rest of the way on his own.
Isaac stepped up to his father, reached down and took his hands. Abraham slowly looked up, hoping to see understanding and forgiveness in his son’s eyes. When their eyes met, he saw that, and more.
What Abraham saw was something he had seen many times in the eyes of youth when they were allowed to accompany the flocks for the first time on their summer trek around the great valley and into the mountain meadows. He had seen this look in the eyes of the young shepherds after they had been attacked by a predator going after a tasty sheep and fought it off, or when they climbed down into a ravine to recover a fallen sheep and slipped with only the rope tied under their arms preventing their own plunge to the bottom, or when one jumped into a swollen mountain stream to recover a sheep that had fallen in and then almost drowned themselves, the look they all had afterward when they had faced their own mortality and realized they had dealt with it. What Abraham saw was a man looking back at him from his son’s eyes.
It wasn’t clear who moved first, but the two men met in a fierce embrace. They had almost lost each other! The beloved son, the beloved father… Only the shaking of their shoulders betraying their silent sobs, not even the emotion of the moment causing them to break the discipline of silence when alone out in the wilderness.
While the youth brought over one last rock for the altar, the wood already being laid out on it, the old man secretly tied slip knots in the ends of the two straps that had held the bundle together. After the youth carefully place the rock and looked toward his father for approval, the old man quickly grabbed his hand and slipped the loop around his wrist.
The boy didn’t quite know what his father was doing as he grabbed the other hand and wrapped the band around both of them.The youth was staring at his bound hands in puzzlement when the old man pushed him onto the wood piled on the altar and slipped the other loop around one of his son’s ankles, quickly wrapping the strap around both ankles and tying it off, then swinging the boy around to lay full length on the altar. Now the youth looked toward his father in puzzlement, the questions in his eyes, but as yet unasked. So far he had not struggled against his father’s unexpected actions, but when he saw the old man draw his knife from the sheath, understanding began to dawn on him and then the struggle against his bonds began.
The old man was not able to stand the look of hurt and betrayal in his son’s eyes. He placed his hand over them so he would not see what was coming and also to hold him still. With tears blurring his vision and running down his cheeks, he looked at his son’s chest to pick out the best spot to kill him quickly and not make him suffer. Steeling himself, holding his struggling son still with one arm, he slowly raised the knife and raised himself on his toes to generate the maximum power when he plunged the knife into his son’s beating heart, just as his God had asked him to do.
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