Waiting for God

It seems appropriate that as we begin Advent we find Abraham still waiting for God to begin the process of keeping his promise.

We pick up Abraham's story with him heading to the land of the Philistines.  Abraham, apparently, wasn't paying much attention when he was in Egypt, because he tries the same thing here - having Sarah say that she is his sister and giving her to the king of the land.  God again intervenes and returns Sarah to Abraham.

Then, finally, Sarah and Abraham have a son, Isaac.  After the rejoicing subsides, Sarah gets very jealous of Hagar and Ishmael and Abraham sends them out into the wilderness.  God saves Hagar and Ishmael and promises that he, also will be a founder of a great nation. 

We turn back to Abraham and God has one final challenge for him.  God tells Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice to God.  To us this is a shocking thing for God to ask.  Abarahm would not have found it shocking - all of the gods of all of the people among whom Abraham lived required the sacrifice of a child.  What made it a test was that Abraham had waited so long for this son.  Abraham obeys God and God does not require the sacrifice of Isaac.

We then hear of Sarah's death and of Abraham securing a burial ground for her in the land of Caanan.  And then Abraham's thoughts turn to acquiring a wife for his son - this is the transition between the Abraham story and the next major portion of Genesis - the Jacob story.

Why we don't let children read the Bible

It's because of the next part of the Abraham story (among others).  If you have young children do not let them read chapters 16 through 19 of Genesis. 

In Chapter 16 they will be taught that if God isn't keeping his promises fast enough that they should try to help.  In this chapter we find Sarai - Abram's wife - trying to get him the children God promised by giving him her handmaid, who does indeed have a son, Ishmael

In Chapter 17 they will learn about circumcision and that God isn't sure if he is one, or three or two - because the conversation that Abram has with God moves between three men and God and aparently an angel and God.  Oh, and that God can change your name.

In Chapter 18 they will learn to bargin with God - as Abraham does to try to prevent him from destroying Sodom and Gomorah

Which leads us to Chapter 19 - in which they will learn about how not to welcome guests to your city, that your daughters can be used to placate a mob who wants your guests, that you should argue with God as you flee for your life - and then there is that incest thing that ends the chapter.

Okay - well none of that is, you will be stunned to hear, the point.  What I suspect that we are supposed to learn from this part of the saga is to trust that God has a plan and that when we try to help God's plan along we end up making a mess.

The Abraham story begins

We don't have Abraham yet, we have Abram - he will become Abraham later.  But here we have the beginning of the story.  Abraham is called out of his father's home and sent by God to a new land with the promise that he will be the father of a great nation and that his descendants will be a blessing to all people.

So, Abram goes and God shows him some land and promises it will be his.  Then we get a little side story - a famine hits and Abram takes his wife and goes to Egypt - but he tells his wife to say that she's his sister so people don't kill him to get her.  Well, Pharoah decides he wants her and gives Abram livestock and slaves for her - but when God sends sickness to his house he figures out what's going on and sends her back and tells Abram to get out of Egypt.  This is one of those things the recurs in the story - things aren't going the wayAbram thinks they should, he tries to fix them and messes up a bit and God gets it back on track

So Abram gets back to Canaan and God makes a covenant with him - God promises that Abram will be the father of  a great nation and that his descendents will have the land - but he also says that they will be exiles and persecuted for 400 years.  Abram forgets that part later - but stay tuned.

Noah to Abram

We reach the end of the first of the four parts of the story in Genesis this week - with the end of the flood narrative and the geneology that takes us from Noah and his sons to Abram - later known as Abraham.

The intersecting circles of the Genesis story - the one of God calling the world and humanity into being and our response - and the one of us being close to God, moving away from God and God drawing us back - reach the starting point again ready to begin the next round - the Abraham story.

Two things to notice - the generations of Noah describe the nations of the world as they were at the time of King Solomon.  And the story of the tower of Babel, which gets plunked right in the middle of the geneology, explains that the Babylonians were arrogant and tried to reach God - and God dealt with them.  Both of those things make perfect sense when you remember that the final editing of Genesis took place while the nation of Israel was in exile in Babylon.  So the kingdom of Solomon was the high point of their history and the story that has the Babylonians exceeding their place and being punished by God for arrogance would have resonated deeply with the exiles.

We get Abraham next week - stay tuned.

Noah's Ark

Anyone who has ever been in either my office or my home knows that I love Noah's Ark and collect ark's in all shapes and sizes.  So it was fun to cover that story in Bible study - and appropriate given the weather right now.

A few points - if you want to read along the story is found in Genesis 6:5 - 9:17

First notice that God is sorry that he created human beings at all - and decides to get rid of not only them but all animals - but then God thinks about Noah and decides to save him.  This is one of the first places in Scripture that God changes his mind.

Then notice that Noah takes not only the "two by two" that we are familar with but seven pairs of the "clean" animals, that is the ones we can eat.

The main part of the story you are probably familar with - it rains for 40 days and nights and finally stops.  But after it stops raining there is this wonderful sentence.  "And God remembered Noah"  In Hebrew the word for life and the word for remember are very closly linked and in Hebrew thought - as long as you are remembered you continue to exist.  So for God to remember you is a big deal.

At the end of the story God sets out a fresh Covenant with Noah and his sons and begins the process of distinguishing between human justice and God's justice.  God makes a promise that he won't destroy the earth with flood and uses the rainbow as a sign.  Notice that word remember again.  God will remember his covenant with Noah every time a rainbow appears in the sky.

From Adam to the flood

Chapters 4 and 5 of Genesis are the ones that usually stop people who are trying to read through the Bible from beginning to end.

In the beginning of Chapter 4 you have the story of Cain and Abel - where evil really enters the world.  Then we have the listing of the descendants of Cain - and how some of them became hearders and others musicians and others metal workers.

Then we get the 10 generations from Adam to Noah - it's an interesting list - note especially that of all 10 - only Enoch "walked with the Lord" and while all of the others die, Enoch is taken by God.

It ends with the odd paragraph about the sons of God - that is "Elohim" which Hebrew uses for both the God of Israel and all other gods - having relations with the daughters of men and spawning the Nephalim- the giants. 

All of that gets us ready for the flood story - that is coming in two weeks, stay tuned.

Reflecting on Creation Stories

Some additional questions about the two creation stories:

1. What does it mean that human beings are made in the image of God?
2. What does it mean to have dominion over creation?
3. What does it mean that God says "it is not good for the man to be alone?"
4. Why would God want to keep human beings from knowing good and evil?

Bible study is taking a break next week - we'll be back in two weeks with the Cain and Abel story.