recap
- Biblical God is out to save creation, not destroy it
- God has shown through the Genesis account that he's a God who knows when to stop creating and when to stop destroying - this is part of carrying God's image is that we "should know when to say enough"
- Means we can't get addicted to productivity and creation, we don't have to keep producing
- We can rest - thus the focus on sabot (sabbath)
- At the end of the preface (Gen 1-11) we are introduced to Abram, a man who is willing to put his legacy aside for the sake of righteousness
- He takes care of Sarai and says that his name isn't as important as someone else's (his brother)
- So this is why God chooses to partner with Abram, because he is a man who knows when to say enough
Genesis 12-15
- Twice we have the phrase "Abram said" meaning that there's 2 conversations and the first time Abram expresses concern over not having heirs he doesn't get any answer from God
- God does answer the second time and shows Abram the stars out of the firmament
- God knows Abram doesn't need this answer, but Abram and Sarai take the info, but without God's perspective and plan because of their limited foresight, they screw the story up by looking to Hagar as the one who will actually bear the child of the promise
- Abram demands answers, as we do sometimes, but the answer causes him to mess up his own story - this is one of the lessons of the story
Observations
- God requests some animals from Abram, and he does but then Abram immediately cuts them in half
- Shows that Abram knows exactly what God is asking here - God is asking Abram to set up a covenant, a betrothal covenant
- Also note that eventually birds of prey show up - shows that Abram is extremely hesitant to walk down the blood path it'e because he knows the consequences of breaking the covenant, the covenant is with God, and Abram knows he will fail the standards of the covenant.
- What is the significance of the blood path
- In the marital covenant, it's the groom and father of the bride who walk down this aisle
- There's a covenental agreement that each will keep their end of the bargain, and if not then the other shall do to them as they've done to the animals and walk in their blood
- The lesser party would go first - so the groom in that case, and Abram in this case
- So God shows up as 2 theophanies and walks through on both parties behalf
- Shows that God knows Abram will screw it up but also that God will be the one to make it right (via sacrifice)
- This is the same principal as the Abram and Isaac story... that at the end of that story, God provides. He provides himself here for Abram and provides the goat for Isaac then.
- Rabbi Foreman material at Aleph Beta Academy for commentary on Hagar and Ishmael narrative
Genesis 17 *Like the Noah narrative there is a lot of repetition of the covenant language - it's a chiasm *Similar structure to the Noah narrative suggests some kind of relationship between them
Observations
- Center of the chiasm is verse 10 about circumcision
- In Noah story, God puts the sign of the bow in the sky signifying that he will bare the responsibility for the covenant but here God actually does put the responsibility, the sign of the covenant, on Abraham. The sign is something that can't be forgotten but it does take a step of obedience. This is God handing off some expectation and responsibility to the people he's chosen - it's like he's saying to Abraham "Now that you know a little bit more, I will expect a bit more from you"
- For us... we are 2k years on this side of Jesus so how much more should we understand about what God expects of us as his chosen people?