Monday Night Bible Study

vs. 1-11: Abraham lived to be 175. Before he dies, however, he takes a wife named Keturah. Keturah bore Abraham six more children, then ten more grandchildren were also born to Abraham. The last act accorded to Abraham before he dies is the dispensing of his worldly possessions. He gives all that he has to Isaac, and we are also told that he gives gifts to his concubines before sending them away to the East. It is important to acknowledge that the sons of the concubines contribute to Abraham’s status as the father of many nations.

After Abraham’s death, his sons Ishmael and Isaac bury him in the same cave as Sarah. We will remember Ishmael as the son of Sarah’s handmaid Hagar from Genesis 16. Although Ishmael moved away after events that transpired in Genesis 21, he evidently did not live too far away to come back and honor his father by assisting with the burial. This too, is another example of Abraham as the father of many nations.

vs. 12-18: Here we have the record of Ishmael’s genealogy. Ishmael lived to be 137. He was the father of twelve princes, each with their own nation. Genesis 21:18 is fulfilled where God said to Hagar about Ishmael after saving the both: “I will make him a great nation.”

vs. 19-34: This passage concerns Isaac and his family. Isaac was 40 when he took Rebekah as a wife and she, like Sarah, is unable to bear children at the outset. But after Isaac pleads with God, Sarah conceives. She has two children in her womb and they struggle within her. This struggle troubles her and she inquires of God why this is so. God’s reply from Genesis 25:23: “Two nations are in your womb. Two peoples shall be separated from your body; One people shall be stronger than the other, and the older shall serve the younger.”

This reply from God tells Rebekah that her two sons will be in a state of conflict and that one will be in servitude towards the other. This conflict will continue as the brothers grow into men, with their progeny being at odds also. The twins were born when Isaac was 60 and the manner of their birth plainly demonstrates the conflict. Esau had red hair and was a very hairy baby while Jacob was born holding Esau’s heel. Esau was an outdoorsman, a skillful hunter while Jacob dwelt mostly away from the elements within tents. Jacob loved and appreciated his brother because he enjoyed eating the game that Esau killed. Their mother Rebekah however, favored Jacob.

vs. 29-34: Here we have a major consequence for Esau as the result of both his foolishness and the conflict with Jacob. As firstborn, Esau would have received a double portion of Isaac’s inheritance. In this case, the inheritance is especially important because it includes the covenant God promised to Abraham. Even though this inheritance (his birthright) was so valuable, Esau was still foolishly willing to trade it for a meal. Physical weariness happens to us all, but Esau’s flawed character led him to value food over this rich blessing. Jacob , for his part, is manipulative and usurping in his effort to gain the birthright. This was not honorable and Jacob and Esau’s divide will only deepen as their stories progress.

If you are disappointed in the behavior and character of Abraham’s grandsons, you are surely not alone. Abraham was not perfect, but his faith in God seems to have precluded him from behaving as badly as his grandsons do in this chapter.

This is a very beautiful story of faith, providence and love. It takes place after the death of Sarah. We see Abraham making a request of his oldest and most trusted servant. Abraham requires the servant to make a solemn oath that he will fulfill this request. He is to go and find a bride for Isaac, but there are conditions.

The servant is to make sure that she is from Abraham’s country and Abraham’s people and not of the daughters of the Canaanites. Fearing that the potential bride would be unwilling to follow him all the way back, the servant asks Abraham if Isaac should go with him on the journey so that the bride would be put at ease enough to go with them willingly. Abraham does not think that this is necessary: he remembers the promises that God made to him and he trusts that God would allow for the union to happen so that the promises could be fulfilled. If the potential bride is unwilling to follow the servant back, then the servant will be released from the oath. Abraham trusted that the presence of God would be there to guide his servant. Abraham’s faith is once again on display: he does not want Isaac’s wife to come from a culture that worships false gods and he believes that God will provide.

So the servant takes ten of Abraham’s camels and comes strategically to a well where young women would gather water at evening. This was the city of Nahor in Mesopotamia. The servant says a prayer for success – that he will find the right bride for Isaac and that it will be under the condition that she would offer him water for his camels after he asks for water for himself. If she gives both him and his camels a drink, he will know that God is identifying this as Isaac’s bride and in turn showing kindness to his master Abraham. We can see in the servant’s attitude and prayer that he has faith in God also – undoubtedly influenced by the great faith of his master Abraham.

At the well, the servant notices a very beautiful young virgin with a pitcher on her shoulder. After the servant asks her for water, things proceed with the young lady Rebekah just as he had planned. She tells the servant that she will make sure that his camels have enough water to drink until they are no longer thirsty. The servant gives her gifts of gold and asks her who her father is. Upon hearing that she was the daughter of Bethuel, Milcah’s son, whom she bore to Nahor, the servant rejoices because he realizes that she is related to Abraham. This would have been highly significant because it represents familiarity and familial closeness, which was preferred at the time. It also confirmed that the servant would meet the condition laid out by Abraham at the outset that the bride not be one of the Canaanites.

Rebekah’s brother Laban, when realizing that the servant had shown kindness and given gifts to Rebekah, offered the servant and the camels lodging for the night. The servant relates the whole story to Laban and other family members, including everything about how Rebekah should follow him back to Isaac, or else he would be released from the oath. He tells the story, including the condition of her giving water to the camels, right up to that present moment. He concludes by requesting that they deal kindly with him and inform him of their intentions, mainly of which was whether they would allow Rebekah to return with him back to Isaac and Abraham. Bethuel, Rebekah’s father and Laban, her brother, respond:

“The thing comes from the Lord; we cannot speak to you either bad or good. Here is Rebekah before you; take her and go, and let her be your master’s son’s wife, as the Lord has spoken.”

When hearing this wonderful news, the servant bows, worships God and gives Rebekah even more gifts. He also gives precious gifts to Rebekah’s brother and mother. After staying the night and eating with the them, the servant asks them the next morning to let him return to Abraham with Rebekah, as he had mentioned the day before. But Rebekah’s family was not entirely prepared to release her just yet for they wish for her to remain with them for a few more days yet. But the servant has his condition to meet and he does not want to disappoint Abraham. He also ultimately feels that Rebekah is the right bride for Isaac so he insists. Then Rebekah’s family ask her what she desires. She says simply that she will go. After hearing this, Rebekah’s family agrees to send her and her nurse with the servant and they say a prayer for her as she goes:

“Our sister, may you become the mother of thousands of ten thousands; and may your descendants possess the gates of those who hate them.”

It is no coincidence that this prayer echoes themes of the promises God gave to Abraham. As the bride of Isaac, Abraham’s son, Rebekah plays a large role in the progeny to come from the lineage of Abraham.

It is the ending of this chapter that is the most beautiful of all. As the servant and Rebekah are traveling back, Isaac is in a field meditating in the evening. He sees the camels coming. Rebekah, too, notices Isaac and asks the servant who he is. When she learns that it is Isaac, she covers herself with a veil. This simple act of humility before her soon-to-be husband says a lot about her character: she respects the institution of marriage, she respects Isaac and she bends to the will of the Lord.

After the servant tells Isaac all that had happened, Isaac and Rebekah are married. The grief that Isaac had over the death of his mother is now replaced with the joy of his new wife Rebekah. The conclusion is as the story, it is simple. It is a story of God’s love and providence for His people. When we love and obey God today, this sort of providence is the same today as it was with Isaac and Rebekah. When a faithful man and a faithful women seek and pray for a suitable mate, the Lord is the absolute best matchmaker there ever was, or ever will be.

 

Sarah lived to be 127. She was old enough to have seen Isaac reach adulthood. She died in Hebron, which was in Canaan. Abraham mourns her death.

He was seeking a place for her burial. The sons of Heth (ancestors of the Hittites) allowed him to bury Sarah there. When Abraham asked them for a burial place, they told him to pick the best of their burial places for her. Ephron owned the cave of Machpelah and Abraham asked for this, and to pay the right price for it. Ephron said that Abraham could have it for nothing, but Abraham insisted on paying, and so he did.

Abraham was able to bury Sarah there and have a fitting burial place for his wife. There are two good lessons that we can learn from this brief chapter:

1. Those that love their closest family members will do right by them when they pass from this world. Abraham was willing to ask for the best place to bury her in a land not his own, and even insisted on paying for the place when he did not have to.
2. Like in previous chapters, we see how Abraham has garnered the respect of those around him. Ephron did not have to offer Abraham the field at all, much less for free, then Ephron accepted Abraham’s money for the field because he respected that Abraham wanted to pay for it.

Abraham’s faith in God won him strong allies in Abimelech and Phichol; here, it helps to provide him with a burial place for his wife.

All of the Word of God is special because it is the communication from our creator to us. There are valuable things to learn from every chapter in the Bible, but this chapter is momentous.

At long last, Abraham had his promised son Isaac. Abraham had been living a life devoted to God, a life of absolute faith and dependence. He was sure of God’s place in reality and his place as God’s child. The times that Abraham had escaped calamity and the times that he had been blessed had come from God. Abraham knew this, and God knew that Abraham knew this, yet God still wanted to test him to an almost unthinkable limit.

Once Isaac was born, Abraham and Sarah were overjoyed. Abraham understood the source of this blessing absolutely. Because Abraham understood God’s power, and because Abraham believed that God would work towards Abraham’s overall best interest as long as Abraham honored God, Abraham obeyed God when He told Abraham to take Isaac to a mountain to kill as a sacrifice.

If you are a parent, it can be difficult to understand the frame of mind that Abraham was in. We can recognize that familial mores differed so long ago, and that our concentration on the family unit is much more intense today than it was in Abraham’s time. But we also know that Abraham had wanted and been waiting for a son. The improbability of obtaining Isaac surely made him an even more treasured son. But deep in his heart and mind, Abraham understood the concept of God’s blessings: they can often seem to be given without any sort of structure or organization and the reasons for them are not always evident. Amidst this uncertainty as to their reason, man must conclude that the presence of God’s mysterious blessings supports some unknown plan of God, still yet to appear, and a plan that may not even be evident during our lifetime.

Abraham’s relationship with God was so deep that he intuited all of this, and this understanding is what led him to blindly and willingly go to kill Isaac. Inside Abraham’s deepest thoughts, did he suspect that Isaac would make it out of this alive? Verse 8 says seems to suggest yes, because when Isaac notices the lack of a living sacrifice en route to the event, Abraham answers, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.”

Whether or not Abraham expected to kill his son that day is unclear now, but we can certainly deduce that he was prepared to do it and that he would have done it had God not stopped him. God desired to test Abraham’s faith in this way and Abraham passed the test. In verses 15-18, God confirms his promises to Abraham once again:

“Then the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, and said: “By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son—blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.””

God’s plan to redeem all mankind is evidenced as early as the third chapter of Genesis, as we have covered in this study. At this point, we have another hint at a theme: sacrifice for the greater good backed by a love like no other. None of the other men of the time had faith in God as Abraham did. Abraham proved it in undoubtable fashion. Abraham understood that faith required obedience to any ends, including sacrificing his son. Abraham’s love for God was indeed great. By the same token, on a much greater scale, God’s love for us is such that He gave us His Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. This is the greatest sacrifice of all and proves that our God has the rarest and purest love for us, His Creation in need of a savior.

The chapter concludes in verses 20-24 with genealogy. The family of Nahor was last seen in chapter 11. The families of Nahor and Abraham had stayed in touch in some form, but more notably, these particular verses tell of the birth of Rebekah, who will come into significant play as the Bible story unfolds.

This chapter has three distinct sections. There is the birth of Isaac, a second and final departure of Hagar from Abraham’s clan, and a covenant that Abraham makes with Abimelech. These events center around God’s increasingly visible plan. As Abraham’s story progresses through this chapter, we are slowly seeing how God is beginning to fulfill the promises He made in Genesis 12.

Verses 1-7: Isaac

At long last, Abraham and Sarah have Isaac. Isaac’s birth occurs through the providence of God and in accordance with God’s instruction that every male be circumcised (Genesis 17). Abraham circumcises Isaac when he is eight days old. At the time of the birth, Abraham and Sarah were very advanced in age. Nevertheless, Sarah was a nursing mother. In verses 6-7, we witness Abraham and Sarah surprised and delighted to be present at the unlikely event of their healthy son: “And Sarah said, “God has made me laugh, and all who hear will laugh with me.” She also said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? For I have borne him a son in his old age.””

Verses 8-21: Hagar/Ishmael

Abraham has a great feast to celebrate Isaac’s being weaned from nursing. During this feast, Sarah sees Hagar and Ishmael. Recall the story of Hagar giving birth to Ishmael in Genesis 16. Sarah has obviously remained displeased with Hagar as Hagar was able to conceive with Abraham when she was not. Sarah, to her discredit, has allowed this resentment to persist and perhaps even grow.

What happens next is the beginning of God’s promise to Hagar from Genesis 16:11-12. In that passage, a pregnant and despondent Hagar received a promise of her own: “And the Angel of the LORD said to her: “Behold, you are with child, And you shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, Because the LORD has heard your affliction. He shall be a wild man; His hand shall be against every man, And every man’s hand against him. And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.””

Back to Genesis 22, when Sarah sees Hagar at the feast, and in particular when she sees Ishmael scoffing, she tells Abraham to cast out Hagar and Ishmael. Abraham is troubled by this, but God tells him to make it so. God is fulfilling the promise that Isaac will be the son through which the main promise is fulfilled, but a great nation will still come from Ishmael. Abraham sends them away into the wilderness with just a skin of water, which quickly runs out. Hagar perceives that she and Ishmael may soon die. Because she could not bear to see it, she puts Ishmael under a bush to die and she expects her own death is imminent.

But God hears Ishmael’s voice and provides a way for them both to be saved. Ishmael will go on to fulfill the promises that God made to Hagar. He lives in the Wilderness of Paran and has a wife that his mother procures for him from Egypt.

Verses 15-21 in Genesis 21 are an interesting parallel to the passage of Hagar alone in Genesis 16. In both passages, Hagar is alone and in peril, either physically or in danger of separation from God. In both cases, God saves Hagar to ensure that His promise will be fulfilled that Ishmael will be the beginning of a great nation. Through her actions in these situations, Hagar reveals that she is prone to run away or give up when faced with hardship. Although she seems to lean towards hopelessness, God saves her and Ishmael to make good on His promise. There is a grave and important lesson for us here: do not ever lose hope; if we obey and believe, God will make good on His promise to save us.

Verses 22-34: Abimelech

Abimelech is familiar to us now as a powerful king that respects the power of God and that has respect for Abraham too. Phichol, the army commander for Abimelech, asks Abraham to swear not to “deal falsely with me, with my offspring, or with my posterity; but that according to the kindness that I have done to you, you will do to me and to the land in which you have dwelt.” Abraham agrees. The influence of Abraham’s God had spread from Abimelech to the commander of his army.

Abraham takes the opportunity to address a well that he had dug that Abimelech’s people had apparently taken over. Abimelech, true to his character of respect for Abraham, expresses concern over the well and says that he was unaware of it. Abraham gives seven ewe lambs to Abimelech as a sign of a covenant to witness that it was indeed Abraham’s well. The chapter ends with Abraham and Abimelech solidifying the covenant at the newly named “Beersheba.” Abraham plants a tamarisk tree there and then prays to God. Abraham, having found favor in the leader of the land through God, stays in that area of Philistia for many days.

Although this chapter contains diverse elements, the thread of God’s involvement runs through all. Little by little, God is fulfilling His promises.

After the harrowing events of chapter 19, we rejoin Abraham in Genesis 20. In this chapter, Abraham journeys to the south to an area between the places of Kadesh and Shur. Kadesh and Shur are in a larger place which is referred to Gerar, and Gerar has a king named Abimelech. We are not told why Abraham decides to travel south, and can only conjecture that it may have been for better grazeland for his animals, or to put distance between him and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

When Abraham arrives there, he reuses the same tactic he used in Egypt (Genesis 12:10-20) of saying that Sarah was his sister and not his wife. This was an attempt to avoid violence and save his life. Abraham again feared that as Sarah’s husband he would be killed as she was taken by a powerful man. In Egypt, the fear revolved around her great beauty being the thing that made her attractive to powerful men, but in this instance, so many years later, Sarah is beyond her child-bearing years and Abraham may have thought that she would be desired because of her great wealth.

Abraham’s suspicions were well-founded because Abimelech does indeed take Sarah in verse 2. God then comes to Abimelech in a dream and explains to him who Sarah really is, making it once again evident how special Abraham and Sarah were to God. Abimelech’s death was imminent because he took Sarah captive. But then Abimelech protests that he actually fears and respects the power of God, and he describes his nation as righteous as well. As Abimelech describes his innocence, God reveals to him that He actually prevented Abimelech from touching Sarah. In this act of mercy upon Abimelech, God shows His omniscience, omnipotence and desire for righteousness to prevail.

God tells Abimelech to restore Sarah to Abraham. Abimelech does this, but not before publicly asking Abraham why he would bring the threat of godly punishment to him and his nation. In verse 11, Abraham provides his explanation: “…Because I thought, surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will kill me on account of my wife.” It is true that Abimelech feared God at the end of this chapter, but his reputation at the outset seems to have been one of ignorance, indifference or disobedience to the power of God.

Abimelech hears Abraham’s explanation for the half-truth and completes the restoration of Sarah to Abraham with extravagant gifts. God then restores Abimelech’s family to resume procreation because we also find out at the end of the chapter that God had “closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.” No real explanation is provided for God’s doing this other than the implication that it was punishment for Sarah being taken.

What can we take from this chapter? There are a couple of pertinent lessons for us in the modern age:

1. In verse 6, we learned that God’s grace kept Abimelech from sin. We should pray for the same thing for ourselves and for our loved ones. We need to pray for the strength to resist temptation and that God can, according to His will, prevent us from soiling our spirits through sin. Praying for the strength to resist is very important, but there is also the answered prayer where God can help us to avoid the temptation altogether.
2. In this chapter, God is grandly showing his faith in Abraham to the powerful men of the earth and He does not find it necessary to complete His will forcibly or violently (which He definitely does in other parts of the Bible), but in the end all is done peacably. Abimelech is convinced of the greater power of the one true God. God used the threat of death (verse 7), and the outcome glorified God and favored Abraham and his family. How can we look for ways to glorify God? Abraham may have acted out of fear, but his faith in God kept him safe and also convinced Abimelech that he was not the most powerful entity in the land.

Chapters leading up to this show us that Abraham and Sarah will have a son despite their age and also foretell of coming consequences to the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. In chapter 18, Abraham pleads with God to relent if there should be a number of righteous found in the city. Abraham’s intercession on their behalf leads to some interesting insights:

• Abraham most likely remembered that His brother Lot lived in the area of Sodom and Gomorrah
• Abraham valued righteousness
• Abraham modeled a figure of Christ as he interceded for the righteous (Romans 8:34)

Abraham’s courage is valuable and admirable, but it cannot stop God’s judgment.

Verses 1-11: Wickedness

The two “men,” now understood to be angels, enter Sodom to find Lot sitting in the gate of the city. These angels were going there to verify whether the sin of these cities was as great as the outcry against them said (Genesis 18:21). Lot implores the two angels to stay with him at his home rather than in the open square where he knew they would be violated. The angels agree and Lot prepares a great feast for them.

It is a good thing that they agreed to stay with Lot because before they all laid down to sleep, corrupted old and young citizens from all over the city came to Lot’s house to rape these two “men” that they knew had earlier come into the city. Lot offered the mob his two virgin daughters instead, but the mob was unsatisfied with this alternative. In fact, the mob knew that the angels were there to exact judgment on their wicked ways, and it only increased their anger towards Lot when he offered his daughters. The mob pursued Lot all the more vigorously, but the angels pulled Lot back inside the house and confounded the mob with blindness.

Verses 12-29: Judgment

The men make it clear that the cities will be destroyed due to their sins of depravity. They tell Lot to flee with his family so that they will be saved. Lot attempts to bring his sons-in-law with him, but they do not believe that there is an impending threat and, thinking Lot to be joking, they choose to remain in the city.

When the morning comes on the next day, the angels tell Lot to hurry and depart with his wife and daughters because they would be destroying the city very soon. When they leave, the angels tell them that they are not to look back. Lot lingers and the angels eventually take him and his wife and daughters outside of the city and tell Lot to escape to the mountains. Lot, fearful that he will die in the mountains, implores the angels to let him flee to Zoar, a small city that was nearby, but apparently far enough away to not be affected by the immediate destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot and his wife and daughters escape to Zoar, but his wife does look back and she is transformed into a pillar of salt for her disobedience.

Verses 27-29 are Abraham’s only appearance in this chapter. These verses are very important because they show how God honored Abraham’s request to save the righteous. The cities could not be saved because of their great wickedness, but the fact that God remembered Abraham to save Lot is yet another strong sign of God’s love, trust and belief in Abraham.

Verses 29-38: Aftermath

Lot leaves Zoar and dwells in the mountains with his daughters after the destruction. They dwell in a cave and Lot’s two daughters make notice that since their husbands are gone, and Lot’s wife is gone, there will not be a male heir to carry on the lineage of their father. At this time so long ago, lineage of the male line was very important. So the older daughter had the idea that they get Lot drunk, lay with him, and bear his children. The incest takes place and the daughters have two boys, who would eventually grow up to become Moab and Ben-Ammi. These two sons’ descendants would bring great trouble on the house of Israel.

As cringeworthy as these acts of the daughters are, they were acting in a way that made sense to them. But, this does not excuse their behavior. Lot has shown his character to be good at times, but mostly we are left with the impression of his weakness. Instead of choosing righteousness, Lot lived in fear and made choices to serve himself rather than God. The incestuous relationship with his daughters and the offspring produced by them are a consequence in and of themselves for this sin. This is not unlike the New Testament passage in Romans 1:26-27: “For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.”

This passage shows the sinfulness of homosexuality and also demonstrates that the penalty for such sin is the act itself. The quality of life and resulting events that can occur will ruin the lives of those whom engage in them.

This is a very deep and rich chapter. Here are some of the prime lessons we can take from it that can help us as we live in our modern context. God’s Word and the lessons it contains transcend time and are not limited by culture, age, or what we contemporarily refer to as  a unique “life experience.”

• The sins of fornication, homosexuality and living only to satisfy our basest desires will bring consequences. In the modern context, do I sometimes believe that these things aren’t really so bad? If so, we need only remind ourselves of God’s wrath in the face of these sins.
• Lot’s sons-in-law did not heed the warning. Their attitude and inability to perceive real danger caused them to lose their lives. It also reveals their lack of righteousness. We need to make sure that we are heeding all warnings to our safety, both physical and spiritual.
• Lot’s wife’s punishment for looking back seems harsh, but it stresses how grievous a situation they found themselves in. The sin was abhorrent and their fleeing was a narrowly won blessing. Lot’s wife would have been much better off to have recognized the seriousness of the situation and taken as sacrosanct the commandments of the two angels by obeying them.
• Abraham asked whether the cities would be spared for the sake of even ten righteous souls. The number of people that escaped was exactly four: Lot, his wife, and their two daughters. God saved the righteous four; but was not bound by his Word to save the cities, because ten righteous were not found. God’s Word is pure, true and reliable.
• The legacy of sin has a long tail with lasting consequences. Regardless of why Lot’s daughters chose to deceive him and bear his children, it was still an abhorrent act. Incest is deemed a sin by God.
• Intercession does not remove God’s judgment or His punishment. Abraham did plead on behalf of the righteous, and some mercy was granted, but God’s desires will always be accomplished.

This chapter follows the faithful actions of Abraham circumcising himself and all of his household as God commanded in chapter 17. Abraham was also told that he would have a son that would be born to he and his lawful wife Sarah.

Verses 1-15: Disbelief at a son

Like the previous chapter, this chapter also includes God talking with Abraham. Verse 1 tells us that God appears to Abraham, but the method of communication between God and Abraham is convoluted somewhat by three “men” that are described in verse 2. Here are verses 1-3:

“Then the Lord appears to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. So he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground, “My Lord, if I have now found favor in Your sight, do not pass on by Your servant.”

This passage raises a few questions. The text tells us that God appears to Abraham, but then describes three men meeting Abraham. So is God’s spirit in these three men or are these three men angels, representing God? Abraham seems to be under the impression that God is in the form of (at least one of) these men, as his speech and reverence show that he believes that God is present. It also makes us wonder how exactly God appeared to Abraham in previous meetings. Was it also in the form of a man or men, or was it in some other form? For now, this mystery will have to wait as the Holy Word only gives us so many details. The only things we can really be sure of based on the text are that:

• God communicated with Abraham (and other patriarchs such as Noah) directly
• God made it clear when He was communicating with man directly
• Abraham knew it when he was communicating with God

Let us notice a few things about Abraham in this passage. His hospitality to these “men” is passionate, immediate and effusive. He falls at and washes their feet. He has Sarah prepare cakes, he has a “tender and good” calf prepared for them to eat, as well as butter and milk. Within Abraham’s substantial circumstance, these offerings to the weary travelers were the best on hand. Abraham, somehow knowing that it was divinity that he entertained, perfectly models human obeisance in the presence of God.

Speaking through these men, God tells Abraham that he would have a son with Sarah. This was not news for Abraham, as he found out in the previous chapter, but Sarah, overhearing, laughed. To her, it was preposterous to have a child at her age. Sarah denied her laughter. God however, calls her out, holding up that she did laugh. Earlier in verse 14, He asked, “Is there anything too hard for the Lord?” No, there is nothing that is too hard for the Lord. An older woman having a child presents Him with no trouble whatsoever.

Verses 16-33: Belief in righteousness

The chapter switches gears at this juncture and the men (through whom God is speaking), tell Abraham that the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah will be inspected to see if the claims of their absolute depravity are true. Now, God’s omniscience would presumably have allowed Him to know this without visiting the city, but God was choosing to work through these men.

God’s decision to inform Abraham of this plan reveals how special their relationship was. God obviously highly valued and trusted Abraham. We see a great description of this in verses 17:19:

“And the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing, since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to Him.””

The reputation of these cities was one of vile wickedness and God seems to want to witness it firsthand to verify just how bad it really is. In verse 22, the men leave, yet Abraham is left still to converse with God. This raises more questions – did two men leave (angels) and one stay (God)? Or did all three men leave and Abraham is left in the presence of God after they depart? The details and logistics are unclear and increasingly unimportant as we follow through to the rest of the chapter.

Until the end of the chapter, we have Abraham asking God about the level of righteousness present, and how many righteous would disallow God’s destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham’s attitude throughout is yet another great example for us; here it is on display in verse 27: “Indeed now, I who am but dust and ashes have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord.” Abraham asks God if He would destroy Sodom and Gomorrah for the sake of 50 – 45 – 40 – 30 – 20 – 10 righteous…? God says that He would not destroy Sodom and Gomorrah for each of these numbers of righteous. Abraham’s questions remind us of the sort of intercession that Christ does on our behalf under the new law. Here it is described in Hebrews 7:25: “Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.” Christ’s intercession is both more meaningful and powerful than Abraham’s. This is one of the myriad reasons why God’s will is perfected in Jesus.

In Genesis 18, Abraham provides an absolutely excellent example of humility and obedience to God. Abraham is dedicated not only to God, but also to God’s right to punish and the sanctity of righteousness. Abraham knows the value of righteousness and not only makes sure that he is righteous himself, but also that the righteousness of others is recognized. In Abraham’s questions to God, we see an eye-opening mix of God’s attributes. God is dedicated to punishing wickedness, yet He is willing to employ the kindest mercy to forgive. What a God we have!

Verses 1-14: Abraham > Abram

God reiterates the promises to Abram, then changes his name from Abram to Abraham. The name change signifies a change in their relationship. God proceeds to tell Abraham to comply with a physical sign of the covenant between them: circumcision of the male organ. Within Abraham’s house, all males that were eight days or older were to be circumcised. At the age of eight days, infants would have been old enough to withstand infection yet young enough to not remember the pain. All males that were natural born, or that were bought as a foreigner (slaves) were to be circumcised immediately. He who was not circumcised was to be “cut off” (a seeming pun of sorts) from the people of God.

Circumcision, as a physical sign of the covenant has been compared to the idea of baptism in the New Testament. While we should recognize the perspective that circumcision is not necessarily the Old Testament equivalent of the New Testament form of baptism, there are, I believe, enough similarities between the two to at least consider them parallel ideas within the two separate covenants represented by the Old and New Testaments. Both are commandments, and the results of circumcision and the results of baptism impart the idea of inclusion in something, namely the favor and acceptance of God. Circumcision is strictly a physical act, requiring only obedience and submission and the result is that the male would be part of the covenant as long as he was a descendant of Abraham and he completed the act. Baptism, on the other hand, is a physical act with spiritual consequences. Baptism can be completed by anyone, man or woman, born directly from Abraham or not.

In the sense that the God’s old covenant with Abraham and the Israelites was limited to that population only, circumcision identified the male segment of that “saved” or “favored” population, but this limit was binding. Baptism, also a commanded act, also identifies believers in Him, but baptism supersedes the limiting qualifications that were part of the circumcision commandment. In fact, it is Jesus Christ’s sacrifice and the new covenant that affords baptism (into the death of Jesus Christ) the power to save us.

Circumcision and baptism are good aspects (as physical acts) of the old and new covenants that can be used to understand the challenges that the old law incorporated and also the freedom that the new law offers under Jesus Christ.

Verses 15-27: Isaac > Ishmael

In these verses, God changes Sarai’s name to Sarah, again representative of the change in their relationship. Sarah shall be a mother of nations and kings shall come from her. Abraham laughs first at this idea due to their age. In Genesis 18, Sarah will laugh at the idea herself. Abraham was around 100 years old and Sarah was around 90, so their dubiousness at the idea is understandable.

With this idea of their bearing a child together, Abraham raises the idea of Ishmael, his son by Sarah’s handmaiden Hagar, whose birth we read of in Genesis 16. But God says that Ishmael is not the answer to Abraham’s doubt; Isaac shall be born of Abraham and Sarah’s union, and God will establish His everlasting covenant with Isaac and with his descendants. Ishmael will still be blessed as the father of twelve princes and the father of a great nation, but God is clear that the all-important covenant will be carried out through the lineage of Isaac. After all, Ishmael was an illegitimate son while Isaac will be the legitimate son of Abraham and Sarah and thus the true recipient of the covenant.

Verses 23-27 account Abraham circumcising all the males of his house exactly as God has prescribed. This of course included Abraham and Ishmael.

There are actually quite a few lessons we can learn from this chapter, but not all them will be new to us and our study of Genesis:

• God’s covenant will be kept
• God asks for and rewards immediate obedience
• God values legitimacy
• Significance of name changes
  • Abram – “exalted father”; Abraham – father of many”
  • Sarai & Sarah both mean “princess”
• Circumcision/baptism comparison and study
• A new relationship with God brings blessing
• The value of obedience

When we consider Genesis 17, the ideas of confirming and sealing the covenant ought to stand out. God’s sealing the covenant with the command of circumcision is, at this point in the Bible story, the strongest evidence yet that God is marking His people as His own.

We will remember in chapter 15 Abram’s consternation at not having an heir and that God reaffirmed the promises. Despite the perceived difficulties that Abram and Sarai saw, God was working His plan to fulfill these promises.

Verses 1-6

Recall lthe promises that God made to Abram in Genesis 12: “I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”” Genesis 12:2-3

The promises that we are concerned with for this chapter are the promises that Abram will be made a “great nation,” and that in him “all the families of the Earth shall be blessed.” For these things to happen, Abram needs children. Abram and Sarai have been living in Canaan for ten years by this time, yet they have still not had a single child. Where would this great nation come from if Abram could not father a son?

Notwithstanding the promises, there would have been great pressure on Sarai to produce an heir for Abram. He was already the patriarch of a great clan and would need someone, preferably a son, to take up the mantle of leadership when he dies. During this age, the burden lay with the woman to produce and Sarai is looking for a way to produce an heir for Abram. Sarai says to Abram that God has prevented her from having children and she tells Abram to conceive a child with her Egyptian servant named Hagar. Living in Canaan for ten years, and being as wealthy for the time as they were, having a foreign servant is understandable.

Hagar quickly conceives a child with Abram and the result of this conception for Hagar is that she immediately feels (and shows) contempt for Sarai. The fact that Hagar conceived quickly with Abram proves that Sarai was the problem. In a society where fertility was highly valued, this opened the door for Hagar to look down on her master Sarai. Sarai notices Hagar’s changed attitude and she feels betrayed and unjustly treated because she has truly done no wrong. She says to Abram: “My wrong be upon you! I gave my maid into your embrace; and when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. The Lord judge between you and me.”” Genesis 16:5

Sarai is seeking justice and Abram, as the patriarch, recognizes her frustration and her plight and allows her to repay Hagar as she sees fit. After Sarai is hard on Hagar (which could mean anything from strenuous work to difficult living conditions to verbal abuse), Hagar understandably flees.

Verses 7-15

Here we see evidence of God’s promise to Abram coming to fruition. An angel of the Lord finds Hagar where she fled to a spring of water in the wilderness. The angel encourages Hagar to return to Sarai and submit to her, telling her, “I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude.” The angel also tells her that she will call her yet-to-be-born son “Ishmael”:

“He shall be a wild man; His hand shall be against every man, And every man’s hand against him. And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.”” Genesis 16:12

Ishmael is one of the heirs of Abram that will lead to one of the nations in the promise. It must be noted, however, that Ishmael is not the prime heir, as it were. Ishmael and his descendants will be blessed, but it is Abram’s son Isaac that will receive the lion’s share of promise fulfillment and thus the greatest amount of God’s blessings. Here is that notion by way of a preview into chapter 17: “Then God said: “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year.”” Genesis 17:19-21

The primary takeaway for us in this chapter is that God resolves His will in often unexpected and surprising ways. To us, the clear path to success is unmistakeable and we are disarmed and saddened when things do not work out the way we think they obviously should. Yet days, months or years later the hand of God can be seen in our lives and we see that we needed to only have a deeper faith all along.

Although neither Abram, Sarai nor Hagar were particularly well-behaved in this little drama, they all end up adhering to the will of God. The exact same thing is true for you, for me, indeed for all mankind.