Abraham
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- Introduction
- The name
- Abram - "the father is exalted"
- Abraham - "father of multitudes"
- Is the tenth member of a genealogy that begins with Shem, Noah's son
- Leaves with his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot to seek a new land
after being called by God (Gen. 12:1-5)
- Birth of his son
- Difficulties
- Sarai is barren and when she is first introduced, she is 70 and Abram
is 75 (Gen. 12:4)
- Abram jeopardizes his wife in Egypt by asking her to claim him as her
brother rather than her husband (Gen. 12:10-20)
- Encouraged by his wife, he has sexual relations with Hagar, Sarai's
Egyptian handmaid - when Hagar becomes pregnant Sarai becomes jealous - Hagar leaves and
then is told by God to return and submit to her mistress - Hagar gives birth to Ishmael,
Abraham's firstborn son (Gen. 16:1-16)
- Abraham again jeopardizes Sarah (their names have been changed) by
passing her off as his sister in a foreign land - again someone else could have
impregnated her (Gen. 20:1-18)
- Time begins to run out for Abraham as he and Sarah get older and
older
- When Isaac, son of Abraham and Sarah, is born Abraham is 100 and
Sarah is 90 (Gen. 17:17, 21:1-7)
- Promise fulfilled
- Despite bad choices and the lengthy passage of time, Abraham
maintained his faith that a promised son would be born
- Isaac ("laughter" or "he laughs") is born and his
birth is a miracle like the births of Samuel (1 Sam. 1:1-28) and John the Baptist (Luke
1:5-25) - God had made His promise come true
- God had earlier commanded that circumcision be a sign of His covenant with
Abraham (Gen. 17:1-27) - Abraham and Ishmael were circumcised at that time - Isaac becomes
the first to be circumcised on the eighth day after his birth
- Further difficulties - Ishmael and Hagar are sent away so as not to
claim precedence over Isaac (Gen. 21:8-21)
- Abraham intercedes for Sodom (18:16-19:38)
- God reveals to Abraham His plan to destroy Sodom as punishment for
its great sin
- Nature of Sodom's sin
- Typically has been seen as homosexuality (Gen. 19:5)
- Ezekiel described the sin as pride, oppressing the poor, idleness,
satisfaction with their own full stomachs, and a haughty spirit (Ezek 16:49-50)
- Prophets compared the sin of Sodom to the sin of their own nation
(Isa. 1:10, Jer. 23:14)
- Abraham bargained with God so that if God found ten righteous people
in Sodom He would spare the city - despite God's desire to save the city, ten righteous
ones could not be found
- Abraham's nephew Lot, his wife, and two daughters were rescued from
Sodom by God's angels - Lot's wife turned to a pillar of salt when she looked behind at
the city's destruction - each daughter slept with their drunken father and became pregnant
producing the ancestors of Moab and Ammon
- The Akedah (Binding of Isaac) - Gen. 22:1-19
- Introduction
- Abraham's ultimate test of faith
- Called the Akedah ("binding") - has been used as a
method of interpreting the Holocaust
- Prelude
- Abraham had already lost one son, Ishmael, who was sent away with his
mother Hagar by Sarah
- Now Abraham seems on the verge of losing another son
- Both Ishmael and Isaac are saved by divine intervention at the last
moment
- The saving of both Ishmael and Isaac are marked by good discoveries
(i.e., a well and a ram respectively)
- Links with Genesis 12
- "Go forth . . . to the land that I will show you" and
"Go forth . . . to the land of Moriah . . . on one of the heights that I will point
out to you"
- Ultimate destination is withheld in both
- Cumulative listing effect - "your land, your homeland, your
father's house" and "your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love" - both
build to a climax by moving from a small request to a very demanding request
- Both end in the promise of many descendants
- At both sites Abraham builds an altar
- Relation to human sacrifice
- Story of Cain and Abel assumes that animals and produce are natural
sacrifices but humans are not
- Noah sacrifices animals and birds after he gets off the ark but not
humans
- Isaac's question (22:7) assumes sacrifice normally involved sheep
- Animal sacrifice accepted in the ancient world as the norm - gods
needed animal meat to eat and survive
- Human sacrifice was quite rare - when practiced, humans took the
initiative, not the gods - idea was to ward off disaster
- Whole story seems to assume human sacrifice was repulsive
- Verse by verse study
- Verse 1
- Time has passed - Isaac was 3 when Ishmael was forced out - now Isaac
is old enough to make a trip and carry wood
- God tests Abraham - reader knows child will not die - this is only a
test, a human will not be sacrificed
- "Here I am" - only words Abraham speaks in whole account to
God
- Verse 2
- Descriptive terms ascend in love and preciousness to Abraham
- Command is more the form of a request
- Abraham has freedom of choice - if he refuses to obey, he will not be
faulted
- Location of Moriah
- Jerusalem - maybe but not a three-day trek from Beersheba and wood
would have been abundant (would not need to carry it)
- A well-know ancient place of worship - "the place" denotes
a sacred place, tells the servants he will worship there and implies it is a natural place
for worship, rebuilds the altar rather than rebuilding it from scratch, and "Mount of
the Lord" implies a cultic tradition
- Verse 3
- Abraham argued persuasively for Sodom and Gomorrah but says nothing
here
- Brings wood because he may not know if the area will have wood
- Verse 4
- "Three days" is a significant length of time, especially in
travel
- Long interval is crucial to the test of faith - Abraham may have
acted impulsively in setting out - the trip gives him time to think and consider - yet he
continues to go - his is an act of free will
- Verse 5
- Use of plural hides true purpose of journey from Isaac and servants
- Or does Abraham expect God to stop the sacrifice or to raise Isaac
from the ashes?
- Verse 6
- Abraham carries the dangerous items
- Because he is a father protecting his child as long as possible
- Because he does not want the sacrifice to be blemished
- "Laughter" seems to be on the verge of becoming
"tragedy"
- Verses 7-8
- Isaac questions - is he beginning to understand?
- Poignancy is heightened by the use of "my father" and
"my son" as Isaac and Abraham talk
- Verses 9-11
- Action slows to slow-motion
- God calls to Abraham and fortunately Abraham is still listening
- Verse 12
- It is not that God does not know Abraham, but that Abraham's
character must be experienced as actual rather than potential
- Righteous man must demonstrate that status by action
- From now on Abraham is the model example of faith
- God will begin a new nation with this person - he must be willing to
do the impossible
- Verses 13-14
- God provides a substitute sacrifice - a ram
- Abraham names the place "the Lord will provide"
- Verses 15-19 - promises of Gen. 12:1-9 are renewed
- Concluding remarks
- Very difficult passage that has never been satisfactorily interpreted
- there are lots of questions
- Passage has been used to deal with persecution and martyrdom
- Christians have seen in it a prefiguring of Christ's death
- Abraham's faith seems to be unapproachable - no wonder he becomes a
model of faith in the New Testament (Romans 4:1-25, Hebrews 11:8-19)
- Conclusion
- Sarah died at 127 years (7 years longer than the maximum 120 - Gen.
6:3)
- Abraham died at 175 years (55 years longer than the maximum 120 and
100 years after he was called by God)
- Abraham never saw the complete fulfillment of God's promises - two
sons plus others (Gen. 25:1-2) was hardly a numerous posterity and a field with a cave
(Gen. 23:4-20) was hardly a new land - but promise implies future fulfillment over present
reality
- Abraham was able to trust in the God of the promise rather than cling
to the promise itself
Artwork by Rembrandt from the WebMuseum
