I’ve wondered for some time (chapters, really) about my long-held belief that Genesis followed the lonely thread of solitary believers moving toward the foundation of Israel. But here Abraham’s servant prays to God in an apparently faithful manner, then finds Abraham’s extended family also praising God. Factoring in Melchizedek, I am beginning to read this book more as a story of God and those he particularly bestowed grace upon. Perhaps there were a multitude of other believers, or perhaps they were few, but God bestowed his favor upon Abraham and Isaac and Noah and Adam.

Abraham’s servant prayed for that grace and received it in the speedy acquaintance with Rebekah. It was evident from the pace he moved with her family that he was ready to return, and I wonder what Rebekah was thinking when she echoed his eagerness to head to Isaac. Perhaps it was just the natural desire to begin the next chapter of life when you see life moving forward.

This chapter took nearly two hours to write. It’s the first time I’ve crossed the threshold of 10% of my waking day in writing the word by hand.

Thoughts on chapter 24?

“Prince of God”—pretty sweet designation. I think “prince” is so apt in Abraham’s story, because if there’s anything reinforced it’s that Abraham’s righteousness and status with God are given, not earned.
While he seems to often to lack in some of the more basic tenets of morality, he’s always had a savvy head on his shoulders. I appreciate his pragmatic bent in ensuring the purchase of the grave takes place in front of the whole Hittite council, and that he paid in full. I think he ensured the land would stay his by appealing to their system of commerce and law.

I’ve heard this story so many times, but I’ve never considered that when Isaac asked Abraham where the sacrifice was, Abraham was actually right. He said God would provide a sheep and God did. I don’t know if he was expecting God to stay his hand the whole time, or misleading Isaac only to see God prove Abraham correct. But to Isaac that must have been enormous. Tied on the wood, his father wielding a knife with the apparent intent to kill and suddenly that sheep Abraham mentioned earlier appeared.

Other thoughts on Genesis 22?

Abraham is nearly the thickest man in history. Or the weakest. After prostituting his wife, then Sarai, to the pharaoh of Egypt he profited his purse greatly though you could reasonably argue that Lot’s misfortune was a direct result of Abraham’s sin. But here he is again willing to sell his wife for some security.
I was angry just reading that. Abimelech was apparently angry about this as well.
This exchange is so telling:

Abimelech went on to Abraham, “Whatever were you thinking of when you did this thing?”

Abraham said, “I just assumed that there was no fear of God in this place and that they’d kill me to get my wife. Besides, the truth is that she is my half sister; she’s my father’s daughter but not my mother’s. When God sent me out as a wanderer from my father’s home, I told her, ‘Do me a favor; wherever we go, tell people that I’m your brother.’”

Abraham answers the question very simply, but I’m not sure he really answered Abimelech at all. In fact, I wonder if this is really a rhetorical question, because there’s really no satisfactory answer.

Abimelech’s servants were shocked, and I continue to be confounded by Abraham.

God’s traveling companions from chapter 18, two angels, continued to Sodom to meet Lot. Like Abraham, Lot recognizes them as something more than human. But apparently so did some of the residents of the city, who bear down on Lot’s home. Was it an act of intended dominance? Intrigue? Regardless, that sealed the fate of the city. After Lot offered his daughters to the crowd of men (they were rejected) the angels struck the offending men blind and told Lot to pack his bags.
The angels gave Lot a few hours and he tried to rescue his daughters’ fiancées. Why in the world did they treat his pleas as a joke? Then again, I think most Americans would take it as a joke if we heard destruction was imminent. In fact, often when we hear about impending natural disasters we do disregard it, so perhaps the fiancées are very much like us.
I understand Lot’s wife turning into salt for her disobedience. Harsh perhaps, but a time to disregard God’s clear instruction is not in the middle of a time when he’s doling out punishment elsewhere. But I have so many questions about Lot’s daughter’s incest. I wonder if he ever found out: I don’t know the timeline, but I wonder if he chalked up the babies to final flings between his daughters and their fiancées on the eve of Sodom’s destructive. I wonder if Abraham knew, and whether when Lot’s descendants plagued the Israelites they saw their forefather’s failures in their enemies’ spears. But really, I wonder what those girls were thinking. Didn’t God just destroy your city for its wickedness? Didn’t lava just consume everyone you knew? Why would sleeping with your drunk dad seem like a particularly good idea?

Surely Abraham didn’t always respond to visitors as he did to God’s visit, with 2 others. So was this an instance where God’s manifest presence was so obviously extra-human, like in The Man Who Was Thursday, that Abraham knew something was up? Did he know he was God or just someone worth respect?
Any questions of their guest’s divinity must have been settled when Sarah’s internal laughter was called out. It’s interesting that she was rebuked for her doubt, given it was internal. The sin that lives in my mind often gets a free pass, but here Sarah’s nailed for the attitude that she doesn’t even give word to.
Where’s Sarah’s doubt was so silent that only God could have known, Abraham’s opposition to Sodom’s planned destruction could not have been more clear. He physically blocked God from leaving, challenged his reasoning then had the tenacity (or audacity?) to bargain with him for the fate of a city. Given his previously displayed affection for Lot, chasing after his rescue at the expense of foreign armies, I’m not surprised. But then again, he must recognize how fully dependant on God he is for everything he has and open resistance had to have been uncomfortable for the pragmatic wanderer.
He must have walked away sure he’d saved the city when God agreed to spare Sodom and Gomorrah for the sake on only ten faithful. Sadly, even our lowest expectations are often too high.

Three successive late nights have put the commentary and photo uploading behind schedule. We were able to write, but that was it.
Thoughts on 18-20 are forthcoming.

I can’t quite peg Abraham’s laughter. Disbelief or wonder? In either case, the fact that he “recovered” (the message) to check to make sure Ishmael would live tips to Abraham’s general state of piety.

This is the third time God’s spelled out that Abraham would father a nation. Each time the proclamation has come at greater cost though—I imagine Hagar was mortified that Ishmael was Abraham’s promised descendant. I imagine Abraham and Sarah felt a sting of shame that they tried forcing God’s hand earlier. I think recognizes Abraham’s steady struggle with doubt when he tells Abraham when Isaac will be born. My guess is that without that, a few weeks without sign of pregnancy and Abraham wouldn’t been scouring the countryside for other women named Sarah that God must’ve really been talking about.

Thoughts of your own on chapter 17? Comment away.

Abram is promised his children will number as the stars—a big family. No children in the making, so his wife, Sarai, pushed her maid Hagar on Abram and sure enough she gets pregnant. Sarai gets jealous and abuses her until she flees - she returns when an angel comes to her and tells her to a)name her child Ishmael and b)she’ll have a big family.

The chapter ends with Abram naming Hagar’s son Ishmael, so I’m left wondering if Hagar related the whole story of the angel to Abram. If she did, and she told him that she was told the same thing he was—that she would have a “big family”—were Abram and Hagar both thinking the promise God made each of them realized together? Abram’s promises didn’t mention Sarai, and here they already had one child together.
It’s also fascinating that Hagar is told she’d have a big family, but that Ishmael would be at odds with his family. And what was her plea that God heard and responded to? Salvation in the desert? The hope for a child?

Thoughts of your own on chapter 16? Comment away.

When my wife and I talked about this chapter, Jenn was amazed that Abram followed up the verse “and he believed!” with immediate doubt. I have the same feeling about Abram, but at the same time he’s literally facing something as fact defying as a virgin birth. He and his barren wife are supposed to populate a nation and he just can’t see how it’ll happen.
I keep waiting to see a gracious Abram, but maybe I’m demanding too much. I do confess a bit of frustration that he seems spared the punishment that I’m associating with his sometimes-failed faith God promised to Abram’s descendants. Perhaps thought it’s not a punishment; perhaps it’s just the reality of the situation and God’s letting him know in advance.

Thoughts of your own on chapter 15? Comment away.