1. Exceedingly old people being told they’ll have babies: That’s rather weird.
2. God institutes a covenant through circumcision: That’s even weirder.
3. Abram gets his name changed to Abraham, and he is instructed to start calling his wife by a different name as well. That’s just completely bonkers.
Could you imagine if your spouse did that?!
She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.
Genesis 16:13-14
Translators and our concordances provide us with the plain and literal meanings of things, which is useful.
In Genesis 16, “Beer Lahai Roi” can be understood as the “well of the Living One seeing me.” The text basically explains itself in the passage.
But the Rabbis point out something else interesting here.
“Beer” (or Be-ayr) is well, or pit, or spring of water.
“Hai/Chai” means “living one,” like souls or living beings.
“Roi” means to see, but also the way a prophet sees. Just not eyeball vision, but like… having a vision.
So we get this “well of the living one who sees.”
Here it is in Hebrew: בְּאֵר, followed by חַי, and then רֹאֶה combined into this one compound word: בְּאֵר לַחַי רֹאִי
Say to him: ‘Long life to you! Good health to you and your household! And good health to all that is yours!
1 Samuel 25:6 (NIV)
Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra says the phrase “beer l’chai” is like the phrase “ko l’chai,” which we read in 1 Samuel 25. It’s a cheer of blessing, which means “To life!” or “So may you live!”
If you’ve studied Hebrew or listen to Jewish people, you may have heard the phrase “lechaim” (or “L’Chaim”) which contains the same phrase as a cheer: “To life!” It’s the same thing.
That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.
Genesis 16:14 (NIV)
So in this verse, ibn Ezra directs us to this phrase: “It is still there.”
The well was so called because the Ishmaelites held annual festivities at this well. It is still in existence and is called the well of zamum.
Ibn Ezra on Genesis 16:14b
In his commentary, he writes that even at his time (ibn Ezra lived from 1089 to 1167), it was common knowledge that the sons of Ishmael once held festivities there as an annual tradition.
He reasons that the phrase “l’chai roi” was a cheer of blessing, meaning “to seeing life NEXT YEAR!”
So the name of the well can also be understood as a promise to Hagar that Ismael will be born next year: it’s in the next year that you’ll see the promised life. L’chai Roi.
BEER-LAHAI. Beer lahai means the well of him who will be alive next year.
Ibn Ezra on Genesis 16:14a
The astute student of Scripture should get goosebumps here.
But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.”
Genesis 17:21 (NIV)
In our typical speed-run through scripture, we read that God later tells Abram that Ishmael is not the son of the covenant, but “by this time next year,” the covenant with Isaac will be established.
But this “life by next year” was already given to Hagar.
This doesn’t take away from Isaac or Abram and the covenant God makes with them. But what it does is firmly establish that God cares deeply for the oppressed: those who suffer will get God’s attention first. God will not abandon those who cry out to him due to their afflication.
In due time.
L’chaim.
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.
Genesis 16:7-8 (NIV)
The first words to the lowly slave woman aren’t spoken by Abram, man of God. It isn’t by Sarai, woman of God and the one responsible for her. It’s by the angel of God, and he calls her by name.
The first time we read that an angel speaks, it’s to the one we’ve oppressed.
She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.”
Genesisi 16:13 (NIV)
Everyone notices that Hagar calls God “El Roi,” which is “God sees,” but it’s important to note that she is told to call her son Ishmael, which means “God hears.”
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.
Genesis 16:11 (NIV)
We worship a God who sees our affliction and hears our cry. He will avenge us.
And Melchizedek the king of Salem brought out bread and wine; now he was a priest of God Most High.
Genesis 14:18 (NIV)
The rabbis suggest that Melchizedek may be Shem, the son of Noah. Or at least, the text is linking the concepts of the two men.
“מלך שלם” (“King of Salem”) The initial letters of these words spell the name Shem. This teaches that Malchizedek was Shem, the son of Noah.
Kitzur Ba’al HaTurim on Genesis 14:18:1
Consider that “Shem” means “name,” and the God is often referred to as “haShem,” or “the Name.”
In the year he died, the Flood began, and I can’t help but think that this is an image of God’s patience: to extend his life to hold back the flood.
Eve names Seth, but in Genesis 5, the text says Adam does, so the implication may be that they both did. And perhaps that’s the point. We are meant to work together.
Cain means acquired
Abel means a breath; vanity
Seth means appointed
“By the work of my hands, I attempt to acquire a name for myself. But this, too, is vanity, a grasping for the wind.
But God appoints another way. God’s way.
Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, “I have obtained a male child with the help of the Lord.”
Genesis 4:1 (NASB)
Eve is the first to refer to God by the Name.
Perhaps this points to intimacy. God is not merely “out there” to her, but close enough to call by name. God’s very own name.
We are told that Cain “worked the soil” in the NIV. If you’ve followed along the previous weeks’ studies, you’ve heard this word “worked” before, but in a different form. And connected to a different man.
Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man.” Later she gave birth to his brother Abel.
Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil.
Genesis 4:2 (NIV)
It’s Cain’s own dad, Adam. In Genesis 2, we’re told that Adam’s role was to “till the ground.” This word “till” is the Hebrew word “abad,” which means to “labor” or to “work.” And in Genesis 2, the work is GOOD.
Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground.
Genesis 2:5 (NIV)The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
Genesis 2:15 (NIV)
But in Genesis 3, the ground gets cursed.
To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
Genesis 3:17 (NIV)So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.
Genesis 3:23 (NIV)
What does it mean that the ground is cursed? What does it mean that the work will result in painful toil, thorns & thistles? Why does this point to death?
Cain’s name means “acquired.” As in, “I worked to acquire this.”
This is death.
God’s acceptance of Abel’s offering is unrelated to his own accomplishment. He simply brought the best of what he had: the “fat” (or choicest/best part) of the “firstborns.” The best we have.
It’s the same thing God asks of us today. Not the sacrifice, but our heart.