READ: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+18%3A1-21&version=ESV LISTEN: https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Gen.18.1-Gen.18.21 The Three Visitors 18 And the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. 2 He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth 3 and said, “O Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. 4 Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree, 5 while I bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” 6 And Abraham went quickly into the tent to Sarah and said, “Quick! Three seahs of fine flour! Knead it, and make cakes.” 7 And Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to a young man, who prepared it quickly. 8 Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them. And he stood by them under the tree while they ate. 9 They said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” And he said, “She is in the tent.” 10 The Lord said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. 11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. 12 So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?” 13 The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.” 15 But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. He said, “No, but you did laugh.” 16 Then the men set out from there, and they looked down toward Sodom. And Abraham went with them to set them on their way. 17 The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, 18 seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? 19 For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.” 20 Then the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, 21 I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know.” It appears that this passage comes immediately after the previous passage. God rewed his covenant with Abraham and promised the birth of Isaac and Abraham and all the males in his entire household (including Ishmael) responded in faith to the promise of God's covenant by receiving the sign of the covenant--circumcision.
God now shows up to Abraham's camp along with two angelic visitors, but their identity is hidden so that Abraham does not recognize them. The purpose of God's visit seems to be two-fold. First to make sure that Sarah gets the same message that Abraham got because she too will need to be an active participant in being obedient to God's will regarding the birth of their son Isaac, and also to not hid from Abraham the judgement that was about to be executed on the cities of the Canaanites, specifically Sodom and Gomorrah. The people of the near East were and to this day still are very hospitable people. It is commanded in the Law for the people of God to take care of the sojourners and strangers among them, but this seems to have already been their regular practice. If people were travelling a great distance and they saw someone else's camp or a city in the area, they could approach and ask for food, water and shelter for the evening and those living in the camp or in the city would gladly take care of them in the same way that they would wish to be taken care of and often the visitors would be given provisions for their journey before they left. This is the situation in the first part of the passage. Abraham sees that they have visitors and doesn't recognize them, but immediately shows them respect (bowing before them and calling them "lord") because you always show respect to your guests--you never know who might be visiting. He offers them water to wash their feet--a great honor in this culture--and shade under the oak tree where he lived which was also something in short supply in the desert area where he lived. He also offered them what he seems to refer to as a small meal, but we'll see soon that this is a little bit of an understatement (again, he seems to give them the "royal treatment," because you never know who might be visiting you). The visitors agreed to the hospitality offered by Abraham and Abraham ran to Sarah and told her to make a small cake for each of their visitors, and Abraham gave a young calf to one of his servants to prepare some veal for the visitors and he served them some curds and milk as well. While were not specifically told this, it appears that the visitors (even God) were able to eat and drink, and rest. It was then time to get down to business and the visitors asked "Where is your wife, Sarah?" If Abraham had not already had questions about who these visitors were, he certainly would at this point. They knew his wife's name and wanted to know where she was? Abraham said that she was in the tent, which happened to not be that far away because we'll read in a second that Sarah could hear everything that was being said. God then makes sure to repeat the promise that He had given to Abraham regarding the birth of Isaac in the presence of Sarah. He promises that He will return to them again in one year's time and by then their son Isaac would be born. Sarah had much the same reaction that Abraham had in laughing at the suggestion that old people like her and her husband would have any kind of chance at having a baby at their age, and at the idea of her being able to enjoy having a child in her old age when she was worn out. Essentially saying to herself, "We're too old to be keeping up with a little one running around the camp," and she had some idea what she was talking about because I'm sure she had seen and partially participated in the raising of Ishmael who just turned 13. God stops and asks Abraham why Sarah laughed and then a rhetorical question that we talked about yesterday--"Is anything too hard for the Lord?" If they hadn't recognized the identity of the visitors by now, I believe they did at this point. Sarah had been quiet with her laughter possibly only laughing to herself--maybe not even out loud. She was embarrassed and lied about it, but God said, "No, but you did laugh." There is no hiding our doubts and fears from God, even the ones that we only express by laughing and being amused at what God says He is going to do that looks and sounds impossible to us. We'll see this same kind of scene play out several times in the gospels where Jesus will tell someone what they are thinking or feeling and they will respond at a minimum with, "Sir, I perceive you are a prophet," or even to the point of recognizing Him as God in the flesh. The mood of the passage then changes quickly. No longer are we focused on what is going to happen inside the camp, but it seems that Abraham offers to walk with the visitors as they are on their way out--a "let me see you on your way" kind of thing. The two angelic visitors are sent on their way and God decides to reveal His plans to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah to Abraham. God once again repeats the Abrahamic covenant in front of Abraham to remind him of who he is in God's eyes. Got then says something very interesting about Him hearing the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah and even though He has seen their wickedness He is going to go down and see it for Himself and that He will know whether they are innocent or guilty. The last time we saw language like this was in Genesis 10 at the Tower of Babel. Abraham realizes that judgement is coming and that his nephew Lot and his family are in danger of being caught up in the Lord's judgment. We'll see next time how Abraham pleads for the righteous, but it seems apparent by the number that he settles on that he is pleading for his nephew and his family. We will also see that although Abraham and God go through this entire scene of Abraham acting as defense attorney and pleading for the cities, God's mind was never changed as the angels that were to rescue Lot and his family had already been sent on ahead before God ever told Abraham what He was going to do. In the same way we'll talk about how prayer does not change God, but will change us, and in this case Abraham will need to come to the conclusion that God will not sweep up the righteous with His judgement against the wicked.
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READ: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2017%3A15-27&version=ESV LISTEN: https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Gen.17.15-Gen.17.27 Isaac's Birth Promised 15 And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. 16 I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” 17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” 18 And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” 19 God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. 20 As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation. 21 But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.” 22 When he had finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham. 23 Then Abraham took Ishmael his son and all those born in his house or bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, as God had said to him. 24 Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 25 And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 26 That very day Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised. 27 And all the men of his house, those born in the house and those bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him. Last time we focused on God's message to Abram about His covenant promise to Him the sign of circumcision that was given and the change of identity for Abram to Abraham. Now God has a message for Sarai. Her name will now be changed too to Sarah. God promises to bless her and she would be the mother of great nations and kings.
We get after Sarah for laughing when she hears this news, but Abraham was right there and he also laughed. Abraham takes note that both he and his wife are old. While having children at these ages was no problem in the first few chapters of Genesis, sin has taken its toll on the human body and both Abram and Sarah would understand that they are well beyond their child-bearing years, but Abraham forgot that God has been a miracle worker from the beginning. Again, Abraham tries to talk his way out of the situation by coming up with a Plan B for God. He asks God why Ishmael can't just be his heir and walk before God in God's blessing and be the recipient of God's covenant. God would confront this issue head-on the next time it arises in chapter 18 and ask, "Is anything too hard for the LORD?" (Genesis 18:14) and God will have to repeat this question to His people through the prophet Jeremiah later in Jeremiah 32:27, "“Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?" God says clearly that Abraham and Sarah will have a son and they will name him Isaac which means "laughter," since both Abraham will laugh at the news of his birth. God is clear that the covenant promises will pass to Isaac and not to Ishmael, but that God heard Abraham's request for Ishmael to be blesses and would also give him great lands and great people. He would father twelve princes and be the father of a great nation (think of it in the same way as how Jacob would have 12 sons that would each lead a tribe but all the tribes were united as a single nation of Israel. God would do something similar for Ishmael.) God then reaffirms that His covenant will pass to Isaac and his descendants and that Sarah will herself bear Isaac and that by this time next year he would be born to them. Abraham immediately obeyed the command that he had been given by God to circumcise all the males in his family, and there is special mention by the author of Genesis that Ishmael was among those that were circumcised. Remember that all adult males would do this as a vow to follow the Lord faithfully all of their days and to walk in a way that was upright and blameless before Him. This occurred when Abram was 99 years old and Ishmael was 13 years old. And all the males in the household whether born in the house or bought with money from a foreigner were circumcised that same day. We won't see anything like this again until the book of Joshua when the people realize that they have not kept the sign of circumcision while they were slaves in Egypt and all the men are given the choice to be circumcised and walk blamelessly before God or to leave and not inherit the land of promise. The nation of Israel won one of its greatest battles that day even with all of its men in great pain. It was clear that the battle belongs to the LORD that day (and every day). Next time, we'll talk about the three visitors and how they remind Abraham (and tell Sarah) about the birth of Isaac and bring news about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. READ: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+17%3A1-14&version=ESV LISTEN: https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Gen.17.1-Gen.17.14 Abraham and the Covenant of Circumcision 17 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, 2 that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” 3 Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, 4 “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. 5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. 7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. 8 And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.” 9 And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. 10 This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, 13 both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. 14 Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.” When we left Abram at the end of the last chapter, he was 86 years old. He is now 99 years old, making Ishmael thirteen years old (the age that is considered an adult in Jewish tradition). God comes to Abram once again to tell him to be blameless in his walk before God. Let's stop for just a second to discuss the difference between the words "blameless" and" perfect." Only God is perfect and therefore the only perfect man that ever existed is God. We even see this wrapped up in the word "good" which has to do with the essence of the thing you're discussing as Jesus would tell the rich, young ruler that "Only God is good." Jesus would tell his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount to be perfect as their Father in heaven is perfect (an impossible standard which is kind of the point of the Sermon on the Mount). However, we will meet several people in the Bible that are referred to as "blameless" even though we know they are not perfect. This means that no one had anything bad to say about their character or reputation. Sure they were sinners, and God had not forgotten about that, but no one could say a bad thing about them. We are told many times in the Bible (Old Testament and New Testament) to conduct ourselves in such a way that it blameless so as not to bring reproach on the name of God and God's people and so that, like Abram in this passage, we can experience the fullness of God's blessing. God reminds Abram this his desire for him is to fulfill His covenant and to make Abram a great nation. God then changes Abram's name to Abraham and this is how many people know this man, even going so far as to call him "Father Abraham." Again, for the third time in just a few verses God says that He will establish and fulfill His covenant with Abraham and will make cause him to have many descendants and be the father of many nations. Then we again see something that not new to our discussion is stated clearly for the very first time. This covenant is an everlasting covenant between God and the descendants of Abraham. That covenant is to include possession of the land of Canaan and a promise that they would always be God's people and God would never leave them or forsake them, no matter how much they would rebel against Him. It may be helpful to some to think about a marriage covenant with what's coming as some readers may not be familiar with any other type of covenant. While a marriage covenant is between two mortals and only lasts until death separates them from each other in this life, God's covenant is with our eternal part of us (our soul) and will never be broken. The two people getting married exchange vows which is what God is doing here, though we'll see the other side of the vows in what it means to be the people of God later in the book of Deuteronomy. Also, a "sign of the covenant" is usually given in the form of the exchanging of rings (at least in Western culture) to remind themselves of their covenant as needs but also to show others that this person is married and not available. It's this "sign of the covenant" that we're going to talk about next. God gave Abraham an ordinance to circumcise all male children that were born under this covenant on the eighth day or upon their conversion to being followers of Jehovah God if they were older than this. This was not voluntary and was required for all male members of the household whether naturally born, adopted, or purchased out of slavery to be a servant in that man's household. Each man was to have their foreskin circumcised to mark that they belonged to God and to no to no other deity or idol. This covenant was not made with women or animals in the way that it was made with men. From the very beginning God had instituted that men would be the ones responsible for keeping His word and for leading their families and communities. The placement of this sign was of no mistake either because sexual perversion and idolatry usually go hand in hand and it is the male who is active in such roles and needs to be reminded of his identity and that he is under an everlasting covenant with God whereby he is to conduct himself in way that is blameless and upright. This is no slight to women, but if the men in the culture conduct themselves appropriately there will be no demand for fornication, adultery, prostitution, or other "unnatural acts" with children, animals, or adults of the same sex. Anyone who was a male adult that refused to live under this covenant and be marked in this way and agree to walk in a way that was blameless before God and men was a danger to the community and must be cast out. Notice that children would not be held accountable for the obedience of their parents, but the responsibility passes to them as soon as they are adults (13 years of age in Jewish culture). The age of Ishmael is not accidental here in my opinion. God is giving Abraham a choice to continue to raise his son to walk in a way that is blameless before God and men, though we know from the prophecy given by the angel of the Lord that Ishmael is going to be "a wild donkey of a man" that will not walk in a way that is considered upright or blameless. Ishmael is old enough at this point to choose to enter into this covenant or to refuse to enter into the covenant and leave the community. The choice will be his, but we'll see that just because someone wears a wedding ring doesn't mean they act like a married person and just because someone is marked by circumcision on the outside does not mean that they will act like a man of God. We will meet many people (not just Ishmael, though he is the first) that will be marked by circumcision and will still rebel against God. There is no such external sign given to Christians, rather the change is supposed to be internal but still visible to all that see us. We are told that it is our hearts that are to be circumcised and that we to make sure that it is our heart that does not sin against God because all sin originates in the heart that is deceitfully wicked. God had to give us a new heart (we'll see this in the promise of the New Covenant in the book of Jeremiah the prophet) and has told us that "by this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." And we are also told that "by your fruits, you will know them." There are definitely outward signs of the inward change, but there is no tattoo or jewelry or mark that we wear on the outside to remind us and tell other who we are and who we belong to, but our lives should broadcast this loud and clear to all those around us both in our words and our deeds. You don't need to to in the room very long with two married people (or even two people that are dating or engaged) to know that they in a relationship with each other. They look at each other differently than they look at anyone else in the room and they talk differently to each other and about each other. In the same way everyone should see the way we look at God and talk to Him and the way He talks to us and the way we talk about Him to others and know instantly that I am His and He is mine. Genesis 16 English Standard Version (ESV) LISTEN: https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Gen.16 Sarai and Hagar 16 Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. 2 And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. 3 So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. 4 And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. 5 And Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me!” 6 But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your servant is in your power; do to her as you please.” Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her. 7 The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. 8 And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.” 9 The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her.” 10 The angel of the Lord also said to her, “I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.” 11 And the angel of the Lord said to her, “Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has listened to your affliction. 12 He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.” 13 So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.” 14 Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; it lies between Kadesh and Bered. 15 And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram. While we have the benefit of reading chapter 16 immediately after reading chapter 15, let's not mistake this to mean "and then immediately after chapter 15, chapter 16 happened." Abram has not stopped believing God's words, but he seems to have given up hope (at least temporarily) on the most obvious meaning of the words. Both Abram and his wife Sarai have gotten to the point where they are concerned about having children, and Sarai believes that she is the problem (maybe she's unable to have children) and she comes up with the idea of using a surrogate--a method still used sometimes today and that was completely legal and could theoretically even be what God meant, because God only promised that Abram would have a son, but only that Abram would have a son that would be his heir and that Eliezer would not be Abram's heir. God hasn't said yet that this son would be the son of Abram and Sarai.
With that said, today's passage should expose the problem with the rampant philosophy that "God helps those who help themselves." In this case God was working towards a goal that was miraculous and that only He could accomplish. He had orchestrated events to make it obvious that the child of promise would be nothing short of a miracle, and this would bring God all the glory. However, when we try to "help" God we either to so because we don't believe He's powerful enough to accomplish His plan, He's not good enough to want to keep His word to accomplish His plan, He can't remember His promises to us, we've done something to make Him stop loving us so that His promise is not longer valid, or we simply want to "share" in the credit--really meaning we want ourselves to be the focus of the story instead of Him. So, after 10 years of waiting since Abram was called out of Ur of the Chaldeans to the land of Canaan (though a much shorter time since the promise of Genesis 15), Abram takes Hagar, the Egyptian servant of Sarai as his wife and she bears him a son named Ishmael. This brought division between Sarai and Hagar because Sarai was jealous and Hagar seemed to take opportunity to flaunt the fact that she could bear children to Abram and Sarai could not, and even if it wasn't intentional it was something Sarai had to deal with day after day as she felt inadequate every time that she saw Hagar and her pregnancy, and Sarai chose to mistreat Hagar and Abram chose to let Sarai do so. We see a lot of parallels here to what happened in the Garden of Eden. First we see doubt about God's words and God's plan. Then we see a role reversal where the woman who has not received the covenant from God falls into temptation to make her own way and brings her husband along with her. This is not me being misogynistic, nor am I blaming Eve or Sarai--in both cases the man was right there with them and was held responsible and was an active participant. The sin then created a rift between the two of them as we see in the curse in Genesis that the woman's desire would from now on be to be in charge and rule over her husband--this idea of role reversal would not go away, and it created jealousy and resentment of God's blessing in the life of others just like we see with Cain and Abel. Thankfully God intervened before Sarai's jealously led to murder like it did with Cain. The angel of the Lord (that is the second person of the Trinity in the Old Testament) found Hagar after she had run away because she and her son had been mistreated by Sarai. Much like us, the angel of the Lord asks us where we have come from and where we are going. She answers that she is running away and the angel of the Lord gives her instructions to return to her mistress and submit. Then the angel of the Lord gives a blessing and covenant to Hagar. These words sound very familiar to the words that will be given to Mary later on, but are still very different. God explains that Hagar is pregnant and would bear a son and God named the child Ishmael meaning "God listens." Unlike the message given to Mary to announced the birth of Jesus we do not see this son being proclaimed to be the promised Savior from Genesis 3. No, instead we see that Ishmael was promised to be like a wild donkey, and he would be angry at everyone wanting to make war with them and everyone would be angry with him and want to make war with him. There is some dispute on how to interpret that last phrase in Hebrew whether this a continuation of the thought that he would be at war with all of his kinsmen (brothers), or that he would live outside of the land of his brothers (to the east). Both are true because we'll see eventually that God will send Hagar and Ishmael out of the land of promise and make it clear to them that the land promised to them is to the east, but it's also not hard to see that it's true that the descendants of Ishmael and the descendants of Isaac have never stopped being at war with one another. This also seems to be true for the descendants of Ishmael and the other descendants of Abraham that were born to him later in his life (we'll read about them later in Genesis). We now see what may be the first instance in the Old Testament of someone giving a name to God based off of one of His characteristics. God has revealed Himself to man through names He's given to Himself at various times up to now, but Hagar now calls Him "The God who sees me." This is a great and glorious name of God because He is the one that searches us out and finds us even when we are in the wilderness like Hagar, and He comes to us and says "I see your situation" and the answer to all of it is "I am with you." Again, we see a marker laid down and named to remind people of this event and this name of God and His unchanging character. A well was dug there and was named Beer-lahai-roi which means "The Well of the Living One Who Sees Me." What a powerful testimony! It seems that Hagar had good theology even if Ishmael and his descendants did not. It seems that part of his rebellion will be to turn away from the God that his father and mother worshiped and to turn to the false gods of the nations around him. Abram was 86 years old when Ishmael was born, Abram does not yet know that this was not God's plan, and God will allow Ishmael to grow up to be a teenager before God gives Abram the promise of Isaace. We'll read about that next time, but that promise and event will so change their identity and the course of history that God gives both Abram and Sarai new names, and God gives them the sign of the Abrahamic covenant. Are you like Abram and Sarai here trying to make God's promises happen in your way and in your time? Are you like Hagar, just doing what you've been told to do and being mistreated because of it and while you hear from God and know that He sees you, His answer is to go back and continue to submit? Are you a person that could be described the way that God described Ishmael, constantly at war within himself and with everyone else and an outcast because no one can get along with you and you can't get along with anyone else? Was this really God's plan for Abram, Sarai, Hagar and Ishmael? We'll have to see, but know that God is working all things together for His glory and to accomplish His plan, even in times like these where it appears that we royally mess things up. The consequences of this decision are long-lasting and devastating, just like all the other sins that we've read about so far. Despite the sin, God loves Ishmael and Hagar and does not blame them for what happened. Ishmael will not be the child of the promise as you will see that he received the promise of descendants, but no promise of land (at least, we haven't seen any such promise yet). Unlike the blessing that Abram received that all the peoples of the world will be blessed through him, it appears that God tells Hagar that all the nations will receive nothing but trouble from Ishmael, and yet we'll see that God still loves him, and God still loves his descendants and has a place for them in His family if they turn to Him and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. God will bless all nations, including the nations of Ishmael, through His Son of Promise, Jesus, as He takes away the sins of the world and brings many sons (and daughters) to glory. Genesis 15 English Standard Version (ESV) LISTEN: https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Gen.15 God's Covenant with Abram 15 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” 2 But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” 4 And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” 5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness. 7 And he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” 8 But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” 9 He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. 11 And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. 12 As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. 13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. 14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15 As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. 16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” 17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, 19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.” This is one of the moments we've been building to for quite a while. I have mentioned the Abrahamic covenant several times and while God has given glimpses of it already, it is mostly revealed in today's passage and we'll now talk about what it means to "cut" a covenant (language we still use today).
We have just come off of the epic battle of chapter 14 and God speaks to Abram to confirm something we said back then. Abram didn't need to be afraid because the Lord was his shield and defender, but then God throws in "and your reward." Remember that Abram had just refused to take his portion of the spoils of war, so another way that you will hear this in the lyrics of some songs is "the Lord is my portion." This revealed the emptiness that Abram felt from being childless which at that time was seen as a great curse, and imagine having to walk around and tell everyone your name meant "father" and them naturally asking, "So how many children do you have?" and having to say, "Well, I don't have any yet, but God has promised me a great nation." when you at least 75 years old (the age when God called him out of Ur of the Chaldeans). Abram offers God a suggestion, not so much in a lack of faith, but to ask, "Is it your plan for me to have an heir that these blessings will pass on to?" Remember this has already happened once as Terah, the father of Abram, was given the command to go to Canaan by God but stopped short in the land of Haran, and God's blessing seemed to pass from Terah to his son Abram. Abram suggests that maybe he "adopt" his servant Eliezer of Damascus as his heir and let him have a son for him since Eliezer was still young and fertile. God clearly said, "The man will not be your heir; your very own son will be your heir." Then as only God can do, he compounded the promise by telling Abram that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars of the heavens. And it is here that we are told that Abram believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness (we'll see this verse quoted several times in the New Testament, but most often in the book of Romans). What exactly did Abram believe and what does it mean to be "credited to him as righteousness?" We'll wait until the book of Romans to unpack all that. For now, understand that there is some connection between believing God's promises by faith and the righteousness that God credits to our account, because our own righteousness is insufficient. We then see God use what I'll call "covenant language" as when God will open nearly every covenant with His people with a statement that says I am the one that took you from where you were to where you are today. In this case, "I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess." Abram has moved on from the question of children for the moment, but is still asking God how he will know that he himself, Abram, could possess such a great territory of land. God decides to cut a covenant with Abram and instructs Abram to bring him some animals--a three-year old heifer, a three-year old female goat, a three-year old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon. I have a sense that Abram was familiar with the practice of cutting covenants and probably had some idea what was going on here as he knew that he was supposed to cut each of them in half and lay the halves against each other. Typically when such a covenant is "cut" at these times the two people making the covenant will join hands and walk through the middle of the cut animals as a sign to say "Let the same happen to me if I break this coveannt with you." Before striking the covenant, the Lord added these words to the covenant (an amendment of sorts). "Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” So, God clarifies that the descendants of Abram will be away from the land for 400 years and He will bring judgement on that land and bring them out of it back to this land with great possessions. Abram will die at a "good old age" in peace and it would be in the fourth generation that they will return and God will cause all these things to come to pass. God's reason for the delay? The iniquity of the Amorites (the ones that Abram has been living in the midst of) is not yet complete. They are not yet ready to face the judgment that is to come, but soon their wickedness would be as great as that of any of the other Canaanite clans and God would use this time of sojourning and slavery in Egypt to protect His people from the wickedness of the Canaanites. Now is typically when the two would join hands and walk through the pieces of the cut animals, but we see God causes Abram to fall asleep and see in a vision that God alone walks through the pieces of the animals as to say "I alone can do this and will be held accountable to keep My word." God puts Abram under no obligation in the covenant to do anything to keep the covenant or state any conditions of what Abram could do that would cause the covenant to be broken and God swore by Himself and His name, so that as long as God is who He is, this covenant would be in effect. This is why we call this one of the everlasting covenants in the Bible. God will always remember Abram (soon to be Abraham) and his descendants and the land will always belong to them, and God will be faithful to make a great nation of them. What land exactly is promised to the descendants of Abram? Everything between the Nile river in Egypt to the Euphrates river--sometimes known as The Great River or simply The River because it was known as a great boundary in the ancient world. Does all of this land belong to the Jewish people, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? We'll see. God will continue to pass His covenant along to future generations and let's see if the promise of land ever changes to give us any indication that any of this land belongs to any of the other children of Abraham (such as Ishmael who we will learn about in the next chapter). As time goes on, more and more details of the covenant will be made clear. Genesis 14:17-24 English Standard Version (ESV) LISTEN: https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Gen.14.17-Gen.14.24 Abram Blessed by Melchizedek 17 After his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King's Valley). 18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) 19 And he blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; 20 and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!” And Abram gave him a tenth of everything. 21 And the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the persons, but take the goods for yourself.” 22 But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have lifted my hand to the Lord, God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth, 23 that I would not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that is yours, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’ 24 I will take nothing but what the young men have eaten, and the share of the men who went with me. Let Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre take their share.” Today's passage is going to be short and very much connected to yesterday's passage. If you recall, Lot moved in near the Canaanite towns and was captured along with the Canaanites when an invading army from Shinar (along with several other kings) seemed to be trying to conquer all of the known world.
Word gets to Abram that his nephew Lot has been captured and Abram leads a small army of Amorites who he lived among in a raiding party to take back the people and things that had been taken (specifically with the goal of rescuing Lot). They've just been victorious in their battle--something that could have only been done with the help of God. Out of nowhere in this story, a new king that we haven't met before and have never heard of his nation before shows up, and while we won't see him again in person after this, he'll be mentioned a couple more times in the Bible (in Psalms and Hebrews) as one that the Messiah had to be like, so we're going to spend a little time talking about him here and how he seems to related to Christ. Whether or not this is a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ is uncertain, though that is also a possibility. First we see that Melchizedek is the king of Salem. We don't really know of a place called Salem, but it sounds kind of like Jerusalem and many believe this to be the same city and it is the word for "peace." Do we know anyone else in the Bible referred to as The Prince of Peace? Maybe simply a coincidence, but I felt that it was important. The next interesting thing that we see that again may not be unusual, but is worth mentioning, is that he is about to strike a covenant of peace with a meal of bread and wine, and we are told parenthetically that he was not only king, but a priest of the Most High God. Now that is very strange. First that bread and wine would have something to do with a priestly function already, and that he was priest of the Most High God before the role of priest was established in the Levitical system--Hebrews will point this out that he was not a descendant of Levi and that in Judaism kings came from Judah and priests from Levi and no one person should be able to fill both offices, but this one man (much like Christ would thousands of years later) served in both offices representing God to the people as king and representing the people before God as priest. See why the author of the Psalms and the author of the epistle to the Hebrews will come back to this man to identify Him with the Messiah? Melchizedek then blessed Abram in a way that normally only a prophet (or God Himself would do) filling yet another office. It is interesting that Melchizedek doesn't simply identify God as the maker of heaven of earth, but the possessor of it. This is very much in contrast to the enemy forces that have been trying to conquer and possess the heavens and the earth, first by building a great tower into the sky so that they could reach the heavens where God existed (as they thought He existed in a physical realm that was high above them) and now to try to conquer the physical world, but Melchizedek reminds us that God is the sole owner of all of creation and no one else can take away His possessions from Him. We then see again that the battle belongs to the Lord as Melchizedek rightly recognizes that the victory that Abram won that day was because God Most High delivered Abram's enemies into his hands. There's no earthly reason why such a small band of warriors should be able to fight off the combined armies of five nations that had just conquered the combined forces four city-states. All glory and honor and praise belongs to the Lord, and Melchizedek makes sure that is where our attention is pointed. In much the same way, the Son tells us that His role is to glorify the Father in all things. We then see Abram giving a tenth of everything to the king of Salem--not unusual as a form of tribute to someone you recognize as a greater king, but we didn't see this king do anything to join the battle and help them win, so what is it that Abram sees in this king that he's willing to give a tenth of all the spoils of war to him? Is it possible that Abram actually recognizes this "man" as the King of Heaven? This would not be the first time or the last time in the book of Genesis that God would come down in the form of a man among His people. We even saw this as early as Genesis 3 where God used to come down and walk and talk with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and we've seen in Genesis 10 that God came down to inspect the Tower of Babel and see what the people had done and the rebellion that was brewing. We see another possible theophany/christophany here and we're definitely going to see another couple of cases in the coming chapters, so it's not completely out of the realm of possibility, thought the text does not proclaim this specifically. At a minimum it's another one of those "isn't it interesting?" situations in this text. Clearly God is the King of Heaven and the highest of any kings--Jesus will eventually be given the title of King of Kings and Lord of Lords--and the tithe definitely belongs to Him. The rest of the passage is a negotiation between Abram and the king of Sodom. The king of Sodom just asks for his people to be returned to him and that all the possessions that had been taken should be given to Abram as spoils of war. Abram refuses to fall prey to materialism as he already recognizes that God is the one who has provided for all of his needs and he refuses to let any earthly king have reason to say any differently. If Abram had taken all of the possessions of the Canaanites, they would have claimed that they were the ones that made him rich and successful. Abram asks for nothing in return other than food for his men and compensation for the Amorite men who fought alongside him. We would be wise to understand what Abram is doing here in making sure that we depend on God and not man for our provisions to be met and to make sure that no one can hold anything over us, but at the same time to make sure that the others among us are taken care of--even those who are enemies of God, but have come alongside of us to help us in our time of need. God can use anyone, even heathen Canaanites to accomplish his purposes. So much said in such a short passage. If you want to know what else the Bible has to say about Melchizedek, read Psalm 110 (definitely a Messianic Psalm) and Hebrews chapters 5, 6, and 7 (I've already written blogs on these chapters in the book of Hebrews if you want to go back and look at them). Genesis 14:1-16 English Standard Version (ESV) LISTEN: https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Gen.14.1-Gen.14.16 Abram Rescues Lot 14 In the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim, 2 these kings made war with Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar). 3 And all these joined forces in the Valley of Siddim (that is, the Salt Sea). 4 Twelve years they had served Chedorlaomer, but in the thirteenth year they rebelled. 5 In the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him came and defeated the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim, the Zuzim in Ham, the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim, 6 and the Horites in their hill country of Seir as far as El-paran on the border of the wilderness. 7 Then they turned back and came to En-mishpat (that is, Kadesh) and defeated all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites who were dwelling in Hazazon-tamar. 8 Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar) went out, and they joined battle in the Valley of Siddim 9 with Chedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of Goiim, Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar, four kings against five. 10 Now the Valley of Siddim was full of bitumen pits, and as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some fell into them, and the rest fled to the hill country. 11 So the enemy took all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their provisions, and went their way. 12 They also took Lot, the son of Abram's brother, who was dwelling in Sodom, and his possessions, and went their way. 13 Then one who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew, who was living by the oaks of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and of Aner. These were allies of Abram. 14 When Abram heard that his kinsman had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men, born in his house, 318 of them, and went in pursuit as far as Dan. 15 And he divided his forces against them by night, he and his servants, and defeated them and pursued them to Hobah, north of Damascus. 16 Then he brought back all the possessions, and also brought back his kinsman Lot with his possessions, and the women and the people. I fully admit that this passage is a little hard to understand, mostly because there are no real "good guys" here other than Abram and Melchizedek, who we don't even see until the battle is done and over with. I'll do my best to see if I can break things down for you. The king of Shinar (that name should sound familiar to you from Genesis 10 as this is the region that Nimrod reigned over and where the Tower of Babel was located), is looking to expand his kingdom and influence beyond the boundaries set for him by God. Once again it appears that this group of people is trying to find a way to bring all peoples under their control and likely even try to undo the curse of God at the Tower of Babel by making everyone in the known world learn their language and culture. It won't be until the Greek and Roman empires until such a large empire actually forms, though this may be the formation of what will later be known as the Babylonian empire (which many believe does trace back all the way back to Nimrod).
So the allies of the king of Shinar are sweeping through the Middle East and capturing all the small city-states that and the Canaanite cities mentioned in Genesis 10:16 fear they are next victims (and they are right). The king of Shinar and his allies conquer these cities and Lot and his family and his possessions are all captured as spoils of war. One of the Canaanites escapes and brings news to Abram that his nephew has been captured and Abram mounts his own small army to launch a rescue, specifically 318 people from his household and the households of the Amorites that he lived among (Anor, Eshcol, and Mamre), Abram pursued as far as Dan (I won't get into all the opinions on this right now, but let's say that this should raise your eyebrows a bit). Abram then divides his forces at night to mount a sneak attack and pursued them all the way to Hobah, north of Damascus (in modern day Syria). And Abram brought back Lot, and his possessions and the men and women that had had been captured by the king of Shinar and his allies. We'll continue this next time as the next passage has to do with dividing the spoils of war and the appearance of the king of Salem who has not been mentioned to this point who is both king and priest of the Most High God. While we don't see much said about him, he is an important figure mentioned here and in Messianic prophecy in the Psalms and in the book of Hebrews as saying that this man was an image of the type of king and priest that Jesus would be. |
Daniel WestfallI will mostly use this space for recording my "journal" from my daily devotions as I hope to encourage others to read the Bible along with me and to leave a legacy for others. Archives
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