Genesis 22

Today we have one of the more memorably passages from the book of Genesis - God's command to Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, his son through whom God had promised to make a great nation. It took a lot of faith on Abraham's part to believe God's promise in the first place, but to now throw it away would be almost unthinkable. Now that I am a father myself I can better understand what God was asking of Abraham here, and it would be very tough to follow through with.

Thank goodness it was just a test, though! God knew what He was doing, of course, and all that was necessary was for Abraham to show that he had faith enough to act on such a seemingly impossible request. Bravo sir, well done!

Genesis 21

The reading today covers the birth of Issac, through whom God's promises to Abraham are to be carried out. It is rather funny that Sarah laughed again at his birth, but this time it seems to be a laugh of happiness and joy rather than of disbelief. Unfortunately for Hagar and Ishmael, though, Sarah's dislike of them rears its head again - and they are exiled.

The later section of Genesis 21 describes what seems to be a territory dispute between Abraham and the people in whose land he and his family were staying, and then a treaty between them. It shows once more that Abraham likes being a peacemaker, I think, and it explains the name of one of the locations that will be mentioned again later in the Bible (Beersheba). Beyond that, though, I am unaware of any significance to this event.

Genesis 20

So, it seems that Abraham has a habit of hiding the identity of his wife everywhere he goes. This time around it nearly brings destruction on a king and his family, but the crisis is averted through obedience to God (on the part of the king) and Abraham coming clean in the end. Apparently, though, Sarah really is blood-related to Abraham: his half sister, to be precise. Ew!

Oddly, Sarah is also 90 years old here (based on the previous chapters). It is somewhat surprising that a king would want to take such an old lady to be his wife. She must have been a real looker ;)

Genesis 19

Wow - there is a lot that could be said about this passage. It is one of the most disturbing chapters I know of, on several levels. It deals with attempted rape, homosexuality, incest, and extremely destructive judgement. If I had the time I could write pages on all of this, but for now I'll just list off a few of the oddest and most surprising (and disgusting) things I noticed.

- Lot lives with the people of Sodom, which he selected because of the nice land quality in that region (earlier in Genesis). Here he appears to actually live in the city, though he apparently does not participate in or condone the activity that the others there take part in. I guess the old adage of "location, location, location" is not strictly true: your neighbors and their moral compass (or lack thereof) should also be taken into consideration!

- The passage says that all the men of the city came to try to rape the angelic messengers, so it makes me wonder if the men engaged to marry Lot's daughters were also there. If so, did they not speak out when Lot offered his daughters to satiate the crowd? Did they care? They certainly didn't heed the warning that Lot gave them to leave, which leads to the next observation...

- Lot's daughters were planning to marry before Sodom was destroyed. They don't seem to have had kids yet, which likely means that they weren't simply sleeping around as appears to have been the norm in the area they lived. That speaks well for Lot and his parenting, but I guess he hadn't mentioned that incest was a bad idea - left to their own devices the girls didn't say "lets go find new husbands", but instead got their dad drunk and raped him (effectively). That seems to be the opposite of many abusive family relationships these days, and seems just plain weird... and wrong! I wonder how much wine it took to get Lot so far drunk that he didn't even know they were taking advantage of him. I'm also curious what the conversation looked like nine months later when his daughters gave birth, and Lot thought back to the three of them being alone in the mountains :/

- Lot's wife looking back on the destruction - and so bringing judgement on herself - and the actions of the daughters later on seem to be very influenced by the culture of Sodom that they lived in. I wonder if the wife was actually from that area, and married Lot after his arrival in the area. That would explain the resulting tragedies a bit more, if they felt that they were loosing the only home they had known (whereas Lot was still considered a foreigner).

Genesis 18

The passage I read today is split into two sections, but the two are tied together by the appearance of three men - one of whom is clearly identified (mid-way through the passage, in verse 13) as the Lord - to Abraham. At first they talk with Abraham about the covenant God has with him, making a very personal impression on him as well as his wife, Sarah. She also tries to sneak in a lie, but God calls her on it. We've all lied at some point, and though many of us have been caught at some point or another it usually isn't in quite such a dramatic and straight-to-the-point way. Plus it generally isn't the God of all the universe doing the (very literal) rebuke. Ouch!

The second half of this chapter deals with the Lord's investigation of Sodom and Gomorrah for the evil deeds that He has heard they've committed. It is rather interesting that God is taking the time here to physically check out a situation when He certainly knows exactly what has and has not happened everywhere; given the way that He broaches the topic I suspect it was done just so that a dialog is opened with Abraham on the subject. Abraham pleads with God for Him to spare Sodom (but maybe not Gomorrah?), arguing that if there are some godly people living there it would not be 'right' to kill them along with the wicked. I presume this is Abraham trying to save the life of his nephew, Lot, who went to live near Sodom - but if so he falls short. I wonder why Abraham left the discussion standing at the presence of 10 godly people being enough to spare Sodom; did he think there were that many living there? Was he afraid to narrow all the way down to the one he did know was there (Lot)? Hmm...

This chapter in:
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Genesis 17

This chapter is full of the beautiful promises God made to Abram, as part of His covenant, along with the change of name for Abram and his wife Sarai - to Abraham and Sarah respectively. I imagine it must have been hard to get used to a new name, similar though it may be, at age 100 (or 90, for Sarai/h). Of course getting yourself circumcised, along with all of the male members of your household, would be even harder to do! My wife and I are about to have our new son circumcised, probably tomorrow, and while I'm sure it will hurt him a bit at least it will not be a memory when he grows up. Kudos to Abraham for his faith and follow through!

In this passage we also see that Ishmael is not included in the main covenant between God and Abraham. Sorry Arabs, but this means that the Israelites are the ones who have rights to the Promised Land.

This chapter in:
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Genesis 16

Ah, the account of Ishmael - ancestor to the Islamic peoples. This whole incident is rather unfortunate, as it caused strife in Abram's household that has haunted the world even to this day. The pronouncement that Ishmael's "hand will be against everyone, And everyone's hand will be against him" (NAS) is a foreshadowing of, and explanation for, the events we have dealt with even in the last few years. I'm sure that subject could have a whole blog - or many! - dedicated to it, but I think I'll just leave it there.

One interesting side note about this incident is that Sarai was the person who came up with the idea for Abram to sleep with her maidservant, but then as soon as it goes south (and come on, who couldn't see that coming?) she blames Abram. This sounds an awful lot like Adam and Eve, where they both try to shift blame right away. I suppose that is human (sinful) nature, huh?

This chapter in:
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