Tag: Genesis 18

Weeping with God

Posted on by jovial_cynic

The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do…?”
Genesis 18:17 (NIV)

The word “hide” in Genesis 18:17 isn’t the word khabah (חָבָא) that Adam used in Genesis 3:8-10. Khabah means to hide away to avoid being seen. It’s secretive.

God uses the word kasaw (כָּסָה), which is the same word used to describe Japheth and Shem covering Noah, shielding him. They aren’t trying to conceal their father. They are protecting him from shame and grief.

Similarly, God is not musing over obsecuring the truth from Abraham. It’s heavier than that. God is about to break Abraham’s heart by bringing him into the same grief that God experienced back in Genesis 6. It’s a spiritual and emotional burden.

So the Lord was sorry that He had made mankind on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
Genesis 6:6 (NIV)

Now, in the prior chapter, the rabbis suggest a special union was made between Abraham and God through Covenant. This brought in the divine Presence and in-dwelling of God into Abraham and changed the relationship. In this new relationship, God says: “You will share in my glory; and you will share in my heartache.”

So when God asks, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do,” this marks the first instance where a man of God is being brought into that heartache on a personal level. Abraham’s response gives us a clearer picture of God’s heart.

When God destroyed the world by flood, the text says that the thoughts and intents of the heart of all man was evil continually, except for Noah. Would God have destroyed the world if there were even more righteous people?

Look at Abraham’s words that reveal God’s heart.

Abraham approached and said, “Will You indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous people within the city; will You indeed sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from You to do such a thing, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?”
Genesis 18:23-25 (NIV)

So when Abraham pleads with God, asking “What if there are 50 righteous people in the city? What if there are 40? 30? What if there are only 10?”, we are shown the kind of consideration God gave back in Genesis 6. God’s own heart broke over the rising wickedness.

Later, fire falls from the night sky to destroy the cities.

We have to picture Abraham watching and weeping, coming to the realization that there weren’t even ten righteous people in the city, just like there weren’t even two righteous people in the world before the flood.

Abraham weeps. God weeps.

“Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?”

If you walk with God, you will weep, too.

Singular and Plural

Posted on by jovial_cynic

Looking up, he saw three figures standing near him. Perceiving this, he ran from the entrance of the tent to greet them and, bowing to the ground, he said, “My lords! If it please you, do not go on past your servant.
Genesis 18:2-3 (The Contemporary Torah, JPS 2006)

Most translations say “my Lord” in this verse (singular), but this is actually the plural noun “adonai.”

The rabbis debate over whether this is intended as a majestic title (like “Elohim”), or if Abraham is calling all three of them “lords”.

But “you” is singular here.

Let a little water be brought; bathe your feet and recline under the tree.
Genesis 18:4 (The Contemporary Torah, JPS 2006)

But in the next verse, the verbs switch back to referring to a plural subject. “Bathe” and “recline” are plural verbs here.

Grammatically, it is very strange. One possibility is that Abraham is sometimes just talking to one of the men, and sometimes talking to all three.

Scholars debate this. It’s quite odd.

Why Three Angels?

Posted on by jovial_cynic

Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.
Genesis 18:2 (NIV)

In Genesis 18, we have this odd story about three men who meet Abraham. We’ll learn that they are angels, as two of them continue on to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in the next chapter.

The Rabbis ask, “Why THREE angels? Couldn’t one angel have done it all?”

In response, they suggest that perhaps an angel can only carry out one mission:

One to make an announcement
One to overthrow the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah
One to cure Abraham after his circumcision

והנה שלשה אנשים AND BEHOLD THREE MEN — one to announce to Sarah the birth of a son, one to overthrow Sodom, and one to cure Abraham, for one angel does not carry out two commissions.
Rashi on Genesis 18:1:1a

This may sound farfetched, but they have a reason for this. If you read through Genesis 18 and 19, the men switch between answering in the plural and in the singular at different times in the chapter.

You may know that this is so because throughout this section it (Scripture) mentions them in the plural — “and they ate” (Genesis 18:8), “and they said unto him” (Genesis 18:9) — whilst in the case of the announcement it states, (Genesis 18:10) “And he said, I will certainly return unto thee”, and with regard to the overthrow of Sodom it says (Genesis 19:22) “For “I” cannot do anything” and (Genesis 19:21) “that “I” will not overthrow [the city]”. Raphael who healed Abraham went thence to rescue Lot; that explains what is stated (Genesis 19:17) “And it came to pass when they had brought them forth, that he said, Escape for thy life”, for you learn from this that only one of these acted as Deliverer.
Rashi on Genesis 18:1:1b

While that’s all very interesting, the most challenging thing about the chapter is that the men also appear to be interchangeable with God. Sometimes Abraham is speaking to the angels, and sometimes the text says he is speaking to God.

When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way. Then the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?
Genesis 18:16-17 (NIV)

There’s no concensus here. It’s a mystery. But it’s from this chapter that the notion of some kind of triune nature of God first shows up in the text. Not in the “Father/Son/Holy-Spirit” kind of way, but at least something that shows that God is more complex than we realize.

The Dwelling Place

Posted on by jovial_cynic
We have this religious word “Tabernacle,” which sounds quite grandious and holy and spiritual, but it’s just the latin word for fancy tent. It’s “Tabernaculum,” whereas a normal tent would be “taberna.”

Fun fact: taberna is where we get the word tavern – a place where people eat and drink together. It’s a meeting place. One might call it a holy place!

Anyway, we get this word “Tabernacle” as a translation of the Hebrew word “Mishkan.”

The Mishkan is the physical place where God dwells with Israel in the Scriptures: it’s “God’s tent,” as it were. It’s quite an extravagent tent, with blue and purple and scarlet fabric, and gold latches and curtains of goat hair.

Moreover, you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twisted linen and violet, purple, and scarlet material; you shall make them with cherubim, the work of a skilled embroiderer.
Exodus 26:1 (NASB)

Then you shall make curtains of goats’ hair as a tent over the tabernacle; you shall make eleven curtains in all.
Exodus 26:7 (NASB)

You shall also make fifty clasps of gold, and join the curtains to one another with the clasps so that the tabernacle will be a unit.
Exodus 26:6 (NASB)

But the point isn’t the structure or the appearance.

The Hebrew word Mishkan is the noun form of the verb shakhan, which means “to dwell.” To be with.

The understanding is that the Mishkan is God dwelling with us in a physical place in our world. But the concept of it is greater than the physical material that built it. The Jewish people understood this, and they created a word to describe this spiritual reality: The Shekhinah. (sheh-ken-AH), or the “Presence of God.”

This word isn’t in the Bible, but I’ll break the Hebrew down for you.

When a Hebrew verb becomes a concrete noun, it often gets an “M” sound in front. That’s how shakhan (שָׁכַן) becomes Mishkan (מִשְׁכָּן). Again, that’s “tabernacle” or “great tent.”

But when the verb becomes an abstract noun, it gains an “H” at the end along, with some additional vowel changes. So shakhan (שָׁכַן) becomes Shekhinah (שְׁכִינָה).

The Mishkan/Tabernacle is the concrete image of God’s dwelling place (a tent), whereas the Shekhinah is the abstract concept of God’s spiritual presence.

Interestingly, concrete nouns are often masculine, and abstract nouns are feminine.

Consider the Hebrew words for man and woman. Man is Ish; Woman is Ishah. The woman is identified with the “H” at the end, so there’s the feminine link.

But also, I’ve previously written that the woman represents the Spirit of humanity, whereas the man represents the Flesh.

When we get to Genesis 17 where God changes Abram and Sarai’s names, in the Hebrew it’s very clear: God adds an “H” to each of their names… which can be understood to mean something. Not that they’re now both “feminine,” but they are now both “spiritual.”

In the same way shakhan (to dwell) becomes the Shekhinah (the Presence), Abram/Sarai become Abraham/Sarah – the spiritual carriers of the Presence of God. And this happens in the same chapter as the Covenant of Circumcision. Or as I call it, the Commitment.

This idea of God’s presence linked to a Covenant that requires our commitment happens in an interesting way in Torah. Remember: shakhan just means “to dwell.” Every instance of this word in Genesis is talking about a person dwelling somewhere. Always a human.

But EVERY time in Exodus, beginning when it first appears in chapter 24, the word is NEVER used to mean the dwelling place of a person.

It’s exclusively used to describe the dwelling place of GOD.

And wouldn’t you know it, Exodus 24 is the outlay of… the Covenant.

Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it as the people listened; and they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient!”
Exodus 24:7 (NASB)

So we have a very clear relationship between Covenant-and-Commitment and The Dwelling Place of God. But how do we see this with Abraham? What evidence is there that God has made his dwelling within Abraham?

Look at these 3 instances of the way the text describes how God meets Abraham.

Genesis 7:15 – “then appeared Yahweh to Abram”
Genesis 17:1 – “and appeared Yahweh to Abram”
Genesis 18:1 – “And appeared to him Yahweh”

The Rabbis see significance in this change.

In the first two instances, God’s name is first, as you’d expect. But in the third, God’s name appears second, after the reference to Abraham. And the rabbis say that this is the meaning: God now dwells WITHIN Abraham.

Going forward, Abraham isn’t described as having visions or glimpses of the Divine. He now walks WITH God. It’s in this same chapter that God says He will not hide things from Abraham. It’s because God lives within him.

The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do,”
Genesis 18:17 (NASB)

Abraham IS the Mishkan living out the Shekhinah.

The notion that God’s people are the temple, and that the Holy Spirit dwells in us is tied to this very thing. This is the root of the teaching.

But it’s linked to a Covenant where we must engage in a “spiritual circumision.” We must lean in.

What I’m describing here is not a “heaven vs. hell” scenario. Rather, I’m describing a life where God is either perceived as something on the outside, leading the way… or God is living inside of you and allowing you to see the world through God’s eyes.

According to the text, this isn’t automatic. It requires our heart. Our whole committed heart. “Circumcision.” This is what it means to walk with God.

Is this your desire? I hope so. Because it is also God’s desire.

Three Angels

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The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”

“I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.

Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.”

The angel of the Lord also said to her:
“You are now pregnant
and you will give birth to a son.
You shall name him Ishmael,
for the Lord has heard of your misery.
He will be a wild donkey of a man;
his hand will be against everyone
and everyone’s hand against him,
and he will live in hostility
toward all his brothers.”
Genesis 16:7-12 (NIV)

There is a teaching in the Midrash that suggests Hagar may have been visited by separate angels in Genesis 16. They each seem to have their own message:

verse 7: God’s call.
verse 9: Comfort and instruction.
verse 11: Truth and justice.

In Genesis 18, three men (angels) will appear to Abram… and then later, only two angels will travel to rescue Lot from the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Perhaps this is related.