Tag Archives: Genesis 23

January 7, 2024 Bible Study — God Will Provide

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Genesis 21-23.

I try to find something new to write about these passages each year as I go through them another time, but sometimes, such as today, I find an idea from a passage which I have written about before seems like what I should cover again this year.  So, I am going to write about when Abraham took Isaac to sacrifice him to God.  First, the accounts around this indicate that Abraham was involved with the culture around him, even though he was not part of it.  Our knowledge of that culture suggests that child sacrifice was not uncommon among them.  So, this gives us the context for Abraham receiving the instruction to sacrifice Isaac.  The story of Abraham offering to sacrifice Isaac serves two purposes.  First, it foreshadows God sacrificing His own Son.  Second, it serves as an object lesson that God does NOT desire child sacrifice.

When Isaac asked Abraham where the animal for sacrifice was, Abraham responded with equivocation and what he thought was deception by saying that God would provide one.  It turns out that Abraham was prophesying because God did indeed provide an animal for sacrifice.  So, Abraham was misleading Isaac when he told him that God would provide an animal for sacrifice, but God used what he said to build up Isaac’s faith, and to provide us with an object lesson.  When you know that you have been called by God to take an action but do not believe that you have the resources to execute, act anyway, because, if God has called you to act He will provide the means.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

January 7, 2023 Bible Study — Sarah And Hagar

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Genesis 21-23.

The accounts of events which include both Sarah and Hagar reflect poorly on both of them.  Previously, when Hagar discovered that she was pregnant, she held her pregnancy over Sarah (my reading of the wording suggests that Hagar thought that giving birth to  a son would give her ascendancy over Sarah).  Sarah, for her part, rather than admitting this was a circumstance of her own making, blamed Abraham and asked him to make it right.  In today’s passage, Ishmael mocked his half-brother for being less capable than himself, which reflects poorly on the way his mother, Hagar, had raised him.  Sarah, for her part, demanded that a fourteen year old be sent off without any support for showing poor judgement one time.  I do not want to make too much about what this events tell us about either woman (or Ishmael) because they do not include all of the details of what happened so that we do not know if the impression they give us of Hagar or Sarah accurately reflect how they behaved in these situations.  After all, the writer included the account in today’s passage in order to show us that God had a special place in His heart for Ishmael (and I believe Abraham’s other sons), even though Isaac was the one through God’s promises to Abraham would be fulfilled.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

January 7, 2022 Bible Study — God Will Provide

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Genesis 21-23.

I know I have mentioned this before, but until a few years ago I always pictured Ishmael as a toddler when Abraham sent Hagar and Ishmael away.  However, if we pay attention to what is written we realize that Ishmael was already 14 years old when Isaac was born and it was probably two or more years later that he was sent away.  So, when Hagar “put the boy under one of the bushes” he was actually a young man.   Which brings me to Abraham taking Isaac to sacrifice him to God.  Interestingly, when God told Abraham to take Isaac He said that Isaac was Abraham’s only son, even though Ishmael was still alive.  We do not know how old Isaac was at this point, but I would guess he was about the same age as Ishmael when Abraham sent him away.  However, all of what I just wrote is just introduction.  The story of God calling Abraham to sacrifice Isaac is foreshadowing of Jesus.  God said to Abraham, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love…”. Jesus was God’s only son whom He loved.  Then, when Abraham and Isaac left their servants, Isaac carried the wood for the burnt offering.  Jesus carried His cross on the way to His Crucifixion.  Finally, when Isaac asked his father where the lamb for the sacrifice was, Abraham answered that God will provide.  God did provide, both on this specific occasion and later with Jesus’ crucifixion.  I want us to take the lesson from this which I think Abraham took from it: God will provide.  Do as God directs and God will provide what you need.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

January 7, 2021 Bible Study Foreshadowing The Coming Of Christ

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 21-23.

Every year when I come to the story of Hagar and Ishmael being sent away by Abraham, I have to remind myself that by this point Ishmael was a young man.  I have an image of Ishmael as a toddler being carried into the wilderness by his mother.  However, we know he was older than that.  Ishmael was fourteen when Isaac was born and this is at least a year after that and probably more.  When Abraham sent Hagar and Ishmael away, Ishmael was old enough to try to take care of himself rather than just crying about the unfairness of life.

I do not want to make much of it, but I see a contrast with how Isaac acted when Abraham took him to offer him as a sacrifice.   While Ishmael had been a passive participant in his exile, Isaac noticed that they did not have a sacrifice and asked his father about it.  However, what I find more interesting is when the angel tells Abraham not to sacrifice the boy.  The angel refers to Isaac as Abraham’s only son in a way which foreshadows Jesus as God’s only son.  Abraham heading into the wilderness to sacrifice Isaac was recognition that something more was needed, but God stopped Abraham because Isaac was not that something more, that needed to wait for Jesus to be that sacrifice.  While I believe the focus of this story is to let us know that God does not want us to sacrifice our children to Him, it also foreshadows His sacrifice of His Son for our salvation.

January 7, 2020 Bible Study — Two Lessons In Parenting

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 21-23.

We often read the story of Hagar and Ishmael being sent away by Abraham as if Ishmael was a little boy.  In fact, Ishmael was a young man by this point.  He was 14 when Isaac was born and it was several years later when he was sent away by his father.  In fact, it seems likely that Hagar ran out of water because she was unwilling to take directions from her son.  As I read this story, Hagar wandered in the wilderness, refusing to listen to her son about where to go, until they ran out of water.  At which point, God opened her eyes to the good advice Ishmael had been giving her and she was willing to allow him to begin providing for the two of them.  As long as Hagar viewed Ishmael as a little boy who she needed to take care of she would not allow him to care for himself, and her, as he was capable of doing.  Many parents make this same mistake.

I have previously spent time looking closely at the story of Abraham taking Isaac to offer him as a sacrifice to God.  This story serves a very important purpose.  It communicates that while those who devote themselves to God are willing to sacrifice their children to serve Him, He rejects such sacrifices.  The people around Abraham, and later around his descendants, considered child sacrifice an integral part of their worship.  God made it clear that such sacrifice was not something of which He approved.  Further, this story is not just about the sacrifice of children by killing them.  It also means that we should not sacrifice the time we should spend with our children in order to “serve” God.  Children need their parents and their needs should come before the needs of our jobs, or even the needs of the Church. 

January 7, 2019 Bible Study — Abraham Puts Down Roots

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 21-23.

Just as God had promised, Sarah bore Abraham a son, who was named Isaac.  When Isaac was about to be weaned, Ishmael, his older half-brother pulled a typical teenager faux-pas.  Ishmael made fun of his baby brother.  Now this may have been simple teenager high spirits, or it may have been spoiled brat bullying, or anywhere in between.  The passage does not make clear.  I suspect it was closer to bullying than not.  Whatever the case may be, Sarah insisted that Ishmael and his mother be sent away.  After some serious soul searching, Abraham complied.  Now Abraham was committed to Isaac as his heir and the heir to God’s promise to him.

I want to take a side note here from my main theme to note that Ishmael at this point was fourteen years old at this point.  The way we often read this story, and the wording makes this easy, we tend to think of Ishmael as a young child when he was sent away.  In fact, he is a young man at this point.  Still too young to truly be out on his own, but old enough to start taking some adult responsibilities.  The fact that Hagar led him around the desert aimlessly until their supplies ran out and then left him under a bush tells us something about their relationship.  Surely by this time, Abraham had taught Ishmael something about navigating the territory they lived in.  Yet he either did not provide any guidance to his mother, or she ignored it.

 

The fact that Abraham had previously sent Ishmael away puts his actions to sacrifice Isaac into a different light then if Ishmael was still around.  After years of not having an heir of his body, then a few years of having one who was half-Egyptian rather than fully of his culture, Abraham finally had an heir who checked all of the boxes.  However, surely if he was truly dedicated to his god, he would sacrifice this son to him, as his neighbors did to theirs.  I do not know whether God spoke to Abraham in an actual voice as the passage implies or not, but a look at his interactions with those around him suggests that he would have certainly felt pressure to sacrifice Isaac from the practices of his neighbors.  Abraham was fully willing to sacrifice his family to server God, but God made it clear that not only does He not require it, doing so is a violation of His will.  We should be willing to risk our families in order to serve God, but God will never call us to a task which calls on us to sacrifice them.

The other two stories in today’s passage reflect Abraham putting down roots in this land.  In the first of these two stories, Abimelech, a Philistine king, approaches Abraham to make a treaty.  I am unsure what the significance is of the fact that he brought his army commander with him, but remember that later David entered into several treaties with people without his army commander, Joab, and Joab later killed those people.  During their negotiations Abraham complained about a well which Abimelech’s servants had forced him to stop using.  Abimelech denies any knowledge of this.  I do not think we are supposed to believe Abimelech’s claim, nor do I think that Abraham believed him.  That exchange was merely the opening for Abraham to establish that the well at Beersheba was his and gain Abimelech’s agreement.  In this exchange,  Abimelech agrees that he will not attempt to extend his territory any further into the area where Abraham grazes his flocks and Abraham agrees that his people will not raid Abimelech’s lands (nothing in the Bible suggests that Abraham’s people raided their neighbors, but we know from history that other nomads similar to Abraham did so).

The final story of today’s passage concerns Abraham obtaining a site to bury Sarah after her death.  When Sarah died near Hebron Abraham approached to local Hittite leaders for a burial site.  Their response was, “You are one of us.  Of course you may bury your wife in our cemetery.”  To which Abraham said, “No, I do not wish to bury her among your dead.  I would like this plot of land over here in which to bury her (and perhaps others who die in my household).”    Here once again Abraham is establishing ownership of some of the land separate from the people among whom he lives.

January 7, 2018 Bible Study — God Will Provide Answers

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 21-23.

    When we read the story of Abraham sending Hagar and Ishmael away we have a tendency to think of Ishmael as a young boy. However, this happened when Isaac was weaned, which means that Ishmael would have been at least 14 years old but probably 15. In other words, he was old enough to know better than to make fun of his baby brother (admittedly step-brother). This is just another example from the fallout from Sarah and Abraham not trusting that God would provide Abraham a son through Sarah.

    The part of this passage where Abraham takes Isaac with the intent to sacrifice him to God is one of the portions of the Bible most misunderstood by atheists. We know that child sacrifice was common among the peoples of the Land of Canaan. Since my experience of God speaking to me often involves things said by the people around me and the circumstances I find myself in, I have no problem with thinking that the same thing happened here. I can easily see Abraham hearing, either directly or indirectly, the people around him questioning his worship of God because he “refused” to sacrifice his son Isaac. The other gods of the area demanded the sacrifice of children, surely if Abraham truly worshiped God he would not hold back his son.

As an aside, I want to note that there is a foreshadowing of the sacrifice of Jesus here as well.

I do however believe that the exchange between Abraham and Isaac actually took place. From that it seems to me that when Abraham saw the ram caught by its horns in a thicket as he was about to sacrifice Isaac, he realized that what he had told Isaac was prophetic. I also want to point out that, while I tend towards thinking that the words attributed to God in this passage were never spoken out loud (that instead they represent Abraham’s interpretation of events going on around him, and perhaps the internal dialogue he was having with himself), I would not try to convince anyone that such was the case. So, we have Abraham struggling with the idea of sacrificing Isaac as he stands over Isaac preparing to sacrifice him as he has become convinced by his neighbors is the correct thing to do, but not really believing it in his heart, when he looks up and sees a ram caught by its horns in the thicket nearby. He remembers his throw away comment to Isaac as they traveled to this remote location, “God will provide,” and realizes that what he felt in his heart was correct and that God had provided. The lesson from this passage is thus: Abraham’s love of God was sufficient that he was willing to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice, but God did not desire such a sacrifice.
    The message here is that God desires us to not sacrifice our children in service to Him. The first lesson was to the people of Israel who lived among those who believed in and practices child sacrifice: it is NEVER God’s will that we sacrifice children to Him, and any god which demands such sacrifice is evil, not worthy of worship. There is a further lesson for those who are called to ministry today. They should not sacrifice the well-being of their marriage or their children to their service to God. Does your ministry have you too busy to go to your child’s sporting event? Unless this is the exception rather than the rule, you have your priorities wrong. Does your child have to misbehave to get your attention? You have your priorities wrong. I could go on, but I think parents will get my point. I will make one final point. The more important you are in the Church, the more important it is that you put aside your duties to the Church to make time for your children.