Abraham's Family

BSFL: Genesis 12:1-7; 15:5-8,13-17

Abraham’s Family An Overview

istock photo

SUMMER 2013 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR 51 Bedouin tents at in a small village side of the village the Wadi Yabis in of family units, is an open pen northwest Jordan. with each person for sheep and Following a contributing to goats, which tradition that goes the good of the provide income back millennia, whole group. On and sustenance for Bedouin often live the right-hand the villagers.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ brent bruce (60/8005) By Roberta Jones Right: Partially reconstructed ruins of the ziggurat at od led Abram to leave Ur. Ancient peo‑ the Mesopotamian city of ples believed the Ur,1 travel to Haran, and later gods would come G down from the go to Canaan (Acts 7:2‑4; Gen. 11:27– heavens, descend 12:5). Eventually, God changed the steps of the ziggurat, and bless Abram’s name to Abraham and gave the city below. him and his descendants the land of ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ PHILIP J. GAFFNEY (32/2/14) Canaan (17:5‑8). Abram produced eight regenerative powers. Thus they and his wife Milcah. Terah also took children by three women (16:15; 21:2-3; attributed to Nanna the power to Lot, his fatherless grandson. Terah 25:1‑6). Members of Abram’s family “keep herb, herd and humanity fer- and his family arrived in Haran, a showed fear, favoritism, and jealousy, tile and prolific.”4 Residents also prominent trade center with another mixed with love, laughter, and faith. believed Nanna owned the land and moon-god temple.6 Abraham lived from about 2166 to required tithes and rent. Farmers Hittites lived northwest of Haran 1991 b.c.,2 but his life teaches us today. brought butter, oil, sheep, and cattle during Abraham’s lifetime and in to Nanna’s temple. Jewelers brought later centuries. Their myths reflect Abram in Ur and Haran silver and gold. The temple complex general thoughts about family rela- Different peoples of the ancient Near included a step tower, or ziggurat.5 tionships. In one such myth, a East shared similar patterns for fam- Although the city of Ur had a Hittite, Kessi, married a beautiful ily formation and structure. Rulers patron deity (as did many cities in woman “endowed with everything.” commonly had multiple wives and the ancient Near East), worship was While charmed by his new wife, many children. For instance, one primarily centered in the home, with Kessi quit bringing thick loaves of king of Ur acquired nine wives and the father serving as the family priest. bread to the gods. Spiteful gods thus fathered over 50 children.3 Abram’s father, Terah, worshiped hid the wild game. In a separate The patron deity of Ur was an other gods (Josh. 24:2). As the family myth, Telipinu, son of the storm ever-present reminder of people’s priest, Terah likely maintained altars, god, disappeared and removed his desire for multiple offspring. The conducted worship, and offered sacri- blessing. Then, wheat and barley moon-god (called “Nanna”) domi- fices. Fathers, or father figures, natu- remained unripe. Cattle, sheep, and nated the city. Just as the moon rally urged their relatives to worship humans no longer reproduced. In yet in its cycles would disappear and traditional family gods. a third story, a childless fisherman return to fullness, the people of Terah left Ur with two sons— found an abandoned child and told Mesopotamia believed Nanna had Abram and his wife Sarai, and Nahor his wife to lie in bed and wail. To

52 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2013 Right: Beehive houses at Haran, which is located in modern south‑ western Turkey.

Below: Dated to about 2500 B.C., an alabaster cup dedicated to Nanna, the moon god of Ur.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ LOUISE KOHL SMITH (32/27/9) Scripture records only the result of that night. The childless man, the foreigner from Ur, the new man in Canaan, believed the One who made the stars and the moon. God credited Abram’s faith as righteousness and assured him of a long life and a burial. In spite of God’s promises and in spite of His speaking to Abram in a vision, celebrate the birth, friends brought Abram remained childless (15:1–16:1a). bread, beer, and fat.7 Abraham’s Three Families Abram’s New Land of Canaan Illustrator Photo/ Brent Bruce/ University of Pennniasy Muslva eum of Archaeology and Anthropology (32/41/55A) How could Abram find an heir? His After Terah died, the Lord com- nephew, Lot, was no longer an option. manded Abram to leave Haran The men had separated over pasture (Gen. 11:27‑12:1). So, Abram, Sarai, worship. Sacred prostitution suppos- for their flocks (13:8‑12). Abram also and Lot obeyed (12:1‑5). In Canaan, edly guaranteed fertile women, fertile considered his servant Eliezer as a Abram, demonstrating his lead- animals, and abundant field crops.8 possible heir (15:2‑3). Abram wait- ership role for the family, built an Examples of fertility flourished in ed and wondered. In ancient Near altar for worship. God promised to Abram and Sarai’s lives. Their live- Eastern cultures, men frequently had give the land to Abram’s offspring stock increased, and their servants concubines, women with less sta- and to make them a great nation. bore children (13:2; 14:14). Yet Sarai tus than a wife. Another common In addition, through Abram God and Abram’s desire to hear the pitter- custom assumed a slave would pro- would bless “all the peoples on earth.” patter of little feet in the tent remained duce a child if a man had an infer- Further, God would curse his ene- unfulfilled. The Lord God Most High, tile wife. Sarai offered her Egyptian mies and bless those who blessed Creator of heaven and earth, had not slave, Hagar, to Abram. The scheme him (vv. 2‑7). Abram met his new yet given them a child (14:22; 15:2). worked. As Hagar carried Abram’s neighbors and their many gods, the Gazing upward one night, Abram child, however, she and Sarai had polytheistic Canaanites. These resi- saw stars too numerous to count. Did conflict. An heir in Hagar’s womb dents of Canaan worshiped gods of looking at the night sky make Abram did not improve her role in the house- fertility, grain, love, war, and plagues. think of his ancestors, the descendents hold. Sarai and Abram still consid- Dedicated individuals practiced divi- of whom were still worshiping the ered Hagar to be Sarai’s possession—a nation, human sacrifice, and serpent moon-god Nanna? No one knows. mere slave (16:2‑6). In the muddle of

SUMMER 2013 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR 53 family unit. Milcah, Nahor’s niece, became his wife: Abram married Sarai, his half-sister (11:27‑29; 20:12). Scripture later prohibited marriages of close rela- tives (Lev. 18:6‑18). God also banned marriages with foreigners, because they worshiped false gods (Deut. 7:1‑4). Abraham’s land contained many groups of pagan people. From one of these groups, Abraham’s grandson chose two wives. Isaac and Rebekah grieved and felt bitter about their son Esau’s marriages (Gen. 26:34‑35).

Faith For All Abraham believed in the Lord and worshiped Him, the Everlasting God (15:6; 21:33). Today, believers in Christ travel a similar path. istock photo The apostle Paul explained, broken lives, God remained faithful Above: Tomb of “And if you belong to Christ, to His plan. He changed Abram’s the Patriarchs then you are Abraham’s seed, at Mechpelah. name to Abraham, meaning “father Genesis 23:19 heirs according to the prom- of many” (17:5). Sarai became Sarah, says, “Abraham ise” (Gal. 3:29). We can gaze 9 buried his wife a “princess” (vv. 15‑16). Sarah in the cave at the same moon and stars God gave Abraham a second son. of the field at and accept Abraham’s faith, Three men appeared on a hot day as Machpelah near now through Christ. i Mamre (that is, Abraham sat in the tent door. He rec- Hebron) in the ognized these men as heavenly mes- land of Canaan” 1. All Scripture quotations are from the (HCSB). Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB). sengers. Abraham led the family unit 2. Dates are from Biblical Illustrator Time Line (Nashville: LifeWay Christian Resources of to show hospitality to the guests. He Right: Terra- the Southern Baptist Convention, 2007). brought water and had Sarah to bake cotta plaque 3. Daniel C. Snell, Life in the Ancient Near from Ur showing East: 3100-332 B.C.E. (New Haven: Yale Univ. bread. Abraham chose a tender calf, a mother and Press, 1997), 34-35. which a male servant prepared. Then, child; Babylonian; 4. Brian Schmidt, “Moon” in Dictionary dated about of Deities and Demons in the Bible, 2nd ed. Abraham served the meal to the men (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), 587.

2000–1750 B.C. PH OTO/ B RITIS H M US E U / LO ND O N (31/8/48) ILLUSTRATOR 5. P. R. S. Moorey, UR ‘of the Chaldees’: A (18:1‑8). The Lord said that within a Revised and Updated Edition of Sir Leonard year’s time Sarah would have a son. child of promise, regardless Woolley’s Excavations at Ur (Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1982), 114, 158-59. Sarah, already elderly, laughed to her- of any past or future events (v. 12). 6. Leslie Hunt, “Family” in The International Standard self. When God questioned Abraham After the Bible describes Sarah’s Bible Encyclopedia [ISBE], gen. ed. Geoffrey W. Bromiley, vol. 2 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982), 280; and Robert J. about Sarah’s laughter, the fearful death (23:1‑20), it mentions that Hughes, III, “Haran” in ISBE, 614. woman declared she had not laughed Abraham married Keturah. This mar- 7. Harry A. Hoffner, Jr., trans., Gary M. Beckman, ed., Hittite Myths (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990), 14-15, 66-67. (vv. 9‑15). riage produced six children (25:1‑6). 8. Andrew K. Helmbold, “Canaan, Canaanite” in Isaac—the son chosen by God— Earlier, Abraham had reluctantly Wycliffe Bible Dictionary, eds. Charles F. Pfeiffer, Howard F. Vos, and John Rea (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, arrived about a year later. Sarah sent away Hagar and Ishmael, with 1998), 295-97. 9. Kenneth O. Gangel and Stephen J. Bramer, Genesis, laughed, this time with joy, and cred- only food and water (21:8‑21). Now, vol. 1 in Holman Old Testament Commentary (Nashville: ited God for her happiness. After Abraham gave gifts to Keturah’s chil- B&H Publishing Group, 2002), 148-49, 152. Sarah weaned Isaac, she ordered dren. He instructed these offspring to Abraham to drive out Hagar and her go eastward, away from Isaac (25:6). Roberta Jones is professor of biology son, Ishmael. God, of course, pro- Ideas of suitable marriages changed. and environmental science, retired, vided for the slave and her rejected During Abraham’s lifetime, men and at Mid-Continent University in son (21:1‑7,10‑21). Isaac remained the women married within the immediate Mayfield, Kentucky.

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