Genesis 20-22: Birth & Sacrifice

Genesis 20

Back in chapter 12 of this book we saw that Abraham, Sarah, and Lot (then Abram, Sarai, and Lot) had travelled into Egypt. Upon entering Egypt, Abraham and Sarah had decided to tell the people there that they were not husband and wife but brother and sister. We saw that the results of this action did not turn out at all badly for Abraham or Sarah, but quite beneficial.

In this chapter we see almost a duplication of the chapter 12. Abraham and Sarah lie to another saying that they are not brother and sister and again get rewarded for it. A lie... or is it? Let's take a look.

In the beginning of this chapter Abraham moves to the south to a place named Gerar. He told the people there that Sarah was his sister and Abimelech, (My Father King in Hebrew) the king took her to him.

We are told in verse 3 that God visited Abimelech in a dream and told him that he was a dead man because he had taken another man's wife. This seems to me to have been added in for dramatic effect, and we will see more of this later.

The story goes on to say that Abimelech never touched Sarah and he asked God if he would destroy a righteous nation as well. He asks God if he was not lied to by the man and the woman. He asked God if he had not acted in the integrity of his heart.

God replied that Abimelech had acted with integrity and that God had withheld Abimelech from touching Sarah so he would not sin before God. God instructed him to return Sarah to Abraham, who was a prophet. He told Abimelech that if he did not restore Sarah to Abraham that he would surely die along with all of his people.

Abimelech arose early the next morning and told all of his people what had happened, and they were very afraid. Abimelech then called Abraham and asked him why he had done this thing to them. He asked if they had offended Abraham in some way to bring this great sin upon his kingdom. He strongly reprimanded Abraham.

Abraham responded that he was sure that there was no fear of God in this place and that they would kill him for his wife.

Verse 12 turns out to be the most amazing part of the whole chapter. Abraham tells Abimelech that indeed Sarah is his sister being of the same father but not the same mother! It was only later that she had become his wife. Abraham had married his sister.

Abraham said that when he was forced by God to wander that he had told Sarah to lie, saying that he was her brother.

Then we see the rewarding of the lying again. Abimelech gave Abraham sheep and oxen, menservants and womenservants. He restored Sarah to Abraham and told her that he had also given Abraham one thousand silver pieces.

Because of this Abraham prayed to God and Abimelech was cured along with his wife and maidservants who were then able to produce offspring. We are told in the last verse that God had closed up the wombs of all of these women as punishment.

This concludes chapter 20.

Conclusion

An interesting chapter. Almost blow for blow what happened 8 chapters before, with one major twist. We find out that the lie was not such a lie. Abraham was telling a half truth when he said that Sarah was his sister, for they had the same father.

Abraham not only displayed characteristics of dishonesty and deceit, but we also see that he has been incestuous. What is more amazing than this is the fact that God made of Abraham not one nation but many, and said that all nations would be blessed through Abraham.

Instead of seeing a punishment for Abraham or Sarah, there is again a punishment given to the victim. Abimelech was going to be killed if he did not return Abraham's wife. Not only him but all of his kingdom. As a result, the women had had their wombs closed, though I think that this is something to look at seperately.

My understanding of the timeline in this chapter is something of a very short time. Certainly the length of time could not be that great between the time Abimelech took Sarah and the time he gave her back. Maybe one or two days. Yet, we are told that the wombs of these people were closed. How would they have noticed? That this must have occurred over a greater period of time is alluded to in verse 17 where it says that the women were healed and they bore children.

Two other things to mention before we pass on to the next chapter. The first, that God came to Abimelech in a dream. I have no doubt that this is possible for a God of omnipotence. I do not make comment on anything other than that this will become a common form for God to "communicate" with people throughout the Bible and the precedent is here in Genesis.

The second thing of mention is that Abimelech knew that God intended to destroy all of the people of his land before God ever mentioned that he would do so. In verse 3, God tells Abimelech that he was 'but a dead man'. In verse 4 Abimelech asks God if he would destroy a righteous nation as well. Did Abimelech read God's mind?

I think that this was either an error on the author's part of jumping ahead of himself, or the redactor's fault for removing an important passage or two. Provable? No. A possibility? Certainly.

Genesis 21

In an earlier chapter we saw that Sarah had given to her husband a maid to impregnate so that he could have a son. She was not happy with this decision later and there were problems. This is a similar chapter, though we see that Sarah is given the child this time, and still has anger at her maid. There is also another covenant, this time between Abraham and Abimelech. Let's take a look.

The chapter opens with the Lord visiting Sarah and "doing unto her" as he had spoken. He impregnated her, and Sarah conceived a son for Abraham in his old age.

Abraham called the name of the son, Isaac. At the age of 8 days, Abraham cuircumcised him as he had been commanded. It goes on to say that Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born.

Sarah was overjoyed at giving birth to a child and said that all who hear her laugh will laugh with her. She weaned the child and on the day of the weaning Abraham threw a big feast.

Verse 9 says that Sarah saw Hagar was mocking. We do not know what she was mocking, however. Because of it, she told Abraham to cast this woman and her son out because she did not want Ishmael to be even with Isaac and be an heir. Abraham found this thing very grievous because of his son.

God came to Abraham and told him that it should not be grievous in his sight, and he should listen to Sarah and he should continue his seed through Isaac. God told Abraham that he would also make a nation of Ishmael for he was also his son.

So Abraham rose the next morning, grabbed some food and water for Hagar and Ishmael, and then sent them away. They went into the wilderness of Beer-sheba and wandered.

They wandered and wandered, and soon the food and water were gone. So Hagar took Ishmael and put him under some shrubs and walked off so that she would not see her child die. She went some distance off and wept.

God heard the voice of the child crying and sent an angel to speak with Hagar, and ask her what was the matter. The angel told Hagar to pick up the child for God would make of him a great nation.

God made Hagar open her eyes and she saw a well of water from which she filled the bottle and gave the child drink. This story ends with us learning that God was with the lad, and the lad grew and lived in the wilderness, and became an archer. We are told that when he grew older his mother took him a wife out of Egypt.

That would have been enough to make a chapter, but there is still more.

We are told of a conversation that occurred between Abraham, and Abimelech and one of his men. Abimelech, having learned from Abraham lying to him once, asks Abraham to swear to him that he will not deal falsely with him. Abraham does.

Abraham had words with Abimelech because he and his servants had violently taken away a well from Abraham. Abimelech said that it was not him who had done this thing, and he had not even heard of it before that day.

So Abraham gave to Abimelech sheep and oxen (maybe the same ones Abraham had gotten from Abimelech as a reward for lying). Abraham took 7 ewes and seperated them from the rest. Abimelech asked Abraham what the significance of this act was, and Abraham told Abimelech that he should take those lambs as a sign that Abraham had indeed dug that well.

Abimelech swore and they called the name of this land Beer-sheba. Beer, pronounced Be'er, means a well. Sheba is from the Hebrew sheva which means seven, but can also mean oath.

The chapter concludes telling us that Abraham planted a grove in Beer-sheba, and continued to sojourn in the land of the Philistines for many days.

This concludes chapter 21.

Conclusion

Sort of a double chapter in that it relates two seperate stories. It is possible that the second half of the chapter is a flashback, for it is the naming of the place where Hagar wandered in the first part.

The first thing that jumps out at me is the lack of mentioning that Abraham knew his wife Sarah to conceive a child. We are told that the Lord visited her and did as he had said he would. Is this the first "celestially" conceived child in the Bible? Was Isaac the son of God? This is left unanswered, and is only speculation, but I think an argument can be made.

The next thing to mention is the shock that these people experienced at the birth of children at the ages of 100 and 90. Just a few generations prior, men were living to be 900 years old, and bearing children at 300 or older. Why should 100 be considered old? It would seem to me that Abraham would just barely be old enough to have children at 100.

Sarah once again proves that she and Abraham are made for each other. He is dishonest and a cheat, and she is greedy. It was not enough that she had the joy of her birth but she had to make sure that the inheritance went only to her son and not Abraham's first child.

In Genesis 16 we were told that Sarah gave Hagar to Abraham to be his wife. This chapter then has the first "divorce", when Hagar is made to go away. Just another thing we can add to the growing list of questionable acts on Abraham's part. Add abandoning wife and child.

That the author could think that God would approve of this only shows that this was written from the Jewish perspective, keeping the Jewish child, and casting out the Arab child.

Again we have an angel visiting a human to pass on the word of God. Again we see a sign that the author did not consider God to be all-knowing by writing the verse, "What aileth thee, Hagar?" An omniscient God would know what was ailing her.

The last thing of mention in this chapter is the deal made between Abimelech and Abraham. All we are told is that they agreed that Abraham had dug the well. I guess we are shown that he also owned it for it says that he planted a grove there. What is curious though, is the name. Be'er-sheba. By direct translation it is seven wells, or oath of the well. By the chapter, the second name makes more sense..... until you look at verse 28 which mentions the seven ewes. What significance do these sheep have? I think the only thing we can see from them is their number, seven.

Genesis 22

Here we arrive at the sacrifice chapter. This piece has also been the subject of great controversey, though it is not what is contained here that causes the problems. The Torah and the Bible say that Isaac was the child in the sacrifice drama, while the Qu'ran and Islam says that it was Isaac's older brother, Ishmael. Let's take a look.

This chapter opens with God tempting Abraham. God tells Abraham to take his only son Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him as a burnt offering... a sacrifice.

Abraham, who three chapters earlier had begged for the lives of people he could not have known as well as his own son, the people of Sodom, now takes up his son and complies without even a word. He gathered two of his men and all of the necessary supplies, and set out for his destination.

It took the travelers three days and then they could see the intended spot. Abraham told his men to stay where they were while he and Isaac went off to worship, and that they would return. Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and put it on Isaac. He took the knife, and the fire in his hand and set off for the site.

Isaac said to Abraham that they had the fire and the wood but they had no lamb as an offering. Abraham, apparently trying to placate his son, told Isaac that the Lord would provide a lamb for himself. They then set off.

They came to the place where God had told them to go and there Abraham built an altar. He laid the wood there, and then bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the wood. Abraham took the knife and was about to slay his son, when an angel of the Lord called to him from Heaven and said to him, "Hear am I".

The angel told Abraham to not lay his hand on the child or do anything to him. The angel said that now it knew that Abraham feared God because of Abraham's willingness to kill his only son for him.

Abraham looked up and saw that a ram had become entangled in some nearby brush, so he went and got it and sacrificed it in Isaac's place. Because of this, Abraham called the place Jehovah-Jireh. The chapter says that this is the name of the place to this day.

Verse 16 says that the angel spoke to Abraham again and told him that because he had been willing to slay his only son, (17) that he would be blessed and his seed would be multiplied like the stars of the heavens and the sands of the sea shore. The angel continues in verse 18 by saying that because Abraham obeyed, all of the nations of the earth would be blessed.

Abraham returned to his men and they went to Beer-sheba, and Abraham dwelt there.

The last five lines are likely the third author to contribute to this chapter. It is the lineage that leads down to Rebekah, who would later become the wife of Isaac. This concludes chapter 22.

Conclusion

So many things to look at in this chapter. Let's start with God saying that Isaac was Abraham's only son in verses 2 and 16. Clearly God had knowledge of Ishmael, and would not say that Ishmael was not Abraham's son. Ishmael was from Abraham's seed, and thus, his son. What is going on with this?

Here is how the verses look unchanged:

We can see that in both verses that when son appears after the word 'only', it is italicized. When words are italicized in the Bible they have been added by the translator to make the translation make more sense. In both cases above, the sentences would have read, "thy son, thine only." I think that it is quite clear that the author and the translator(s) was showing extreme prejudice by dismissing Ishmael in such a manner.

Next, I would like to point out the quick action of Abraham in taking his son off to be sacrificed. Abraham had tried to bargain with God to spare the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, but was willing to slay his own son without even a word. What could have caused such a huge turnaround in Abraham's attitude towards God? Surely there is nothing in these three chapters that would cause such a change. Here, a man who took a second wife so that he might have an heir, after he had sent his first child away, readily sets out to kill his only remaining heir. Truly out of character for Abraham in my opinion.

In verse 14 Abraham names the place of the sacrifice Jehovah-jireh, according to the King James Version of the Bible. The Hebrew puts here the acronym Yod, Hay, Vav, Hay - yireh. It means God sees, and should have been translated as such if that is what the translator was doing. Since the YHWH source is used it should have been Lord Sees. That this is true can only be maintained by the later verse where God says, "I am the Lord, thy God..." in Exodus 20:2, for example, where this acronym is translated to Lord and not to Jehovah.

It also says that the place is also called Jehovah-Jireh to this day, but no such place exists. The sacrifice took place on Mount Moriah which is coincedentally the place where Solomon built the first Temple as recorded in II Chronicles 3:1.

Verse 16 is one more clue that the author was not so sure that there was only one God. He wrote, "And said, By myself I have sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast..." Who else would God swear with if there was only one God? Would God swear with his creation, no matter how grand that creation was? Surely not.

The last thing that I will mention is the latest of covenants that God makes with Abraham. Actually, it has been the same covenant over and over again, and one may wonder why Abraham doesn't just say, "Yes, I know," by this point. God tells Abraham that because he has obeyed, all nations of the earth would be blessed. We will soon see that God's word as written in the Bible means absolutely nothing, when he himself does incredible damage to the nation of Egypt.

PREV - Gen. 19: Sodom & Gomorrah
NEXT - Gen. 23-25: Two Weddings and a Funeral

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