The Abraham Story Part 4: God Calls Avram and Promises and Blessing

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 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 12:1 Instructor’s Translation Get yourself going from your land … 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 the Snake

Today 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. I've found that it really pays off to be sympathetic as we read about these characters. Put yourself in the mindset of the characters

Remember there was this tour through the land where He was worshiping God in the verses right before this. That’s important.

Genesis 12:10–20 LEB

And there was a famine in the land. And Abram went down to Egypt to dwell as an alien there, for the famine was severe in the land. And it happened that as he drew near to enter into Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “Look now, I know that you are a woman beautiful of appearance, and it shall happen that, if the Egyptians see you, then they will say, ‘This is his wife,’ then they will kill me but let you live. Please say you are my sister so that it will go well for me on your account. Then I will live on account of you.” And it happened that as Abram came into Egypt, the Egyptians saw the woman, that she was very beautiful. And the officials of Pharaoh saw her, and they praised her beauty to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken to the house of Pharaoh. And he dealt well with Abram on account of her, and he had sheep, cattle, male donkeys, male slaves, female slaves, female donkeys, and camels. Then Yahweh afflicted Pharaoh and his household with severe plagues on account of the matter of Sarai the wife of Abram. Then Pharaoh called for Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to myself as a wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go.” And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him, and then sent him and his wife and all that was with him away.

Famine and a Crisis of Faith

There was a famine. It's the the opposite of Eden. It's not the abundance of food, now it's the shortage of food. 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.

The first story we are told about after Avram’s obedient sojourn to Canaan is about Avram’s lack of trust and his deception of the nations that leads to curse and plagues upon them.

However, Avram’s deception is motivated by an understandable feeling. After going to a land where he was promised abundance, he discovers scarcity in a time of famine. The famine is Avram’s second test of faith. Will he remain in the land and trust God, or will he make up his own plan and attempt to find blessing and abundance by his own wisdom?

Avram’s “Wife-Sister” Plan

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. (Eden!!)

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."

Geneis 12 1020 literarydesign bible project

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. 

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. 

Sarai as his sister. First, it is a half-truth, as Avram admits in 20:12, because Sarai is his half-sister from his father’s side. Marrying one’s step-sister was not uncommon in ancient Near Eastern cultures (in fact, it’s what Avram’s brother Nakhor did, see 11:29).

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 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.

“In the ancient Near East there was a well-known socio-legal institution of ‘fratriarchy’ that existed over a long period of time. Where there is no father, the brother assumes legal guardianship of his sister, particularly with respect to obligations and responsibilities in arranging marriage on her behalf. Therefore, whoever wished to take Sarai to wife would have to negotiate with her ‘brother.’ In this way, Abram could gain time to plan escape. Of course, this went awry when the Egyptian turned out to be Pharaoh himself.” Sarna, Nahum M. (2001). The JPS Torah Commentary: Genesis. Jewish Publication Society. 95.

From this angle, Avram’s motivations appear both clever and foolish, but not malicious. His initial plan was aimed at preserving his and Sarai’s lives, because any Egyptian who proposed to Sarai would have to respect her brother. If he were known as her husband, he would more likely be the object of jealousy. This helps us see that Genesis 12:14 actually vindicates Avram’s plan, as Egyptians see her. So far so good. But his plan does not account for the possibility that the king of all the land might “see” and “take” Sarai.

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. 

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.

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. 

Avram the Snake

Genesis 12:14–19 CSB

When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. Pharaoh’s officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh, so the woman was taken to Pharaoh’s household. He treated Abram well because of her, and Abram acquired flocks and herds, male and female donkeys, male and female slaves, and camels. But the Lord struck Pharaoh and his household with severe plagues because of Abram’s wife, Sarai. So Pharaoh sent for Abram and said, “What have you 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 as my wife? Now, here is your wife. Take her and go!”

Okay, so next scene.

Verse 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.

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. 

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.

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. 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.

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. 

Avram the Snake Chart from Bible Project

This is on a page in the notes of Tim Mackie’s course on This section. 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. 

12:17 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

The wording is chosen in these creative ways to echo things from earlier in the story. 

Implications of These Analogies

Avram is depicted on analogy to the shrewd snake. He is crafty, and he is able to use his circumstances to his own advantage, but at the expense of others. Avram’s decision to lie puts Sarai in danger while also bringing plagues upon Pharaoh. In this scene, Avram’s prosperity (= blessing) comes precisely through the suffering of the others.

Sarai’s beauty is set in relationship to the beauty of the tree of testing in the garden of Eden. A good thing becomes co-opted by deceivers and used for their own advantage.

Notice that Pharaoh’s role in the story activates two analogies.

Pharaoh on analogy to Adam and Eve: Pharaoh is innocent, yet he still commits wrong. While his “taking” of a woman is certainly an exercise in patriarchal power and privilege, he is portrayed as faultless in terms of his motives. But his innocent motives don’t erase the fact that he’s taking another man’s wife.

Pharaoh on analogy to God: After Pharaoh finds out about Avram’s deception, he takes on the divine role of holding Avram accountable.

God’s Promise and God’s Justice

This story presents an uncomfortable portrait of God’s relationship to the nations. God defends the deceiver in this story and brings judgment on someone who has acted wrongly but without wrong motives. This chapter begins a long drama of tension between God’s covenant promises to the family of Avraham and the divine character traits of justice and equity.

God just promised to “bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you as cursed.” In this story we see God protecting Avram even though he doesn’t deserve it. God’s promises place him in a morally inconvenient situation.

“[Abram’s behavior] would appear to put Yahweh in somewhat of a bind ... Yahweh must decide whether and how to take Abram’s side when problems arise with others—even when the conflict arises from Abram’s less-than-honest behavior. Pharaoh treats Abram honorably and generously, but Yahweh evidently decides that having a human friend in a wicked world requires a thoroughgoing commitment to the welfare of that individual, even when it works against the welfare of others. Standing with someone inevitably leads to standing against someone else. Yahweh, therefore, strikes Pharaoh and his household, even thought the mess was made by Abram … This first act of divine violence after the flood is momentous, as it is directed toward people who have not, to the best of their knowledge, acted wickedly, for the sake of demonstrating solidarity with the family Yahweh has befriended.” Hawk, L. Daniel (2019). The Violence of the Biblical God. Eerdmans. 48-49.

Avram’s Egyptian Plunder

This story also sets up a number of themes that will be developed in future episodes.

Avram’s lack of trust in God’s protection and promise. This will be addressed again in chapter 15.

Avram’s short-sighted schemes to get or retain God’s blessing by his own wisdom. This will replay itself again in chapters 16, 21, and 22.

Avram’s “plunder” consists of animal flocks and slaves, both of which will cause problems in later stories.

Abram and Lot Separate

A macro view, here's our little map of this section that we're in.

We began with a journey out of the fire of Babylon, and they went out.

And they go into the land of promise and arrive at a high place in Canaan, where they receive God's blessing. And they receive a promise of seed and land, and we're pitching tents on hilltops and worshiping God at sacred trees and meeting with him. 

But it was not meant to last forever. 

We're entering into and have already entered into the testing and failure narratives. 

We're gonna enter into that series of failures upon failures that are going to result in some kind of division, think Cain and Abel and the brothers separating from Noah. So some kind of, I wouldn't be surprised if we have brothers separating or people not able to be together anymore, and so they go their own separate ways. And it just is going to escalate into some kind of crisis that's gonna ruin everything if God doesn't get involved. 

That's the melody, that's where I would expect things to go, but in the Hebrew Bible, things never repeat themselves. It's always a twist.

We're nearing the center of this center section.

So Avram just gained t through ill motives is going to create a lot of trouble for him and his family. So, just to remember, the list was: sheep and oxen and donkeys and male servants and female servants, slaves, female slaves.

Sheep and oxen and donkeys and female donkeys and camels, so many livestock. Just think through where the stories are gonna be going. 

Are those livestock gonna play a role in any stories to follow? Yep, they're gonna inspire a lot of, they're gonna inspire an unfortunate separation of the brothers over the livestock. 

And of course, one of these female slaves whose name is, in Hebrew, "The Immigrant," Hagar is the phrase "the immigrant." She is going to play a major role in the story. 

What's interesting is that this ill-gotten gain, this is the Bible's depiction of ill-gotten gain, and it's fascinating to watch the narrative show that his ill-gotten gain is going to be, doesn't bring him good.

It only hurts himself and other people, and in the case of Hagar, is a very painful and abusive situation that she finds herself in.

So even there, how one gains wealth through receiving and trusting and the surprise blessing of God, versus the schemes and the plans. Two ways, right, to experience and gain abundance. So all of that is gonna play a key role in the story to follow. 

Can you just guess that this might be a story about people having to painfully separate from one another? 

Genesis 13.

Genesis 13:1–4 CSB

1 Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev—he, his wife, and all he had, and Lot with him. 2 Abram was very rich in livestock, silver, and gold. 3 He went by stages from the Negev to Bethel, to the place between Bethel and Ai where his tent had formerly been, 4 to the site where he had built the altar. And Abram called on the name of the Lord there.

"And Avram went up, went up out of Egypt." Here he is. They went down to Egypt, now, they go up out of Egypt. This isn’t just about south and north, which it is on the map. Down is often the direction of destruction of death, Up is the direction of life. In fact if you were to hold a map of the ANE you wouldn't see north as the key direction they oriented their maps to the east.

"And he and his wife," and all of that stuff, "All that belonged to him."

And Lot, let's not forget about Lot. 

He kind of went in, into the background for the Egypt story, but let's foreground his presence here. 

So "He and his wife, all that stuff, and Lot, and they went down to the Negev," which is the southern deserts of the boundaries of the land. 

"And Avraham was very heavy." It's the word "kaved" in Hebrew, someone's heaviness. It can refer to physical weight. It can also refer to your social weight through wealth or status. So in this case, he's very heavy with all that stuff, with herds and with silver and with gold. So notice the emphasis here, he's loaded.

Which God said was gonna happen, but now, we're like, "Oh, but it's also happened through this other way, that's not awesome." And so now, this stuff and his wealth is fraught, right? With, like, moral problems. 

Well, he went on his journeys from the Negev back up to Bethel, remember, "the house of God"? Oh, you know, the place where he had that tent back at the first, between the house of God and between Ai, heap of ruins, and to that place where the altar was, right there at the beginning, remember that, dear reader?

Remember, that's where Avram called in the name of Yahweh? 

Well, he's doing it again. So notice, it's a little sandwich around the Egypt story. He had his little worship tour, staking out the land, all his worship spots. And now he comes back, loaded with all of this ambiguous wealth, but, you know, he's kind of retracing the worship tour in reverse now, back up to the beginning. 

This is a very morally realistic narrative, isn't it? Like, the bad guys aren't all bad, and the good guys are definitely not all good. 

It's as if we're coming back to an Eden beat here.

Genesis 13:5–11 CSB

5 Now Lot, who was traveling with Abram, also had flocks, herds, and tents. 6 But the land was unable to support them as long as they stayed together, for they had so many possessions that they could not stay together, 7 and there was quarreling between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. (At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were living in the land.) 8 So Abram said to Lot, “Please, let’s not have quarreling between you and me, or between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, since we are relatives. 9 Isn’t the whole land before you? Separate from me: if you go to the left, I will go to the right; if you go to the right, I will go to the left.” 10 Lot looked out and saw that the entire plain of the Jordan as far as Zoar was well watered everywhere like the Lord’s garden and the land of Egypt. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) 11 So Lot chose the entire plain of the Jordan for himself. Then Lot journeyed eastward, and they separated from each other.

Now, here's the thing. There was also, belonging to Lot, you know, the Lot who went with Avram? By the way, do you remember what God said to Avram? What he was supposed to leave?

"Leave the land, leave the whole extended family, and then the house of your father." What category does Lot belong in?

Now, that's interesting, I mean, Lot's an orphan. Remember, his dad died, Avram's brother? So you think, "Man, they took in an orphan," right? His orphan nephew. That seems like a good thing. But at the same time, God said, "Leave your extended family," and Lot had an extended family he could have stayed with. Remember Terakh, Avram's father, wasn't dead.

It's a good example of how the Hebrew Bible will just narrate, "Abram did as God commanded him, and Lot went with him." So it was like mostly, he did what God said, and I wonder if that's gonna come back to haunt him, that, like, three-quarters trust and obedience.

Well, here's the thing, you know, Lot was there, the one who went with Avram, and he also had a lot of flocks and cattle and tents by now. How, who knows? Narrator doesn't care. He just wants you to know that he's loaded too. 

"The land could not carry them for dwelling together as one." It's a little Hebrew wordplay throughout this chapter, it's the word "one," ’ekhad, and then when you wanna talk about something together as one, you use this variation of the number, which is yakhdav, so together as one. The two can't seem to come together as one.

Because their possessions were just so many, so multiplied, they were not able to dwell together as one. you said that already.

Notice the emphasis is on how much stuff there is, so have they been fruitful in multiplying? Yeah. And so now, the abundance is creating this division, not unity.

"There came about this dispute between the shepherds of the herd of Avram, and between the shepherd of the herd of Lot." Oh yeah, quick note here, "Canaanite and the Perizzites, they were dwelling in the land at this time." So you know, like, why am I being told that information? Okay, just wait for it.

So Avram said to Lot, "You know, listen, don't let there be any disputing between me and between you, between my shepherds, and between your shepherds. Listen, we're brothers," we're ’akhim, ’akhim.

So the word "one" is ’ekhad, the word "brother" is ’akh, it's the first two letters of the word "one." And then "together as one" is spelled of the two letters, if you put the two words together, it's the letters of the words combined, together as one. So this is a whole question about family trying to be one, but it's hard, because our stuff gets in the way.

"So listen, isn't all of the land before you, all this land, separate from me? If you go left," north, "I'll go right," that is south. "If you go right," south, "I'll go left," north.

"And Lot, he lifted his eyes, and he saw all the valley of the Jordan.  what an entirely watered land. This is before Yahweh caused the ruin of Sodom and Gomorrah," because that's the valley that he's looking at.

"It was like the garden of Yahweh," it's like Eden, "and you know, the garden of Yahweh is also like the land of Egypt, as far as you go to Zoar."

It's a little back commentary. Egypt is Eden. Where did the first failure take place? Where did Abraham, Abram and Sarai's failure just take place? It's a little back comment. If you didn't get the Eden thing in the story with Pharaoh a chapter ago, he gives it to you now.

So Lot, right, look at this. "He looks on what is beautiful and good in his eyes, and he chose for himself all the valley of the Jordan. And so he left and went east, and each man separated from his brother."

So this is a good example of a story where you can read it and be like, "Okay, well, you know, it's too bad these guys can't get along.

You have this abundance that's supposed to be for blessing, but it's now, part of it's ill-gotten, and then it caused conflict between the brothers. And these brothers wanna be together, but they can't, and so the brothers, who want to be one, separate. And then as they separate, one of the separate brothers, the one who's not chosen, leaves the land and goes east to a city. Are you hearing the Pattern here? 

So we've got two brothers, a chosen and a non-chosen, and the one separates and goes east, and he goes to the city of Sodom. Now, it sounds like, dear reader, Sodom is gonna get toasted in just a few chapters here. And this word "ruin" right here is one of the most repeated words in the flood narrative, about the ruin, God's going to cause ruin in the land. 

So Lot goes, and he goes eastward, just like Cain did, just like Nimrod and his descendants did. 

So we're very much, in Genesis 13, we're replaying the separation and division of the brothers from Genesis chapter 4 that leads to the city of blood, whose outcry rises up to God, and God is compelled to respond. And do you remember, that's exactly how the Sodom story is gonna go down in chapters 18 and 19. But we're not there yet.

So I just wanna pay attention to one other thing.

"To lift your eyes and to see what you think is Eden, but is really not Eden." This becomes an interesting back commentary on the Cain story. What did Cain think he was doing when he went and he built a city? God said, "I'll protect you," he gives Cain a sign. What that sign is has stumped interpreters for thousands of years. The point is, actually, I think not that we know what the sign is, it's that we know that God protected him. And Cain decided to go give himself his own form of protection in the form of a city. 

So the city represents, in this parallel, if we're letting this parallel kind of give us back illumination, Cain was after his own version of Eden, his own plan. And in this case, Lot is after what he thinks is Eden, but in this case it's anti, it's the opposite of Eden, but it looks like it. So now Something could actually look like Eden, and unless you are trusting God's wisdom, you will not know the difference. Isn't that interesting? 

That sounds like my life. Fooled into false Edens.

Lot Saw That It Was Good … and He Took

"And so Lot chooses for himself." So what's interesting, and I mapped this out in the notes here, this language of "Lot lifted his eyes, and he saw what was good." This is exactly what the woman does in Genesis chapter 3. But where we're at in the Pattern is that the separation of the brothers, that's Cain and Abel, isn't it?

And he goes east, but then this language of "he chose for himself," the last time that little phrase was used was "When the sons of God saw the daughters of Adam, that they were good, and they took for themselves all that they chose," to choose for oneself. 

So literally, the three failure stories in Genesis 1 to 11, chapter 3, chapter 4, and chapter 6 are all bundled together and wrapped into this one story right here. 

So it's like hyper speed through this part of the story. So instead of having three separate stories that echo them all, we're just gonna bundle 'em all together here.

This is really in the melody in how this is gonna get played out, think through the rest of Genesis, of the rival brother motif, the inability of brothers to tolerate each other or tolerate that one of them might be the one chosen for blessing. And like God says to Cain, "Hey, listen, there's exaltation for you too, if you do the right thing, but that doesn't mean that you are the chosen one." And Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brothers, the northern tribes and the southern kingdom, Israel and Judah, and kings, it's all, David and Jonathan. 

So this is a key part of the melody. Oh, but also, Rachel and Leah, sisters, or Sarah and Hagar, rival wives. 

So this is a key part of the Bible's exploration of the human condition, relationships where we have to find a way to exist together and share God's blessing. And it's very difficult, and, mostly, these are gonna be portraits of people doing terrible things to each other and hurting each other, but then there will be some moments where people will come together as one, and we will get a little Eden beat in the story. 

But if Genesis 3 is a very personal, individualized portrait of personal desire that's distorted, it hurts me and hurts others, this motif of the brothers, or of the sisters or the parents and their children, this is essentially the parallel, but it's the Bible's way of exploring corporate sin, communal sin, the inability of tribes and families and whole communities to live together as one, and share the blessings of Eden. 

The motif of the brothers—or the sisters or the parents and their children—is the Bible’s way of exploring communal sin. It represents the inability of tribes, families, and whole communities to live together as one and share the blessings of Eden. - Tim Mackie, The Bible Project

God’s Second Promise to Abram

Genesis 13:12–18 CSB

12 Abram lived in the land of Canaan, but Lot lived in the cities on the plain and set up his tent near Sodom. 13 (Now the men of Sodom were evil, sinning immensely against the Lord.) 14 After Lot had separated from him, the Lord said to Abram, “Look from the place where you are. Look north and south, east and west, 15 for I will give you and your offspring forever all the land that you see. 16 I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust of the earth, then your offspring could be counted. 17 Get up and walk around the land, through its length and width, for I will give it to you.” 18 So Abram moved his tent and went to live near the oaks of Mamre at Hebron, where he built an altar to the Lord.

"So Abvam," in contrast to Lot who's dwelling down in Sodom, "Abram dwelt up in the land of Canaan, as for Lot, he was dwelling down in the cities down in the valley, and his tent was set up by Sodom."

So you have a tent down low in the valley, Sodom, and then you've got a tent up high in the hills by sacred trees. Now remember Sodom, after we say he is down in Sodom,

"To Yahweh, the men of Sodom were 'ra. They were bad, and they were khatta’im sinners." It's the word "sin," which , I don't know about you. It's the word for "to fail," and specifically to fail morally. So moral failure, I kind of, it's clunky. It's not a three letter word, it's two words. "They were bad and they were moral failures, very much." So notice the contrast here. Avram above, Lot below in the valley, in the city. Bad moral failure. It's clear the contrast here. It's almost like the visual or the spatial difference of high and low becomes an image for good and bad.

"And Yahweh said to Avram after Lot separated from him, 'Please lift up your eyes and see,'" remember what Lot did? Lot lifted his eyes, and he saw the false Eden. Now in contrast, "Abram lift up your eyes and see from the place where you are. Look to the north and look to the south. Look to the east, and look to the west," the four points of the compass, "'Because all the land that you see, to you I will give it, and to your seed forever.

And I will make your seed like the dust of the land, which if one was able to count the dust of the land, then also your seed could be counted.

Get up, walk about the land, walk along its length, walk along its width, because to you, I will give it.' And Abram set up his tent." Notice in contrast to Lot's tent, which is down low, Avram set up his tent. "And he went and dwelt by the sacred trees, the oaks of Mamre, which are by Hebron. And there he built an altar to Yahweh." The altar and the tent. You guys, the altar by the tent.

Do you get it? Up in the hills, yep. So in contrast to Lot down below, which is, you know, sin and badness, we have Avram up above. And if you were looking for Eden imagery, I mean, what more do you want? We've got sacred trees. Oh, do you remember the name of the oaks that he camped by at first? Back in chapter 12? This is great Bible trivia.

The oaks of Moreh. "Moreh," which is the word for "vision." Here, it's the oaks of Mamre. It's one letter different in Hebrew, Moreh, Mamre, which is a place name, an actual place name. But it's as if, and notice then it says, "which are by Hebron." So instead of just saying, you know, he camped by Hebron, but in order to create the two narratives of him entering the land, going down to Egypt and coming back up in, so this is his coming up out of, and it's this new Eden beat. And we've got a tent here with an altar.

My drawing is getting way too crowded.

This is as proto temple and tabernacle and Eden imagery as you could ask for. It's just, what do you say, it's cookies are on the bottom shelf here as far as the Eden melody, right?

So clearly the first and last bits of narrative are contrasting Lot's dwelling down in the valley as an anti-Eden, Abram's dwelling up above. So if Abram's in an Eden dwelling up above here, let's check out God's speech a little bit more here.

So has God, God's already said back in chapter 12, "I'm gonna give the land to you and to your seed." We already have that. So what I'm interested in here is this image of "making your seed like the dust," the dust. The dust of the land.

Has dust been an important role in the narrative, in just anywhere?

So do you remember back in, I'm just gonna write it in our drawing, remember back in Genesis 2, God plants the garden. And then there's a river running out of the garden. And anywhere, time you've got a river running into dirt, you've got a lot of mud. And so Yahweh forms human from the dust of the ground.

So people out of dust.

And then he puts the human in the garden that he planted. So this image, here, dust is talking about, like, particles that's like the foreground meaning 'cause it's about counting the dust. But the idea that God is going to make seed out of dust? Come now, right? This is new humanity imagery. So we've got new, there's a new creation. God's gonna create the new Adam and Eve family in the garden. So we're continuing this garden imagery with the dust language.

But then this interesting little verse 17 here, "get up and walk about." I'm not from Australia and, well actually, I went through Sydney once a long time ago. Spent a day in Sydney. It's a great city.

But I think this is like a turn of phrase in Australian English, a walkabout, yes? It's a thing.

Did anyone else, is this a phrase you use? Let's go for a walkabout.

I like it as an English phrase 'cause you go for a walk. Wait, I guess actually, my equivalent in American English is go for a walk.

Sure.

So I walked somewhere. It means like A to B. But if you go for a walk, you're going from A to C to G, and then you get to B.

Yeah.

That's this phrase right here. So the phrase in English, it's the word "walk," but with a little twist on it. It's called the hyphae form in English.

Literally it means to walk about, to stroll.

And this has been a key strategic phrase. It's a little loaded hyperlink phrase that comes right from, you can already predict where it comes from.

Do you remember when after the humans eat from the tree in Eden and Genesis 3 verse 8, after they make their own clothing out of leaves, they hear the sound of Yahweh God hithallek, going for a walkabout in the garden. You know, at the cool or, literally in Hebrew, "the windy," at the windy time of day.

Yahweh shows up for the walk, for the walkabout in the garden. Strolling about the garden. And who's not there to meet him this time? Well, the humans, 'cause they're hiding, 'cause they're ashamed, 'cause they're naked, and on goes that scene. This is the first time this word appears, the walkabout. So it's this image of strolling with God and touring about the garden together, right? So that is, you know, where this phrase "to walk with God," it's where it comes from because who's the second person who said to go on walkabouts with God?

Well, when all the land is filled with bloodshed because of the warriors and the sons of God and the Nephilim and all that stuff, there's one guy who, Genesis 6 verse 8, "Noach found favor in the eyes of Yahweh.

These are the generations of Noakh. Noalh was righteous, blameless in his generation." He hithalleked, he took strolls with Elohim. He walked about with God.

So walking about with God's becomes this image of he's, I mean, maybe to say your buddy is a little too nonchalant, but intimacy, intimacy.

So his image of walking about the garden, now here, he walks with God. And so the first thing that God is going to say is that, to Noakh in the next paragraph, is "The end of all flesh has come up before me 'cause the earth is filled with violence.

Look, I'm going to," and this is that word, "cause the ruin of the land." Just that same word that just we saw with the Sodom and Gomorrah later narrative. "So make for yourself an ark.

This is how you should make it: about this much in the length and about this much in the width and about this much in the heights, and then you will go into it and with all the animals." The man who walks about with God is to make this refuge that is going to be a safe place along its length and along its width, you guys tracking? Are you working with me here?

So these, this language of walking with God and a safe refuge of blessing that's this wide and this long, the only narrative next where these words occur is the one that we just read in Genesis chapter 13. So you tell me, what do you think the narrator is trying to get you to do? Let's compare some plans, and I'm gonna ask you to do it now.

What do you think the analogy is, the comparison, and what am I being asked? What insight does it give into the portrait of Abram going into this land here in chapter 13?

So one thought could be that it's a refuge in contrast to Sodom, because our story is consistently giving us, "Sodom is gonna be destroyed. Wait, it's about to happen." And now we have contrasting that at the beginning of the story with Abraham now has a refuge here, you know, so similar to the ark, this now becomes Abraham's ark.

Yeah, yes, yeah. It's like the land is the safe, is the ark. Yeah, the land is the ark.

And remember, what is the ark? The ark is a floating Eden.

Yeah.

And we know the, it's sort of like A equals B, B equals C, A equals C, right? The ark is an Eden. The land is an ark. The land is, yeah, there you go. Yep. Yeah, okay so let's explore that more. What else? What other insight does this give into this portrait?

Other associations or, yeah, in light of things to come.

So I was gonna say just this notion of it being forever has to be, and again, I might be projecting too far forward, but with new creation 'cause it has to be speaking to that. Unless he's specifically saying this specific plot of land is yours forever. But I don't think that's what it is. It's this promise of eternity of a new Eden.

At least that's something I've thought about.

Yeah good, yeah. Let's hang onto that. The promise of an eternal land.

Notice that's outside the cities. So it's up on, in these hilltops up in the hills, away from the cities and, yeah, it's forever.

So this is all some, it's so fascinating to think about, like, from the perspective of his character. It's, he's gonna turn his back on the city of man so to speak, to use St. Augustine's term, the city of God and the city of man.

And he's got his mind on this other ark, this other hilltop refuge that God is gonna, and no one else can see it, but he can see it because of the promise of God.

Yeah, you know, I'm just thinking here. This is a wonderful example of somebody who's, the same thought that you just had was the same thought that was going through the author of Hebrews who, our mystery author of Hebrews. But when the author of Hebrews goes through the faith chapter in Hebrews chapter 11, when he talks about "By faith Abraham," since it's in Greek, "when he was called, he obeyed by going out to a place that he would receive as an inheritance. He went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he lived as an immigrant in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents just like Isaac and Jacob who inherited the same promise. He was looking for the city, which has its foundations and whose architect and builder is," Cain? Nimrod? Have you ever wondered that this? Like, where'd he get this? How does he know what Abraham was looking for? And what he is doing is he is actually thinking about the whole motif of the city in these early chapters of Genesis, where these cities represent people after their own version of Eden. And he's constantly skirting the cities, and so the author of Hebrews is like, yeah, so he's waiting for the new Jerusalem that can claim no human as its architect 'cause usually when humans build cities, they want to have a great name, and they wanna name stuff after themselves. And I'm like, you know.

Yeah, just go down to any city and you'll see people's names all over the buildings. And I'm not saying it's inherently a bad thing, I'm just saying these narratives just have a way of saying, "Man, humans and their cities, and they wanna make a name." Anyway, I've always thought this is a cool reflection and it's based on the act, it's based on how the narrative is designed. And it exactly was what you were just bringing up.

Well one of the names that you just went past in Hebrews 2 was Enoch, and the idea of walking with God.

Oh yes, totally. Oh yeah, I forgot about Enoch.

And then Enoch not dying too, which I feel like connecting multiple dots, but I'll let you.

Nope, nope, thank you so much. No, that's right, that's right. In between Adam and in between Noah is Enoch who hithallek, walks about with God for 365 years. And then he just was not because God took him.

God took him, yeah. So yeah, where did he go?

Well, where else do people walk with God in Eden? Where do you walk with God?

It's, right, in Eden. So it's, yeah, it is showing that your real identity isn't in the city, the city of humanity, city of man, what you're really after, looking for.

Other thoughts or reflections on this little, I'm spending a whole session to just focus in on this little speech. But there's so much here, not just when you read it, it's when you get the melody and when you make this ark/promise land connection. Oh man, so there's other stuff, other thoughts or reflections? I have one more thing to point out before we close this session and go on to the next one, but other thoughts about what we've covered?

Okay, so think of it this way.

If Genesis 2 was about the Eden blessing, Genesis 3, failure one, Genesis 4 and 6, we kind of already traced through that. And it led up to an unleashing of violence on the land, and God met it with cosmic collapse and the flood. We're clearly walking along that cycle here, Eden blessing, failure in Egypt, the division of the brothers, and now down to Sodom. And Sodom, we keep being told, is like, it's not good, bad stuff going on down there. But God's preparing of refuge, an ark-like refuge for his Noah, right, of this generation with Avram. What do you just know is going to happen next?

So this is teaching you, this literature is trying to train us in how to discern the will of God in our life's, in life circumstances. That there comes a time in every human life and in every human community when the sins of the parents keep accumulating over the generations, and history reaches these crisis moments, and these crisis moments are usually full of untold pain and destruction. But yet, also at the same time, there are moments of courage and faith, and the human story continues out the other side. And every time that cycle happens, it's a chance for yet another round for the images of God to tune in to God's purpose. And isn't that interesting? It's like, and we're only in chapter 13 for goodness' sakes. I mean this is, so what can you just guess? So what's gonna happen is an outbreak of horrendous violence among nine kings who were, I mean, just death galore in the next paragraph, early parts of Genesis 14. But just to kind of close the bit on this, our land as a refuge. While the kings of this world are murdering and plundering, where's Avram?

So we get this whole scene in the next chapter of this terrible war battle scene. And then the camera just shifts to Avram. Do you remember where we left him? Up on the hilltop hanging out by his altar in the tent in the tree.

There's a battle happening down below. And this refugee, a remnant, a remnant from the battle, from the flood of violence, comes up to him and tells Avram. And you know, he was just chilling by the oaks. Oh, you know who was also there with him? A bunch of Canaanites, a bunch of Canaanites were up there. Yeah, and Amorites, this guy Eshcol, his brother Aner.

These were, and the word here is they were members of a covenant with Avram.

And they're just fine. No problems up there.

So while the battle and the flood of human violence is raging down below in the valley of Sodom, you've got God's chosen one, chilling in his safety up in his refuge, and you know who else is with him? A bunch of Canaanites. So, and how are these Canaanites experiencing the blessing of this refuge? Well, they are participating in, they're in on the covenant. You got these non-Israelites, and you're just like, I feel like I'm reading the New Testament here. But that, so he's become a blessing. So he was a curse to Pharaoh. Maybe he learned a thing or two, but now he's making pacts and covenants of peace with Canaanites. And the Canaanites who make peace in covenant with Avram, they get in the ark. Whereas the Canaanites down below who are, you know, building the city of man, oh, they just, they're wiped out in the flood of violence. Isn't this an interesting portrait? Really interesting portrait.

So we'll take a pause, and we'll actually take the next two sessions to explore this next chapter. So many cool things. But I think it just has so much payoff, this little scene here in chapter 14. You're just like, what? Why am I being told he's sitting by a tree with some Canaanites that he made a covenant with? Like, what does that matter? But if you're tracking with a melody, this is Noah and his wives and his sons and their wives. Anybody who was with Noah, you were safe. And so this, this becomes the image, those who are associated by covenant with God's chosen one will be saved from the flood.

I feel like we could also do a class about baptism right now, but we're not going to. What we're gonna do is pause and then tackle chapter 14 in the next session.

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.