Posted on by Dale

Numbers 1:1-4:49 Family History

When I was growing up, I hated History at school. It was always incredibly boring to me – lists of dates, and names of long dead people I had to memorize by rote to pass a test, and then forever forget once the test was done.

As I got older, I grew more and more interested in the past – particularly with my family, and where we came from. It turns out we can trace the our family back to the 9th century, when they were Swiss German foresters.

On my Mom’s side, according to my Grandmother (Myrtle Celliers), our family can trace back to German royalty. I haven’t traced it back yet, but spent some time this afternoon chatting to my mom about what she can remember of her parents and grandparents so we could have a record of it.

Many people are fascinated by their ancestry – there are websites devoted to helping people trace their family history and mapping it out. There are also DNA tests you can take, and many other tools for tracing family history.

Today’s reading is the family record of the people who God delivered out of Egypt – listed by family and tribe. It’s a tremendously important document for the descendants of these families to trace back their roots, as well as a testimony to how much God values families.

Along with the record of their families, there are instructions for how they were to camp, and the duties they had within the community, as well as where they were to march when the community traveled.

When we read records and details like this, it can be very tempting to skip over and wonder what they could possibly mean to me today. I remembered what I was told in Bible School about interpreting scripture:

First, read whats there (sounds obvious – but so often we miss important details when we just skim over the passages). Is there anything you haven’t seen before? Does anything bring up a question for you? Write these down!

Secondly – the passage MEANS the same thing today as it meant then. It may be APPLIED differently, but the meaning is the same.

This is how I came to think about the passage today in terms of the importance of being able to trace back your family. What this was for them was a record of who God had brought out of Egypt – in other words, who his chosen people were – as well as being an important written record they could use for tracing back their family history. In other words – it was how they were personally tied to the promises and deliverance that God had given to his chosen people. It was a record of their link to the promises and blessings, as well as their responsibilities in the community, that God had given them. Thought of this way, it takes on a whole new layer and level of meaning.

Thirdly, you apply the passage to your life. So here is my application / take away for today…

My take away

Write down a record of how God has used your family, and blessed them – in your life, and as far back as you can trace. These stories form an important part of the greater story of how God has blessed our family throughout history, and what the promises he has given to our family are for the future.

My friend Kim recently started keeping a list of all the surprise blessings God has given to her family as they went through a difficult and trying time. It is an incredible list to read – and very inspiring to me, as well as to Kim and her family. Many of the details listed are seemingly small things to other people, but they are HUGE to Kim and her family. However, even though some of them are seemingly small, they contribute to form a list (which is stilol growing) that is a very impressive record of the blessing of God on Kim’s family. Viewed as a whole, it clearly shows Kim and her family that God has been with them through their hard times, and is still with them each and every day, loving them and providing for them.

I have been challenged by today’s reading, and Kim’s example, to keep a record of the blessings, promises, and duties that God has given me and my family, so that I can leave them as a legacy to my family.

Posted on by Dale

Leviticus 20:1-27:34 I Am The Lord Who Makes You Holy

Wow! Today’s reading started with some really difficult to read passages.

Chapter 20 is a list of sins with the death penalty. Child sacrifice, sexual immorality, occultic practices – all result in the death penalty.

The good news is almost hidden away inside the list of sins – in verse 7 and 8 are these verses:

7 “‘Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the Lord your God.8 Keep my decrees and follow them. I am the Lord, who makes you holy.

I am the Lord who makes you holy – this really struck me as I was listening to the passage while mowing my front lawn today.

All of us sin – maybe not specifically in the way Chapters 20-27 describe, but we all sin. Many people think the Old Testament is particularly harsh in the penalties it describes for sin – especially in passages like Leviticus 20. However, the New Testament is even stricter and the penalty for sin even harsher.

Romans 6:23 says “For the wages of sin is death”. It doesn’t give a list of sins like Leviticus and other places in the Old Testament, it just says “sin”. All sin is included in that.

Romans 3:23 says “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” In other words, I fall under the death penalty for my sin.

Romans 7 puts it this way:

So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?

The good news in the New Testament, like in Leviticus, is that it is God who makes us holy. Again in Romans, it says this:

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives lifehas set you[a] free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh,[b] God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.

In other words, the sacrifice for sin was Jesus. The difference between Jesus’ sacrifice, and the sacrifices in Leviticus, is that Jesus died once and for all. It is a sacrifice that not only atones for sin, but strips it of the power it has over us – that is, the power of death.

This idea of God making them holy is repeated multiple times throughout the rest of the reading today (20:8, 24, 26 ; 21:8, 15, 23 ; 22:9, 16, 32). It speaks of God taking it upon Himself to make His people holy, because we are incapable of holiness by ourselves.

In Jesus, this was finally worked out once and for all time – for all those in the old covenant, and all of us in the new covenant.

Thank you Jesus for loving me and for giving your life for me. Help me to live in victory over sin, and to walk out my salvation in your righteousness. When I fail, which happens every day, help me to accept your forgiveness, and to walk in the victory over death that Jesus has already won.

Posted on by Dale

Leviticus 10:1-19:37 What’s The Point Of All These Laws?

If you watched the link I put in yesterday’s blog, you would have heard Grant say how many people’s goals to read through the Bible get scuppered when they hit Leviticus. The first 9 chapters aren’t so hard to read. They’re not scintillating reading, but at least they can be related to my understanding of Jesus as the perfect sacrifice, and we can learn many nuggets about the price of sin, and the nature of God from them.

Today’s reading starts with somewhat shocking account of the son’s of Aaron, priests, overstepping themselves in the performance of their duties, and paying for it with their lives. Clearly, the Lord was setting a precedent – He wanted to make sure that the priests did not abuse their positions, and that the fear and respect that they had for the Lord in the performance of their duties was maintained.

And then…

Chapter 11 begins the section where I think that the well intentioned Bible reader might lose the will to continue. Even listening to it on the way to work this morning, I was hard pressed to find anything I could relate to or specifically apply to my life or situation.

Their are laws for eating and laws about skin diseases, and the treatment of mold, laws about sex, pregnancy, prostitution, money, worship, and just about everything else a worshiping community needs to live and worship together.

I was reminded of something I learned from a medical doctor on my Discipleship Training School in Youth With A Mission. He said that if the tribes in rural Africa followed just the laws found in Leviticus, they would eliminate most of the diseases and poor hygiene conditions found there. That’s encouraging, and I guess the Jews were in a similarly rural environment, hence the laws.

There was one thing that caught my attention and made me laugh out loud:

“A man who has lost his hair and is bald is clean. 41 If he has lost his hair from the front of his scalp and has a bald forehead, he is clean.” (13:14)

Whew! I’m ok then!

What’s the point of all these laws then? God is setting up a community of people to live together and to worship together. The laws are all designed to help the community flourish in their relationships with each other, and in their relationships with God. Although many of them don’t have a specific relevance to my life, they point to the same thing…

My Take Away

God desires relationship with his people! All these laws were designed to draw the people closer to God, and to provide a way for a fallen, sinful nation to live together as a community of God’s people in relationship with Him. Although we don’t have the same system of relating to God as they did, His desire is for us to walk closely in fellowship with Him.

Today, I will spend conscious time listening to the Lord to hear whats on his heart for me.

Posted on by Dale

Leviticus 1:1-9:24 Offerings and Sacrifices

The theme of today’s reading (offerings and sacrifices) is still very fresh in my mind from a recent series we had in our Sunday morning services at church.

I’m very tired tonight (I went straight from work to a 3.5 hour marriage evening at our church – which was good, but I am now ready for a bath and my bed!) so instead of blogging my thoughts, if anyone is reading this, I can highly recommend the sermons we had in church about these chapters – here is the link to the first in the series. The rest will auto-play afterwards.

Forward to about the 3 minute mark if you want to skip over the church announcements =)

Shadows of the Saviour – The Offerings in Leviticus

Enjoy!

Posted on by Dale

Exodus 31:1-40:38 Objects of Worship

My first memory of going to church in England is of attending a midnight mass on Christmas eve at an Anglican church in St James, London.

It was not long after I had studied the book of Revelation. All of a sudden, the words of Revelation were brought to life in a new way, and the liturgy I saw in the church that evening spoke to me more loudly than the words of the priest. The symbolism of the elements, the incense, the candles, the altar, the vestments – all brought new meaning to my understanding of God, of worship, and of the visions in Revelation.

Today’s reading, at first glance, seems like a LOT of detail about some very hard to picture details of the construction of the temple and the various objects and vestments to be used in worship by the priests, for the people. To me, they lack the associations that they carried for those first Jewish worshipers. Experts have proven that picture associations are powerful tools for memorization, and each of the symbols used in the worship of God through the sanctuary, it’s furnishings, and the items used in worship had a meaningful significance to the early Jews.

The importance of these things cannot be overestimated. I see them even in the people’s sinning in the creation of the Golden Calf.

They used the items they had acquired in Egypt (earrings, bracelets, etc) to create an object of worship that was both familiar to them (cows and calves were used by both the Egyptians and Canaanites as objects of worship), and importantly – VISIBLE to them. This wasn’t to be a different God – when Aaron builds an altar for worship, he declares that the next day there will be a festival for YHWH – Yahweh (Ex 32:5). They were still (in their minds) worshiping the God who brought them out of Egypt – they just needed to see him. The people needed a visible representation of God. Until now, Moses had been leading them, and he was a bridge between them and God. Only Moses spoke to the Lord, and now that Moses was “gone” – he had disappeared from them – they needed a way to worship “Yhwh”, and so they created this visible icon of Him.

It’s easy to criticize them – after all, I am on the other side of the resurrection. I am able to personally speak to the Father, and hear Him speak to me. However, even today, people use icon’s of their faith (not images, but symbols) to help them focus their eyes on Jesus – the cross, candles, even the physical Bible. The sin, and the danger, comes in deifying them. They should lead us to God, but sometimes, like with the golden calf, they become the object of worship, rather than a signpost to God, or a reminder of his presence.

The reading goes on to give details, whose meaning and significance is largely lost to me, but would have been powerful to the people at the time, and aided them in remembering who they worshiped, and why they worshiped him.

I had a lot of questions about some of the reading – why did the Levites have to kill the people who had sinned, and why did this lead to them becoming the priests? It seems bizarre to me as a modern reader.

Why were the survivors of this purge struck with a plague? Why does Moses burn up and grind up the idol to a powder, and then make the people drink it?

Why does the cloud come down behind Moses when the lord spoke to him in 33:9, and stop him from entering the tent in 40:35?

Did Joshua hear what God said when he talked face to face with Moses, since he seems to have been in the tent too? (33:11)

I love how the people all were involved in the building and furnishing of the temple – from donating the materials, to crafting, sewing, and decorating it. This, more than anything, should have cemented their relationship with the Lord. And yet…

My take away for today:

Remember who I worship,
Remember who is the source of all I have.
Remember what He has done for me,
And what He has given me.
Participate in the building of the temple of God with the skills and abilities I have.

Thank you father for the reminders all around me of who you are, what you have done for me, and where you are taking me. When I am struggling, and it feels like you are not there, help me to remain faithful, and not to turn elsewhere for what only you can give me. Amen.

Posted on by Dale

Exodus 1:1-30:38 The Will, The Ways, And The Worship of God

I was struck today by how Moses and the people (like me!) respond to the will of God in a number of ways :

  1. The Egyptians don’t see it: God is blessing the people of Israel, and the Egyptians respond with fear, suspecting that they will ally themselves with the Egyptian’s enemies. Instead of recognizing God’s hand on them, they try to oppress them with slavery.
  2. Moses tries to avoid it: God calls Moses in the burning bush to be his mouthpiece – to go and tell Pharaoh to “Let my people go”. Moses tries to avoid this by claiming fear, lack of authority and lack of ability. Each time God answers his doubts, and each time He does, Moses thinks of a new excuse.
  3. Pharaoh denies it, and hardens his heart against God over and over, until he goes past the point of no return. Thereafter, the Bible tells us God hardens the heart of Pharaoh to show his power and Glory.
  4. The people of Israel question and doubt it. Although they see God do many miracles to set them free, they constantly doubt and look back over their shoulders when they face difficulties. Instead of turning and looking to God for answers, they keep looking back over their shoulders to what they have left behind in Egypt.

The Ways Of God

Once they are successfully across the Red Sea, God makes know to them the way He will live in relationship with them, and the ways the people are to live and worship Him. This will be through following the laws, and insituting the sacrifice system.

The Worship of God

The worship of God is structured, and set up in such a way as to be woven throughout the day to day life of the people.

My take away:

  1. Look out for what God is doing in my life, so I see it when it is happening
  2. Obey the will of God – even if I don’t understand what God is doing, if I know what He wants me to do, I need to do it.
  3. Keep my heart open to God, and never harden it against His will for me.
  4. Don’t grumble against God. Trust what He has done, and is doing, and just do what I have before me each day.
Posted on by Dale

Genesis 40:1 – 50:26 The Power Of Forgiving Your Family

Family conflict is one of the most destructive and harmful sources of pain in our lives. The sense of betrayal felt when it comes from a family member is so much deeper and hurtful than when it comes from anyone else. We trust our families to look out for us, and when that is betrayed, it makes us vulnerable in a way that nothing else can.

When Joseph is sold off into slavery, he was at the darkest hour in his life that far. Betrayed, helpless, afraid, with no control over anything in his life.

He is taken into the house of the captain of Pharaohs guard, where he is betrayed again by Potiphars wife, who lies and says he tried to seduce her.

In the dungeon, he helps out Pharaoh’s cupbearer, who forgets Joseph when he gets restored to his position.

Over and over, Joseph is let down. For many people, this would crush them, and leave them bitter.

When his family comes to Egypt, and he recognizes who they are, instead of wreaking his vengeance, he tests to see how they have changed, and then in Chapter 45:4-7, he writes these remarkable words:

Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! 5 And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. 6 For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping.7 But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

What an incredible perspective to have! He is not only able to forgive his brothers, but is able to see the hand of God at work to bless them!

Because of Joseph’s ability to forgive his family, God uses him to bless his family, and multiply them into the people that He promised Abraham would be His chosen people, who would bless the nations.

It’s hard, when in the midst of the pain of a broken family relationship to see what God is doing through the situation. What I do know, is that God is the same God today as he was then. I want to always follow this example in my life, and allow God to use me as I forgive my family when they let me down or betray me. I always want to be used by God to bring healing to others whose families are being destroyed by conflict and unforgiveness.

Father God, please use me to help mend broken family relationships, and work out your plan for the family in my life.

Posted on by Dale

Gen 32:1-39:23 Where Is God In Family Feuding?

Family feuding – and SERIOUS conflict – is at the heart of most of the reading today.

The reading starts off on a fairly positive note. Having received Laban’s blessing to depart in chapter 31, Jacob reaches out after 20 years to his brother Esau to see if they can be reconciled. His tone is extremely conciliatory and deferential. When Jacob’s servant returns from carrying the message to Esau, Jacob is alarmed and afraid to hear that Esau is journeying to meet him with 400 men. Jacob then prays a prayer that struck me:

“O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ 10 I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps. 11 Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. 12 But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’”

Jacob reminds himself of God’s command, acknowledges his lack of worthiness for all the ways God has blessed him, and then makes his request of the Lord. Finally, he remind himself and God of the promises God made to him, which seem to be contradicted by his fear and circumstances.

What a great way to pray when you are afraid!

  1. Remind yourself of what God has told you to do.
  2. Remember how God has already blessed you.
  3. Make your request of God in light of this.
  4. Remind yourself of the promises God has already made to you.

Jacob wrestles with God (or an angel), gets a new name (Israel), and then meets up with Esau, and the twin brothers are reunited.

Chapter 34 begins with a very ugly account of the rape of Dinah, the anger and vengeance of her brothers, the slaughter of a city (by Simeon and Levi – the same Levi who is the ancestor of the priestly tribe of Israel), and Jacob’s concern that his son’s may have brought him trouble with the Canaanites by heir actions.

Chapter 35 and 36 describe Jacob’s relocation to Bethel, the death of Rachel and Isaac, and then the various descendants of Esau. There are many names in there of the ancestors of the tribes who later plague Israel as their enemies, including Esau (who is also known as Edom – ancestor of the Edomites), and Amalek (ancestor of the Amelekites).

Chapter 37 starts with the story of Joseph, who angers his brothers with his dreams because they show all the brothers and Jacob and Rebekkah bowing down before him. The brothers are so angered by the dreams, and the evident favoritism with which Jacob treats Joseph, that when he is sent to check up on them (Not a great parenting idea, Jacob, to send your favorite child to spy on his brothers and report back to you on them), they plot to kill him.

Fortunately for Joseph, his eldest half-brother Reuben (Leah’s son) convinces the rest of the siblings to sell him into slavery rather than killing him.

Joseph is sold by his brothers to a group of his cousins (the Midianites descend from Midian, Abrahams son by his last wife Keturah), and is taken off and resold in Egypt to the Captain of Pharaoh’s guards, Potiphar.

In the mean time, his brothers tell their father that Joseph has died, and produce the ornate robe that was the symbol of Jacob’s favoritism to Joseph, which they had dipped in goats blood, as “proof” of his death at the fangs of an unknown ferocious animal.

Chapter 38 is another sordid tale of dark family intrigue, and another one of those accounts in the Bible that expose the frailty and humanity of the people God has called.

Jacob’s son Judah marries a Canaanite woman, and has two sons, Er and Onan. Er marries a woman called Tamar, but the Bible says he is so wicked that the Lord causes him to die.

The tradition in those days was that if a man died childless, his brother’s responsibility was to conceive a child with the dead brothers wife, in order to continue his family line. Onan abuses that, and has relations with Tamar, but in such a way as to prevent her getting pregnant. We aren’t told why he does this, but God judges it to be so evil that he causes Onan to die too.

Tamar then approaches Judah to ask for his third son to fulfill this duty, but Judah says that at the time he is too young. Some time later, Judah’s wife dies, and while he is out with a friend shearing his sheep, Tamar realizes that he has no intention of giving her the his younger son to conceive a child by, so she disguises herself in prostitues veils, and seduces Judah.

Three months later, Tamar is evidently pregnant, and when Judah’s servants report this to him, he orders her death by being burned alive. Tamar proves that Judah was the dad (she took his seal as payment when she seduced him), and he judges her more righteous than himself, and allows her to live. Tamar has twins by this relationship, one of whom is Perez, who is identified as the ancestor of King David. Genesis does note that Judah has no further relations with Tamar.

Chapter 39 goes back to Joseph, who has worked his way up and earned the favour of Potiphar, so is made his personal attendant. Unfortunately, he has also caught the eye of Potiphar’s wife, who attempts to seduce Joseph multiple times. Eventually, she clears the house of other servants, and entraps Joseph. He flees, leaving his cloak in her hands, she tells her husband, and Joseph is thrown into prison.

So where is God in this mess of family feuding? Right in the centre of it all:

He’s in the reconciliation of Jacob and Esau,
and the blessing of their children.
He’s in the scandal of Judah and Tamar,
and from a lie He bring’s a King.
He’s in the dreams of a foolish boy,
and in the protection of an elder brother.
He’s in the sale of a slave,
and in the purchase of a guard captain.
He’s in the flight from temptation,
and in the favor of a warden.
He is at the center of it all.
To forgive, to bless, to protect, to grow, to inspire, to give favor.

Thank you Lord that no matter what I face, how I feel, how high I rise, how badly I fail, how deeply I fall – you are there. Amen

Posted on by Dale

Gen 27:1 -31:55 Pursuing The Blessing

Today’s passage struck me in a totally different way than I have read it before. Throughout these chapters, we see over and over again how relentlessly (and sometimes deviously!) the people in these passages pursue God’s blessing.

To start with, we have Rebekah spurring Jacob on to deceive his father, who has promised to bless his son Esau. When Rebekah hears this, she persuades Jacob to deceive his father and to steal Esau’s blessing.

In Genesis 25, we read about how Jacob persuaded Esau to exchange his birthright for a portion of stew. As I was listening to this morning’s reading, I wondered what the difference between a birthright and a blessing is. I looked it up, and found this on gotquestions.org :

A birthright was an honor given to the firstborn, bestowing “head of household” status and the right to inherit his father’s estate. The son with the birthright would receive a double portion of whatever was passed down (see Deuteronomy 21:17).

and…

A blessing could be given regardless of birthright. However, a greater blessing was given to the one who held the birthright. After Jacob’s deception, Esau complained that “he took my birthright, and now he’s taken my blessing!” (Genesis 27:36). Esau begged his father for some type of blessing to be given to him, and he did receive a secondary, inferior blessing (verses 38-40).

Jacob pursued the honor, riches, and inheritance of the birthright, and the protection, power, and impartation of the blessing. We can see how angry Esau was, and how desperate he was for a blessing, as he lets out a great cry, and begs Isaac for any blessing, and then promises retribution through murder on his brother when his father passes away.

Jacob flees, and begins to work for his father in law Laban. After working for 14 years to pay Laban for both of his daughters as wives, we see how Laban has realized that God has blessed him and he has prospered through Jacob’s presence. He offers to pay Jacob whatever he wants to stay on and continue to work for him – because he wants the continued blessing of the Lord on his herds. Jacob agrees to work for him, and although Laban changes the form of his payment 10 times in an attempt to cheat Jacob of God’s blessing, Jacob prevails with the Lord’s help, and becomes tremendously wealthy.

Jacob’s love for his wife Rachel greatly affects his relationship with his wife Leah. It seems that she may have cried out to God for his blessing, as she acknowledges him in the naming of her children.

I am constantly amazed and grateful that God chooses to bless sometimes the most undeserving of people. Leah clearly conspired with her father to trick Jacob into marrying her, and yet when she is unloved, and conceives a child, she acknowledges God as the source of that blessing.

After much back and forth between the sisters and their maids competing for Jacob’s affection, Rachel too conceives, and acknowledges that God is the source of that blessing (30:6).

Eventually, Jacob decides to leave Laban, and sneaks off to avoid conflict with his father in law.

Rachel steals the household God’s (perhaps to ensure their blessing?), and Laban pursues Jacob thinking he has done it.

In the end, Jacob and Laban work through their differences, and Laban blesses the family, who go on their way.

What is my take away?

Pursue God’s blessing, like Jacob did, and Esau did, each in their own way. He hears me, and even when I am not deserving of His favour, He blesses me. I will pursue his blessing fervently, and live a life worthy of the calling to which He has called me.

Posted on by Dale

Genesis 20:1 – 26: 35 Sex, Lies, And…..Questions!

I have read Genesis at least 30-40 times before, and listening to the passage on my way to work today, heard things I can only assume I skimmed over in my prior readings. Genesis 20-26 have to be some of the weirdest and most perplexing Chapters I have read for a long time. There are so many odd details. Let’s jump in to what struck me today… and here’s a heads up – I don’t have answers, just questions to share today!

Yesterday’s reading ends with Abraham pleading with God for Sodom and Gomorrah for the sake of Lot, and God has shown Abraham he not only listens to his prayers, but answers them. When God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah, He spares Lot, although Lot’s wife ends up as a pillar of salt.

Chapter 19 ends with Lot’s daughters getting him drunk, date-raping their dad, and conceiving sons. These sons would be the fathers of nations that would continually plague the Israelites (God’s people) in the future – Moab (father of the Moabites – the tribe Ruth came from), and Ammon (father of the Ammonites). It’s a sordid tale, but I have read and understood all this before. In their culture, their family line was everything, and these girls (without a mom to look out for them) acted out of desperation to continue their family lines.

Let’s now get into today’s reading, where my questions really begin…

Abraham moves to Gerar, part of the Philistine empire, where he tells people a half truth saying “Sarah is my sister”. Later in the chapter he says he does this because he was afraid if he told them she was his wife, they might kill him to take her. Clearly she was a beauty, because King Abimelek indeed does take her. He hasn’t yet slept with her, when he has a dream in which God tells him he is as good as dead, because he has taken a married woman.

On the surface, while distasteful, all of this seems perfectly understandable. After all, it happened once before in Chapter 12, when Abraham (then Abram) plots with Sarah (then Sarai) and tells exactly the same thing to Pharaoh. In 12:11, he says it is because “…I know what a beautiful woman you are”.

But…..!

This time it happens when Sarah is already an old lady. She’s over 90 (Gen 17:17) – so old that Chapter 18 says she and Abraham were very old (18:11), and she is past childbearing age – in her words “worn out” (18: 12).

Abimelek is also (it seems) the same king who Isaac later goes and tells the same lie to in Genesis 26. Both Abimelek’s are called the King of Gerar, and both have an advisor called Phicol. It seems unlikely that they are not the same person.

So… at this point in time, Abimelek is a fairly young man, who takes a 90+ year old woman because she is such a beauty????

The next confusing and perplexing thing is that when God appears to Abimelek in a dream, and He says:

“Yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against me. That is why I did not let you touch her. 7 Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all who belong to you will die.”

Abraham is called a prophet here – I’ve never noticed that before!

The thing is, God knows that Abimelek is innocent. Effectively that makes this situation Abraham’s fault, however God says Abimelek needs Abraham to pray for him so that he can live? I understand the part about returning her so you don’t die, but can’t fathom why Abraham needs to pray for Abimelek so that he will live. It was Abraham’s fault! Surely the blame and prayers should be the other way around…!

There is also another thing – at the end of the chapter, it seems that God hadn’t let Abimelek and his family and servants get away with being innocent and blameless in this matter, because it says:

17 Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelek, his wife and his female slaves so they could have children again, 18 for the Lord had kept all the women in Abimelek’s household from conceiving because of Abraham’s wife Sarah.

I don’t have any answers yet, since this is just me reading through the Bible, but I am definitely going to return to this passage and study this further!

Ok, so I clearly missed a lot of key details in my previous readings of Chapter 20. How about Chapter 21? Well, it seems I have skimmed over some stuff there too!

Isaac is born, and there is great rejoicing, until Ishmael mocks his younger half brother.

Pause for a second to focus on some details that will be important later, and I hadn’t thought about before…

I looked up what age babies were weaned at, and discovered that typically, ancient Hebrews weaned their children by age 3, but it could be anywhere from 2-4 years old. This would mean that Ishmael is approximately 16-18 years old when this Chapter takes place (Gen 17 – he was 13 when circumcised, and Abraham was 99. If Isaac was born when Abraham was 100, Ishmael was 14. Add on 2-4 years until Isaac is weaned, and you get Ishmael at 16-18 years old in Gen 21).

The thing is – Gen 21:14-20 reads like he was a much younger boy. Definitely something for further thought and research later!

In chapter 22, the account of Abraham being told by God to sacrifice Isaac is a story I am very familiar with. Abraham trusted that God would provide a sacrifice, and at the last minute he did. Abraham is commended for his faith, but then comes something in the wording that made me pause and wonder:

“I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 18 and through your offspring[b] all nations on earth will be blessed,[c] because you have obeyed me.”

Considering how many times God reassured Abraham before Isaac was born, and even after Ishmael was born, that ISAAC would be the way that God fulfilled His promise to Abraham, is seems strange that the Lord says it’s “because you have done this and not withheld your son, your only son”. I kind of get why God says “your only son” in this context (the reaffirmation of the covenant to make Abraham the father of many nations), but what if Abraham hadn’t been willing to offer his son? Would God have changed His mind? It almost reads like God is reassuring Himself about Abraham being worthy of that promise. Maybe I am missing something. This is definitely worth more thought and study in future.

Chapter 23 made me laugh – Abraham is arguing with Ephron about the fact the he insists he must pay for the land, and Ephron is trying to insist that he doesn’t. This is more ironic in view of the fact that God has promised all the land that this particular cave is part of to Abraham and his descendants anyway!

Chapters 24-25 were familiar passages, no new questions there this time around, but Ch 26 raised the question about Abimelek that I asked earlier.

At this point, Isaac must be somewhere in his 80’s (He was 60 when the twins were born (Ch 25:26), and Jacob and Esau have grown up by this point in the story), but Abimelek must be around 100 or more (if he is the same Abimelek as Abraham dealt with, which seems likely considering the details I talked about earlier). If you consider their ages, it’s somewhat amusing to think of Abimelek (over 100) catching out Isaac (over 80) in a lie in quite the way he did:

” Abimelek king of the Philistines looked down from a window and saw Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah. ”

Oops!!!

And that’s it for today’s reading. Plenty to think about!