Tag: Abraham

Conversation with God

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Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.”
Genesis 22:2 (NASB)

Genesis 22:2 is written in a strange way. The rabbis suggest that it is written like a slowly unfolding conversation, with an implied back-and-forth between God and Abraham.

The Midrash breaks it down like this:

God: Please take your son.
Abraham: Which son? I have two!
God: I mean your only son.
Abraham: But each son is the only son of their mother!
God: I mean the one you love.
Abraham: But I love both of them!
God: I mean Isaac.

And they point out that this narrowing of focus from broad to specific is nearly identical to the way God calls Abraham back in Genesis 12:

Now the Lord said to Abram,

“Go from your country,
And from your relatives
And from your father’s house,
To the land which I will show you.
Genesis 12:1 (NASB)

“From your country… from your relatives… from your father’s house.”

Genesis 12 is referred to as the לֶךְ־לְךָ (Lech-Lecha) in Hebrew. This is the “Go!” instruction that kicks off Abraham’s amazing journey.

Further linking the two passages, “Lech-Lecha” shows up only twice in the Torah: Genesis 12, and again here in Genesis 22.

In some ways, both stories are BEGINNINGS. Not that anything resets, or starts over, but perhaps this kicks off a repeated theme that God will make all things new.

Or perhaps they are telling the same story: Leave everything – your known past and your expected future.

When God Tests Us

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Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”
Genesis 22:1 (NASB)

If you think God “tests” us with difficulty, you might conclude that we can fail that test. You might think the test is about performance. “How holy are you?”

You might come to resent a God who would test us and cause us to lose things we love. But you’ve misunderstood.

The Hebrew word for “test” (some translations say “tempt”) is נָסָה (nasah), and this word appears for the first time in the Bible here in Genesis 22. The picture is NOT of us standing before God and having our righteousness tested like some kind of morality pop-quiz.

The word nasah means proved.

It does not mean that God demanded that Abraham perform in order for him to prove himself worthy to God. The text says the opposite of this. Look more closely!

The text says GOD PROVED ABRAHAM.

And there’s another clue in the same verse.

The Hebrew word nasah (proved) is in the pi’el perfect form (nissah), which implies that it DID happen… not that it would happen later.

So when did God PROVE Abraham?

It’s in the same verse. God says “Abraham!” and Abraham responds “I’m here.”

The PROOF of God’s people is that when God calls us by name, we will hear him. When God demonstrates His great love to us, we will respond in worship. Our hearts will melt, and we will draw near in trust and in hope.

Because our God is good.

A Willing Sacrifice

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We tend to picture Isaac as a child when Abraham is told to sacrifice him, but much of the Jewish commentary says that Isaac is a 37 year old man by this time, and that the story is as much about Isaac’s willingness to obey his father as his fathers obedience to God.

The Midrash contains a story that says Isaac, in his desire to be obedient, asked his father to also tie his hands and feet, because the urge to break free and escape death was so strong.

Abraham’s Silence

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How do we know that Abraham doesn’t believe he’s going to lose his son Isaac when God tells Abraham to sacrifice him? Genesis 22:5 gives us a clue, but the writers of “The Torah: A Woman’s Commentary” note Abraham’s negotiations over Sodom and his advocating for Ishmael as a point of contrast. Unlike in those instances, Abraham does not plead for Isaac in this part of the text.

Abraham’s silence over Isaac communicates so much.

Weeping for Ishmael

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And Abraham resided in the land of the Philistines for many days.
Genesis 21:34 (NASB)

In Genesis 21, Abraham heeds his wife’s words at the instruction of God: he removes Ishmael from their home. The text says Abraham was deeply troubled.

The chapter ends with this ambiguous phrase: יָמִים רַבִּים (yamim rabbim): “for many days.”

It doesn’t seem like Abraham is too upset, as the text doesn’t seem to say much else about Abraham’s response, other than sending them off with some extra bread and water.

But there may be a clue hidden in here in the words.

You’d think a phrase like “many days” would appear all over the text, but in this exact form יָמִים רַבִּים, the phrase only appears twice in Genesis. Here, and then in Genesis 37. Look closely. It’s the same story.

So Jacob tore his clothes, and put on a sackcloth undergarment over his waist, and mourned for his son many days. Then all his sons and all his daughters got up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. And he said, “Surely I will go down to Sheol in mourning for my son.” So his father wept for him.
Genesis 37:34-35 (NASB)

Perhaps this teaches us how God felt about Adam when sin entered the world and doomed him to die, too.

And perhaps this teachs us how God views all of us.

Everlasting Trees

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Abraham planted a tamarisk tree at Beersheba, and there he called on the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God.
Genesis 21:33 (NASB)

Genesis 21 is the 3rd time the verb נָטַע (natah) “planted” shows up in the Bible.

The first time, it’s when God planted a garden in Eden. (Genesis 2:8)
The second time, Noah planted a vineyard after the Great Flood. (Genesis 9:20)

This time, Abraham plants a tamarisk tree and calls God “El Olam,” or “God Everlasting.”

Why plant a tree? What does it have to do with “Everlasting?” The text doesn’t say, but it may be connected to the use of “olam” in the text.

Genesis repeats the phrase “everlasting covenant” or “everlasting” with “your SEED” (Genesis 13:15, 17:7, 17:8, 17:13, 17:19).

Perhaps Abraham associates “seed” with “everlasting,” so we should understand that he planted the tree from a seed as a remembrance.

Archer in the Wilderness

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So Abraham got up early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water, and gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulder, and gave her the boy, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered about in the wilderness of Beersheba.

When the water in the skin was used up, she left the boy under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him, about a bowshot away, for she said, “May I not see the boy die!” And she sat opposite him, and raised her voice and wept. God heard the boy crying; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter with you, Hagar? Do not fear, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Get up, lift up the boy, and hold him by the hand, for I will make a great nation of him.” Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.

And God was with the boy, and he grew; and he lived in the wilderness and became an archer.
Genesis 21:14-20 (NASB)

One of the reasons I like Genesis so much is because of the focus on the details. We often overlook these little repetitions, but the structure *is* part of the story.

Hagar’s Cry

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Then she went and sat down opposite him, about a bowshot away, for she said, “May I not see the boy die!” And she sat opposite him, and raised her voice and wept. God heard the boy crying; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter with you, Hagar? Do not fear, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.
Genesis 21:16-17 (NASB)

It’s fascinating to read that both Hagar and Ishmael are crying out, but the text only says that God heard the boy crying, but then the angel asks “what is the matter with you, Hagar?”

Why would it say “God heard the boy crying?”

There are thoughts in the commentaries about this:

Perhaps the boy is about to die, and his need is greater than hers. Surely God attends to the needs of the most needy.

Or Perhaps it’s because Ishmael is a son of Abraham, so there’s a special connection. God has made a promise to be with Ishmael.

Etc, etc. It’s all Ishmael-centered.

But maybe the story is actually still centered around Hagar. Maybe the reason God hears the boy’s cry is because that is Hagar’s specific prayer. She cries out to God, “Please hear my son’s cry.” Though God made a promise about Ishmael to make him a great nation, God and Hagar already have an established relationship. God sees Hagar.

Who is Your Father?

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Now Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking Isaac. Therefore she said to Abraham, “Drive out this slave woman and her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be an heir with my son Isaac!”
Genesis 21:9-10 (NASB)

There is a story in the Midrash that paints a sweeping narrative that creates context for these two verses. It starts back in the previous chapter, when Sarah is taken by Abimelech.

So Abraham prayed to God; and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female servants. Then they bore children; for the Lord had closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.
Genesis 20:17-18 (NKJV)

Remember: the healing that happens in that chapter is related to childbirth.

Based on this childbirth-related healing, and then the birth of Isaac in chapter 21, the rabbis suggest that rumors began to spread. Perhaps this son of Sarah is no son of Abraham, but instead is a son of Abimelech. The timing is right, and clearly, Abimelech’s wife and “female servants” are all pregnant.

While we, the readers, are told that God prevented Abimelech from touching Sarah, who knows if the people in the story, to include Abraham’s whole entourage, believe it?

And most importantly, does Hagar believe it? She has witnessed Abraham and Sarah’s frequent deception first-hand.

So the rabbis say this: “the prattle of children reflects what they picked up from their father or what they picked up from their mother.” If Ishmael is “mocking” Isaac (and not abusing, per another interpretation of the story), perhaps the mockery is this: “Everyone knows Abraham is my father. Who is your father?”

And Sarah, hearing this, would know that these are Hagar’s words, and that Hagar would be making a clear statement about inheritance: Only the son of Abraham should receive any portion of Abraham’s blessing and wealth.

Perhaps this is why Sarah declares, “the son of this slave woman shall not be an heir with my son Isaac!”

Fountain of Youth

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And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have given birth to a son in his old age.”
Genesis 21:7 (NASB)

There is a teaching in the Jewish commentaries that say Sarah experienced a reversal of age and literally became a young woman again in order to give birth to Isaac and to nurse him until weened.

In this chapter, when Isaac is born, only Abraham’s age is referenced.

Whether Sarah literally became a youthful woman again (so beautiful that even a Pharaoh would find her desirable!) or not is immaterial. It changes nothing. However, in some ways, she did experience something that’s only possible for younger women – to give birth, and to nurse a child until it is weened.

In contrast, Abraham appears to remain old in every way.