Genesis Part III Page i The Book of Genesis Part III – Table of Contents (tentative) Session Topic Text Page 1 The Cast of Characters Genesis 11:27-32 2 The Family of Terah Sarai – Abraham’s Princess The Abrahamic Covenant 2 The Setting – The Ancient Near East Acts 7:2-7; 14:16 17 Ur & Haran Egypt Canaan 3 The Call of Abram – Take One Genesis 12:1-3 34 Fourfold Framework What Did Abram Hear? Blessings…and a Curse 4 Abram’s First Tour Genesis 12:4-20 46 Shechem – Bethel – Negev Famine in the Land Sister Sarai 5 A Lot of Trouble Genesis 13:1-18 63 Parallel Lives Downward Spiral Righteous Lot? 6 Abram Contra Mundum Genesis 14:1-24 79 Ancient Chronicles The War of the Kings Abram & Melchizedek 7 Covenantal Monergism Genesis 15:1-21 96 What Did Abram Fear? The Promise of Seed and Land Cutting the Covenant 8 The Sin of Synergism Genesis 16:1-16 116 Sarai & Hagar Hagar & Jehovah Abraham & Ishmael 9 Father of Many Nations Genesis 17:1-27 131 A Second Covenant? Changing of the Names The Sign of the Covenant 10 Excursus: Circumcision Genesis 17:9-14 144 The Origin of Circumcision The Sign & Seal of the Covenant Circumcision and Baptism Genesis Part III Page ii 11 Personal vs. Political Justice Genesis 18:1-33 161 Hospitality God’s Prophets 12 The Destruction of Sodom Genesis 19:1-38 179 Fact or Fiction? ‘Righteous’ Lot Bad Company Corrupts Good Morals 13 Abraham & Abimelech Genesis 20:1-17 200 Face Value? Thematic vs. Chronological 14 Interlude Genesis 21:1-34 215 Calendar of Abraham’s Life Birth of Isaac Abraham & Abimelech Part II 15 Denouement Genesis 22:1-24 232 Abraham’s Submission The Trial of Faith The Confirmation of Promise 16 Epilogue Genesis 23:1–25:11 247 Why Isaac? The Death of Sarah The Lineage of Terah Genesis Part III Page 2 Week 1: The Cast of Characters Text Reading: Genesis 11:26 - 32 “This man, Abraham, was loved by God, Who pronounced him righteous on the basis of his faith.” (Gunther Bornkamm) The father of three world religions, Abraham is claimed as patriarch and prophet by Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. Fully one quarter of the Book of Genesis is devoted to the narrative of Abraham’s life, with particular attention to the covenant established by God between Himself and the patriarch of the Hebrew nation. In Abraham God begins to focus His redemptive plan to a people – though, of course, the Jew and the Christian and the Muslim do not agree as to the identity of that people in the world today. Yet adherents from all three religions would generally concur with Leon Kass, “Having dispersed mankind into many nations, He [God, of course] now chooses one nation to carry His way as a light unto all the others, and He takes up a prominent role as that nation’s educator and guide.”1 This nation came from the loins of Abraham, and that by a nearly miraculous birth of a promised son when Abraham was very old, and his wife barren. The Dispensationalist begins a new era of divine redemptive work with Abraham, breaking the continuity of faith with the previous ‘dispensation’ of Noah. Abraham inaugurates the ‘Patriarchal Dispensation’; the fourth of seven in the classical enumeration, which will in turn give way to the ‘Mosaic.’ But the Reformed theologian sees in Abraham both the continuation and the epitome (at least in pre-Christian times) of God’s covenantal dealings with mankind, and recognizes with the Apostle Paul that the Mosaic Era was but a way station along the road from Abraham to his Promised Seed, Jesus Christ. In Second Temple rabbinic tradition, Father Abraham occupies the place held by Peter in the mythology of many Christian traditions. Abraham sits at the 1 Kass, Leon The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis (New York: Free Press; 2003); 247. Genesis Part III Page 3 gate of Hell (Gehenna) and Heaven (Paradise), to determine who are true descendant of himself, and thus permitted to enter the place of bliss rather than to be consigned to the place of torment. ‘Abraham’s Bosom,’ a common phrase in Second Temple Judaism, is recognized by Jesus Himself as the euphemism for Paradise, as the poor beggar Lazarus is carried thence by the angels in Jesus’ story of Lazarus and the Rich Man. Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried. In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame. (Luke 16:22-24) Rabbi Levi, in the Midrash Genesis Rabba, accords Abraham a powerful role in judging who may and who may not enter into Paradise, R. Levi said: In the Hereafter Abraham will sit at the entrance to Gehenna, and permit no circumcised Israelite to descend therein. What then will he do to those who have sinned very much? He will remove the foreskin from babes who died before circumcision and set it upon them [the sinners], and then let them descend into Gehenna.2 Abraham figures remarkably in this particular work of rabbinic tradition; earlier the rabbis ponder the instability of Adam in comparison to their perception of Abraham’s abiding and unfailing faith (a slight exaggeration of the patriarch’s actual life, to be sure). Genesis Rabbah 14 states, Perhaps in the proper order of things, Abraham should have been the first man created, not Adam. God, however, foresaw the fall of the first man, and if Abraham had been the first man and had fallen, there would have been no one after him to restore righteousness to the world; whereas after Adam's fall came Abraham, who established in the world the knowledge of God. As a builder puts the strongest beam in the centre of the building, so as to support the structure at 2 Midrash Rabbah Genesis XLIII; http://archive.org/stream/RabbaGenesis/midrashrabbahgen027557mbp_djvu.txt Genesis Part III Page 4 both ends, so Abraham was the strong beam carrying the burden of the generations that existed before him and that came after him.3 In Islam, no less than in Judaism and Christianity, Abraham is a hero of the faith. He is one of the seven major prophets of Islam, and he is also a ‘messenger’ and an ‘imam.’ This role he shares with only four other prophets of the Islamic faith – Adam, Noah, Moses, Jesus, and, of course, Muhammad. A ‘messenger’ in Islam is a prophet who is also tasked with bringing Shariah to the people of the earth – ‘divine law.’ Thus a ‘messenger’ is also a lawgiver. An ‘imam’ has the further responsibility of teaching the people the truth about God, and leading them in worship. To the Muslim, Abraham (Ibrahim) was all three – prophet, messenger, and imam. Such a central figure within the cultural and religious framework of three major world religions, yet Abraham is widely considered by modern scholars to be a mythological or legendary character concocted by later Hebrews fabricating their national ‘pre-history.’ It is somewhat remarkable what these rationalistic, critical writers have to say about Abraham – often evidencing a complete lack of familiarity with the biblical text. For instance, Charles Foster Kent, in his multi- volume history of the Jewish nation, writes. Standing as the traditional father of the race among the mists of dim antiquity, it was inevitable that the character of Abraham should be idealized. In the stories which they have preserved each group of biblical writers has sketched its ideal. In the Judean prophetic narratives Abraham is the friend of God, the man of perfect faith who in a cruel, selfish, warring age lived at peace with all men…In the Ephraimite narratives he is called and is pictured as a prophet, in dreams foreseeing the future, intent only upon carrying out the divine command, even though it cost him his dearest possession.4 But these are not accurate descriptions of the man portrayed in the Genesis narratives – regardless of who one believes actually wrote the narratives 3 Ibid. 4 Kent, Charles Foster Narrative of the Beginnings of Hebrew History (London: Hodder & Stoughton; 1904); 73. Genesis Part III Page 5 (and Kent adheres to the Wellhausean theory of multiple late authors of the Pentateuch). Abraham was not a man of steadfast faith throughout his life (case in point, his dalliance with Hagar that produced Ishmael), nor was he at all times peace-loving (his household entourage constituted a small army). He attempted to pass off his wife as his sister - not once, but twice – in a craven attempt to preserve his own life. Contrary to legendary embellishments – both real and perceived – the biblical presentation of the patriarchs comes complete with warts. The failures of the patriarchs, both in character and action, are not hidden from view nor glossed over. If there is a single thread of theology apparent through the narratives of the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (and especially the first and third of this triumvirate), it is that of sovereign grace. The Benefit of the Doubt: But was Abraham a real person? It is true that his life setting resides in ‘the mists of dim antiquity,’ and that the narratives of his comings and goings were written down centuries after his death.