ABRAHAM

In Chapter 12, Moses finally arrives at the primary focus of his narrative, which is the history of the people of Israel. The first division of the book of Genesis was a hard and fast history of the world, but largely unimportant compared to what he is now about to reveal to the newly freed Hebrew slaves. He wants them to realize that their nation was birthed out of a promise from God. Abram and his wife Sarai were without a child. The exact source of his richeswhether he was wealthy upon leaving Ancient Babylon (Ur of the Chaldeans) or whether the Egyptians blessed him with wealth during his visit during the famineis unknown. But nonetheless, he had a deep desire to pass this wealth onto a son. God chose Abram, who he later called Abraham, as the recipient of his promise. He promised that Abraham would be blessed with a son. Abraham believed him and it was credited to him as righteousness. Moses makes the point that simply Abrahams faith in the promise of God resulted in God declaring him righteous, holy, and unblemished. The faith of Abraham was not simply a mental acknowledgement that God would come through on his promise, it was displayed through the way Abraham lived his life. Undoubtedly, there had been many nights when Sarah laid down next to her husband Abraham and started talking about something funny and heart-warming that one of her servants kids did that day. As they lay there, they would have laughed and discussed their longing for a child of their own. Just imagine the dialogue between Abraham and Sarah the night God made his promise. Sarah What happened at the office today, honey? Abraham Well, let me think, a sheep got caught in a thorn bush and I had to go out to the field and help the herdsmen get it out. Then, our shipment of shepherd staffs came in, but they were the wrong size, so I had to send them back. God told me that we were going to have a son. I had to meet with the head of the cattle-hands union to renegotiate their contract for the upcoming year. It was a tough day. Im exhausted. Sarah Wait, God promised us a son?!? The excitement would have been almost unbearable for them as they waited for God to come through. But the more they waited, the more their faith waned. Eventually, they disobeyed. Abraham had a son with his maidservant Hagar. In taking actions into their own hands, they proved their disbelief. They committed blasphemy because their actions revealed that they thought God to be a liar or at the very least, revealed that God was not powerful enough to come through on his promise and he needed their help to fulfill it. Even though Abraham broke the covenant that God made with him, God still remained faithful. He kept the original covenant with the descendants of Ishmael and reestablished a new covenant with the descendants of Isaac. In Hagars experience with the angel of the Lord, she calls him El-roi, which means God of seeing. She is expressing Gods attribute of compassion (see Gen 29:32; Ex 3:7). He is neither a God that is blind and ignorant of his Creation, nor a God that hides his eyes and ignores his Creation, but one that sees the misery and pain that his Creation is experiencing and he cares and has compassion. Covenant relationship is derived from this attribute of God. Because he cares about his Creation, he desires to bless his Creation. He continually makes promises conditioned on Mans obedience. His desire to bless counteracts his hatred of disobedience. His patience counteracts his curses. Even though Abraham disobeys, he renews his covenant. He does not curse the descendants of Ishmael merely because they were birthed from disobedience. God often redeems the results of our mistakes. In the first covenant that God made with Abraham, he promised to increase his descendants. The covenant he renewed with Ishmael was a promise to increase his descendants. These promises are a renew-

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al of Gods original promise to increase Mans descendants (Gen 1:28). The promise that he has made is essentially the same in all of his covenants. He wants to bless all of humanity. First, he wanted to bless humanity through Adam, but Adam disobeyed. Next, he wanted to bless humanity through Noah, but Noah could not fulfill the covenant either. He once again renewed his covenant with Abraham, but again Abraham was unable to fulfill the covenant. He renews his covenant with both Ishmael and Isaac, but both leave the covenant unfulfilled. But God chooses the line of Isaac to bring forth the one who will ultimately be able to fulfill the covenant. In Pauls letter to the churches in the region of Galatia, he makes an argument against the teaching that Gentile Christians must first convert to Judaism before converting to Christianity. In his argument, he uses Abrahams two sons as an illustration to make his point. He explains that Ishmael was birthed from flesh, but Isaac was birthed from a promise. Paul correlates Hagar, a slave-woman, to Mt. Sinai. He explains that similar to the way that Hagar was enslaved; the Jews had become enslaved to the law, given to Moses on Mt. Sinai. However, Sarah, a free-woman, is correlated with the free heavenly Jerusalem. He uses the term elemental things to describe what enslaves us before Christ. For the Gentiles, the elemental things were fire, water, the sun and stars, and other material things that were worshipped as gods. They were enslaved to continuously doing things to try to appease these gods, whether it was through their actions, sacrifices, or through ritual exercises. For the Jews, the elemental things were the tenets of the law. They were enslaved to continuously trying to uphold every minute tenet of the law. But Paul argues that in Christ, we are free from these elemental things. For us today, the elemental things might be doing good, avoiding doing bad, driving the right car, being green, or wearing certain types of clothes. Whatever we think gives us self-worth and makes us acceptable in the eyes of others actually enslaves us. Making ourselves acceptable is an endless pursuit. As soon as we think we have become acceptable, there is something else that we need to achieve or obtain to remain acceptable. Pauls argument is that those who have faith in Christ are true children of Abraham because they are children of promise. Isaac was the child of promise. And as we will see Isaac was a type, a forerunner symbolizing the characteristics of Christ. Christ was the true child of Abraham because he was the child of promise. He was the one who would fulfill the promise of God. When God promised a son to Abraham, the promise is two-fold. He is promising Abraham an actual son in Isaac, but he is also promising a son in Jesus Christ. This is the son who will bless all the families of the earth (Gen 12:3).

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

What does it mean to you that God promised to bless all the families of the earth through Abraham? What are some elemental things in your own life that you are continually tempted to return to? How do they continue to enslave you? What does the name of God, El-roi, mean for your relationship with him? Can you think of some times in your life that you felt that God saw you and understood your situation and had compassion? Are there times when you think that God doesnt see you and doesnt care? How does Gods promise through Abraham reveal his attribute of compassion? How can you show Gods compassion in the life of someone you know? What other responsibilities for believers are derived from Gods promise with Abraham?

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WEEKLY READING GUIDE

Day Day Day Day Day 1 Gen 22 23 2 Gen 24 25 3 Gen 26 4 Gen 27 28 5 Gen 29 30

NOTES

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DEEPER STUDY THREE