[What is Abrahamic faith?

 

 Verse 6:  And he believed יהוה, and He counted it to him as righteousness.

 

The commentator Kalisch explains: 

 

believed. i.e. trusted. The childless Abram had faith in God’s promise that his descendants would be countless like the stars in heaven.  He was ready to wait God’s time, without doubting God’s truth.  That is the mark of true faith—steadfast trust in God, despite darkness and disappointment, and despite the fact that circumstances all point in the opposite direction.  True faith ‘discovers through the mists of the present the sunshine of the future; and recognizes in the discordant strife of the world the traces of the Eternal Mind that leads it to an unceasing harmony’ (Kalisch).

 

To play the (nonexistent) devil’s advocate:  Is faith really as simple as that?  

 

We had a messianic teacher who used to be picky about words he used; he didn’t like ‘faith’ and ‘believe’, he preferred ‘trusted’.  Are the three words different or simply synonyms that mean the same thing? Have you ever heard this example given in bible study to specify what God requires?

 

The example goes like this:  A tightrope walker who had an excellent track record challenged spectators as he proposed to do his daredevil stunt-walk across a rope that connected the ledge of one mountain to the ledge of another, the height of the fall would be several hundred feet above the ground.  He asks the crowd if they believe with his skills he could walk across to the other side? They all yelled YES! Do they believe he could make it back, YES they yelled. And, since they have seen him many times do the same stunt with an associate seated on his shoulders, he asked if they believe he could do the same and they yelled YES.  Then he asked if one of the YES-ers would get on his shoulders?  Silence, NO takers.  Belief, trust, have faith, the YES-ers all had it as long as they were not going to be tested.  

 

In Abraham’s case, there was no life to risk in believing, having faith, trusting in a promise of a son in his old age with Sarah in her old age; he simply had to take God’s word for it and keep doing what couples do to procreate.  At this point, that belief/trust/faith had not yet been tested by time passing . . . . well, we know what happens later after waiting and waiting for years. . . but at this point, Abraham’s belief was already counted to him as ‘righteousness’.

 

Now, this word ‘righteousness’ is one of those big words that most people really don’t truly understand.  Because when we look at the handpicked figures in Scripture’s hall of fame, some of them sometimes moved to the hall of shame:  they were not perfect, they slipped, they made unwise decisions, they committed sins unexpected of ‘righteous’ people (take David as an example).  And yet, it seems it is a certain pattern in their life that God looks at, that reflects the inclination of their heart, that manifests in the choices that they make — yes, despite their mistakes— that they REPENT and turn their lives around.  Of course we cannot discount the fact that there are consequences of their sin that affect not only their lives but others and sometimes generations down the ages as well.  

 

So, to simplify the word ‘righteousness’ — we redefine it as ‘being in the RIGHT’ because there is a RIGHT way and a wrong way. Who defines what is RIGHT?  Who else, the God who gave the Torah.  Live the Torah, and you’re righteous.  Live whatever little you know of Torah each step of your journey, as long as you are on that same pathway and learning more each day and gaining wisdom and beginning to think His thoughts, live His prescribed Torah life even imperfectly—heart and mind inclined to obey, falling along the way but getting up and staying on the path.

 

The point?  Abrahamic faith, despite man’s weaknesses and mistakes and wrong choices—ultimately it is all about KNOWING the One True God, believing only in Him and His promises amidst societies and cultures that remain ignorant of Him.  Is that applicable to us in our day and age? What do you think?  How many of our Christian/Messianic colleagues are bothering to give us a hearing? Or checking out our belief through this website?  Have we convinced even one of them in the last two years? No. Though, strangely and happily, the God of Truth links us with strangers in the internet highway and with individuals who seek us out because they have heard about us and wish to know what it is we teach.  That truly amazes us.  As we say to them, when you are spiritually awakened from your religious affiliation and think there is more to God that what has been taught you, that stirring in your heart is known by the God of Truth and He will connect all of us with one another.  

 

Believe Him and hey, He will count it to us ‘as righteousness’ too!

 

This is a re-revisit, first posted December 16, 2013, reposted July 26 2015.   Commentary is from Pentateuch and Haftorah’s, ed. Dr. J.H. Hertz; translation is The Five Books of Moses by Everett Fox; additional commentary from him is indicated by “EF” and we have one more, “RA” for Robert Alter whose The Five Books of Moses also has commentary..—Admin1.]

 

Genesis/Bereshith 15

 

PROMISE OF AN HEIR TO ABRAM

1  After these events YHWH’s word came to Avram in a vision, saying:  

Be not afraid, Avram,

I am a delivering-shield to you,

your reward is exceedingly great.

after these things.  This phrase commonly joins a new chapter with the preceding.  It does not necessarily imply an immediate sequence.

in a vision. A frequent medium through which God communicated with man.  Nachmanides points out that the vision happened during the daytime.

fear not. The possibility of reprisals, because of his intervention in the war.  Or, it may refer to the Patriarch’s anxiety with regard to his childlessness.

thy shield.  A symbol of defence and protection, often used in the Psalms.

thy reward. For obedience to God’s call and for uprightness of life.

[EF]  YHWH’s word came:  A formula often used by the Prophets.  Avram is portrayed as their spiritual ancestor (Buber, 1982).

[RA]  the word of the LORD came to Abram.  This is a formula for revelation characteristic of the Prophetic books, not of the Patriarchal Tales.  It is noteworthy that in Genesis 20 God refers to Abraham as a “prophet.”  The night-vision (maazeh) invoked here is also a prophetic mode of experience.

2  Avram said:

My Lord, YHWH,

what would you give me—

for I am going (to die) accursed,

and the Son Domestic of My House is Damascan Eliezer.

what wilt Thou give me?  This agonizing cry enables us to look into the soul of the Patriarch.  Of what value were earthly possessions to him if a worthy child who would continue his work after him was denied him? This attitude of the Father of the Jewish people towards the child, that it is the highest form of human treasures, has remained that of his descendants to the present day.  Among the most enlightened nations of antiquity, the child had no rights, no protection, no dignity of any sort.  In Greece, for example, weak children were generally exposed on a lonely mountain to perish.  The Roman historian (Tacitus) deemed it a contemptible prejudice of the Jews that ‘it is a crime among them to kill any child!’  The Rabbis, on the other hand, spoke of little children as ‘the Messiahs of mankind’, i.e. the child is the perennial regenerative force in humanity because in the child God continually gives mankind a chance to make good its mistakes.

 

of Damascus.  Chap. XXIV shows the important position which he occupied in Abram’s household.  But, if he was to be Abram’s heir, what of the great mission that was the motive of Abram’s call from Ur of the Chaldees?  The incident which follows allays these anxieties.

 

[EF]  accursed:  Heb. ariri; B-R uses “bare-of-children.” Son Domestic . . . Damascan: Hebrew difficult.  The translation here reflects the play on shound (Heb. ben meshek . . . dammesek).

 

[RA] And Abram said.  Until this point, all of Abram’s responses to God have been silent obedience.  His first actual dialogue with God—in this, too, Prophetic precedents may be relevant—expresses doubt that God’s promise can be realized:  this first speech to God reveals a hitherto unglimpsed human dimension of Abram.

 

I am going to my end.  The Hebrew says simply “I am going,” but elsewhere “to go” is sometimes used as a euphemism for dying, and, as several analysts have argued, the context here makes that a likely meaning.

 

steward.  The translation follows a traditional conjecture about the anomalous Hebrew mesheq, but the meaning is uncertain.  The word might be a scribal repetition of the last three consonants in “Dammesek,” or, alternately, it could be a deliberate play on words (Dammesek and mesheq, “household maintenance”).  The enigma is compounded by the fact that only here is Abraham’s majordomo named as Eliezer—a West Semitic name,  moreover, that would be surprising in someone from Damascus.

 

3  And Avram said further:  

Here, to me you have not given seed,

here, the Son of my House must be my heir.

one born in my house. i.e. my servant.  It is noteworthy that Abram does not think of Lot as his possible heir; he had returned to Sodom.

[EF]  Son of My House: The chief servant, who could inherit the estate in certain circumstances.  Note the play on “son”:  the Hebrew here is ben beti, while ben alone means “son.” heir: Three times here, indicating Avram’s main concern.

 

[RA] And Abram said.  God remains impassively silent in the face of Abram’s brief initial complaint, forcing him to continue and spell out the reason for his skepticism about the divine promise.

4  But here, YHWH’s word (came) to him, saying:

This one shall not be heir to you,

rather the one that goes out from your own body, he shall be heir to you.

5 He brought him outside and said:  

Pray look toward the heavens and count the stars,

can you count them?

And he said to him:

So shall your seed be.

Since the words which follow, ‘Look now toward heaven, etc.’ are part of the vision, we are not to suppose that Abram was actually led into the open. He imagined himself as gazing up at the stars.

 

[RA] count the stars.  This is a complementary image to that of the numberless dust in chapter 13 but, literally and figuratively, loftier, and presented to Abraham in the grand solemnity of a didactic display, mot merely as a verbal trope to be explained.

 

6  Now he trusted in YHWH,

and he deemed it as righteous-merit on his part.

believed. i.e. trusted. The childless Abram had faith in God’s promise that his descendants would be countless like the stars in heaven.  He was ready to wait God’s time, without doubting God’s truth.  That is the mark of true faith—steadfast trust in God, despite darkness and disappointment, and despite the fact that circumstances all point in the opposite direction.  True faith ‘discovers through the mists of the present the sunshine of the future; and recognizes in the discordant strife of the world the traces of the Eternal Mind that leads it to an unceasing harmony’ (Kalisch).

and He counted it to him for righteousness. ‘Counted his trust as real religion’ (Moffati).  Trustful surrender to the loving Will and Wisdom of God is the proof as it is the basis, of true religion.  Such spiritual faithfulness where there is unrighteousness..

[EF] he deemed it:  “He” refers to God.

[RA]  7-21.  Since this covenant is sealed at sunset, it can scarcely be a direct continuation of the nocturnal scene just narrated.  The two scenes are an orchestration of complementary covenantal themes.  In the first, God grandly promises and Abram trusts; in the second, the two enter into a mutually binding pact, cast in terms of a legal ritual.  In the first scene, progeny is promised; in the second, the possession of the land, together with the dark prospect of enslavement in Egypt before the full realization of the promise.  The first scene highlights dialogue and the rhetorical power of the divine assurance; the second scene evokes mystery, magic, the troubling enigma of the future.

 

7  He said to him:  

I am YHWH

who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans

to give you this land, to inherit it.

 

[EF]  who brought you out: Like the later “I am YHWH your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt” (Ex. 20:2).  The language is undoubtedly intentional.

[RA]  I am the LORD who brought you out.  This formula—the initial words of self-identification are a commonplace of ancient Near Eastern royal decrees—used here for the first time, looks forward to “who brought you out of the land of Egypt” of the Decalogue and other texts.  Compositionally, it also picks up “He took him outside” (the same verb in the Hebrew) at the end of the preceding scene.

 

8  But he said:  

My Lord, YHWH,

by what shall I know that I will inherit it?  

whereby shall I know? He does not doubt God, but desires confirmation of the vision that had been granted him.

[EF] But he said:  Avram, having just demonstrated trust in v. 6, now expresses deep doubt.  inherit: Or, “possess.”

[RA] how shall I know that I shall inherit it?  In this instance, Abram’s doubt is to be assuaged by a formal pact.  Covenants in which the two parties step between cloven animal parts are attested in various places in the ancient Near East as well as in Greece.  The idea is that if either party violates the covenant, his fate will be like that of the cloven animals.  The Hebrew idiom karat berit, literally “to cut a covenant” (as in verse 1), may derive from this legal ritual.

 

9  He said to him:  

Fetch me a calf of three, a she-goat of three, a ram of three, a turtle-dove, and a fledgling.

three years old. Possibly because the number three has a sacred signification.

[EF] of three: I.e., three years old, and presumably mature and ritually fit for sacrifice.

 

10  He fetched him all these.  

he halved them down the middle, putting each one’s half toward its neighbor,

but the birds he did not halve.

and he took him. ‘Him’ means, to himself.

and divided them in the midst.  The ancient method of making a covenant was to cut an animal in half and the contracting parties to pass through the portions of the slain animal.  Thereby the parties were thought to be united by the bond of a common blood.

but the birds divided he not. Lev. I,17.

[RA] each set his part.  Existing translations fudge the vivid anthropomorphism of the Hebrew here: ‘ish, literally, “man,” means “each” but is a word applied to animate beings, not to things, so it must refer to the two parties to the covenant facing each other, not to the animal parts.

 

11 Vultures descended upon the carcasses,

but Avram drove them back.

and the birds of prey came down. Symbolically foreshadowing the obstacles in the way of the taking possession of the land.

Abram drove them away. The attempts to frustrate God’s design would not succeed.

[RA] carrion birds.  Unaccountably, most English translators render this collective noun as “birds of prey,” though their action clearly indicates they belong to the category of vultures, not hawks and eagles.

12  Now it was, when the sun was coming in,

that deep slumber fell upon Avram—

and here, fright and great darkness falling upon him!

 

a deep sleep.  The same word is used of Adam in II,21.

a dread, even a great darkness. The nation which was to issue from him would have to pass through bitter times of oppression.[EF]  deep slumber: Not conventional sleep, it is almost always sent by God in the Bible (see 2:21, for example).  The result here is “fright and great darkness.”[RA] deep slumber.  This is the same Hebrew word, tardemah, used for Adam’s sleep when God fashions Eve.

13  And he said to Avram:  

You must know, yes, know

that your seed will be sojourners in a land not theirs;

they will put them in servitude and afflict them

for four hundred years.

a stranger.  Better, a sojourner.’  The word means a temporary resident.  The reference is, of course, to the stay of the Israelites in Egypt.

four hundred years. A round number; Exod. XII,40, gives the more precise number 430 years.

[EF]  afflict:  Looking toward the “affliction” of the Israelites in Egypt (Ex. I:11,12).

14  But the nation to which they are in servitude—I will bring judgment on them,

and after that they will go out with great property.

with great substance.  Referring to the gifts of the Egyptians, Exod. XII,35.

15  As for you, you will go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good ripe-age.

shalt go to thy fathers. ‘The death of Abram is predicted in one of those remarkable phrases which seem to prove that the Hebrews were not unacquainted with the doctrine of immortality.  Here the return of the soul to the eternal abodes of the fathers is, with some distinctness, separated from the interment of the body.  That both cannot be identical is evident; for while Abraham was entombed in Canaan, all his forefathers died and were buried in Mesopotamia’ (Kalisch).

in peace. Thou wilt not witness any of the tribulations that befall thy children (Kimchi).

[EF]  ripe-age: Lit. “grayness” or “hoariness.”

16  But in the fourth generation they will return here,

for the iniquity of the Amorite has not reached full-measure heretofore.  

and in the fourth generation.  ‘The Arabic dahr (corresponding to the Hebrew) is also used for a hundred years and over’ (Burckhardt); thus, the 400 years mentioned in v. 13 are referred to here as four generations.  Or, these four generations are not to be computed from the time of the vision of Abram, but from the time when his posterity first came into Egypt (Rashi).

the iniquity of the Amorite. ‘Amorite’ denotes the inhabitants of Canaan generally.  Some of their abominations are enumerated in Leviticus XVIII,21-30.  The postponement of the penalty indicates Divine forbearance.  God would give the Canaanites full time to repent.  Hence he sent Abraham, who ‘proclaimed the Lord’, and, with his disciples and descendants, taught by precept and example ‘the way of the Lord to do justice and mercy’.  Meanwhile, the gradually accumulating guilt of the Amorites rendered dire punishment inevitable. God’s prescience was certain that their hearts were forever turned from Him.

[EF] But in the fourth generation . . . : God here speaks of the future conquest of Canaan by Avram’s descendants.  The natives (here termed “Amorites) are viewed as having forfeited their right to the land by their immorality (see Lev. 18:25-8).

[RA] the fourth generation.  This would seem to be an obvious contradiction of the previously stated four hundred years.  Some scholars have argued that the Hebrew dor does not invariably mean “generation” and many here refer to “life span” or “time span.”

17  Now it was, when the sun had come in, that there was night-blackness, and here, a smoking oven, a fiery torch that crossed between those pieces.

a smoking furnace, and a flaming torch. This symbol of the Godhead was seen to pass between the pieces, to ratify the covenant which was being made.

 

[RA] a smoking brazier with a flaming torch. All this is mystifying and is surely meant to be so, in keeping with the haunting mystery of the covenantal moment.  It seems unwise to “translate” the images into any neat symbolism (and the same is true of the ominous carrion birds Abram drives off).  There may be some general association of smoke and fire with the biblical deity (Nachmanides notes a link with the Sinai epiphany), and the pillars of fire and cloud in Exodus also come to mind, but the disembodied brazier (or furnace) and torch are wonderfully peculiar to this scene.  The firelight in this preternatural after-sunset darkness is a piquant antithesis to the star-studded heavens of the previous scene.

18  On that day YHWH cut a covenant with Avram, saying:  I give this land to your seed, from the River of Egypt to the Great River, the river Euphrates,

have I given.  The perfect tense is used, although it refers to the future, in order to denote the certainty of the event.

river of Egypt. ‘Brook of Egypt’ (Num. XXXIV,5) the Wady-el-Arish, which is the boundary between Egypt and Palestine.

Euphrates. The ideal limit of Israelite territory, reached in the days of Solomon (I Kings V,1).

[EF] cut: Concluded; the usage is influenced by the act of cutting animals by the parties involved, as in this story.

[RA]  To your seed I have given.  Moshe Weinfeld shrewdly observes that for the first time the divine promise—compare 12:1-3, 12:7, 13:414-17, 15;4-5—is stated with a perfective, not an imperfective, verb—that is, as an action that can be considered already completed.  This small grammatical maneuver catches up a large narrative pattern in the Abraham stories:  the promise becomes more and more definite as it seems progressively more implausible to the aged patriarch, until Isaac is born.

19  The Kenite and the Kennizzite and the Kadmonite,

Kenite, and the Kenizzite. Friendly tribes inhabiting the S. of Palestine, which merged with the Israelites.

Kadmonite.  Not mentioned elsewhere.

[EF] the Kenite . . .:  Canaanite tribes, here presented as a round ten in number.

20  and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Refa’ites,

Perizzite. see on XIII,7.

Repahim. see on XIV,5.

21  and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Girgashite and the Yevusite.

For the peoples enumerated in this verse, see on X,16.

[First posted August 6, 2012, has it been that long? So here’s a revisit; thanks to the webvisitor who clicked it and brought it back to our attention.

 

Readers must be wondering why we have a running series under the title “Journey of Faith.” We separate Sinai commentary from the three commentaries we feature here so, rule of thumb — whenever you see “Journey of Faith” expect our two-cents-worth insights.  Then, go ahead and check out what all other commentaries have to say in the regular chapter-by-chapter posts.

One of the helpful clues to reading the TORAH is this:  The Torah isn’t a history book. 

 

“A fundamental principle regarding the Five Books of Moses is expressed in this well-known saying among Torah scholars.  ‘There is no earlier or later in the Torah.’  It means that the Torah isn’t a historical narration and isn’t in chronological order. This expression doesn’t mean, of course, that it’s impossible to find facts of history within the Torah.  After all, the story of the exodus of the Children of Israel, for example, is a major part of the Torah and is basically the history of the birth of the Jewish people as a growing family.  The Torah contains the earliest recorded history of the family history of the Jews.  But the Torah is not primarily a source for history; rather, it’s a spiritual document with the purpose of communicating divine eternal wisdom.” — Arthur Kurzweil in TORAH for DUMMIES; see Sinaite’s Notes – What the Torah is NOT – 7.  

 

Our translation of choice in this website is Everett Fox’s The Five Books of Moses, free download courtesy of publisher Schocken Bible, just google “Shocken Bible” and you’ll get there in a click!–Admin1.]

 

—————————————-

 

It helps to remember this when there are seeming repetitions in biblical narratives which give skeptics the occasion to cast suspicion on the divine source of the Hebrew Scriptures.

 

Sample two similar episodes in Abraham’s travels that makes the 2nd appear like déjà vu.

 

Earlier in Genesis/Bereshith 12:10-26:  

10 Now there was a famine in the land,

and Avram went down to Egypt, to sojourn there,

for the famine was heavy in the land.

11  It was then he came near to Egypt that he said to Sarai his wife:

Now here, I know well that you are a woman fair to look at.

12  It will be, when the Egyptians see you and say: She is his wife,

that they will kill me, abut you they will allow to live.

13  Pray say taht you are my sister

so that it may go well with me on your account that I myself may live thanks to you.

14  It was when Avram came to Egypt, that the Egyptians saw how exceedingly fair the woman was;

15 when Pharaoh’s courtiers saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh,

and the woman was taken away into Pharaoh’s house.

16  It went well with Avram on her account, 

sheep and oxen, donkeys, servants and maids, she-asses and camels, became his.

17  But YHWH plagued Pharaoh with great plagues, and also his household, because of Sarai, Avram’s wife.

18  Pharaoh had Avram called, and said:  

What is this that you have done to me!

Why did you not tell me that she is your wife?

19 Why did you say:  She is my sister?

—So I took her for myself as a wife.

but now, here is your wife, take her and go!

20  So Pharaoh put men in charge of him, who escorted him and his wife and all that was his.

Later in 20:1-18:

1 Avraham traveled from there to the Negev, and settled between Kadesh and Shur, sojourning
in Gerar.
2 Avraham said of Sara his wife: She is my sister.

So Avimelekh king of Gerar sent and had Sara taken. 

3 But God came to Avimelekh in a dream of the night and said to him:

Here, you must die
because of the woman whom you have taken,

for she is a wedded wife!
4 Avimelekh had not come near her. He said:

My Lord,

Would you kill a nation, though it be
innocent?
5 Did he not say to me: She is my sister,

and also she, she said: He is my brother!

With a whole
heart and with clean hands have I done this.
6 God said to him in the dream:

I also know that it was with a whole heart that you did this,

and so I also held you back from being at fault against me,

therefore I did not let you touch her.
7 But now, return the man’s wife—

indeed, he is a prophet, he can intercede for you—

and live!

But if you do not return her:

know that you must die, yes, die, you and all that is yours!
8 Early in the morning Avimelekh called all his servants,

he spoke all these words in their ears,
and the men became exceedingly afraid.
9 Then Avimelekh had Avraham called and said to him:

What have you done to us?

In what did I fail you,

that you have brought me and my kingdom into such great fault?

Deeds which are not to be done, you have done to me!
10 And Avimelekh said to Avraham:

What did you foresee, that you did this thing?
11 Avraham said:

Indeed, I said to myself:

Surely there is no awe of God in this place,

they will kill me on account of my wife!
2 Then, too, she is truly my sister, my father’s daughter,

however not my mother’s daughter-so
she became my wife.
13 Now it was, when the Power-of-god caused me to roam from my father’s house,

that I said to her:

Let this be the faithfulness that you do me:

in every place that we come, say of me: He is my
brother.
14 Avimelekh took sheep and oxen, servants and maids, and gave them to Avraham,

and returned Sara his wife to him.
15 Avimelekh said:

Here, my land is before you,

settle wherever seems good in your eyes.
16 And to Sara he said:

Here, I have given a thousand pieces of silver to your brother,

here, it shall serve you as a covering for the eyes for all who are with you

and with everyone, that you have
been decided for.
17 Avraham interceded with God

and God healed Avimelekh: his wife and his slave-women, so that they gave birth.
18 For YHVH had obstructed, obstructed every womb in Avimelekh’s household

on account of
Sara, the wife of Avraham

Clearly, while Abraham repeats an earlier trick that worked for his self-preservation, these two occasions are different: the first occurs in Egypt, with Pharaoh; the second with the king of Gerar, Abimelech.

 

Insights we gain from these two similar episodes in Abraham’s journey of faith:

 

First, Abram/Abraham:

• He is aware that the beauty of Saray/Sarah could cause him problems, early on according to vs. 20:13, he already prompts Saray what to say, out of “kindness” to him.
• Self-preservation at the expense of wife Saray/Sarah is the rule of thumb in their relationship.
• Pretense in the cause of self-preservation appears to be tolerated by YHWH, at least in these 2 contexts; this patriarch has yet to learn to trust Him.
• Presumption on Abraham’s part that Pharaoh and Abimelech were not God-fearing rulers.
• As many commentators have pointed out, he has told only a half-lie, for Saray/Sarah is truly his half sister;
• Had Abraham chosen the “I cannot tell a lie” route, it would be interesting to know if it would have had the same ending, since YHWH had promised him unconditional blessings;
  •  in the sin category of Catholics, a “venial” sin, not as serious as mortal sin;
  • in secular language, a little “white” lie, permissible so as not to hurt another, or for self-serving purposes.
• So Abram/Abraham should have known better both times, trust YHWH to do His part, just do what is right under any circumstance.
• It should have been easy for Abram/Abraham to have thought that way since he was given a glimpse into his future as well as those of his decendants;
• We are not entitled to the same specific promises to Abraham, but we know the same God of Abraham Whose faithfulness is recorded throughout the Hebrew Scriptures.

 

Second,Saray/Sarah:

• Her beauty must truly have been irresistible (even in her senior years) for these two rulers to invite her to be part of their court.
• She accedes to her husband’s request on both occasions; if it worked the first time, why not the second.
• But how does she really feel in Pharaoh’s presence and Abimelech’s, is not noted.
• Wives, women in those days readily accepted their status without much complaint, credit must be due them in a patriarchal culture where their role is barely mentioned.
  

  Image from chestofbooks.com

• We also never know how Mrs. Pharaoh and Mrs. Abimelech must have felt, but watching on current TV programs some specials featuring  polygamous families, wife number 2-3-4 are all smiles as they share what a relief it is for them to take on common husband on schedule. It’s all a matter of attitude and let’s not forget, religious or cultural brainwashing.

Third, Pharaoh and Abimelech:

• Surprise, surprise, they do have fear of God, but which god?
• They do act honorably toward Saray/Sarah.
• They learn fast, have wisdom enough to connect judgment on their household with taking on another man’s wife, although it helped that YHWH Himself personally dealt with each.
• They end up rewarding Abraham with more wealth despite his tricking them.
• They recognize the God of Abraham is to be obeyed; both occasions should have given these 2 rulers the realization that they met the TRUE GOD and possibly worshipped Him from then on, but that’s speculation.

Finally and most importantly, YHWH:

• Sometimes He allows His chosen to make their own mistakes from their own free will, particularly at the beginning of their getting-to-know-Him stage;
• Other times He steps in and interferes;
• He does communicate with all people, gentile rulers, gentile prophets, not just with Abraham and his descendants but then everyone was gentile at this point. Read the six last words again!
• In Pharaoh’s case, he was quick enough to make the connection between the plague upon his household with his taking on another man’s wife, so YHWH’s dealing with him was indirect;
• In Abimelech’s case, Elohim spoke to him in a dream, in fact they converse, he defends himself, and he does emerge from this experience with reverence and awe of Abraham’s God.
• In YHWH’s wisdom and gracious dealing with mankind, Abraham’s trickery leads to knowledge of his God by the 2 gentile rulers so now we know that God can turn around even our bad choices into good results if it leads to knowledge of Him.

 

Praise be the God of Abraham, His Name is YHWH.

 

 

NSB@S6K

for Sinai 6000

Core Community

 [First posted August 6, 2012; yes it has been that long and therefore deserves a revisit. If Abraham had a ‘deja vu’, so did Sarah.

 

As previously explained, this series titled “Journey of Faith” is the Sinaite’s interpretation, separated from the three commentaries normally featured in chapter by chapter discussions.  Our translation of choice is Everett Fox The Five Books of Moses.  

 

It is ideal for students to read the chapter first without resorting to commentaries, if only to check for themselves if they can arrive at an understanding of the scripture without help.  The tendency of all, understandably, is to rely on outside help for comprehension, because we receive the text in translation and we are six millennia removed from the culture and times and people of these books of antiquity.  Still, we Sinaites believe that YHWH the Great Communicator can speak through the ages and right into our minds and hearts, in our times, in whatever culture we’re in, even if the language we speak and read His words in are non-Hebraic.  

 

We might miss much in translation but the basic message comes through:  Worship YHWH, He is One, and learn what He has revealed on Sinai.  The Torah is the source.—Admin1.]

 

——————————-

 

At the appointed time, Sarah gives birth to the promised heir, Isaac.

 

 

1 Now YHVH took account of Sara as he had said,

YHVH dealt with Sara as he had spoken. 

2 Sara became pregnant and bore Avraham a son in his old age,

at the set-time of which God 

had spoken to him.
3 And Avraham called the name of his son, who was born to him,

whom Sara bore to him:
Yitzhak/He Laughs.
4 And Avraham circumcised Yitzhak his son at eight days old, as God had commanded him.

 

A word about divine requirement for circumcision for babies 8 days old:  [http://www.bibleevidences.com/medical]

 

 

For centuries scholars must have been perplexed by God’s law of circumcision which required the procedure to be performed on the 8th day after birth (Gen 17:12, Gen 21:14, Lev 12:3, Luke 2:21). Medical researchers recently discovered that the two main blood clotting factors, Vitamin K and Prothrombim, reach their highest level in life, about 110% of normal, on the 8th day after birth. These blood clotting agents facilitate rapid healing and greatly reduce the chance of infection. You can verify with any Obstetrician that the 8th day of life is the ideal time for a circumcision, and that any circumcision done earlier requires an injection of Vitamin K supplement.

 

A medical survey has also reached the conclusion the there is less infection among females whose sexual partners are circumcised [http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/2817902.html].

 

 

The Creator of the magnificent human body and its processes did not leave mankind ignorant about how to live a healthy life. Way before medical research wised up about sterilization and quarantine, the Israelites were already given instructions about how to avoid and contain disease in YHWH’s Book of Life as early as the instructions recorded in Leviticus.

 

5  Avraham was a hundred years old when Yitzhak his son was born to him.

 6 Now Sara said:  

God has made laughter for me,

all who hear of it will laugh for me.  

7 And she said:

 Who would have declared to Avraham:

Sara will nurse sons?  

Well, I have borne him a son in his old age!  

8  The child grew and was weaned,

and Avraham made a great drinking-feast on the day that Yitzhak was weaned.  

9  Once Sara saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian-woman, whom she had borne to Avraham, laughing . . . .

10  She said to Avraham:

 Drive out this slave-woman and her son,

for the son of this slave-woman shall not share-inheritance with my son, with Yitzhak!  

 

Here we go again:

 

• Hagar got in trouble with Sara the first time around when she developed an ‘attitude’ for having produced for Abraham an heir in Ishmael;
• now it’s Ishmael who’s in trouble with Sarah for showing an ‘attitude’ toward her son Isaac.

 

What’s really going on here? Is the problem with Sara/Sarah feeling envious, jealous, or simply being protective of her and Isaac’s interests, or is the problem with Hagar and Ishmael?

 

Regardless of which, Abraham in both cases  accedes to his wife’s command without as much as a plea for the mother/son, even if he did not agree with her.

 

11 The matter was exceedingly bad in Avraham’s eyes because of his son.

 

The reason is, God confirms it is the wise thing to do and after all, YHWH has promised blessings upon Ishmael, simply because he is Abraham’s son as well, even if he’s not the promised heir.

 

 Note that Abraham has two firstborns, but of different mothers. If YHWH promised to take care of Ishmael, then mother and son will be alright in God’s care, even in the wilderness of Beersheba.

 

12 But God said to Avraham:

Do not let it be bad in your eyes concerning the lad and concerning your slave-woman;

in all that Sara says to you, hearken to her voice,

for it is through Yitzhak that seed will be called by your (name).
13 But also the son of the slave-woman-a nation will I make of him,

for he too is your seed.
14 Avraham started-early in the morning,

he took some bread and a skin of water and gave them
to Hagar-placing them upon her shoulder—together with the child and sent her away.

She went off and 

roamed in the wilderness of Be’er-sheva.
15 Now when the water in the skin was at an end, she threw the child under one of the bushes,
16 and went and sat by herself, at-a-distance, as far away as a bowshot,

for she said to herself:
Let me not see the child die!

So she sat at-a-distance, and lifted up her voice and wept.
17 But God heard the voice of the lad,

God’s messenger called to Hagar from heaven and said to her:

What ails you, Hagar? Do not be afraid,

for God has heard the voice of the lad there where he is.
18 Arise, lift up the lad and grasp him with your hand,

for a great nation will I make of him!
19 God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water;

she went, filled the skin with water, and gave the lad to drink. 

20 And God was with the lad as he grew up,

he settled in the wilderness, and became an archer, 
a bowman. 

21 He settled in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took him a wife from the land of Egypt

 

It is natural that Hagar would marry off Ishmael with a woman from her own people.

 

22 It was at about that time that Avimelekh, together with Pikhol the commander of his army,
said to Avraham: 

God is with you in all that you do. 

23 So now, swear to me here by God:

If you should ever deal falsely with me, with my progeny and my posterity . . . !

Rather, faithfully, as I have dealt with you, deal with me, and with the land in which you have sojourned. 

24 Avraham said:

I so swear. 

25 But Avraham rebuked Avimelekh

because of a well of water that Avimelekh’s servants had seized. 

26 Avimelekh said:

I do not know who did this thing,

nor have you ever told me, nor have I heard of it apart from today. 

27 So Avraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Avimelekh,

and the two of them cut a covenant. 

28 Then Avraham set seven ewe-lambs of the flock aside. 

29 Avimelekh said to Avraham:

What mean these seven ewe-lambs that you have set aside? 

30 He said:

Indeed, these seven ewe-lambs you should take from my hand,

so that they may be a witness for me that I dug this well. 

31 Therefore that place was called Be’er-sheva/Well of the Seven-swearing,

for there the two of them swore (an oath). 

32 Thus they cut a covenant in Be’er-sheva.

Then Avimelekh and Pikhol the commander of his army arose and returned to the land of the Philistines. 

33 Now he planted a tamarisk in Be’er-sheva

and there he called out the name: YHVH God of the Ages. 

34 And Avraham sojourned in the land of the Philistines for many days.

 

Word gets around about the God of Abraham. It is possible people worshipped the same God as Abraham, they just didn’t know Him as He had revealed Himself to Abraham.

 

Abimelech and Pikhol didn’t say “your God is with you in all you do” but that “God is with you in all you do.”  God is not with them, but they can see He’s with Abraham.  They believe Abraham as he swears “in Elohim.”  Do they have the opportunity to know more about this God? Of course, all they need to do is seek to know Him and ask Abraham.

 

In our day, is there any reason to be ignorant about the God of Abraham . . . the God of Isaac and Jacob? The same God of Israel and the Hebrew Scriptures? There is no excuse not to know except the excuse of not wanting to know which is no excuse.

 

People have said to us “leave me in my religion” or “I don’t want to be confused” or “why do you think you know better” or “how do you know your truth is the real truth”? There are so many competing voices out there claiming to know THE TRUTH.

 

Well, we could be like Abimelech and Piyskol, recognize that Abraham’s God is the True God so follow Abraham’s journey of faith and get to know Abraham’s God.

 

While the few sample verses apply to Israel in context, every true seeker can personalize them; after all, YHWH is the God of all people, not just of Israel, not just of the patriarchs and surely, even if Israel was His firstborn son who was to be the “light to the nations”, it is the very nature of the God of Israel to wish to be known,  His Name declared beyond the boundaries and the nation of Israel,  for that has been the very purpose for which they were “called” and “chosen” — for the whole world to learn about YHWH, the God who has spoken on Sinai and whose revelation has been recorded by Israel in the TNK:

 

[EF]  Deuteronomy/Dabarim 4:29

 But when you seek YHWH your God from there you will find (him), if you search for him with all your heart and with all your being.

 

[AS]  Isaiah/Yeshayahu 45:22: 

Turn to me and you will be saved, all ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other.  

 

 

[AS] Isaiah/Yeshayahu 65:24  

It will be that before they call I will answer; while they yet speak I will hear.

[AS] Jeremiah/Yirmeyahuw 33:3

Call to Me and I will answer you; and I will tell you great and mighty things that you do not know.

 

NSB@S6K