The Abraham Story Part 2: The Story

Bible Project Genesis 12-50 Overview

https://youtu.be/F4isSyennFo

Abraham and Sarah in the Biblical Imagination

Abraham and Sarah Key Figures in the Bible. Abraham is mentioned in nearly every part of the Bible, and the story of his journey from Babylon to Canaan, the tales of his failures and his faith, and the covenant promises that God makes to him are all foundational in the biblical story and in both Jewish and Christian traditions.

And if you look at your Bible the story takes up roughly 12-15 pages depending on your translation and format of your Bible.

Hebrew: אַבְרָם/אַבְרָהָם, Avram/Avraham; שָׂרַי/שָׂרָה Sarai/Sarah

Greek: Ἀβρααμ, Abraam; Σαρρας, Sarras

Abraham and Sarah, the pronunciation. It's certainly not how anyone would've ever said Abraham's name to himself.

In our modern translations, English translations, because that's my first language and most of yours too, the phrase "Abraham," or the pronunciation "Abraham," actually comes from the old Greek translation of that, which in Greek was "Abraam."

But in Hebrew, his name was "Avram," like with a V instead of a B. And then when he gets his name change, it's "Avraham."

Whenever we talk about family history, we're really also talking about ourselves and about our sense of who we are in the world, what our family is and what the meaning of its story is in the world. And so stories about our ancestors are always also stories about our own sense of ourselves. And that is very, very much the case in the story of Avraham and Sarah.

This is ancient Israelite literature, all of these texts that Christians call the Old Testament. This is an account of the ancient Israelite people later known as Jews to their Greek and Roman neighbors. It's their account of who they are in the world. And the reason why they think that matters is because of the God to whom they give their allegiance and worship. The God who reveals himself to Abraham in a really remarkable way.

To be a follower of Jesus is to attempt to model one's life and give one's allegiance and loyalty to Jesus of Nazareth because he's amazing and beautiful. And he loved me before I ever knew he existed. And he constantly appealed to the Hebrew Scriptures to talk about who he was, what he was all about, why he was doing and saying the things that he was doing. And the stories of Avraham and Sarah were important to Jesus. He mentions Avraham on multiple occasions in his stories and his parables and his teachings. He's a really key figure in the storyline of the whole Hebrew Bible. When people think of Old Testament characters, they might think of Moses. Like, many, many books of the Old Testament connected to Moses. People think of David. Many books in terms of, like, airtime. If you just look at page length and airtime, moments on the stage, Abraham is actually-Abraham, Avraham. Avraham and Sarah are on the stage pretty briefly.

This is a good example of when you're reading through the stories of the Bible, just because there's more of something isn't the only indicator of what is most important. These stories are crucial for the whole plotline of the whole Bible. And for me as a non-Israelite follower of Jesus, actually the story of Avraham and Sarah are crucial for me to understand who I am as a non-Israelite following an Israelite messiah and becoming a part of the covenant people of God.

As we read and reflect on these stories, we are gaining a sense of our own identity as a family, as the family of God, the people of Jesus.

These are stories where God's people of all generations have continued to come back and to find their story in our ancestors' story.

If you search for how many times Avraham or Avraham and Sarah are mentioned after the book of Genesis. So Avraham and Sarah both die almost right at the middle. Avraham dies in Genesis 25, halfway through the book. So I'm not even counting all the times that he's mentioned in the rest of Genesis, though he's mentioned quite a bit. So let's just take out Genesis as a whole. How many times is Avraham brought up again? Over 115 times!! So whatever is happening in these stories, they're of pivotal, pivotal significance

so in the same way, the whole story of the Bible that leads to Jesus flows out of these narratives

So I just wanna show you some, we'll just kinda look at some examples. And you'll see pretty quickly how later biblical authors or characters in the Bible, when they think back to the stories of Avraham and Sarah, here's what comes to their mind.

The following is just a sample of how later biblical authors recall the story of Avraham and Sarai.

God’s Covenant Promise to Avraham

Exodus 2:24 CSB

24 God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

Leviticus 26:42 CSB

42 then I will remember my covenant with Jacob. I will also remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.

Numbers 32:11 CSB

11 ‘Because they did not remain loyal to me, none of the men twenty years old or more who came up from Egypt will see the land I swore to give Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—

Deuteronomy 1:8 CSB

8 See, I have set the land before you. Enter and take possession of the land the Lord swore to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their future descendants.’

Avraham’s Journey to Canaan and God’s Blessing

Exodus 32:12-13

Exodus 32:12–13 CSB

12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘He brought them out with an evil intent to kill them in the mountains and eliminate them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger and relent concerning this disaster planned for your people. 13 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel—you swore to them by yourself and declared, ‘I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky and will give your offspring all this land that I have promised, and they will inherit it forever.’ ”

Joshua 24:2–3 CSB

2 Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your ancestors, including Terah, the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods. 3 But I took your father Abraham from the region beyond the Euphrates River, led him throughout the land of Canaan, and multiplied his descendants. I gave him Isaac,

Isaiah 51:2 CSB

2 Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who gave birth to you. When I called him, he was only one; I blessed him and made him many.

Ezekiel 33:24 CSB

24 “Son of man, those who live in the ruins in the land of Israel are saying, ‘Abraham was only one person, yet he received possession of the land. But we are many; surely the land has been given to us as a possession.’

Avraham’s Faith in God’s Promise

John 8:39 CSB

39 “Our father is Abraham,” they replied. “If you were Abraham’s children,” Jesus told them, “you would do what Abraham did.

Romans 4:19–20 CSB

19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body to be already dead (since he was about a hundred years old) and also the deadness of Sarah’s womb. 20 He did not waver in unbelief at God’s promise but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God,

Hebrews 11:8 CSB

8 By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed and set out for a place that he was going to receive as an inheritance. He went out, even though he did not know where he was g

The Abraham Story as a Whole

We are going to do a quick overview of just the content of the Avraham story, and then I'm gonna try and point out some things that show how it's been arranged and organized and designed to communicate certain ideas that really matter to the author of this story. 

But first, let's just breeze through an outline of the Avraham and Sarah story. This Over view method is important because it allows us to keep the bigger picture in mind.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RlHMh0kfcbcUqIlDfkxKrTY1JXsC62DOS438X8lQ4do/edit?usp=sharing

In the first movement, end of chapter 11 into chapter 12, out of the scattering of Babylon there's one family that emerges out of that scattering and it's from the line of Shem, from Noah's son, that leads to this guy named Terah who has three sons. 

One of them is named Avram.

So Terah and one of his sons, Avram, and nephew Lot, they go traveling on their way to Canaan. They stop halfway, Terah dies. And Avraham, his son, and his family makes the journey to the land of Canaan.

And God speaks to him and makes this promise of blessing.

As soon as Avram is in the land, he's touring around it, meeting God on mountains with trees and making sacrifices. And then there's a food shortage in the land. Then right after God says to Avram, "Hey, I got you. I'm gonna give you so much here, so much family, so much goodness, so much abundance," Abram promptly leaves the land. He goes down to Egypt, lies about his wife, and brings curse and death on the king of Egypt instead of being a blessing, which is what God just told him to be. 

So God bails Avram and Sarai out. 

They go back to the land of Canaan. No sooner do they get back to the land of Canaan than Avram and his nephew Lot realize that they all have too much stuff, and they can't actually live in the same plot of land anymore. And so they part ways, and Lot ends up going down to Sodom, and Avram hangs out by another sacred tree on the mountaintop in the land.

Well, you remember Lot went down to Sodom. Well, it just so happens that there's this coalition of Mesopotamian kings who come charging out of the east, and they come and battle against five Canaanite kings in the west, and Lot, Avram's nephew, gets captured. And so Avram performs this midnight commando raid and defeats all these kings, and then rescues his nephew Lot, and then he meets the priest king named Melchizedek on the way back.

All of which we will speak more off as we Go along

After that, Avram is wondering, "Will I ever have any kids? 'Cause you told me that we were gonna be able to have those, and we don't have any yet." And so God makes a covenant promise that he's gonna do that. 

The next chapter is something really terrible that happens with Avram and Sarai's slave that they got out of the Egypt debacle back with Pharaoh. And so they end up, he ends up impregnating her, and then Sarai gets really jealous, and he expels Hagar to the desert. And it's just this really unfortunate, tragic story. 

But God meets Hagar in the wilderness and gives her life, actually gives her water and life, and promised the blessing, despite it all. The next chapter, God tells Avram that he's going to renew his covenant, or make another level of covenant promise, but Avram's obligation this time is to cut off a part of his body, the part of his body that he just used to do something wrong with Hagar in the previous story, circumcision.

After this comes another promise, where Abram and his wife are sitting by a tent, and God says, "Yep, you are gonna have that child after all." Then Avram ends up interceding for the righteous living in Sodom, which includes his nephew Lot. And then there's a whole story about how, because of Avram's intercession, Lot is rescued out of Sodom, and famous story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. 

After that, Avram decides it would be a good idea to lie to another king about his wife, the same exact thing that he did down in Egypt, but now he's just doing it to a Philistine king. And that goes about as well as it did the first time. 

And so when the king finds out about it, he's pretty angry. There's a big argument and dispute, and once again, Avraham, his name is Avraham now, he gets rich off the deal and gets to go free. 

Then finally, Avraham and Sarah have their son, but no sooner is that son born, Yitzhaq, or Isaac is how his name is in the English translations, "Yitzhaq" is how you say his name in Hebrew. 

No sooner is he born than Sarah gets actually really jealous and doesn't want Hagar and Ishmael, Abram's firstborn through the other wife, anywhere near her son or their family. So they exile them to die in the wilderness, and God provides miraculous living water in the desert for them to live. 

Then Avraham and that king whom he lied to have another run-in, and the king wants to make a covenant with Avraham. 

But then Avraham also brings up like, "Hey, you stole this well that I dug, and how are we gonna make this right?" And so they make a covenant. And so instead of going to war, they end up finding peace together. 

And then Avraham hears from God that he's supposed to sacrifice as a burnt offering the son that he's been waiting decades for and that God said he's gonna use to bless the nations with. And so that hardly makes any sense, but he does it in a remarkable act of trust. And God, in the last moment, intervenes and spares the life of the son with a substitute ram in the son's place. 

Then you get a little notice about how way back in the area where Avram's family that he left is from, there's a whole bunch of kids being born, including one young daughter named, Rivqa is her name in Hebrew, Rebecca is how it gets translated into English. Also, Rivqa's name is the Hebrew word for "blessing" with the letters mixed up. We'll talk about that. 

Then you get a story about how, finally, one of them dies, Sarah dies, and she's buried in a cave called the cave of Machpelah, which in Hebrew is a wordplay, 'cause the cave of Machpelah is also in Hebrew with the word spelled of "the cave of the naked pair." We'll talk about that. 

And then you get a long story about how Avraham wants to find a wife for his son. And he can't be here among the land of Canaan, so he sends a servant all the way back to meet that Rivqa, who we just learned about the story before last. 

They come back, Yitzhaq and Rivqa get married, then Avraham dies, and he's buried in the cave of the naked pair.

This guy lived for over 150 years. There's a lot that happened in Avraham and Sarah's life, and there's a lot that's not told. If you really think about how long a human life is, what these 12 to 15 pages can cover is just, just the highlights. 

It raises a question of, why these stories? 

Why have these moments been selected out of the whole of these people's lives, and why have they been arranged the way that they have? 

This is where learning how to pay attention to. This is the product of an author who has selected certain moments out and not just put them in a sequence, but arranged them so that if you know how to read according to the conventions the author wants you to have, you're gonna get a whole lot more out of these stories. 

What does the author expect me to track with? 

The Bible is designed often with… observing things next to each other, using that nearness to help you understand how they're similar and how they're different. 

But then all of a sudden, as you compare things next to each other and contrast them, you gain a deepened understanding of each one in its individuality and uniqueness. 

This is very basic to human understanding, but it turns out that biblical literature, from individual lines and sentences all the way up to larger organization of whole books, is based on just this very simple principle. 

Things next to each other are both alike and unlike. 

And you just pause, give yourself a moment. "Hmm, what do I notice when I compare these things? What do I notice when I contrast these things?" And you walk away with a richer understanding of both. 

Every level of the Avraham story is built and designed on this basic principle. 

And if you learn how to read these narratives using the tool set that we just did, all kinds of things will pop of huge significance that there's no way it's random that they're there. 

It's a part of, it's as if we're focusing on the weave of biblical literature and reading it the way it's designed. 

Genesis 12:1–3 CSB

1 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.

I'm looking at Genesis 12, verses 1 through 3. These are the first words that God ever speaks to Avram, is his name at the time, and these are words that are of pivotal significance for the whole storyline of the Bible.

Slide taken from Bible Project

This little paragraph of God's speech is broken up into three beats. And I'm just gonna read them, and what the colors and the lines are all doing is just drawing out relationships. "So Yahweh said to Avram, 'Get yourself going from your land, and from your birth family, and from your father's house, to the land which I will make seen to you.'"

Just notice the design.

Get yourself going from a land, last line, to a land, from a land to a land. Notice the geographical movement is saved for the outer lines. 

And then look at the two middle lines, go "from your birth family, and from your father's house." So your birth family, the whole extended network, which, depending on your cultural background, doesn't matter very much to you, or it's, like, matters a lot 'cause everything revolves around that big extended family. So leave the big extended family and leave even the most immediate family, your father's house.

So look at how that line's designed. Why is that line in the order that it's in? Why didn't God just say, "Get yourself going from a land and go to this land? Oh, and you're gonna be leaving your family." Like, it could be worded that way, but instead, it's worded in a symmetry. And the symmetry is teaching you to compare and contrast certain things. So from your whole family and your most immediate family, it's like every layer, working through all the layers of family. You go from a land, you go to a land. The place you leave, the place you go to. There's a balance to it.

Next beat. "I'll make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and I'll make your name great, and you will be a blessing."

Why didn't God say, "I'll make you a great nation, and give you a great name, and I'll bless you so you can be a blessing?" But look how it's ordered. Are you with me? It's like overly repetitive to make a point, almost. It's about the symmetry and the design. A great nation and a great name. Lots of kids that gain a corporate identity, and that corporate identity carries on a legacy and a reputation among the nations. That's what those, the great name, the great nation,

"I will bless you." You're gonna get so much abundance. "You will be a blessing." So you are receiving abundance so that you become a source of abundance to others.

The design is how the main ideas get communicated. This is how biblical literature works. So we're gonna spend more time on this later, so I'll just draw attention, this last little beat of the paragraph. "I'll bless those who bless you. The one who treats you as cursed, I'll curse. In you, all the clan families of the land will find blessing." Notice that the word "family" is repeated at the beginning and then at the end.

What you're supposed to do is just look at these three little mini paragraphs and how they work together, and just go for a long walk with a cup of tea and think about this in relation to that, this in relation to that. And then the moment you've thought through all the individual lines, and you back up, and you say, "Oh, man, the whole speech is organized into three little, and they do this in relation to that, and this in relation to that." And it gets even more significant.

We were just reading three little mini paragraphs and a speech that come from this block right here, chapter 12, verse 1 to 5. That itself is a part of a larger block about Avram's journey to the land of Canaan that's been set alongside another narrative block about his father's journey out of Babylon to the land of Canaan. And those two journey stories are similar, but also really different. And comparing and contrasting them will, all kinds of significant things will emerge out of what seems like a boring description of a road trip. And I'll tell you we're gonna notice all kinds of interesting things. 

But then that little journey block is also interesting, 'cause it's a journey from Babylon to Canaan. What we're gonna find is then a story of Avram goes into the land, and God makes a promise to him of future seed and land. And then he is promptly going to leave the land, and have a conflict with the king about this woman that he calls his sister. And then he is gonna go back into the land, and have a conflict with this guy who he calls his brother. And then he's going to go back into the hilltop, the same hilltop that he was just at right here, and God's gonna say the same words to him that he just said all the way back here. 

And then there's gonna come a story about a whole bunch of kings who come from the place that Abraham left. And it's like they follow him. It's like he can't get away from Babylon. Now it's followed him back into the land and brings all of this conflict here about this nephew Lot that's just been causing problems at every turn of the story. And then you back up and you're like, "Oh. Oh, look at that. That's interesting. We begin in Babylon, we end with Babylon."

And then if you sit back and go for a long walk and upload this section from 11:27 to 12:5, and then you hold in your mind's eye at chapter 14, you'll notice all kinds of things that really illuminate why they left Babylon and why Babylon just seems to follow them wherever they go. 

You can back up, and the section we were just looking at is right here. And you're gonna notice that chapters 11:27 to 14 has a whole arc of God promising to give Avram and Sarah some kids, problems that all lead to conflict surrounding Lot. There's gonna be a story about God making a covenant, big failure on Avram and Sarah's part, another round of a covenant. And then we're gonna begin it again. God's going to repeat the promise of a kid, and it's going to lead to a huge climactic conflict that Avram's gonna have to get involved with, that's all surrounding Lot. 

So welcome to the Hebrew Bible. It's patterns on patterns on patterns. And so this isn't just the biblical authors' way of being artsy. It actually has a very practical communication goal at work here.  When you hold in your mind's eye two things and compare and contrast them, you understand both better.

And every line, every paragraph, every scene, every episode, every block of the Avraham story has been designed in this way, so that it becomes essentially like a curriculum for you to meditate through, to learn about the purposes of God from the past that illuminate our identity in the present, and that generate hope for the future.

The literary organization and design of the stories play a significant role in understanding them.

There's like a macro-chronology. But there's multiple points where it seems like the ordering is based on a thematic or design principle that overrides the chronology. In fact, the first, there's a famous challenge in the opening scenes of the Avraham story that we'll look at where it seems like a thematic organization has taken place at the expense of a narrative or, like, a chronological sequence. 

So it's sort of like if you've ever watched movies that mess with your sense of time that way, where you'll be in a scene, and then you'll realize like, "Oh, this is a flashback, or this is a flash forward." It's actually very similar to that. 

So biblical authors do that. 

And depending on your expectations, or the reader's expectations, that may be a surprise and be like, "Oh, can they do that? Can they just take events out of order and do it?" And so for some people, they have to, that's a challenge, and they gotta process through it. And for other people, I found it's just like, "Oh, well, yeah, that's how you tell a story. That's how you help people understand meaning." But that does for sure happen.

We have already seen this orginization though you minght not have been paying attention to it, as we have studied Gen 1-11

The literary organization of Genesis 1:1-11:26, both in its design and the main themes explored in the narratives, forms the organizational template of the TaNaK. So to truly grasp what the entire TaNaK is about, we need to recap the story so far as it’s presented in Genesis 1-11 (adapted from D.A. Teeter, personal communication and his “Biblical Symmetry and Its Modern Detractors“ paper delivered at the 2019 International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament congress).

Two Journeys

We're gonna dive into the opening moments or paragraphs of the Avraham story. Just to give us a macro view, the first big section is from second half of 11, 11:27, all the way up to the Sodom and Gomorrah story. 

The hyperlinks, we're gonna follow the vocabulary and imagery of Genesis 1 to 11, right on through to 14, which is a flood of violence that sweeps across the land. And only those who are in a covenant with God's chosen one are delivered from the flood of violence. 

We're gonna do it again in 15 to 17. In 17, the flood is actually God's judgment on a single part of Abraham's body where all the flesh is cut off, which is exactly the language of the flood. It's God's judgment and merciful sign of covenant on Abram's, Avram's body. 

And then we're gonna walk through it again in 18 to 19, where the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is the next flood moment. It's also the next moment where rain happens in the story. It only rains a couple times in the book of Genesis, and one of them is at the flood and the other one is on Sodom and Gomorrah, except the rain is fire. 

So we're gonna do three times through the melody. 

So let's focus in on our first melody, which is chapters 11 through 14. This has three beats, three mega-beats that themselves have all kinds of little cool scenes. So we're just gonna walk through it and let the story do its work on us. 

Start with Genesis 11:27-12:5 This is two little scenes right next to each other.

The journey of a father that sadly ends in death. The journey of a son that ends in life, a promise of life and a promise of blessing.

The Journey of the Father

Genesis 11:27–32 CJB

27 Here is the genealogy of Terach. Terach fathered Avram, Nachor and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot. 28 Haran died before his father Terach in the land where he was born, in Ur of the Kasdim. 29 Then Avram and Nachor took wives for themselves. The name of Avram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nachor’s wife was Milkah the daughter of Haran. He was the father of Milkah and of Yiskah. 30 Sarai was barren—she had no child. 31 Terach took his son Avram, his son Haran’s son Lot, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Avram’s wife; and they left Ur of the Kasdim to go to the land of Kena‘an. But when they came to Haran, they stayed there. 32 Terach lived 205 years, and he died in Haran.

The phrase here, "these are the generations of," this is a key structuring phrase. It appears 10 times in the book of Genesis. It appears five times in Genesis 1 through 11, five more times in the stories of Avraham and Ya’akov and Yoseph, his brothers. So five times before Avraham, five times after Avraham. It's translated, "generations." It's literally the noun, "birthings." What issues from. This is what issued from Terakh.

"Terakh caused the issue." It's the same word as a verb now. "Caused the birthing of three sons, Avram, Nahor, and Haran." Oh, now "Haran also caused the birth of a son, a guy named Lot." Now, surely he had other kids too, we don't know, but the only one mentioned is of course the one that's gonna cause all the problems in the chapters to follow.

"Now, Haran died before his father Terakh." So this is Avram's brother, right? So Terakh had three sons, Avram's one of them. One brother dies before the father. That's always a sad thing. "He died in the land of his birth family. He died in Ur of the Chaldeans."

"Chaldean" is another ancient synonym word for "Babylon," the region that's Babylon. 

The word "Ur" was the actual name of the city. There's a pun here because the word "Ur" in Hebrew is the word "fire" or "oven." In the oven of Babylon.

This family emerged out of the oven of Babylon, not unsinged, but death, the story begins with death in Babylon, in the oven of Babylon.

"So Avram and Nahor took wives for themselves." So here's a little bit of a blessing in the midst of the oven of Babylon. There's marriage and the many becoming one.

"The name of Avram's wife was Sarai," which is the Hebrew word "princess."

"The name of the wife of Nahor was Milcah," which is the Hebrew word "queen."

"Now Milcah was the daughter of Haran," that deceased brother of Avram, "the father of Milcah and Iska. And Sarai was barren and she had no child."

So look at how this little sentence is structured here. This is so interesting. Avram and his brother took wives, and we're gonna focus in on the two wives, they're queens.

One queen, Princess, has no child. The other queen, Milcah, is tied into the family here, the larger family of Avram. So notice how it's a good example of literary design, where the narrator could have just said, and they married two women, Queen and Princess.

But notice how Sarai's inability to have children is highlighted here by being the first and the last line of the description of the wives. So, and just think where the story is going and where the narrative tension is gonna, it's all gonna be driven around ... Sarai's inability to have children of her own natural abilities is going to provide many crisis moments in the story, crises of faith for her and for her husband. That's the focus of the middle.

"And Terakh took Avram, his son, and Lot, the son of Haran, the son of his son, and Sarai, his daughter-in-law, the wife of his son, Avram. And they went out with them from the oven of the Babylonians so that they could go to the land of Canaan.

Now they went as far as Haran, and they settled there.

And the days of Terakh were five years and 200 years, and Terakh died."

Now, where were they aiming to go?

They were aiming to go to the land of Canaan, but they never got there. 

So this is the story about the chosen family that's a father with three sons, and they're marrying queens. And you're like, okay, there's notes of hope here in the midst of tragedy. 

But notice how this scene begins with the death of a son, and it ends with the death of a father, never actually attaining to the place where they needed or wanted to go. So this is sobering.

Death in the first and the last movement and inability to produce new life in the middle.

So the origin of Avram's story is in an inverted Eden.

This is kind of like Eden, kings and queens. We're marrying queens in this story. And birth is on the brain. Look at all the birth vocabulary. But our queens, one of our key queens is not able to bear fruit and multiply. And instead of being surrounded by life, we're surrounded by death.

So when you look at the scene, you're like, I don't see much garden of Eden stuff going on here. But when you stop and think life and death, being fruitful, not able to be fruitful, kings and queens of creation, we're totally in the area, but it's like an upside-down.

Babylon tends to leave the world in a very upside-down kind of place, and that's where all this is happening.

So what is it that can turn a world of death and inability to produce life and tragedy?

What can bring new creation out of the tragedy of Babylon?

Journey of the Son

Genesis 12:1–5 CJB

1 Now Adonai said to Avram, “Get yourself out of your country, away from your kinsmen and away from your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make of you a great nation, I will bless you, and I will make your name great; and you are to be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, but I will curse anyone who curses you; and by you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” 4 So Avram went, as Adonai had said to him, and Lot went with him. Avram was 75 years old when he left Haran. 5 Avram took his wife Sarai, his brother’s son Lot, and all their possessions which they had accumulated, as well as the people they had acquired in Haran; then they set out for the land of Kena‘an and entered the land of Kena‘an.

"And Yahweh spoke." It's interesting that Yahweh's word is the pivot here. Death, infertility, death, and Yahweh spoke.

"And he said to Avram, 'Get yourself going from your land, from your birth family, from your father's house to a land that I will make seen to you.

And I will make you a great nation. And I will bless you.'" It's the first appearance of the word "blessing" since Noah got off the boat.

"'And I will make your name great. And so you shall be a blessing. And I will bless those who bless you and the one who treats you as cursed, I will curse. And in you, all of the clan families of the land will find blessing.'

And Avram went just as Yahweh spoke to him.

And Lot went with him.

And Avram was five and 70 years when he went out from Haran. And Avram took Sarai, his wife, and Lot, the son of his brother, and all of their possessions which they possessed, and the people whom they acquired in Haran, and they went out in order to go to the land of Canaan."

Oh, I remember when this family tried to go to the land of Canaan once, it did not work well. But, "they got to the land of Canaan."

So notice how this, the journey of the son and the journey of the father, from death to death, from blessing to the land, from leaving the ovens of Babylon to stalled plans to get to a land that they never get to because of death. 

But when the word of God creates blessing out of death and infertility, God's people get to where they need to be. 

Terakh took his children. He went to go to the land and they went, but he didn't make it, and he died. It's clearly being echoed here in the journey of the son. But the journey of the son didn't begin with a human-made plan. It begins with the word of God and God's blessing, and it ends in success.

I mean, you get what's happening in the story, but when you really sit back and you're pondering the unsuccessful journey of the father, the successful journey of the son, what is the only difference between the two? And it's the word of God and the promise and the blessing of God.

Journey on Map

Part 1 Map

This migration north actually seems to be something that was happening at the time. For what ever reason.

Terah, Jewish literature records, was a craftsman who made idols. So he may have found a blossoming trade in Haran. Joshua 24:2 “2 Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your ancestors, including Terah, the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods.” Defiantly a worshiper but tradition holds a craftsman, idol maker.

Some have suggested that Terach wanted to leave because

Acts 7:2 “2 “Brothers and fathers,” he replied, “listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran,” where it has been suggested that Abram told his father that Yahweh had instructed them to leave.

Josephus says this,

The Works of Josephus: New Updated Edition Chapter 6: How Every Nation Was Denominated from Their First Inhabitants

Now Terah hating Chaldea, on account of his mourning for Haran, they all removed to Haran of Mesopotamia, where Terah died, and was buried

Part 2 Map

Avram’s journey begins with a recall to the two tragic notes that began Terakh’s journey. He is to leave his family and father’s house (marked by death), and God will make him a great nation (thus reversing Sarai’s infertility).

Not only will God reverse the tragedies of his family, but he will bring about a Genesis 1 blessing that will produce an overabundance of blessing that will flow out from him to the other families of the nations.

Once Avram has received this divine word of blessing that reverses his father’s fate, he begins his own threestep process of (1) “taking,” (2) “going out,” and (3) arriving in Canaan.

When he finally arrives in Canaan, Avram completes the journey his father began. Notice how the scenes alternate precisely between three journey stages, punctuated by two stops in Shechem and Bethel where Avram builds altars and worships Yahweh, who called him and his family out of Ur of the Chaldeans

From Where Was Avram Called?

The two narratives of Genesis 11:27-32 and 12:1-9 contrast the journeys of Terakh and Avram. The first says that it was Terakh who “went out from Ur of the Chaldeans” to journey to Canaan, but instead he only made it to Haran and settled there ( 11:31). In contrast, Avram is addressed by God to go to Canaan, and so he “goes out” from an unidentified location ( 12:5) to go to Canaan. From where does Avram go to Canaan, and where is the location of God’s first appearance and speech to him in 12:1-5?

Option 1: In Haran

The literary sequence of the two narrative units ( 11:27-32 and 12:1-9) could be interpreted as a time sequence where Avram’s journey with his father to Haran preceded God’s speech to him to leave and go to Canaan.

There is a wrinkle in this straightforward interpretation, however. The only other time Avram’s journey to Canaan is referenced in the Hebrew Bible, he is said to have been summoned by God to leave Ur of the Chaldeans, not Haran.

Genesis 15:7 CSB

7 He also said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.”

Option 2: In Ur of the Chaldeans

The literary sequence of Genesis 11:27-32 and 12:1-5 does not necessarily indicate the sequence of events referenced by the narrative. It is not uncommon in biblical narrative for two consecutive narrative units to be placed out of chronological order so that the author can achieve the literary effect of juxtaposition, forcing the reader to compare and contrast the two versions of similar events. This has already happened at key junctures in Genesis 1-11.

In both cases, the literary sequence does not correspond to the event sequence. Rather, it allows the author to portray the same event from two angles, highlighting different themes and ideas as they render the same core event. The same technique is used in the presentation of Terakh’s and Avram’s journey from Ur to Canaan. And there is another textual clue that makes it clear this is the case.

The Ages of Avram and Terakh

The narrator makes clear that Terakh had his three sons at the age of 70 and then died at the age of 205. Avram, we’re told, was 75 when he received God’s calling to leave his family and go to Canaan.

The implication of these numbers is very clear. Terakh had his sons at age 70, and his son Avram left for Canaan at age 75. This means that Terakh was still alive at 145 years old when Avram was summoned by God in 12:1. Even though Terakh’s death is recorded in 11:32, before Avram leaves for Canaan, the ages given by the narrator show that Terakh is still alive when Avram, Sarai, and Lot leave him.

“Biblical protagonists frequently exit the narrative stage long before their chronological lives are over. For example, Noah dies before the Abraham narrative begins. But a simple calculation shows that Noah dies when Abraham was 58 years old (see Gen. 9:28-29); similarly Isaac was still alive when his grandson Joseph was sold (Gen. 35:28-29). Genesis ... is a sweeping series of portraits that trace a character from birth to death before the next character is introduced ... The spotlight only falls on Abram once Terah has stepped down, despite the fact that the first events in the Abram story occur during Terah’s lifetime … This narrative style illuminates the correlation between Terah’s journey and God’s revelation to Abram … It is reasonable to conclude that Terah’s decision to immigrate to Canaan is connected to God’s command to Abram.” Grossman, Jonathan (2016). Abram to Abraham: A Literary Analysis of the Abraham Narrative. Peter Lang. 74-75.

God Calls Avram and Promises Blessing

Genesis 12:1–9 LEB

1 And Yahweh said to Abram, “Go out from your land and from your relatives, and from the house of your father, to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great. And you will be a blessing. 3 And I will bless those who bless you, and those who curse you I will curse. And all families of the earth will be blessed in you.” 4 And Abram went out as Yahweh had told him, and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he went out from Haran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his nephew, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and all the persons that they had acquired in Haran, and they went out to go to the land of Canaan. And they went to the land of Canaan. 6 And Abram traveled through the land up to the place of Shechem, to the Oak of Moreh. Now the Canaanites were in the land at that time. 7 And Yahweh appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” And he built an altar there to Yahweh, who had appeared to him. 8 And he moved on from there to the hill country, east of Bethel. And he pitched his tent at Bethel on the west, and at Ai on the east. And he built an altar there to Yahweh. And he called on the name of Yahweh. 9 And Abram kept moving on, toward the Negev.

Micro Design taken from Tim at Bible Project

The narrative sequence of two divine calls and promises, each followed by Avram’s obedience, creates a clear pattern for the reader. When God’s chosen one follows the divine command despite many unknowns, there is a blessing just waiting to be discovered.

Get Yourself Going!

The Hebrew phrase for “get yourself going” (ךל ךל) in 12:1 is unique, and it’s repeated again only at the culmination of Avram’s 10 tests in 22:2.

Genesis 12:1 Instructor’s Translation Get yourself going from your land … to the land that I will show you.

Genesis 12:1 LEB

1 And Yahweh said to Abram, “Go out from your land and from your relatives, and from the house of your father, to the land that I will show you.

Genesis 22:2 NASB95

2 He said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.”

Genesis 22:2 Instructor’s Translation Get yourself going to the land of Moriah, and offer [Yitskhaq] there as a going-up offering on one of the mountains that I will tell you.

Avram’s New Family

So as we noted earlier, God's first speech has three parts, and the three parts of the speech have three elements of focus. The first is on leaving the land and going to a land.

And then leaving the land is equivalent to leaving your family.

This is actually, if you're thinking through the blessing and leaving a family so that a new family can come into existence, you've actually seen that before,

all the way back in the garden when you had the human who was alone and one that needed to be split to become more than one so they can become one again, but in a way that makes many. 

And so there's something happening here where Abram is leaving the house of his family to go solo, but precisely so that he can become many to become a blessing to the many. So we're, this is Eden imagery we are seeing here.

So we have the first thing that God says, which is get yourself going and go from the land and family to the land.

Greatness and Blessing

The second part, which we, again, looked at already in a previous session,

In nerdy literary language, A, B, A prime, B prime.

But it's, "I'll make you a great nation and I'll bless you. I'll make your name great. You'll be a blessing." So think through the journey of the father and the journey of the son. 

Do you remember when Sarai was introduced in the previous unit? The main thing that was highlighted about her was her inability to have children. but now you have this element that is inverting that, saying that this man and his wife are gonna give birth to a nation.

So if you're familiar with the Avraham narratives, you know this is one of the major plot-driving elements of the story, is the birth of a nation from what seemed like an impossible situation of grief, of pain. I mean, this was a source of real pain in their marriage and in, as we go on into the story, and in Sarah's own heart and mind. 

So just the narrative begins here. Unable to have a family, I'm gonna make you a nation. And it just, that contrast sets before the reader this dilemma. Like what, how is this gonna work out? It seems like a, you know, like a fairytale at this point.

So the becoming of a great nation is associated with blessing, This is a good example where blessing is in parallelism with multiplying, with family.

Great Name

I'm gonna make your name great.

So when you think back to Eden, there was that moment where the human was naming the creatures, the animals, imitating God who was naming in Genesis chapter 1.

But you also had the inversion of that in an interesting little narrative detail about the Nephilim and the violent warriors who filled the land in Genesis 6:4, we're told that these Nephilim who are somehow connected to what the sons of God and the daughters of humans create or do.

We're told that these Nephilim were mighty men. It's the word "gibor." This is what Nimrod was, the animal slayer. So these are like, these are the great violent warrior kings of old.

That's the Giborim or the Gibor, the mighty men of old. And in the New American Standard, it says they were "men of renown." It's literally the word "name," they were men of the name.

Remember a guy named Nimrod, remember his name means "we will rebel." And he is a "Gibor" in the land, same word. And you know what's interesting is he was such an amazing hunter. He was such a Gibor hunter that people just love to say his name.

"Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before Yahweh," he was such an amazing imperial founder and animal slayer that people like to say his name. His name became a proverb as it were. Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter.

The kingdom that he founds, one of them is, Babel.

And then what is the next story in Genesis? It's about the building of the tower of Babylon in the city. And the main thing that they are after, Genesis 11:4, "Let us make for ourselves a name." So this is kind of, there's a motif going throughout the story. 

Genesis 11:4 CSB

4 And they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky. Let’s make a name for ourselves; otherwise, we will be scattered throughout the earth.”

There's when God gives a name, and when he gives a name, it's creation, and it's giving things a role in the ordered world and life and blessing.

And humans can go two ways. They can name things aligned with God's wisdom, like the human in the garden, or they can begin to make a name for themselves and become men of the name.

And so this is a good example where God's words to Avram, "I'm going to make your name great." It's just, that itself is cool to have a great name, but it's picking up this thread that's been going all the way since Genesis 1 with God naming and giving things their name. 

And so it becomes this really cool image early on in the Bible of, you know, of the motif or the theme of the name. Where do you get your name from? Whose name are you after? Whose name are you looking to honor? And so the fact that God would scatter those who want to make their name great, but then exalt the humble, there's no, I mean, who's this, like, shepherd guy? You know? Like, you wouldn't know his name unless this, God chose him.

In the proverbs, it's, you know, that, just that famous two-line proverb of "God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the lowly or to the humble."

Blessing

Now notice, look at the cool progression here. So I'm gonna make you a nation, even though that seems like crazy talk at the moment. I'm gonna bless you, give you the blessing of abundance. I'm gonna make your know name the great name that everybody will be like, "Whoa, like Avraham. I wanna be like that guy. I hope I could be, receive God's blessing like that."

But then look at the fourth line, God's blessing. Do you see how it flips from this line? "I'm going to bless you." So you would think that final line would be, and I'm gonna really, really, really bless you, something like that. But instead it flips it. And all of this blessing all of a sudden becomes a responsibility that he is a steward of.

Because the entire goal is that he becomes a source of blessing to others. And then that's what this final, final statement fills out.

He's going to be a conduit of God's blessing, which means that those who bless Avraham will find themselves sharing in the blessing that God puts on Avraham and his family. 

So how is it that others will share in the blessing? It's when they peacefully recognize and align themselves with God's blessed one.

Let's flip that over.

What about people who treat Avram not as the blessed one, but actually as if he's a cursed one? What if there are people who oppose God's chosen one and his family? And in no uncertain terms, God says, yeah, it won't go well for them.

They will find themselves, and here, curse, you've already heard the word "curse" before. It's associated with exile, with death, with isolation.

So this is kind of intense. God's really serious about this.

And he's gonna invest himself in this family, protect them, advocate for them so that they can be, and then we come, we round it out again, so that they can be a source of blessing out to all the families of the land.

So God is signing up for, you know, a bumpy ride, to say the least.

I mean if you've got a really faithful, righteous person of integrity to work with here, this partnership's gonna go awesome. But of course, the chosen people are not always that way. And so this is both kind of anticipating that there's gonna be multiple ways this could go.

Avraham could be a source of blessing or he could end up bringing as much trouble along with him. And a lot's gonna depend on how people treat him and his wife, but then also it's about how they are gonna treat other people, be a source of blessing. Can you see we're actually setting the table for so many of the dramas that are about to unfold. It's gonna be about is Avraham and Sarah, are they a source of blessing or are they a source of anti-blessing to the people around them? And God is bestowing on them the responsibility to represent his blessing to others.

Then notice the repetition of family at the beginning and end. 

Genesis 12:1–3 NASB95

1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; 2 And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; 3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

You leave your family 'cause God's got a whole wider family in mind. What that actually means and will entail, you just gotta keep reading. But for the moment, you can see he leaves his version of what he knows as a family to embrace this new vision of being connected to all the families of the land, which is the beginning of this theme of the family of God in the storyline of the Bible.

These lines that is Geneis 12:1-3 are setting out the agenda and the main themes that are gonna get explored in the rest of the stories. And they're doing it in the language of the garden of Eden narrative, the blessing, birth, land, family, and a great name.

How Did Avram Hear about YHWH

When Avram hears about God it seems that the main way in the later narrative, the covenant narratives are gonna begin with the same phrase of vision or a dream or something. Some altered state of consciousness that allows him to see what wouldn't be seen otherwise.

So that's just kind of a, the narrative actually does address how

We do know in Joshua 24:2-3

Joshua 24:2–3 CSB

2 Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your ancestors, including Terah, the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods. 3 But I took your father Abraham from the region beyond the Euphrates River, led him throughout the land of Canaan, and multiplied his descendants. I gave him Isaac,

This passage teaches that Terah and his sons Abraham and Nahor “served other gods.” They were polytheists, and Yahweh “took” Abraham for Himself. However, this does not rule out the possibility that Terah and his sons were familiar with Yahweh and maybe even worshipped Him along with other gods. It simply tells us that Terah’s family worshipped false gods.

According to a tradition that isn’t layed out in the Bible Abram was taught by Shem

Abraham the New Adam

Genesis 12:6–9 LEB

6 And Abram traveled through the land up to the place of Shechem, to the Oak of Moreh. Now the Canaanites were in the land at that time. 7 And Yahweh appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” And he built an altar there to Yahweh, who had appeared to him. 8 And he moved on from there to the hill country, east of Bethel. And he pitched his tent at Bethel on the west, and at Ai on the east. And he built an altar there to Yahweh. And he called on the name of Yahweh. 9 And Abram kept moving on, toward the Negev.

"And Abraham passed through in the land." This is right after the divine speech "Abraham passed through in the land unto the place of Shechem onto the oak of Moreh," it's the Hebrew word for "sight" or "seeing." "And you know, the Canaanite was then in the land. Then Yahweh became seen to Avram, and he said, 'To your seed, I will give this land.' And he built an altar there to Yahweh who became seen to him.

And he moved on from there to the hill from the east of Bethel," Bethel means "house of God." It's where Jacob is gonna have his dream. And the Jacob's ladder thing is gonna happen right at this very spot. "And so there to the hill, he spread out his tent, the house of God on the west and Ai," which means a heap of ruins, "on the east.

And he built there an altar to Yahweh. And he called on the name of Yahweh.

And Avram journeyed, a continual journeying down to the Negev to the south." If you have even a basic map, he's just running along the spine of the hill country from north to south here. He's taking a little tour, and he's stopping at sacred sites and marking them as spaces dedicated to Yahweh as he goes through the land. It's kind of speaking to what you were just raising. He goes right down the center of the land, marking it with sacred spaces. And notice what is it that is marking these sacred spaces in the narrative?

It's hilltops; sacred trees where he sees, has visual encounters with Yahweh; places where he is building tents in the sacred tree groves on the hilltops and where he calls upon the name of Yahweh and meets him, meets him in worship. So this is so clearly, this is the land as a new Eden. This is the, and his wife's name is Queen. His name is Avram, "exalted dad," this is the meaning of Avram. I should have said that a long time ago, but, exalted father.

Man, this is great, this is just really great. So this is the narrative's way of portraying Avram and Sarai as a new Adam and Eve who are marking out this new gift of land. Now there are, are they alone in the land? No. Nope. There's Canaanites in the land.

Just like there just happened to be a snake in the garden.

Now, not necessarily bad in and of itself, but that could lead to something really terrible if it's responded to poorly, right? So we're setting up, there's even a little note here of "dun, dun, dun, dun," you know? But for right now, it's just the Eden moment, God's speech and the two are in the land.

“The whole Bible can be portrayed as a very long answer to a very simple question: What can God do about the sin and rebellion of the human race? Genesis 12-Revelation 22 is God’s answer to the problem posed by the bleak narratives of Genesis 3-11. Or … Genesis 3-11 sets the problem that the mission of God addresses from Genesis 12 onward. Genesis 1-11 poses a cosmic problem to which God must provide a cosmic answer. The problems so graphically spread before the reader in Genesis 1-11 will not be solved just by finding a way to get human beings to heaven when they die. The love and power of the Creator must address not only the sin of individuals, but also the strife and hostility of nations; not only the needs of humans, but also the suffering on animals and the curse on the ground … The call of Abram is the beginning of God’s answer to the evil of human hearts, the strife of nations, and the groaning brokenness of his whole creation.” Wright, Christopher (2006). The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative. IVP Academic. 195.

Abraham and the Snake

All right. In this session, we are going to follow Avram and Sarai, exalted father and princess, and they're going to fall from their heights of Eden glory, unfortunately. But maybe one question to have open here is, the way that the story is told is maybe less than perfectly clear for modern Western readers. So we have to use our imaginations. We have to do some cultural, cross-cultural imagining, but then also imagine ourselves into the motives and the mindset of these characters to ask why they're doing what they're doing. And I've found over the years, especially with this story, that it really pays off to be sympathetic as we read about these characters. So I'll just kind of do a reading of the story, point some things out, talk about some main design pattern, melodies, and then I wanna hear what you guys think 'cause this is a fascinating story.

Now, after his little worship tour through the land, "there was a famine." It's the absent, the opposite of Eden. It's not the abundance of food, now it's the shortage of food.

"And Avram went down to Egypt to go sojourn there," just to make sure you'd know why he did it, "it was because of the famine that was heavy in the land." Now what did God just say he was going to do for Avram in the land?

Bless you, great nation, you'll be a blessing, blessings associated with abundance, food and so on. But now there's a lack of food. So we're in the realm of ... Even though the word "faith" won't be used for a couple more chapters, this is total, we're in that realm here.

What God said and promised is not what he experiences in reality. And so what happens when God's people find their circumstances testing their trust in God's promise?

So that's a lot loaded into that opening sentence, but what else are we supposed to think of why he would leave the land? We're told it's because of the famine.

So verse 11: "And it came about when he came near to entering Egypt, he said to Sarai, his wife, 'Look, please, I know that you are a woman beautiful to look at, beautiful of sight.

And when the Egyptians see you,'" just the emphasis on what they will see, "'They'll see you and they will say, "This is that guy's wife?" They're going to murder me, kill me, but you, they will keep alive. So please say you're my sister so that there will be good for me on account of you. So that I may stay alive on account of you.' And it came about when Avram entered Egypt and the Egyptians saw the woman, that she was very beautiful." Okay, let's just pause there. It's the first movement. So notice that they leave to go down to Egypt. It's the first beat. Second beat, they are about to enter it, and then there's a speech. And then a little narrative concluding, "Then they get to Egypt." So this whole thing is framed of going down, right before, and then they get there. It's a nice little, (vocalizes) it's tight.

Now there's a couple ways you could understand Avram's speech and his concerns here.

He recognizes something that's true; his wife's beautiful. And he is pretty certain that people will notice that and that they're gonna have to plan for that. And is he right about that? Is he vindicated in anticipating that? Totally, yep. It was exactly what the Egyptians noticed. So the whole pivot here is on his plan. He's got this plan.

He thinks that her beauty is actually going to endanger his life. And so he is gonna engineer this plan to preserve his life. And even more, "Maybe we can get rich off this.

This could go actually really well.

We could be well provided for if I tell everybody that I'm your brother." So depending on your cultural background, I didn't grow up in a culture where arranged marriages are a thing.

Where fathers like, haggle with each other for the bride price for their daughters. So that is a foreign world to me, I just know about it through movies to be honest with you. Not through lived experience. There are many cultures still today that operate this way, and it was the way most human cultures operated for most of human history.

So Avram is positioning him himself as her brother.

So what we're talking about is a cultural practice where if you want to approach a young woman to marry her, you go talk to dad or you go talk to the brother, the elder brother. And it seems like that's the move Avram's pulling here. So in the past, I used to think, like, he's just hanging her out to dry completely. You know? Like, "You're not my wife." But in a way, people would expect the brother to be the guardian or the overseer of.

And if the Egyptians see that the woman's beautiful, in theory, his plan is they'll have to come talk to him, and then he can deal with it from there. But I don't think his motives are malicious, but he's definitely in self-preservation mode.

And he is making her vulnerable on his account, or she's paying the cost of his fear for his life. So in that sense, he is, to use the metaphor, hanging her out to dry. He's exposing her to risk to cover for his own insecurities.

This is not, like, just think, this just, this is like the first main story about this guy other than his worship tour. And he left and did what God told him, to go leave the land. You're like, "Okay, all right. Way to go. You know, I think God can work with this guy." But let's just stop for a moment and ponder. This is God's chosen one. In the first main narrative, the first words, the first time he ever gives a speech is to save his own neck and put others at risk so that he can secure good for himself. It's not a flattering portrait, not in the least.

So before we read on, thoughts or comments on either this specifically or the fact that things have gone sour so quickly? But not just sour, this is a very critical portrait of the hero of faith.

And that portrait is alongside "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." That actually will come later. The first portrait is of Avram as a coward and willing to risk others to preserve his own life. So thoughts, reflections, or comments on this?

So I'm thinking this through with our backdrop in mind with Genesis 1-3 in mind and the "seeing" motif playing up here. And so with that in mind, I'm seeing that, you know, God gave a word to Adam and Eve, like, "Here, you can trust me, this is my way towards life. Don't go this way." (laughs) If you think of that word to Adam and Avraham, like, the idea of that blessing that he just received being this, "This is the way to life."

Yeah, yeah.

You know, you compare those two, that this choice was more in the, just incongruent to that word of blessing.

Basically, like, "I could choose life for myself this way. Like, I could take it, or I could trust you to actually make my name great instead of having to make it great for myself."

Yeah.

So just seeing it in light of that, with that design pattern, what would you say to some of those thoughts? How would you add to that or test it?

Yeah, no, yeah, that's great. So we're taking the main elements of the Eden story.

There's people, there's the tree, and then there's God. God's given a command or word about the tree, "I want you to have life, eat from the tree of life, blessing, all that." But there's a tree about good and bad and knowing it. And that represents trying to get life and wisdom on, by my own wisdom. "When she saw that the tree was good for food and desirable for gaining wisdom, she took, and she ate. And she gave to her husband, and he ate." So it's very much about a misdirected desire to have life and wisdom on your own terms. So all of those key words are right here, except now the tree that is beautiful to look at is Sarai, she's the tree.

Actually, so let's play this out here. So you've got the humans, and you've got them standing before the tree that represents a choice. It's the tree of good and bad and knowing good and bad. And then you've got God who's given a word about- Seems like God's in the same slot, but Sarai has become the tree that represents a test for Avram.

And so the question is, what is Avram going to do? But then what he does is lie.

He lies. So well, we're almost getting down to the next- Actually, here. You know what? Okay, let's just set that up and I'm gonna keep reading.

Okay.

This is what, Hebrew Bible scholar Jonathan Grossman's written a lot about this with design patterns and hyperlinks, he calls it "dynamic analogy." Where when later stories are recalling and modeled on earlier ones, it's rarely a one-for-one swap.

The authors creatively put characters in different slots of the story, and sometimes they'll even change.

Interesting.

So let's ask ourselves, if the characters are humans and the tree, God and the snake, who is playing what role in this story? And so it seems very clear that Sarai represents the tree and that people are gonna wanna look at her. And you've got a human, Avram, who wants good for himself by his own plans or wisdom. Okay, so next scene.

So you remember the Egyptians saw the woman. Well, some other Egyptians saw her, the officials of Pharaoh. Avram did not plan for this.

"So they went and they praised her to Pharaoh, and the woman was taken into the house of Pharaoh.

And he," that is, Pharaoh, "did good to Avram on account of her. In fact, there was for him sheep and oxen and donkeys and male servants and female servants and female donkeys and camels, sevenfold." Sevenfold abundance.

What is Yahweh's response to all this? He sends plagues on Pharaoh, "great plagues on him and his house on account of Sarai, Avram's wife." So you have Sarai who is the object of delight for all these men in the story.

That itself is just interesting to ponder. Sarai is passive here, and this whole story is about men and their desires and their fears.

It's a critical portrait of all of them. So when one man sees her beauty, he's afraid for himself. So he makes her vulnerable. And now you've got these other men who see an opportunity to take what is good in their eyes. So Pharaoh and his officials do the taking of what is good. So they become the Adam and Eve figures.

And so you've got God, you've got Adam and Eve, right? You've got Pharaoh and his officials taking what is good in their eyes. And it only leaves one slot available for Avram. And who's the one telling lies in this episode?

Avram. He's the snake. Yeah. The chosen one has become the snake. (laughs) Now this is not surprising to you if you pondered what God said to the snake and the woman. Namely, that the snake is gonna have seed and the woman's going to have seed, and there's gonna be hostility between the two.

And unless you think it's talking about baby snakes, the only other conclusion is that it's people who are going to behave like a snake. And when you've got snake-like folk and when you have image-of-God-like folk in the narratives, there's gonna be sparks flying in the story. And I think this is a great example. Where Avram, through his actions, is behaving more like the snake than as an image of God here.

And so what does- Okay, so let's just ponder that. I think that's how the slots work in terms of the design pattern we're mapping onto Genesis 3. What's interesting is that it's not the snake figure, Avram, who gets the rough treatment here.

It's Pharaoh and Pharaoh's house.

So instead of becoming a blessing to the nations, God's chosen one, through deceit and cowardice, has brought down curse and death on the nations. Oh man.

Now that also raises interesting questions about Yahweh's character in this story, right? Was it wrong, is it wrong for Pharaoh to see and take a woman for himself? Like, just like that? Well, I think kings were actually kind of known for that kind of thing.

And it's actually a pattern that's repeated itself through most of human history. Men see a woman they want, they take her. So it's not that Pharaoh's innocent, but he certainly didn't know that it was another man's wife. And that's not his fault, is it? So it's this complicated ethical dilemma. What is Yahweh to do?

Punish Avram? He just made a promise that he would bless this guy and curse those who treat him as cursed. So look at the dilemma Yahweh's in. He has to defend a liar and a cheat.

Not because it's the just thing to do, but because he made a promise. And so he ends up sending- Are you with me? This is really ethically complicated, this whole scene. Totally. So how's it gonna resolve?

Verse 18: "Pharaoh called Avram and he said, 'What's this that you've done to me?'" It's exactly what Yahweh says to Eve and to the snake when he shows up in the garden, like copy and paste Hebrew. "What is this that you have done?" "'What is this you have done to me? Why didn't you tell me she was your wife? Why did you say, "She's my sister?" so that I took her for my wife. Now then. Here's your wife. Take her, get out of here.' And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him, they sent him away with his wife." Oh yeah, and with all that sevenfold stuff.

Okay. So glaring gap in the narrative is, how did Pharaoh find this out?

And the story just doesn't care.

In the narrative parallel, the second time Avram does this with another king, you do find out it's in a dream and a vision. Here, it's just somehow he just knows. (laugh) And what he comes asking is what God asked the guilty humans in Eden.

"What is this that you have done?" And so, yeah, here's the story. So this is a meditation on how the seed of the woman can become the seed of the snake among the nations if they don't trust the creative word of God's blessing and promise. When they fail to trust in the blessing, they will become vehicles of curse instead of blessing to others around them.

So real quick, and remember, the portrait of Avram is not like of a malicious evildoer. It's of a fearful coward who is willing to preserve his own life at the expense of others. And I'm also fascinated with the portrait of Yahweh in this story. So let's- There's a lot of things we could explore, I want to hear what's interesting to you and, yeah, questions or comments you have about this.

This narrative seems to be mirrored later in the Israelite narrative, going into Egypt and being blessed and then, or, growing and multiplying and coming out with even more substance than they had before.

Yeah. It's like a pre-Exodus.

Yeah. Exodus, yes.Yeah.

I just find that fascinating and yeah, really interesting.

Yeah. So let's ponder that. So this is the ancestors of Israel experiencing in anticipation and in microform what their ancestors, excuse me, what their descendants will undergo. And that's a big, big thing here. All these stories are like this. There will be things woven in here that will be experienced on a grander scale in Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. So, and it is very much a part of the portrait of "like the parents, so the children." The apples don't fall far from the tree, which Jeremiah and Ezekiel, they're going to totally track with all this and wonder if Israel was ever any better than any of the other nations. They're actually not very convinced (laughs) that there was much worth blessing and choosing in the first place, which makes them marvel at God's generosity even more. But told, it's like a pre-Exodus exodus. The sending of the plagues, that's exactly the word from the Exodus story, yeah. Except there it's malicious Pharaoh who plays the snake, and he's lying and conniving a way to turn their blessing into profit for himself. Whereas here, the surprise is that it's Avram who's the liar. The snake. The sneaky liar. Yeah. Okay, let me zero in on something. This is on a page in the notes just so you can see how the vocabulary of hyperlinking works and 'cause we're early on, so it's helpful to kind of see examples. So look at, for example, at Avram's speech here in Genesis 12:11 and 12, "I know that you are a woman, beautiful of sight and they will see you, kill me, and let you live." Genesis 3:6, "And the woman saw-" Oh, and her name is Khavvah, which is the word "life." So, "and the woman named Life saw the tree of knowing what is good and evil and it was desirable to the eyes." So you see how the narrative is taking all the key words, and then it's just deploying them in kind of new, creative ways. But once you see that network of key words, it just, (vocalizes) should upload the whole Eden story.

So when Avram says, "Say that you're my sister, so there may be 'tov' for me on account of you, tov va'avurekh, and I will have life." So he wants to have life on account of her so that there's goodness. And so then we're told Yahweh sent plagues on Pharaoh on account of, it's that same word "ba'avur" here, Adam and Eve's actions result in a curse on the ground. "The ground is cursed, ba'avurekh, because of you." So in this story, Avram's lying gets good on account of the wife. In the Eden story, Adam and Eve's desire for what is good all of a sudden makes the ground cursed on account of them. So it's this inversion. Good on account of you, the ground's cursed on account of you.

We've already talked about this. The Egyptians saw the woman, that she was beautiful of sight. She was taken, that's exactly from the woman saw the tree was good, desirable to eat, she took. So on. Ooh, this is interesting. Do you remember in the garden of Eden narrative when the woman's talking to the snake and she said, "You know, God told us that we can eat from all the trees. Oh, just that one in the middle. We can't eat it or touch it." She adds a word, 'cause God never said "Don't touch it." I mean, I guess if you're not supposed to eat from it, you don't touch it. But like, what is that? Why does she add that? The word "touch," it's the Hebrew word "naga‘," it can also be used for "gentle touch" or "harsh touch," in terms of striking or hitting. And it is the word, the word "plague," it's the word "strike," or this word "to touch or strike." So she's told not to touch or strike the tree. And then what God does is strike or touch Pharaoh because he took from the- Anyway. So my whole point here is, and you go right on down the line, so all the key words. The point here is that it's creative. So this was a way of, I mean, just think here, for the author of the Genesis stories, you know, these are the family memories, the family history. But the wording is chosen in these creative ways to echo things from earlier in the story. And they'll do very creative things with the wording to help you get the melody of the stories. And when this was all first pointed out to me, it just took me a while. But when you are, even in, you can spot this even in English. It's helpful to know Hebrew, but even if you don't, you can spot it in English if you learn, kind of, the macro melodies that we've been tracing with here. And you'll see the word "good," you'll see people seeing and taking, you'll see about cursing and life and death. And you'll be like, "Oh, okay, I think I know kind of where I'm at." And once you learn how to spot it, it's very empowering when you can see it in the stories, even though it's not like a copy and paste from Genesis. But, so that's just kind of an example of how the language of hyperlinking works. But ...

Thoughts or comments about that or anything else here?

It's kind of interesting how we have a couple of scenarios where people in the story have a plan of how things are going to go. And they approach, "We're gonna build a tower, we're gonna make a name for ourselves." No, that's not gonna happen. Abraham enters Egypt, "They're gonna see you. They're gonna think you're beautiful. Yo, here's what we're gonna do." Well then that's not what happened. They saw you, saw you were beautiful, and that was it.

Yeah.

And it was the unforeseen officials that came and said, "Yo, wait, no, we're gonna take her." So it's almost, they had this situation of how things are going to be, and then they're like, "Wait, no, that's not the way things turned out." That ends up being kind of a theme.

Yeah, yeah. Thanks, Phil. That's great. That's exactly right.

So the melody is God gives people everything they could ever want and asks them to be faithful and to represent him and to trust. And then, often these testing narratives involve somebody who's, yeah, there's a whole variety of ways it can go, in this case it's fear. But you're right, it's all about their scheming and their plans, and what essentially he says, "I'm trying to secure goodness. I want- Maybe somebody will do good to me on account of you." He wants good. And think through the Eden narrative or think through Genesis 1. "And God saw that it was," God provides good. And here he is trying to scramble together some version of good for himself. And it's all, it's Yahweh's plans and then there's human plans. Yeah, and think through like, the greatest hits in the Prophets. Like in Jeremiah, "I know the plans, God has a plan, my plans for you." In Isaiah, "My thoughts and my ways are not your thoughts and your ways." It's the human scheme to get Eden on their own terms, and God's desire to give gift by his own plan. And the countering plans. Totally. Yeah, so keep your thumb on that as we keep going through the Avraham narratives. It's very much, usually when people have their own idea for how to, like, get the goods in life, it usually just goes really terrible. Which, so let's just stop so this isn't, like, overly clinical or academic. It's like, "This is the story of my life." This is actually the story of my life. This isn't like, about some other version of the human experience. You know? Like, we want the goods. And we spend most of our waking hours trying to get the goods in life. And there are ways that are gonna actually bring a lot of pain or hurt to ourselves and others, or there's ways that truly bring life and sometimes this way is a lot harder. And I have to lose as much as I'm gonna gain. And I don't know, I don't think I'm alone here. Am I alone here? No, I'm not? (laughs) Yeah. So, at its core, what this is about is God's desire to bless and humans' inability to trust and making their own plans to create Eden. And look who gets hurt in the process, the vulnerable. In this case, a woman who's given no voice, just all these desiring, cowardly men.

It's a very honest portrait of human nature, isn't it?

Well, I wonder what's gonna happen next? (laughs) Could things get better? (all laugh) Or do you think things could get even worse? Or some combination of the two?

Bibliography

https://bibleproject.com/classroom/abraham

Middleton, J. Richard. Abraham’s Silence: The Binding of Isaac, the Suffering of Job, and How to Talk Back to God. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic: A Division of Baker Publishing Group, 2021.

Cotter, David W. Genesis. Edited by Jerome T. Walsh, Chris Franke, and David W. Cotter. Berit Olam Studies in Hebrew Narrative and Poetry. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2003.

Josephus, Flavius, and William Whiston. The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged. Peabody: Hendrickson, 1987.