Genesis 20
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What do you see?
Too often, we modern folk ask Genesis to answer modern questions, like how old is this water-covered ball that spins at 1000 mph in space while orbiting a nuclear-powered fireball?
But Genesis wasn’t written to us. It was written for us, but not to us. It was written to people asking ancient questions. What are those ancient questions?
The phrase “These are the generations of...” as an introduction is used 11 times in Genesis.
Before the Patriarchs: The need for a family of God
2:4 Heaven and earth
5:1 Adam’s line
6:9 Noah
10:1 Shem, Ham, and Japheth
11:10 Shem
The Patriarchs in the Promised Land: Establishing the family of God
11:27 Terah
25:12 Ishmael
25:19 Isaac
36:1 Esau
36:9 Esau
The Patriarchs in Egypt: Incubation for the Covenant People
37:2 Jacob
As we look, let’s ask ourselves . . . is this how we would tell this story?
Chapter 1: God arranges the furniture
Chapter 2: God puts the man in the garden and creates woman—man was incomplete without her
Chapter 3: Woman is “deceived”, both are disobedient. They experience adolescence. The serpent and the ground are cursed, but the man and the woman are not. God is merciful. God provides for his children as they leave the garden. The man names his wife “Eve”.
Chapter 4: God disapproves of Cain’s offering. Cain is emotional and has bad attitude. Cain kills Abel. Abel’s “blood cries out to me from the ground”. Cain is cursed and cannot work the land. Cain descendents develop culture, murder, and polygamy.
Chapter 5: The descendents of Seth (image of Adam) live a long time and died, except Enoch. Lamech thinks Noah will save him from the curse on the ground.
Chapter 6: Mankind multiplies and becomes corrupt (violent). God decrees a wet judgement. God warns Noah (“Rest”) and instructions on how to build and Ark.
Chapter 7: Entering the Ark and the Flood comes.
Chapter 8: God Remembered Noah
Chapter 9: A New Covenant
Chapter 10: The Table of Nations (map).
Remember that we are still answering ancient questions. “Why am I like this?”
Why am I a “Hebrew” since I don’t live in Hebron? Why is it promised?
This story (Genesis) is particularly about Israel. Our non-Israel questions won’t always get answered.
The Big Shift in Genesis
Genesis chapters 1-11 are “pre-history”. We aren’t going to get a satisfactory answer on dates and places.
Genesis chapters 12-50 are “history”. While difficult, we can begin to get good answers on dates and places. We don’t where Eden or Havilah were, but we do know a lot about Egypt, Hebron, the Negev desert, and most of the places in chapters 12-50. We know about things tribes like the Kenites, Perizzites, Amorites, Canaanites, and Jebusites. Well, I don’t personally know much, but you can get a book and read about the archeology and languages of these tribes.
Abraham conquered Abimelech’s men and captured Beersheba in the Negev desert. We know exactly where Beersheba is and the wells have been in constant use since ancient times. There is a McDonald's near the main one that Abraham probably used. Jacob’s Well is a big tourist site in Nablus, West Bank. It’s Palestinian Authority, so there’s no McDonald’s, unfortunately.
Genesis chapters 1-11 tells a story about God’s blessing and mankind’s rebellion. Over and over, God gives a blessing (like “be fruitful and multiply”) and mankind rebels (murder is the opposite of multiplying).
Most creation stories are focused on the particular tribe telling the story. But God’s creation is to fill the world. Chapters 1-11 are the story of how the world began to be filled.
In chapter 12 we switch to the tribe, the Hebrews, and the first man to live in Hebron… Abraham. God created a lot of families in chapters 1-11.
But now he is going to save the whole world from their rebellion through one family, Abraham’s.
The blessings of chapters 1-11 become promises in chapters 12-50. God blessed the first family to be fruitful and multiply, and they failed. Now in chapter 12, God promises to bless “all the peoples on earth” through Abraham’s family. God commands the Hebrews to bless all peoples in Exodus 19, but they fail. So at Christmas, God came to do it himself.
Chapters 12-50 show God overcoming obstacles to his promise. Infertility, deception, murder, slavery, etc. look like they will derail the promise of God to Abraham. *Spoiler* They don’t. God provides the means to overcome and keeps his promises.
Now the Scripture saw in advance that God would justify the Gentiles by faith and proclaimed the gospel ahead of time to Abraham, saying, All the nations will be blessed through you.
Christian Standard Bible Chapter 12
The LORD said to Abram:
Go from your land,
your relatives,
and your father’s house
to the land that I will show you.
2 I will make you into a great nation,
I will bless you,
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt,
and all the peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.,
and if he rescued righteous Lot, distressed by the depraved behavior of the immoral (for as that righteous man lived among them day by day, his righteous soul was tormented by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)—then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,
The word “Hebrew” might be derived from the name “Eber”, the son of Shem in Chapter 10.
Or, it could be derived from the place-name, “Hebron”.
Or, they both could be derived from “Eber”.
Or, it could be derived from “Hebri”, a Caananite word for refugee. But...
“Hebri” could be a corruption of “Hebrew”, because the “Hebrews” were “Hebri”.
Hebrewception
Faith vs Belief
The phrase, “the word of the LORD” is only used in this chapter in Genesis. Verses 1 and 4.
Christian Standard Bible Chapter 15
Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
This is the new relationship with God. Paul basis his whole argument in Romans on this.
Christian Standard Bible (Chapter 4)
What then will we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? 2 If Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about—but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness., 4 Now to the one who works, pay is not credited as a gift, but as something owed. 5 But to the one who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited for righteousness.
Christian Standard Bible (Chapter 2)
Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elements of the world, rather than Christ. 9 For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ, 10 and you have been filled by him, who is the head over every ruler and authority. 11 You were also circumcised in him with a circumcision not done with hands, by putting off the body of flesh, in the circumcision of Christ, 12 when you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive with him and forgave us all our trespasses. 14 He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.
Christian Standard Bible Chapter 1
For nothing will be impossible with God.”
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Jesus said to him, “ ‘If you can’? Everything is possible for the one who believes.”
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Recently in the Abraham story:
12: Abram goes to Hebron. A famine sends Abram to Egypt. Sarai joins the Pharaoh's harem.
13: Abram and Lot separate.
14: Abram rescues Lot from the kings of the north.
15: The LORD appears to Abram. Promises land and descendents.
16: Sarai gives Abram her slave, Hagar. Ishmael is born and it doesn’t go well.
17: God changes Abram and Sarai’s names. Covenant of circumcision.
18: Abraham hosts 3 visitors and begs for Sodom
19: God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah
20: Abraham and Abimelech
21: Birth of Isaac
Can good news be terrifying?
Are you surprised by who is the good guy in real life?
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From there Abraham traveled to the region of the Negev and settled between Kadesh and Shur. While he was staying in Gerar, Abraham said about his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” So King Abimelech of Gerar had Sarah brought to him.
But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “You are about to die because of the woman you have taken, for she is a married woman.”
Now Abimelech had not approached her, so he said, “Lord, would you destroy a nation even though it is innocent? Didn’t he himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ I did this with a clear conscience and clean hands.”
Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you did this with a clear conscience. I have also kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I have not let you touch her. Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, know that you will certainly die, you and all who are yours.”
Early in the morning Abimelech got up, called all his servants together, and personally told them all these things, and the men were terrified.
Then Abimelech called Abraham in and said to him, “What have you done to us? How did I sin against you that you have brought such enormous guilt on me and on my kingdom? You have done things to me that should never be done.” Abimelech also asked Abraham, “What made you do this?”
Abraham replied, “I thought, ‘There is absolutely no fear of God in this place. They will kill me because of my wife.’ Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife. So when God had me wander from my father’s house, I said to her: Show your loyalty to me wherever we go and say about me, ‘He’s my brother.’ ”
Then Abimelech took flocks and herds and male and female slaves, gave them to Abraham, and returned his wife Sarah to him. Abimelech said, “Look, my land is before you. Settle wherever you want.” And he said to Sarah, “Look, I am giving your brother one thousand pieces of silver. It is a verification of your honor to all who are with you. You are fully vindicated.”
gn:20:17-18
Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female slaves so that they could bear children, for the Lord had completely closed all the wombs in Abimelech’s household on account of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.
The Lord came to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time God had told him.
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