Abraham is a figure whose life story has had more of a lasting impact on the world than almost anyone who has ever lived. He is revered as a genetic patriarch and spiritual forefather by nearly four billion people all over the planet. In his story people have found lessons about their own life and about the nature of existence. One may find a man of uncommon faith and perseverance, but then also find a man deeply flawed and more familiar in his failings. The call of the Creator on Abraham’s life and the patriarch’s response has been a source of wisdom and encouragement for thousands of years, and will likely continue to be so for many more. By evaluating the biblical text which depicts the life story of Abraham, with all its triumphs, pitfalls, and everything in between, one can gain a greater understanding of God and their own relationship to Him. This analysis will explore the plot of this classic text and also the character arch of its main protagonists.
Abraham first enters into the biblical narrative as Abram and with very little fanfare. Initially, he is mentioned as simply another name in a list of genealogies following the tower of Babel story in Genesis 11. He is listed as one of the three sons of Terah, along with Nahor and Haran. His wife Sarai is also mentioned early on, as well as her barrenness, signifying the importance of both. Just a few short verses later, one of the major events of this narrative takes place. The almighty creator God speaks to Abram and utters a phrase of unimaginable portent, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house 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 him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” There is no indication in the text that Abram was special in some way. It appears that he was simply a desert nomad who God decided would be his agent of blessing for all of humanity. This is definitely the moment in which Abram’s story and his path toward becoming the man who is widely revered begins. Though, this is a part of a larger story. This is the latest divine act toward restoring humanity to a place of unity with their creator. This is God calling order out of chaos, much as he did when creating this world to begin with. As Walter Brueggemann notes, “The one who calls the worlds into being now makes a second call. This call is specific. Its object is identifiable in history. The call is addressed to aged Abraham and to barren Sarah. The purpose of the call is to fashion an alternative community in creation gone awry, to embody in human history the power of the blessing. It is the hope of God that in this new family all human history can be brought to the unity and harmony intended by the one who calls.”
Following this encounter with God, Abram does as he is told and departs from Haran with his dependants accompanying him, including his nephew Lot and his wife Sarai. As this was a time in history when the knowledge of God was not revealed to the degree it was through Moses, Abram and his family most likely worshipped the idols of Ur. The fact that Abram does not appear to question God’s command and simply obeys is a great testament to his faithfulness as is noted in the epistle to the Hebrews as well as remembered in church tradition. The pagan culture is reflected in the location Abram chooses to stop at in chapter 12 verse 6. The oak of Moreh was likely a place for pagans to give offerings to fertility deities, but God repurposes it and appeared to Abram there, reasserting the earlier promise, giving Abram cause to build an altar to his Lord.This section demonstrates very well the way in which God will use human wickedness, like idolatrous behavior, and redirect it for the ultimate good of His creation. With faithfulness as a seemingly innate virtue, Abram begins his story on a very admirable footing, but he is soon to show where his weaknesses lie.
In chapter 12: 10-20, a story is told that portrays Abram in quite a different light. Abram is likely walking very tall in light of the promises made to him by the creator God. He sees his destiny as being one of wealth and prosperity and it could be that he decides to accomplish this end by his own means, rather than by relying on God’s timetable. Abram and Sarai are about to enter Egypt on account of a famine and Abram instructs his wife to, “Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.” It appears at first reading that Abram simply fears for his life, but a key phrase in this quote is, “that it may go well with me because of you.” It seems that Abram may have been willing to use his wife, the woman who will bear his descendants and be a blessing to all of humanity, as a bargaining chip to improve his wealth and social status. W. Sibley Towner writes, “…Abram …has come from a great distance as a refugee from famine with almost nothing… The only asset he has, his beautiful wife, he has successfully parlayed into the economic basis necessary to begin implementing the promises of verses 1-3… now he is even bigger in camels and slaves, thanks to the intrinsic value of the beautiful Sarai.” Not only did Abram put his promise in jeopardy by this foolishness, but he also grossly insulted God in his lack trust. By defaulting to fear and cunning, Abram shows himself for what he is: a man. Still, God does not turn away from him and find one more worthy of these amazing promises, he stays true to Abram and Sarai and delivers them from the situation by afflicting the Pharaoh and his house with great plagues. The pharaoh sends Abram and Sarai away with all that he had acquired in the deceitful transaction. This is another great example of how God repurposes human wickedness for the ultimate good.
Now rich in wealth and no doubt astonished at the way in which God had just demonstrated his faithfulness, a much more gracious and faithful Abram is depicted in chapter thirteen. In the account of the separation with Lot, Abram is shown to give Lot his choice of the land, demonstrating his faith that the land which was promised to him will become his regardless of Lot’s decision. Abram’s trust pays off with Lot deciding to take the land eastward near the Jordan Valley. Abram takes his tents and settles in the promised land of Canaan. While there, the Lord appears before him yet again and poetically reaffirms his promise, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted.” God here demonstrates his faithfulness and even bolsters the promise with a bit more details. Not long after Lot departs, he and his company become prisoners of war. When Abram hears of this, he mounts a daring rescue mission under the cover of night and reclaims Lot with all his possessions. These heroics are rewarded with a visit by the mysterious King of Salem, Melchizedek, who is said to be “priest of God Most High”. He comes to bless Abram in the name of said God and he serves bread and wine, which is possibly a foreshadowing of the Eucharist of Jesus, who was said to be a priest in the order of Melchizedek. Abram then tithes to this puzzling priest. This passage has been the subject of much conjecture over the years, but, suffice it to say that it indicates that Abram was walking a path pleasing in the sight of the Lord.
In chapter fifteen, Abram is privileged with another beautiful theophanic vision from the Creator God. In spite of an assurance to Abram that God is his shield, he shows himself to still be in doubt about the promises which have been made to him. Specifically, he is worried that he has yet to produce an heir. The Lord reassures him that he will most definitely have a son and that his offspring will eventually be as numerous as the stars in the night sky. Then, “…he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness” While Abram may have believed this promise, he has trouble with the promise that the Lord will give him the land of the Canaanites. God has Abram halve the carcasses of a heifer, a female goat, and a ram, which Brueggemann suspects may be “… very old… some kind of blood oath to visibly reinforce the promise.” Abram then falls into a deep sleep and the Lord prophesies to him regarding the enslavement and exodus of his offspring from Egypt, yet reaffirms the fact that they will eventually take possession of the land. The Lord then passes through the middle of the carcasses in the form of a smoking fire pot and flaming torch as a sign of a covenant with Abram saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites,etc…” Up to this point, the Lord had made promises to Abram, but this account is the account of a legal and binding agreement between God and Abram’s descendants. This is significant in that it further reinforces the fact that God will work out his will through Abram regardless of his performance. This covenant is not contingent upon the works of men, but upon the good word of the Lord. Brueggemann notes, “The unqualified commitment of God in verse 18-21 has its counterpart in verse 6. In both passages it is affirmed that God’s movement towards Abraham is free and unconditional, Abraham need only trust.”
What follows is an account of compounding conflict. Abram is undoubtedly filled with joy and is very secure in the promises made to him by his God. But, he is not a single man and the production of a son requires his wife’s involvement. Perhaps if Sarai had experienced the same vision regarding Abram’s offspring, this whole unpleasant episode would not have occurred. Understandably exasperated by her age and the expectation that her husband should be the father of a great nation, Sarai arranges for her servant woman Hagar to lie with Abram. She does so and this naturally breeds contempt between the women. Sarai is harsh with Hagar, causing her to flee into the wilderness where she is encountered by an angel of the Lord. The angel then instructs her to return and submit to Sarai. He promises to multiply her offspring so that they cannot be numbered. He then says, “Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael because the Lord has listened to your affliction.” This beautiful passage demonstrates God to be very compassionate. Doubtless that he would not have preferred Sarai and Abram to create this unfortunate situation. He likely would have wanted them both to simply trust him to deliver on his promises in his timing. Regardless, he comes to Hagar who is suffering in the wilderness and promises that he will create a great nation from her offspring. This is also a sign that God will keep his promise to Abram even if Abram’s patriarchal ineptitude makes things much more complicated. Towner comments, “The angel/Lord tells Hagar to give the child the name Ishmael (‘God hears’), for God heard her ‘affliction.’ (We are not told that Hagar prayed to Yahweh; after all, she is an Egyptian, whose high god might have been Amon-Re. What the Lord ‘hears’ is the voiced or unvoiced cry of woe that arises from oppression.)” The God of Abram in neither ethnocentric nor stoic, rather he is a God of compassion who desires blessing for all of humanity and will work through human wickedness to accomplish this.
Some time later, when Abram was ninety nine years old, the Lord reappears before him and gives him a new name, “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.” Note that God says he has already done this, conveying either God’s foreknowledge of the future or at least his confidence in his own ability to complete the stated promise. The Lord again reasserts the promises of their covenant, as if to remind the aged man. He is more specific this time, conveying rules about circumcision as a sign of the covenant itself. He also gives his wife a new name, calling her Sarah and stating that he will bless her and that “kings of peoples shall come from her.” In his old age, Abraham is astonished at this and literally laughs at what God has told him. While this is most definitely a transformative moment in Abraham’s faith journey, he is here betraying that he has yet to come to a place where he can fully trust his Lord. Indicating that he expected his own actions to be used by the Lord, he implores God to establish the covenant with the offspring of Ishmael, not believing that Sarah could ever bear children. God informs him that he will bless and multiply Ishmael’s descendants, but that he will establish the covenant with Isaac, who will be born a year from then. God then departs and Abraham obediently circumcises his entire household as a sign of the covenant. He is definitely a faithful man, but not completely. While this renaming of Abraham and reaffirmation of the promise may not have been the culmination of Abraham’s personal faith journey, it is still a very momentous occasion. As Brueggemann writes, “… the whole narrative is now subsumed under the promise. The promise is linked to creation, for the language is the same (vv. 6,20; Gen. 1:28). Thus Abraham is the first fruit of the new creation. He is the bearer of what is intended in creation. He is indeed “the new creation…” In this promise God is shown to be continuing his creative work well past the original seven days.
By the same oaks of Mamre where Abraham built an altar to the Lord in chapter thirteen, three men appear before Abraham in chapter eighteen. Abraham takes the opportunity to demonstrate some world class hospitality. These three men are said to be a representation of Jehovah, which raises some interesting questions about the exact nature of God. Regardless, while visiting with Abraham they inform him that, a year from then, his wife will bear a son. Sarah, who is listening nearby, laughs at the notion and is promptly called out by the Lord for it. The narrative then takes a peculiar shift. It seems the three men are on their way to Sodom in order to bring destruction upon it. When they leave to complete their task, the text reads, “So the men turned from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord.” It is here that Abraham shows himself to bold and intimate with the Lord, displaying the nature of their relationship. Abraham actually bargains with God almighty in order to try and stave off the destruction of Sodom and is able, it seems, to actually cause God alter His will. What does this day about God’s sovereignty? Towner writes, “Has God changed the divine mind? So it seems. This belongs among those passages that are important for modern faith because they present God as engaged with the human community, one who changes direction in the light of new developments, a god who is on the way rather than rooted in place…This image of God’s justice being worked out in the crunch of real life rather than in pure abstraction prefigures the gospel of the eternal logos made incarnate in the flux and tragedy of human existence.” In spite of Abraham’s passionate plea, destruction comes to Sodom and Gomorrah, conveying the truly wicked nature of those cities.
In chapter twenty Abraham repeats his fearful mistrust of God’s ability to protect him as his “shield” as he again passes of Sarah as his sister to King Abimelech of Gerar, who takes her into his household. God again rescues the couple by appearing to Abimelech in a dream and informing him of the nature of his situation. Abraham comes out of the conflict with his herd enhanced, as well as his coffers, but his faith has not yet reached the culmination point, as is clearly seen. But an event is about to occur which will drastically change this in Abraham. After decades of promises, missteps, and reaffirmations, Sarah finally bears an heir to Abraham. Abraham dutifully names him Isaac and circumcises him after the covenant. Sarah actually seems embarrassed that this has happened to her, perhaps because she was so doubtful to the point of giving her slave girl over to her husband. This great fulfillment of God’s promise causes much joy in the house of Abraham and a great feast is thrown on the day Isaac is weaned. However, in spite of this amazing move of God, the conflict does not end. Sarah is watching a teenaged Ishmael laughing or “playing” and decides that he and his mother must go. She says to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.” This causes Abraham great grief but he does not simply bend to his wife’s will as before, perhaps showing that he has developed a bit more backbone, but God then tells him to listen to his wife and send Hagar and Ishmael away. He assures Abraham that the two will be cared for and that Ishmael will become a great nation, but that Isaac is the true child of the covenant. So, the next morning, Abraham sends them into the wilderness with some bread and water. The meager subsistence does not last long and soon, in desperation, Hagar places Ishmael under a bush so she does not have to watch him die. The Lord comes to their rescue, again showing his care for the desperate and needy, and shows Hagar a well. He then reasserts the promise to her that Ishmael will become a great nation. The text says that, “…God was with the boy, and he grew up. He lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow.” Ishmael becomes the “wild donkey of a man” that the Lord said he would be. Brueggemann comments on the astonishing nature of this segment of the text, “The word of God is scandalous. It never comes to fruition as we expect it. Some conclude it fails and they are driven back to their own seemingly adequate resources. Others conclude it fails but have no resources and so are driven to despair. Even father Abraham cannot release the child of the slave-woman. (cf. 17:18) Even this father of faith flinches from the radicalness.”
After decades of walking with God, complete with triumphs of faith, missteps, and mercantilistic bargaining, Abraham is seen fit to be tested. The Lord says to him, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” After reading the narrative of Abraham, one would expect some sort of protest at this instruction, but it seems that there has been a change in him. The text indicates no verbal response at all, he simply obeys. Saddling his donkey, he takes his son and heads toward the destination God had specified. When the reach the place where Abraham intends to sacrifice his son, Isaac asks him “where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” To which Abraham replies, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” This key passage shows the level to which Abraham’s trust in the Lord has grown since
the birth of his son. He knows, even in the face of having to murder his own child of promise, God will come through somehow and everything will be made right. Abraham ties the boy the altar and is just about to bring down the knife when the angel of the Lord calls to him and puts a stop to it, saying, “… for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” This beautiful affirmation of Abraham’s maturity in faith demonstrates the level of trust God desired from Abraham. Towner notes, “Abraham and Isaac make no protest, though little Isaac wonders about the absence of a lamb. Jesus knows he is the lamb… God provides and the slender cord linking the promise of blessing to all peoples and its future fulfillment is never severed.” As noted above, in this story there is an unmistakable foreshadowing of the extent to which God will go to rescue humanity from the power of darkness. It has long been recognized that Isaac was a prototype of Jesus. In bringing Abraham to a place where he was willing to trust God to the point of sacrificing his own son, God is bringing Abraham closer to his own heart for humanity, thus establishing a deep and unbreakable intimacy between the two of them. This, it seems, is the ultimate culmination of Abraham’s walk with the Lord. So Abraham sacrifices a ram in the place of his son and names the place “the Lord will provide,” demonstrating again his faithfulness. The Lord then joyfully and beautifully reaffirms the promises made to him, assuring him that his offspring will be quite thriving and numerous, and that through them all the nations of the Earth will be blessed.
This story of Abraham’s unshakable faith in God and the lengths he was willing to go for it is undoubtedly the crux and culmination of his story. Specifically, Genesis 22 verses 11 through 18, where it reads,
“11 And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" 12 And he said, ‘Here am I.’ And He said, ‘Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him; for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from Me.’ 13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked; and behold, behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. 14 And Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh [that is, The LORD will provide]; as it is said to this day, ‘In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.’ 15 And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time 16 and said, ’By Myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, 17 in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is upon the seashore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies. 18 And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed My voice.’”
Following this encounter with God, Abram does as he is told and departs from Haran with his dependants accompanying him, including his nephew Lot and his wife Sarai. As this was a time in history when the knowledge of God was not revealed to the degree it was through Moses, Abram and his family most likely worshipped the idols of Ur. The fact that Abram does not appear to question God’s command and simply obeys is a great testament to his faithfulness as is noted in the epistle to the Hebrews as well as remembered in church tradition. The pagan culture is reflected in the location Abram chooses to stop at in chapter 12 verse 6. The oak of Moreh was likely a place for pagans to give offerings to fertility deities, but God repurposes it and appeared to Abram there, reasserting the earlier promise, giving Abram cause to build an altar to his Lord.This section demonstrates very well the way in which God will use human wickedness, like idolatrous behavior, and redirect it for the ultimate good of His creation. With faithfulness as a seemingly innate virtue, Abram begins his story on a very admirable footing, but he is soon to show where his weaknesses lie.
In chapter 12: 10-20, a story is told that portrays Abram in quite a different light. Abram is likely walking very tall in light of the promises made to him by the creator God. He sees his destiny as being one of wealth and prosperity and it could be that he decides to accomplish this end by his own means, rather than by relying on God’s timetable. Abram and Sarai are about to enter Egypt on account of a famine and Abram instructs his wife to, “Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.” It appears at first reading that Abram simply fears for his life, but a key phrase in this quote is, “that it may go well with me because of you.” It seems that Abram may have been willing to use his wife, the woman who will bear his descendants and be a blessing to all of humanity, as a bargaining chip to improve his wealth and social status. W. Sibley Towner writes, “…Abram …has come from a great distance as a refugee from famine with almost nothing… The only asset he has, his beautiful wife, he has successfully parlayed into the economic basis necessary to begin implementing the promises of verses 1-3… now he is even bigger in camels and slaves, thanks to the intrinsic value of the beautiful Sarai.” Not only did Abram put his promise in jeopardy by this foolishness, but he also grossly insulted God in his lack trust. By defaulting to fear and cunning, Abram shows himself for what he is: a man. Still, God does not turn away from him and find one more worthy of these amazing promises, he stays true to Abram and Sarai and delivers them from the situation by afflicting the Pharaoh and his house with great plagues. The pharaoh sends Abram and Sarai away with all that he had acquired in the deceitful transaction. This is another great example of how God repurposes human wickedness for the ultimate good.
Now rich in wealth and no doubt astonished at the way in which God had just demonstrated his faithfulness, a much more gracious and faithful Abram is depicted in chapter thirteen. In the account of the separation with Lot, Abram is shown to give Lot his choice of the land, demonstrating his faith that the land which was promised to him will become his regardless of Lot’s decision. Abram’s trust pays off with Lot deciding to take the land eastward near the Jordan Valley. Abram takes his tents and settles in the promised land of Canaan. While there, the Lord appears before him yet again and poetically reaffirms his promise, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted.” God here demonstrates his faithfulness and even bolsters the promise with a bit more details. Not long after Lot departs, he and his company become prisoners of war. When Abram hears of this, he mounts a daring rescue mission under the cover of night and reclaims Lot with all his possessions. These heroics are rewarded with a visit by the mysterious King of Salem, Melchizedek, who is said to be “priest of God Most High”. He comes to bless Abram in the name of said God and he serves bread and wine, which is possibly a foreshadowing of the Eucharist of Jesus, who was said to be a priest in the order of Melchizedek. Abram then tithes to this puzzling priest. This passage has been the subject of much conjecture over the years, but, suffice it to say that it indicates that Abram was walking a path pleasing in the sight of the Lord.
In chapter fifteen, Abram is privileged with another beautiful theophanic vision from the Creator God. In spite of an assurance to Abram that God is his shield, he shows himself to still be in doubt about the promises which have been made to him. Specifically, he is worried that he has yet to produce an heir. The Lord reassures him that he will most definitely have a son and that his offspring will eventually be as numerous as the stars in the night sky. Then, “…he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness” While Abram may have believed this promise, he has trouble with the promise that the Lord will give him the land of the Canaanites. God has Abram halve the carcasses of a heifer, a female goat, and a ram, which Brueggemann suspects may be “… very old… some kind of blood oath to visibly reinforce the promise.” Abram then falls into a deep sleep and the Lord prophesies to him regarding the enslavement and exodus of his offspring from Egypt, yet reaffirms the fact that they will eventually take possession of the land. The Lord then passes through the middle of the carcasses in the form of a smoking fire pot and flaming torch as a sign of a covenant with Abram saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites,etc…” Up to this point, the Lord had made promises to Abram, but this account is the account of a legal and binding agreement between God and Abram’s descendants. This is significant in that it further reinforces the fact that God will work out his will through Abram regardless of his performance. This covenant is not contingent upon the works of men, but upon the good word of the Lord. Brueggemann notes, “The unqualified commitment of God in verse 18-21 has its counterpart in verse 6. In both passages it is affirmed that God’s movement towards Abraham is free and unconditional, Abraham need only trust.”
What follows is an account of compounding conflict. Abram is undoubtedly filled with joy and is very secure in the promises made to him by his God. But, he is not a single man and the production of a son requires his wife’s involvement. Perhaps if Sarai had experienced the same vision regarding Abram’s offspring, this whole unpleasant episode would not have occurred. Understandably exasperated by her age and the expectation that her husband should be the father of a great nation, Sarai arranges for her servant woman Hagar to lie with Abram. She does so and this naturally breeds contempt between the women. Sarai is harsh with Hagar, causing her to flee into the wilderness where she is encountered by an angel of the Lord. The angel then instructs her to return and submit to Sarai. He promises to multiply her offspring so that they cannot be numbered. He then says, “Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael because the Lord has listened to your affliction.” This beautiful passage demonstrates God to be very compassionate. Doubtless that he would not have preferred Sarai and Abram to create this unfortunate situation. He likely would have wanted them both to simply trust him to deliver on his promises in his timing. Regardless, he comes to Hagar who is suffering in the wilderness and promises that he will create a great nation from her offspring. This is also a sign that God will keep his promise to Abram even if Abram’s patriarchal ineptitude makes things much more complicated. Towner comments, “The angel/Lord tells Hagar to give the child the name Ishmael (‘God hears’), for God heard her ‘affliction.’ (We are not told that Hagar prayed to Yahweh; after all, she is an Egyptian, whose high god might have been Amon-Re. What the Lord ‘hears’ is the voiced or unvoiced cry of woe that arises from oppression.)” The God of Abram in neither ethnocentric nor stoic, rather he is a God of compassion who desires blessing for all of humanity and will work through human wickedness to accomplish this.
Some time later, when Abram was ninety nine years old, the Lord reappears before him and gives him a new name, “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.” Note that God says he has already done this, conveying either God’s foreknowledge of the future or at least his confidence in his own ability to complete the stated promise. The Lord again reasserts the promises of their covenant, as if to remind the aged man. He is more specific this time, conveying rules about circumcision as a sign of the covenant itself. He also gives his wife a new name, calling her Sarah and stating that he will bless her and that “kings of peoples shall come from her.” In his old age, Abraham is astonished at this and literally laughs at what God has told him. While this is most definitely a transformative moment in Abraham’s faith journey, he is here betraying that he has yet to come to a place where he can fully trust his Lord. Indicating that he expected his own actions to be used by the Lord, he implores God to establish the covenant with the offspring of Ishmael, not believing that Sarah could ever bear children. God informs him that he will bless and multiply Ishmael’s descendants, but that he will establish the covenant with Isaac, who will be born a year from then. God then departs and Abraham obediently circumcises his entire household as a sign of the covenant. He is definitely a faithful man, but not completely. While this renaming of Abraham and reaffirmation of the promise may not have been the culmination of Abraham’s personal faith journey, it is still a very momentous occasion. As Brueggemann writes, “… the whole narrative is now subsumed under the promise. The promise is linked to creation, for the language is the same (vv. 6,20; Gen. 1:28). Thus Abraham is the first fruit of the new creation. He is the bearer of what is intended in creation. He is indeed “the new creation…” In this promise God is shown to be continuing his creative work well past the original seven days.
By the same oaks of Mamre where Abraham built an altar to the Lord in chapter thirteen, three men appear before Abraham in chapter eighteen. Abraham takes the opportunity to demonstrate some world class hospitality. These three men are said to be a representation of Jehovah, which raises some interesting questions about the exact nature of God. Regardless, while visiting with Abraham they inform him that, a year from then, his wife will bear a son. Sarah, who is listening nearby, laughs at the notion and is promptly called out by the Lord for it. The narrative then takes a peculiar shift. It seems the three men are on their way to Sodom in order to bring destruction upon it. When they leave to complete their task, the text reads, “So the men turned from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord.” It is here that Abraham shows himself to bold and intimate with the Lord, displaying the nature of their relationship. Abraham actually bargains with God almighty in order to try and stave off the destruction of Sodom and is able, it seems, to actually cause God alter His will. What does this day about God’s sovereignty? Towner writes, “Has God changed the divine mind? So it seems. This belongs among those passages that are important for modern faith because they present God as engaged with the human community, one who changes direction in the light of new developments, a god who is on the way rather than rooted in place…This image of God’s justice being worked out in the crunch of real life rather than in pure abstraction prefigures the gospel of the eternal logos made incarnate in the flux and tragedy of human existence.” In spite of Abraham’s passionate plea, destruction comes to Sodom and Gomorrah, conveying the truly wicked nature of those cities.
In chapter twenty Abraham repeats his fearful mistrust of God’s ability to protect him as his “shield” as he again passes of Sarah as his sister to King Abimelech of Gerar, who takes her into his household. God again rescues the couple by appearing to Abimelech in a dream and informing him of the nature of his situation. Abraham comes out of the conflict with his herd enhanced, as well as his coffers, but his faith has not yet reached the culmination point, as is clearly seen. But an event is about to occur which will drastically change this in Abraham. After decades of promises, missteps, and reaffirmations, Sarah finally bears an heir to Abraham. Abraham dutifully names him Isaac and circumcises him after the covenant. Sarah actually seems embarrassed that this has happened to her, perhaps because she was so doubtful to the point of giving her slave girl over to her husband. This great fulfillment of God’s promise causes much joy in the house of Abraham and a great feast is thrown on the day Isaac is weaned. However, in spite of this amazing move of God, the conflict does not end. Sarah is watching a teenaged Ishmael laughing or “playing” and decides that he and his mother must go. She says to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.” This causes Abraham great grief but he does not simply bend to his wife’s will as before, perhaps showing that he has developed a bit more backbone, but God then tells him to listen to his wife and send Hagar and Ishmael away. He assures Abraham that the two will be cared for and that Ishmael will become a great nation, but that Isaac is the true child of the covenant. So, the next morning, Abraham sends them into the wilderness with some bread and water. The meager subsistence does not last long and soon, in desperation, Hagar places Ishmael under a bush so she does not have to watch him die. The Lord comes to their rescue, again showing his care for the desperate and needy, and shows Hagar a well. He then reasserts the promise to her that Ishmael will become a great nation. The text says that, “…God was with the boy, and he grew up. He lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow.” Ishmael becomes the “wild donkey of a man” that the Lord said he would be. Brueggemann comments on the astonishing nature of this segment of the text, “The word of God is scandalous. It never comes to fruition as we expect it. Some conclude it fails and they are driven back to their own seemingly adequate resources. Others conclude it fails but have no resources and so are driven to despair. Even father Abraham cannot release the child of the slave-woman. (cf. 17:18) Even this father of faith flinches from the radicalness.”
After decades of walking with God, complete with triumphs of faith, missteps, and mercantilistic bargaining, Abraham is seen fit to be tested. The Lord says to him, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” After reading the narrative of Abraham, one would expect some sort of protest at this instruction, but it seems that there has been a change in him. The text indicates no verbal response at all, he simply obeys. Saddling his donkey, he takes his son and heads toward the destination God had specified. When the reach the place where Abraham intends to sacrifice his son, Isaac asks him “where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” To which Abraham replies, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” This key passage shows the level to which Abraham’s trust in the Lord has grown since
This story of Abraham’s unshakable faith in God and the lengths he was willing to go for it is undoubtedly the crux and culmination of his story. Specifically, Genesis 22 verses 11 through 18, where it reads,
“11 And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" 12 And he said, ‘Here am I.’ And He said, ‘Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him; for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from Me.’ 13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked; and behold, behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. 14 And Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh [that is, The LORD will provide]; as it is said to this day, ‘In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.’ 15 And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time 16 and said, ’By Myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, 17 in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is upon the seashore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies. 18 And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed My voice.’”
This portion of the text is interesting because, according to Towner, it was likely inserted later on as a polemic against human sacrifice among the Hebrews. In spite of that gruesome reality, it has grown to become one of the most enduring and recognizable symbols in the Judeo-Christian tradition, a bulwark of what true faith in God looks like. It begins with Abraham about to bring the knife down upon his son when the voice of an angel stays his hand. Even as he is about to murder his son for his God, Abraham remains the open and willing vessel, ready to receive instruction. In response to the Angel’s voice, he responds with “Here am I”, demonstrating his readiness to serve. What the Lord says in response reveals much about Abraham’s and God’s character. For one, it is seen that Abraham was being tested and has proven himself to be faithful. Secondly, we see that god seems to be surprised and pleased at this. Apparently, God has self-limited His omniscience for the sake of working alongside Abraham and developing him into the champion of faith he has become. Also, God’s language regarding Isaac’s sacrifice indicates that he represented a type of Christ in that he was Abraham’s unique son of promise as Jesus is to God the Father. In providing a ram to take the place of Isaac, the Lord here is showing us another aspect of Christ’s sacrifice, as the offering which would take our place upon the altar. In verse 14, Abraham names the place after his newly realized and affirmed spiritual position as a man of great faith. Calling this location “The Lord will provide”. Effectively commemorates the great religious occasion which took place. Abraham has come to a place in his spiritual walk where he can now rest in the one truth which has any kind of substance. No longer is he scheming for material wealth or being manipulative for his own safety. Now, he has become a man who understands that his God has his best interests at heart regardless of the circumstance he finds himself in. Finally, verses 16 through 18 deliver the final and most complete promise to Abraham from God, demonstrating the extent to which Abraham has pleased the Lord with his act of great faith. The final verse makes two things very clear. One, the Lord is greatly inclined to bless those who are obedient, and two, the Lord intends to extend this blessing to all the people groups on this planet.
Abraham, now a man assured of his place with God, and a man greatly respected, it seems, by the people he lives near, lives the rest of his life truly acting the patriarch. A few years after the incident with Isaac, his wife passes away and he buries her among the Hittites in a cave in the land of Canaan. He then sends a servant to retrieve a wife for his son from among his own people. The servant brings back Rebekah, Abraham’s great niece, to be Isaac’s wife and comfort him “after his mother’s death” Abraham then takes another wife and has many offspring with her, though he leaves all his inheritance to Isaac. Then, according to the text, “Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people.” Then, together, Isaac and Ishmael bury their father in the same cave where his first wife rests in a beautiful display of fraternal solidarity in the face of an unfortunate conflict.
The three main characters in the story of Abraham are Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar. Out of the three, it is interesting that only one begins their story as a person who trusts God implicitly. Hagar is first introduced as the servant of Sarai. She desires to use Hagar as a means for procuring an heir for her husband, Abraham. Essentially, Sarai is using her as a pawn in her efforts to bring about God’s promises by her own means. After Ishmael is born, contention is birthed and Sarai deals with Hagar harshly, so she flees into the desert. The Lord appears to her there and comforts her, promising that her son will be blessed and that she will be looked after. Hagar is never depicted as one who doubts God, but is demonstrated only to be thankful and understanding of God’s character, stating, “You are a God of seeing… Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.” Regarding this conversation, Towner notes, “In this early story, Hagar talks with God at least fifteen years before Sarai does, if we can even call Genesis 18:15 a conversation!” Is it not interesting that the Egyptian slave woman with no initial divine promises and no claim to privilege is the character with the most character? The second time she is banished, this time for good, the Lord appears to her again and assures her that she and her son will be taken care of. This relationship between the oppressed Hagar and the Lord shows that God cares about people, regardless of their lineage or social status; he is a God of compassion. At the end of Hagar’s story, she is freed from her servitude and becomes a sort of matriarch to the nation which comes from Ishmael. It seems God certainly looked after Hagar and rewarded her faithfulness.
Sarah’s story could be said to be opposed to Hagar’s in many ways. It is the story of God using somebody who lacked faith almost completely. She is first introduced at the very beginning of the Abrahamic narrative as Sarai, Abram’s wife. She primarily antagonizes Abraham’s walk with God and creates complications. Regardless, God desires to use her to bring about the blessing promised to Abraham and, through them, all of humanity. It seems though, that she is also a submissive wife because she allows herself to be used as a bargaining chip and taken into two separate king’s harems throughout her life. In spite of this, she shows herself to be a shrewd woman in the way she arranges for Hagar to bear her husband’s first child. She then shows herself to be contemptuous in the way she mistreats her after the child is born. A transformative moment in her life is when the Lord renames Sarai and says that she shall be called Sarah. In spite of all the theophanies her husband has witnessed and all the ways in which the Lord has carried them through different trials, Sarah still has trouble believing the Lord will accomplish what he says. When Abraham is visited by the three men who represent God, Sarah overhears them telling Abraham that she will bear their child next year. She laughs in mockery at the notion and then lies about it when she is caught. Much of this is understandable behavior. Sarah is very old and the idea that she could be impregnated is beyond her grasp, in addition she has lived her life as a barren woman which probably caused a level of bitterness within her. Her story is really one of God doing what he will regardless of how Sarah thinks or acts. A real change can be seen in Sarah when she actually does birth her son and she says, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.” It seems that then she understands how foolish she has been up to that point. Perhaps she even realizes the way that posterity will view her. Regardless, this is the end of the sorrow of her barrenness and it is an occasion for joy and laughter. As Brueggemann states it, “By His powerful word, God has broken the grip of death, hopelessness, and barrenness. The joyous laughter is the end of sorrow and weeping. (Matt. 5:4, Luke 6:21, John 16:20-24). Laughter is a biblical way of receiving a newness which cannot be explained.” Even after this momentous and joyful fulfillment of God’s promises, Sarah’s last recorded act before her death is the banishment of Hagar and Ishmael to the wilderness. It seems that Sarah was in bondage to her insecurities to the end. Surely she must have found increase in her faith and she is remembered as the Matriarch of the Jewish people, but these beautiful things came from the hand of God and not the work of Sarah’s planning. Perhaps this is the point to Sarah’s story: God will be faithful to his promises even when people are uncooperative, contentious, and full of doubt.
The main protagonist of this narrative is, of course, Abraham himself. Abraham’s story is vast in its scope of addressing issues in the lives of humans. Even today, millions of people find comfort and council in the stories of Abraham’s walk with God and the account of how he matured. He begins his story as Abram, a Chaldean nomad with some wealth. There does not seem to be anything especially significant about him, other than that he was chosen by God for a great purpose. However, the fact that he, a pagan, listens without debate to God’s command to leave his family and set out for a new land is often cited as evidence of Abram’s innate faithfulness. Perhaps this was true and influence God’s selection of Abram, but later events in Abram’s story show him to be one who struggles with trusting God in many areas. For instance, after initially receiving the Lord’s promises, he demonstrates both his fearfulness and cunning in the way that he uses his wife as means to save his skin in Egypt and, it seems, to acquire more wealth. This event showed two things about his character, that he did not yet trust the Lord with his physical safety, and that he meant to claim his promises by his own cunning. Like Sarah, one of Abram’s most transformative events is when God renames him. This with the accompanying reassertion of God’s great promise seemed to inspire in Abram a new level of zealotry for the Lord’s will and sets him on the path toward an unshakable trust in God. However, even after this momentous event, Abraham again passes his wife off as his sister to a different king for the same reasons. He still has some way to go in his faith development. When the Lord comes through on his promise to deliver a son to Abraham through his barren and aged wife, it seems that this was the event which solidified Abraham’s faith in God. No longer do we see the schemer and the doubter in him. This is further evidenced by the way he faithfully obeys God’s command to sacrifice Isaac some years later. This final test reveals Abraham to have come a long way since his days in Haran. Brueggemann comments, “Abraham knows beyond understanding that God will find a way to bring life even in the scenario of death. That is the faith of Abraham. That is the faith of the listening community.”Now Abraham is truly a champion of the faith and intimate friend and servant of the one creator God.
Sam Bolton - March 5th, 2012
Abraham, now a man assured of his place with God, and a man greatly respected, it seems, by the people he lives near, lives the rest of his life truly acting the patriarch. A few years after the incident with Isaac, his wife passes away and he buries her among the Hittites in a cave in the land of Canaan. He then sends a servant to retrieve a wife for his son from among his own people. The servant brings back Rebekah, Abraham’s great niece, to be Isaac’s wife and comfort him “after his mother’s death” Abraham then takes another wife and has many offspring with her, though he leaves all his inheritance to Isaac. Then, according to the text, “Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people.” Then, together, Isaac and Ishmael bury their father in the same cave where his first wife rests in a beautiful display of fraternal solidarity in the face of an unfortunate conflict.
The three main characters in the story of Abraham are Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar. Out of the three, it is interesting that only one begins their story as a person who trusts God implicitly. Hagar is first introduced as the servant of Sarai. She desires to use Hagar as a means for procuring an heir for her husband, Abraham. Essentially, Sarai is using her as a pawn in her efforts to bring about God’s promises by her own means. After Ishmael is born, contention is birthed and Sarai deals with Hagar harshly, so she flees into the desert. The Lord appears to her there and comforts her, promising that her son will be blessed and that she will be looked after. Hagar is never depicted as one who doubts God, but is demonstrated only to be thankful and understanding of God’s character, stating, “You are a God of seeing… Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.” Regarding this conversation, Towner notes, “In this early story, Hagar talks with God at least fifteen years before Sarai does, if we can even call Genesis 18:15 a conversation!” Is it not interesting that the Egyptian slave woman with no initial divine promises and no claim to privilege is the character with the most character? The second time she is banished, this time for good, the Lord appears to her again and assures her that she and her son will be taken care of. This relationship between the oppressed Hagar and the Lord shows that God cares about people, regardless of their lineage or social status; he is a God of compassion. At the end of Hagar’s story, she is freed from her servitude and becomes a sort of matriarch to the nation which comes from Ishmael. It seems God certainly looked after Hagar and rewarded her faithfulness.
Sarah’s story could be said to be opposed to Hagar’s in many ways. It is the story of God using somebody who lacked faith almost completely. She is first introduced at the very beginning of the Abrahamic narrative as Sarai, Abram’s wife. She primarily antagonizes Abraham’s walk with God and creates complications. Regardless, God desires to use her to bring about the blessing promised to Abraham and, through them, all of humanity. It seems though, that she is also a submissive wife because she allows herself to be used as a bargaining chip and taken into two separate king’s harems throughout her life. In spite of this, she shows herself to be a shrewd woman in the way she arranges for Hagar to bear her husband’s first child. She then shows herself to be contemptuous in the way she mistreats her after the child is born. A transformative moment in her life is when the Lord renames Sarai and says that she shall be called Sarah. In spite of all the theophanies her husband has witnessed and all the ways in which the Lord has carried them through different trials, Sarah still has trouble believing the Lord will accomplish what he says. When Abraham is visited by the three men who represent God, Sarah overhears them telling Abraham that she will bear their child next year. She laughs in mockery at the notion and then lies about it when she is caught. Much of this is understandable behavior. Sarah is very old and the idea that she could be impregnated is beyond her grasp, in addition she has lived her life as a barren woman which probably caused a level of bitterness within her. Her story is really one of God doing what he will regardless of how Sarah thinks or acts. A real change can be seen in Sarah when she actually does birth her son and she says, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.” It seems that then she understands how foolish she has been up to that point. Perhaps she even realizes the way that posterity will view her. Regardless, this is the end of the sorrow of her barrenness and it is an occasion for joy and laughter. As Brueggemann states it, “By His powerful word, God has broken the grip of death, hopelessness, and barrenness. The joyous laughter is the end of sorrow and weeping. (Matt. 5:4, Luke 6:21, John 16:20-24). Laughter is a biblical way of receiving a newness which cannot be explained.” Even after this momentous and joyful fulfillment of God’s promises, Sarah’s last recorded act before her death is the banishment of Hagar and Ishmael to the wilderness. It seems that Sarah was in bondage to her insecurities to the end. Surely she must have found increase in her faith and she is remembered as the Matriarch of the Jewish people, but these beautiful things came from the hand of God and not the work of Sarah’s planning. Perhaps this is the point to Sarah’s story: God will be faithful to his promises even when people are uncooperative, contentious, and full of doubt.
The main protagonist of this narrative is, of course, Abraham himself. Abraham’s story is vast in its scope of addressing issues in the lives of humans. Even today, millions of people find comfort and council in the stories of Abraham’s walk with God and the account of how he matured. He begins his story as Abram, a Chaldean nomad with some wealth. There does not seem to be anything especially significant about him, other than that he was chosen by God for a great purpose. However, the fact that he, a pagan, listens without debate to God’s command to leave his family and set out for a new land is often cited as evidence of Abram’s innate faithfulness. Perhaps this was true and influence God’s selection of Abram, but later events in Abram’s story show him to be one who struggles with trusting God in many areas. For instance, after initially receiving the Lord’s promises, he demonstrates both his fearfulness and cunning in the way that he uses his wife as means to save his skin in Egypt and, it seems, to acquire more wealth. This event showed two things about his character, that he did not yet trust the Lord with his physical safety, and that he meant to claim his promises by his own cunning. Like Sarah, one of Abram’s most transformative events is when God renames him. This with the accompanying reassertion of God’s great promise seemed to inspire in Abram a new level of zealotry for the Lord’s will and sets him on the path toward an unshakable trust in God. However, even after this momentous event, Abraham again passes his wife off as his sister to a different king for the same reasons. He still has some way to go in his faith development. When the Lord comes through on his promise to deliver a son to Abraham through his barren and aged wife, it seems that this was the event which solidified Abraham’s faith in God. No longer do we see the schemer and the doubter in him. This is further evidenced by the way he faithfully obeys God’s command to sacrifice Isaac some years later. This final test reveals Abraham to have come a long way since his days in Haran. Brueggemann comments, “Abraham knows beyond understanding that God will find a way to bring life even in the scenario of death. That is the faith of Abraham. That is the faith of the listening community.”Now Abraham is truly a champion of the faith and intimate friend and servant of the one creator God.
Sam Bolton - March 5th, 2012
Sources:
- Brueggemann, Walter. Genesis. Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1982.
- Sproul, R. C., and Keith A. Mathison. The Reformation study Bible: English Standard version, containing the Old and New Testaments. Orlando, FL. Ligonier Ministries, 2005.
- Towner, W. Sibley. Genesis. Louisville, Ky. Westminster John Knox Press, 2001.
- The Book of Genesis
- RSV Bible
Comments
Post a Comment