The Abraham Story Part 24: Sarah's Tomb as a Mini Eden

Sarah’s Tomb as a Mini Eden

This story is designed with three major sections. 

There's a little opener, there's a long dialogue in the center, and then there's a little concluder. 

The dialogue itself has three parts, with a little fourth part that concludes the dialogue.

Genesis 23:1–20 CSB

1 Now Sarah lived 127 years; these were all the years of her life. 2 Sarah died in Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. 3 When Abraham got up from beside his dead wife, he spoke to the Hethites: 4 “I am an alien residing among you. Give me burial property among you so that I can bury my dead.” 5 The Hethites replied to Abraham, 6 “Listen to us, my lord. You are a prince of God among us. Bury your dead in our finest burial place. None of us will withhold from you his burial place for burying your dead.” 7 Then Abraham rose and bowed down to the Hethites, the people of the land. 8 He said to them, “If you are willing for me to bury my dead, listen to me and ask Ephron son of Zohar on my behalf 9 to give me the cave of Machpelah that belongs to him; it is at the end of his field. Let him give it to me in your presence, for the full price, as burial property.” 10 Ephron was sitting among the Hethites. So in the hearing of all the Hethites who came to the gate of his city, Ephron the Hethite answered Abraham: 11 “No, my lord. Listen to me. I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. I give it to you in the sight of my people. Bury your dead.” 12 Abraham bowed down to the people of the land 13 and said to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, “Listen to me, if you please. Let me pay the price of the field. Accept it from me, and let me bury my dead there.” 14 Ephron answered Abraham and said to him, 15 “My lord, listen to me. Land worth four hundred shekels of silver—what is that between you and me? Bury your dead.” 16 Abraham agreed with Ephron, and Abraham weighed out to Ephron the silver that he had agreed to in the hearing of the Hethites: four hundred standard shekels of silver. 17 So Ephron’s field at Machpelah near Mamre—the field with its cave and all the trees anywhere within the boundaries of the field—became 18 Abraham’s possession in the sight of all the Hethites who came to the gate of his city. 19 After this, Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave of the field at Machpelah near Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan. 20 The field with its cave passed from the Hethites to Abraham as burial property.

"And so it was, the life of Sarah. 120 years and seven years." That's standard Hebrew numbering is to say each set, each digit as its own set of years. So 120 years and seven years, the years of the life of Sarah.

"And Sarah died in Kiriath-arba." "Kiriath" is the Hebrew word for village, and "arba" is the Hebrew word for four.

Some people think maybe there were a little group of four villages, or, nobody's actually certain. But what the author says is, "Hey, dear reader, this is what we Israelites today call Hebron.

She died in the land of Canaan. And Avraham went to grieve for Sarah and to weep." We're talking about a cultural setting where you enter a period, maybe seven days or 30 days, ritual mourning. So it's very public. You change how you dress, you change how you eat, so that everybody knows you're in this period of grief.

"And Avraham got up from before the face of his dead one." So death is a major theme here and a major repeated word. And so the dead one, I guess it's the equivalent of, in English we would say the deceased. That's the equivalent of the dead one. "So he finishes his mourning and he got up from before the face of the deceased.

And he went and spoke to the sons of Heth." That is what we call the Hittites. You know about them because they're descendants from Ham in Genesis chapter 10.

"And he said, 'I am an immigrant and a settler among you all.

Who can give me a burial plot as a possession among you all?'"

"So that I can bury my dead one from before my face. And the sons of Heth, or Hittites, answered Avraham and said to him, 'Oh, listen, master, you're much more than an immigrant. You are royalty. You are Prince of Elohim in our midst.'" Remember, the meaning of Sarah's name? Princess and Prince. Exalted Father becomes Exalted Father of a Multitude, Avram to Avraham. Now he's just straight up Prince. Princess just died, and you are the prince of Elohim in our midst. Kings and queens in the little, in the new Eden.

"Among the choicest of our burial plots, just bury your dead one. No one among us is gonna hold back from you his burial plot to keep you from burying your dead one."

In other words, like, just choose your spot. Like, we honor you and no one's going to say, "Oh well, bummer. Like, you took my space." No, it would be an honor for us to give you one of our fields. So just take it.

"Avraham got up and he bowed down to the people of the land and to the sons of Heth. And he spoke saying, 'If it is in your being,'" in other words, if it's your intent, if it's your purpose, "that is, the burying of my dead one before my face, but listen to me, someone go approach for me Dusty."

Ephron, his Hebrew name, but his word is the Hebrew root for the word "dust."

"Someone go approach Dusty." "Go approach Dusty, the son of Zohar, and ask if he would give to me the cave of Machpelah." So remember, a cave, the word "me‘arah," comes from the Greek word "nakedness" or "exposure," and Machpelah means doubling or pair.

"'He would give to me the cave, the nakedness of the pair, that belongs to him. You know, it's at the edge of that field, for the full price let him give it to me. Right there in your midst as a burial plot possession.'

So Ephron sat in the midst of the sons of Heth, and Ephron, the Hittite, answered Avraham in the ears of all of the sons of Heth." Oh yes, you should know this was happening at the gate of the city. And everybody going in, this is a very public conversation.

"No, my master, listen to me. I'm gonna give you the field. And the cave that's in it, I give it to you. In the eyes of all the sons of my people, bury your dead one." You're just getting the feel here. This is diplomatic lingo here. All of the niceties and so on. "Avraham bowed before the face of the people of the land, and he spoke to Ephron in the ears of the people of the land, 'Indeed, if only you would listen to me, Dusty, I give you silver for the field. Take it so I can bury my dead one.' And Ephron answered Avraham, 'My master, listen to me. A land, 400 shekels of silver. What is that between you and me? Bury your dead one.' And so Abraham listened to Dusty. He weighed the silver that he had spoken of in the hearing of the sons of Heth, 400 shekels of silver by the currency of the merchants of that day.

And so it was transferred, the field of Ephron that is in Machpelah, doubling. Oh yes, it was also right next to Mamre." Mamre. 

Now what do you remember about Mamre? It's a nice spot on a hill. There's some sacred oaks there. That's where Avram had his tent, yeah. He met with God there multiple times. What a happy coincidence that the place where he will bury the dead one is the place of the high hill with the sacred tree, where he met with God.

Yeah, it's right next to Mamre. "The field, the cave which is in it, and man, so many trees in that field. There's trees, trees everywhere. And it just has this really nice surrounding border. It's a very great little spot.

That was transferred to Avraham as a possession. And everybody saw it, in the eyes of the sons of Heth. Oh, did I mention that they were in a very public setting where everybody in the gate of the city.

After this, Avraham buried Sarah, his wife, in the cave of the field of Machpelah. Did I already mention that it was facing that little new Eden spot Mamre, that is Hebron? Yeah, and did I mention that this is all happening in the land of Canaan? Yeah. And so it was, did I mention that already? That it was transferred? The field and the cave that was in it to Avraham as a burial plot, as a posses

Psion from the sons of, did I say that already? Okay, I just want to make it really clear." And that's the chapter. Okay, so I'm theatrically trying to draw attention to these repetitions.

He's been cruising the land, marking spots, but  First possession.  So that's very clear by the repetition that he possesses. So it's the first time the family that's been promised the whole land, is given one little spot of land. 

So from the perspective of later generations, it's like, how is it that we're here today? Here's where, remember, stories about the ancestors are always also stories about ourselves. And so you can see why this story would really be valuable for lots of different reasons. 

Eden

The story of Sarah’s burial is a full-scale replay of the core themes at work in the garden of Eden story. Through wordplays, hyperlinks, and narrative analogies, Avraham’s loss of Sarah is compared to both the loss of eternal life in Eden and to the hope of God’s promise to restore life.

Mamre, multiple times, has come up as a Eden image. And here's a place right next to it, and it's spelled with the letters of naked. So this is how it works. It's symbolic association through wordplay and through places is how the thematic melody gets carried forward.

If Eden is associated with life and it's the place you wanna get back to, 'cause we're out here in the realm of death. Then it is very interesting that the place of the deaths of the first generation, of the chosen blessed ones, who were given the Eden blessing for everyone else, that they end up in a Eden-like place in their death.

the one who had experienced barrenness for so long, and who had been given the promise that I'm gonna bring life out of this wilderness place, out of the wilderness of your womb. And that she would be the first to inherit, like, literally inherit the land.

But through her death.

The one who carried the seed, that she'd be buried. So you have this idea that there's gonna be something growing out of this seed again. You know, that she carries this hope that something's gonna come out of that cave. 

Eden is supposed to be a life place, but right now, this is a place of death.

Is it in God's power to turn death things into life things?Like this, on a very fundamental level, what else has our story been about?

“Dusty” Ephron

The name of Avraham’s Hittite negotiating partner is Ephron, from the Hebrew word for “dust” (‘aphar / רפע). This creates the humorous image of Avraham bartering with “Dusty” to ensure a place of rest for his beloved

Recall that “death unto the dust” is a key image from the Eden narrative that’s associated with death

Genesis 3:19 CSB

19 You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow until you return to the ground, since you were taken from it. For you are dust, and you will return to dust.”

The Cave of the “Naked Pair”

Both of the words “cave” and “Makpelah” have rich wordplay associations with the Eden story

“Cave” (me‘arah / הרעמ) in Hebrew literally means “place of exposure/nakedness.” This Hebrew noun is related to two root words spelled with similar letters that both mean “to be exposed, naked” (ררע / ‘arar, see Isa. 32:11 and רוע / ‘ur, see Hab 3:9) and is spelled with the same letters and “nakedness” from Genesis 2:25

Genesis 2:25 CSB

25 Both the man and his wife were naked, yet felt no shame.

And they were naked (‘arom / םורע) and they were not ashamed.

Genesis 23:9 NASB95

9 that he may give me the cave of Machpelah which he owns, which is at the end of his field; for the full price let him give it to me in your presence for a burial site.”

that he would give to me the cave (me‘arah / הרעמ) ...

“Makpelah” is an odd place name that means “doubling” or “pair.” The root is kaphal (לפכ) which means “to be doubled” or “paired” (see examples of the verb in Exod. 26:9; Ezek. 21:19).

The meaning of Makpelah as “pair” or “double” is attested early in the history of Jewish interpretation because the Greek Septuagint translators rendered this word with το διπλουν (“twin” or “paired”).

When these curious words are combined, the name of this place is The Nakedness of the Pair. This is a clever reference back to the moment when Adam and Eve violate God’s command, eat from the forbidden fruit, and then realize that “the two of them are naked” ( Gen. 2:24-25 and 3:6-7).

The Burial Plot as Avraham’s Mini-Eden

The description of the cave and the burial plot in Genesis 23:17-18 is repetitious and unnecessarily wordy because it repeats vocabulary from earlier in the chapter. Upon closer inspection, however, these repetitions seem intentional and create a series of hyperlinks back to earlier moments in the Avraham narrative where the promised land was set on analogy to Eden.

Repetition of 4

Village of 400 Silvers

Arbah [f.], arbahah [m.] Authority, government, rule, dominion, calendar, time, creation, kingdom, fullness, giving of the Torah (Law) and Holy Spirit. The most holy Name of G-d has four Hebrew letters (yohd, heh, vav, heh – YHWH). Judah was the fourth born son and has the scepter of rule. Pictures completeness much like seven. Four matriarchs, four corners of the earth, four horns on altar, four tassles (tzit-tziyot) are to be worn on one’s garment/robe, four living creatures, four horsemen, Four rivers of Eden, four winds, four gospels, etc.

Fourth Hebrew letter: Numerical value of four. Pictographic meaning door, draw out or in, knock, path, way, portal to heaven, dominion, control, bough, and branch. Dalet

Priests wore four garments: a linen tunic, linen breeches, a linen turban, and a long sash. High priests wore an additional four garments (see number eight): the ephod, breastplate, a cloak of blue wool with bells and pomegranates, and a golden plate on their forehead inscribed with, “Holy to YHWH.”

The Passover Seder is structured around fours: the. Four Questions, the Four Sons, and Four Cups of Wine

Seems to me that here it is showing a completeness. Think 40 years is a generation.

I think there is something there with this but I don’t think I understand this yet. Non of my commentaries that I read made mention of it. So maybe there is nothing but....

Stop Q and A

Isaac’s Marriage to Rebekah

This is the last stop before Abraham is sent the the grave.

Today we are going to be with Rivqah. Remember here name is the sounds of the work “blessing” in Hebrew, with the letters mixed up. And we're gonna follow her on her Abraham-like journey to the land of the new Eden. 

Genesis 24 is the story that we're looking at, and it's the longest chapter in the book of Genesis. It's the longest chapter in the Torah, 67 verses.

Part of what makes it long is that there is a moment in the story that happens, and then it's actually retold two times in almost the same amount of detail with little twists. And that actually is really on purpose. 

Seeing that it is so long I am going to read it all and then we are going to look at the themes, and and over view. If I miss the part you really want to talk about, because there is a lot here let me know.

So the opening movement Is going to begin with Avraham and just a figure called his servant.

The only servant that's been named in his house anywhere in the story was that guy named Eliezer back in chapter 15. So in Jewish tradition, this guy is just called Eliezer.

Though it doesn't say that, it's a fine inference.  What is interesting is, remember the ezer going all the way back to the garden is about the delivering help that is the provision of a wife, an other. And so the garden of Eden by the watery springs and the tree, and the provision of a wife for the seed of the woman so that the seed can continue, that's what this chapter's all about. Maybe it is this guy named My God is Ezer.

It could be that the narrator's just making you work for it, to recall the links. 

So it begins with Avraham and the servant. And the servant goes on a journey backtracking the actual path that Avraham took decades ago. And he goes to the land of two rivers, what it's called, Aram-Naharaim, the land of two rivers. And there, he meets a young woman at a well who's come to draw water. And he sets up this test.

God tested Avraham, the servant creates a test for God. He prays and he says, "Let's say I'll know that it's the right woman if I see her by this well and I ask her for a drink of water, and she says, 'I'll be happy to give you a drink of water and I will water your thirsty camels too.'" This is all what the servant says to God. And lo and behold, he sees a woman And, "May I have a drink?" "Absolutely, can I water your camels too?" And it's like, that's the whole scene. 

what's interesting is the woman goes back and tells her brother and her father. And then, when her brother comes out, his name is Lavan, and the guy says, "Hey, tell me your story." And he just retells verbatim the entire, like, the entire thing. And so you have the prayer version, you have what actually happened, and then you have the version that he retells to the father and the brother. 

So you just have to stop and say, somebody really wants to draw our attention to this sequence of events and why. And so we'll look at some things in the text for why that's significant. That's the reason why it's the longest chapter in the Torah, is because the same long event gets retold three times for an important purpose. 

Genesis 24 CSB

1 Abraham was now old, getting on in years, and the Lord had blessed him in everything. 2 Abraham said to his servant, the elder of his household who managed all he owned, “Place your hand under my thigh, 3 and I will have you swear by the Lord, God of heaven and God of earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I live, 4 but will go to my land and my family to take a wife for my son Isaac.” 5 The servant said to him, “Suppose the woman is unwilling to follow me to this land? Should I have your son go back to the land you came from?” 6 Abraham answered him, “Make sure that you don’t take my son back there. 7 The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from my native land, who spoke to me and swore to me, ‘I will give this land to your offspring’—he will send his angel before you, and you can take a wife for my son from there. 8 If the woman is unwilling to follow you, then you are free from this oath to me, but don’t let my son go back there.” 9 So the servant placed his hand under his master Abraham’s thigh and swore an oath to him concerning this matter. 10 The servant took ten of his master’s camels, and with all kinds of his master’s goods in hand, he went to Aram-naharaim, to Nahor’s town. 11 At evening, the time when women went out to draw water, he made the camels kneel beside a well outside the town. 12 “Lord, God of my master Abraham,” he prayed, “make this happen for me today, and show kindness to my master Abraham. 13 I am standing here at the spring where the daughters of the men of the town are coming out to draw water. 14 Let the girl to whom I say, ‘Please lower your water jug so that I may drink,’ and who responds, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels also’—let her be the one you have appointed for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master.” 15 Before he had finished speaking, there was Rebekah—daughter of Bethuel son of Milcah, the wife of Abraham’s brother Nahor—coming with a jug on her shoulder. 16 Now the girl was very beautiful, a virgin—no man had been intimate with her. She went down to the spring, filled her jug, and came up. 17 Then the servant ran to meet her and said, “Please let me have a little water from your jug.” 18 She replied, “Drink, my lord.” She quickly lowered her jug to her hand and gave him a drink. 19 When she had finished giving him a drink, she said, “I’ll also draw water for your camels until they have had enough to drink.” 20 She quickly emptied her jug into the trough and hurried to the well again to draw water. She drew water for all his camels 21 while the man silently watched her to see whether or not the Lord had made his journey a success. 22 As the camels finished drinking, the man took a gold ring weighing half a shekel, and for her wrists two bracelets weighing ten shekels of gold. 23 “Whose daughter are you?” he asked. “Please tell me, is there room in your father’s house for us to spend the night?” 24 She answered him, “I am the daughter of Bethuel son of Milcah, whom she bore to Nahor.” 25 She also said to him, “We have plenty of straw and feed and a place to spend the night.” 26 Then the man knelt low, worshiped the Lord, 27 and said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not withheld his kindness and faithfulness from my master. As for me, the Lord has led me on the journey to the house of my master’s relatives.” 28 The girl ran and told her mother’s household about these things. 29 Now Rebekah had a brother named Laban, and Laban ran out to the man at the spring. 30 As soon as he had seen the ring and the bracelets on his sister’s wrists, and when he had heard his sister Rebekah’s words—“The man said this to me!”—he went to the man. He was standing there by the camels at the spring. 31 Laban said, “Come, you who are blessed by the Lord. Why are you standing out here? I have prepared the house and a place for the camels.” 32 So the man came to the house, and the camels were unloaded. Straw and feed were given to the camels, and water was brought to wash his feet and the feet of the men with him. 33 A meal was set before him, but he said, “I will not eat until I have said what I have to say.” So Laban said, “Please speak.” 34 “I am Abraham’s servant,” he said. 35 “The Lord has greatly blessed my master, and he has become rich. He has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, male and female slaves, and camels and donkeys. 36 Sarah, my master’s wife, bore a son to my master in her old age, and he has given him everything he owns. 37 My master put me under this oath: ‘You will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites in whose land I live 38 but will go to my father’s family and to my clan to take a wife for my son.’ 39 But I said to my master, ‘Suppose the woman will not come back with me?’ 40 He said to me, ‘The Lord before whom I have walked will send his angel with you and make your journey a success, and you will take a wife for my son from my clan and from my father’s family. 41 Then you will be free from my oath if you go to my family and they do not give her to you—you will be free from my oath.’ 42 “Today when I came to the spring, I prayed: Lord, God of my master Abraham, if only you will make my journey successful! 43 I am standing here at a spring. Let the young woman who comes out to draw water, and I say to her, ‘Please let me drink a little water from your jug,’ 44 and who responds to me, ‘Drink, and I’ll draw water for your camels also’—let her be the woman the Lord has appointed for my master’s son. 45 “Before I had finished praying silently, there was Rebekah coming with her jug on her shoulder, and she went down to the spring and drew water. So I said to her, ‘Please let me have a drink.’ 46 She quickly lowered her jug from her shoulder and said, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels also.’ So I drank, and she also watered the camels. 47 Then I asked her, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ She responded, ‘The daughter of Bethuel son of Nahor, whom Milcah bore to him.’ So I put the ring on her nose and the bracelets on her wrists. 48 Then I knelt low, worshiped the Lord, and blessed the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who guided me on the right way to take the granddaughter of my master’s brother for his son. 49 Now, if you are going to show kindness and faithfulness to my master, tell me; if not, tell me, and I will go elsewhere.” 50 Laban and Bethuel answered, “This is from the Lord; we have no choice in the matter. 51 Rebekah is here in front of you. Take her and go, and let her be a wife for your master’s son, just as the Lord has spoken.” 52 When Abraham’s servant heard their words, he bowed to the ground before the Lord. 53 Then he brought out objects of silver and gold, and garments, and gave them to Rebekah. He also gave precious gifts to her brother and her mother. 54 Then he and the men with him ate and drank and spent the night. When they got up in the morning, he said, “Send me to my master.” 55 But her brother and mother said, “Let the girl stay with us for about ten days. Then she can go.” 56 But he responded to them, “Do not delay me, since the Lord has made my journey a success. Send me away so that I may go to my master.” 57 So they said, “Let’s call the girl and ask her opinion.” 58 They called Rebekah and said to her, “Will you go with this man?” She replied, “I will go.” 59 So they sent away their sister Rebekah with the one who had nursed and raised her, and Abraham’s servant and his men. 60 They blessed Rebekah, saying to her: Our sister, may you become thousands upon ten thousands. May your offspring possess the city gates of their enemies. 61 Then Rebekah and her female servants got up, mounted the camels, and followed the man. So the servant took Rebekah and left. 62 Now Isaac was returning from Beer-lahai-roi, for he was living in the Negev region. 63 In the early evening Isaac went out to walk in the field, and looking up he saw camels coming. 64 Rebekah looked up, and when she saw Isaac, she got down from her camel 65 and asked the servant, “Who is that man in the field coming to meet us?” The servant answered, “It is my master.” So she took her veil and covered herself. 66 Then the servant told Isaac everything he had done. 67 And Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah and took Rebekah to be his wife. Isaac loved her, and he was comforted after his mother’s death.

Verses 1-4

"Now Avraham was old, going on in days, and Yahweh had blessed Avraham in everything.

Avraham said to his servant, that is the old one over his house, the one who ruled overall that belonged to him." In other words, his image or his representative.

"Place your hand under my thigh, so that I can make you swear an oath by Yahweh. Yahweh is the Elohim of the skies and the Elohim of the land. And here's what I make you swear.

Do not take a woman for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites in whose midst I am dwelling. Rather, to my land and to my family," you recognize those words, leave your land and leave your family, it's exactly the inverse, "back to my land and back to my family, you will go and you will take a wife or a woman for Yitskhaq."

So here's Avraham. He's sitting in the new Eden. He just got the sweet little cave of the naked pair. He's got his hilltop overlooking the field by Mamre. And he's blessed. So here is the new Adam with his recently deceased Eve, buried, right, just below the hill. And he's enjoying God's blessing.

And what he notices is that in the new Eden, there's some seed you don't want to be a part of. And so what he needs to do is to make sure that his son is going to have a wife who comes from the same seed that he does. That's the idea here. So just stop. He's in the new Eden and he looks at the inhabitants of Eden and he's like, yeah, this will not go well here.

The role of the Canaanites, think of the role that the Canaanites will come to play later in promised land.

And then there's also these tempting, that snake in the garden. And so the idea that there are enemies in the garden that need to be subdued, that comes to be the pattern or the template, so to speak, of how the Canaanites fit in. 

And the whole theme of don't intermarry and keep the seed within the chosen line, that's where all, this whole theme emerges. It often strikes modern readers as either antiquated or deeply offensive. and people have to process through all of those things. And it's one of those issues again, where I wanna first make sure I'm in tune with the value set and the story here and what it's trying to say. But at the same time, you can't ignore that when you read these stories in our context, the idea of the purity of the seed and the purity of the family line that can't be contaminated, these are very sensitive topics. And crucially important topics in our world.

So that's his, the motif of where we're at here is that the Canaanites are like the temptation in the garden, and he wants to provide for his future seed. 

Under the Thigh

The thigh was considered the source of posterity in the ancient world. Or, more properly, the “loins” or the testicles. The phrase “under the thigh” could be a euphemism for “on the loins.” There are two reasons why someone would take an oath in this manner: 1) Abraham had been promised a “seed” by God, and this covenantal blessing was passed on to his son and grandson. Abraham made his trusted servant swear “on the seed of Abraham” that he would find a wife for Isaac. 2) Abraham had received circumcision as the sign of the covenant (Genesis 17:10). Our custom is to swear on a Bible; the Hebrew custom was to swear on circumcision, the mark of God’s covenant. The idea of swearing on one’s loins is found in other cultures, as well. The English word testify is directly related to the word testicles. Jewish tradition also offers a different interpretation. According to Rabbi Ibn Ezra, the phrase “under the thigh” means literally that. For someone to allow his hand to be sat on was a sign of submission to authority. If this is the symbolism, then Joseph was showing his obedience to his father by placing his hand under Jacob’s thigh.

If it is about the seed and he places his hand near the seed, it does make since, even if it makes me feel uncomfortable.

Verses 5-9

So the servant said to him, "Okay, all right, it sounds like a good plan. But let's say the the woman that I meet won't be willing to go after me to this land. Should I return your son back to the land from which you came, take him out of Eden?"  

Avraham said, "Keep watch, don't return my son to there. Yahweh, the Elohim of the skies who took me from the house of my father and the land of my family," you see that language again? "He spoke to me and swore an oath saying, 'to your seed, I'll give this land.' He will send his messenger before you." So God's messenger will go with you.

Now this is interesting, because God's messengers played key roles in other stories, like showed up and hung out and had meals and so on.

And no messenger ever appears in the story.

Does that mean the messenger isn't there?

It's an interesting feature of the story.

Avraham's certain that God's guiding presence and messengers will be there, making sure the right things happen at the right time. But actually, this is the only time you hear about it.

"'So he'll send his messenger before you, so you can take a woman for my son from there. And if the woman doesn't wanna go, well, then you're innocent from the oath. Just don't take my son out of the land.'

Two Rivers

The servant goes and he had all this wealth, all this stuff. And he goes to the land of, most of our translations say Aram Naharaim.

"Naharaim" is the word "two rivers," two rivers. Now just stop and remember, there's that one odd little detail in Genesis 2 about how there was a river that flowed out of Eden. And then, once it left the borders of Eden, it separated and then became four.

Genesis 2:10–14 NASB95

10 Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four rivers. 11 The name of the first is Pishon; it flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 The gold of that land is good; the bdellium and the onyx stone are there. 13 The name of the second river is Gihon; it flows around the whole land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is Tigris; it flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

The first name of the river was Gusher or Pishon, it means gusher in Hebrew. And it flows down to the realm of Egypt.

Great gold and beautiful stones in that land. The second river is the river of Gihon and it flows around the land of Kush, also associated with lower Egypt. But Gihon is the name of the spring that provides water to Jerusalem. That's interesting. Gihon also means like spurter or gusher, it's the word for "spurt and gush."

The name of the third river is the Tigris. It goes into Mesopotamia to Assyria. 

And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

There's two rivers that go towards Mesopotamia. In fact, the word "Mesopotamia" means between the rivers. So the two rivers, or the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, that lead to, one goes to Assyria, one goes to Babylon.

So where is this guy going? He's leaving Eden and he's following the two rivers,  That's the symbolic geography at work here.

Genesis 10-28

So he goes outside the city. This is a long trip, and it's like he's just there in a narrative flash. And there at the well of water by the rivers of Eden, he meets a woman.

Genesis 24:12 CSB

12 “Lord, God of my master Abraham,” he prayed, “make this happen for me today, and show kindness to my master Abraham.

And look what he says. He kneels down at the well and he says, "Please make it happen today." This is a fascinating little word.

In English, we have vocabulary of chance or coincidence.

These are kind of our main words for when we talk about things we didn't plan and that were surprising, and that you look at with retrospect, and you're like, "Wow, that's really interesting." Or a coincidence or whatever. We have language for these kinds of things. 

So the word for that in Hebrew is "a happening." A happening. And so, what he says is "Make a happening happen today." You know, just one of those happenings.

And I'm right here by this wonderful spring, by the rivers of Eden. And what would be amazing is if I could meet the young woman right here who would become the wife. Could you make a happening happen?

Genesis 24:15 CSB

15 Before he had finished speaking, there was Rebekah—daughter of Bethuel son of Milcah, the wife of Abraham’s brother Nahor—coming with a jug on her shoulder.

"And it came about," verse 15, "before he even finished saying his words," ta-da, it's like big spotlight, Rivqah. 

Now, you need to remember, she was born to Bethuel, the son of Queen, the wife of Nahor. And if you're not getting it yet, it's the brother of Abraham's daughter.

Remember that was that little, those little notes right there. And on you go.

So where is, Avraham said, "the messenger of God, the angels will be with you." And the angels don't appear on the narrative foreground, but this is teaching us that even when you don't see visible presence of God's supernatural ordering of events, that doesn't mean God's not doing anything.

'Cause most of us don't ever see that stuff. What we see are happenings happening.

this is a really sophisticated way of exploring how we experience, or sometimes don't feel like we're experiencing, God's providence. Like in theory, you know that God's working things out and that there's some master plan. But most of the time, we're, like, operating in the dark, or feel like we are. And then you have, once in a while you have these happenings happen. And this is one of the happenings happening.

Ruth 2:1–4 CSB

1 Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side. He was a prominent man of noble character from Elimelech’s family. His name was Boaz. 2 Ruth the Moabitess asked Naomi, “Will you let me go into the fields and gather fallen grain behind someone with whom I find favor?” Naomi answered her, “Go ahead, my daughter.” 3 So Ruth left and entered the field to gather grain behind the harvesters. She happened to be in the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was from Elimelech’s family. 4 Later, when Boaz arrived from Bethlehem, he said to the harvesters, “The Lord be with you.” “The Lord bless you,” they replied.

The book of Ruth is all into Genesis 24, so many neat little hyperlinks where this particular moment about the happening happening is when Ruth and Naomi go back into the land and Ruth said to Naomi, "You know, we need food." We need to eat some food. And so she departed and went and gleaned in a field after the reapers. And it just so happened, it's that word, and a happening just happened, that she ended up in the field belonging to Boaz, who's of the family of her mother-in-law Naomi. Yeah, so it's the same thing except this time, it's the woman having the happening happening and she meets the man in the field, which is the inverse of this little scene here in Genesis 24.

So it's a meditation on God's providence, even when you don't see God at work. 

The book of Esther just goes full charge on this and just doesn't even mention God once in the whole story. God's not even talked about. But the subtext for everything in the story is these happenings keep happening.

And this is the seed bed, this story right here. That little scene is the seed bed of that motif.

So think of where, let's just back up and think of the previous story. The previous story was about the provision of a little Eden spot as a future possession for the promised seed. Next chapter, what happens after the land and the garden is planted? You've got a human in the land but no good, there's no counterpart for the seed.

And so God provides a ezer, a delivering help.

This whole long chapter is this meditation and development of the provision of the ezer by the rivers of Eden. So it's like 10 verses in the Eden story that turns into the longest chapter in the Torah. And it's what this whole thing is about, God's gracious provision of delivering help that Avraham and the servant can't do. They can't provide this. Only a happening happening will be able to make this come together.

Blessings From Beginning to End

Genesis 24:50–51 CSB

50 Laban and Bethuel answered, “This is from the Lord; we have no choice in the matter. 51 Rebekah is here in front of you. Take her and go, and let her be a wife for your master’s son, just as the Lord has spoken.”

She comes in onto the scene, "Can I give you some water? Let me water your camels." "Oh my God," he's just staring there going, like, "Oh, I can't believe it." And so he meets her father and her brother, and they say, "If you want to ask her to come marry Yitskhaq, go ahead and ask her." So okay. Verse 50.

"Lavan and Bethuel, brother and father said, 'Wow, wow.

Everything you just told us sounds like the word of Yahweh.'" That's what they say. "'This sounds like Yahweh has been at work. You know what, we can't say anything good or bad about this. Rivqah is before you. Take her. Go. And she can become a wife for the son of your master, just as Yahweh has spoken his word. Yahweh speaks a word and the ezer is provided.'

Genesis 24:52–67 NASB95

52 When Abraham’s servant heard their words, he bowed himself to the ground before the Lord. 53 The servant brought out articles of silver and articles of gold, and garments, and gave them to Rebekah; he also gave precious things to her brother and to her mother. 54 Then he and the men who were with him ate and drank and spent the night. When they arose in the morning, he said, “Send me away to my master.” 55 But her brother and her mother said, “Let the girl stay with us a few days, say ten; afterward she may go.” 56 He said to them, “Do not delay me, since the Lord has prospered my way. Send me away that I may go to my master.” 57 And they said, “We will call the girl and consult her wishes.” 58 Then they called Rebekah and said to her, “Will you go with this man?” And she said, “I will go.” 59 Thus they sent away their sister Rebekah and her nurse with Abraham’s servant and his men. 60 They blessed Rebekah and said to her, “May you, our sister, Become thousands of ten thousands, And may your descendants possess The gate of those who hate them.” 61 Then Rebekah arose with her maids, and they mounted the camels and followed the man. So the servant took Rebekah and departed. 62 Now Isaac had come from going to Beer-lahai-roi; for he was living in the Negev. 63 Isaac went out to meditate in the field toward evening; and he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, camels were coming. 64 Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac she dismounted from the camel. 65 She said to the servant, “Who is that man walking in the field to meet us?” And the servant said, “He is my master.” Then she took her veil and covered herself. 66 The servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. 67 Then Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent, and he took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and he loved her; thus Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.

So it came about when the servant of Avraham heard their words, he bowed and worshiped Yahweh and he brought out all of these goodies, silver and gold," 'cause by the rivers of Eden, there's lots of jewels and gold, yeah?

"And he gave them to Rivqah, and he gave gifts to everybody. They had this Eden-like feast there.

They got up in the morning, and he said, 'Please send me off to my master.' And they said, that is her brother and mother, 'Oh, let the young woman dwell with us a few days or 10.

After that, she can go.'

And he said, 'Well, man, you're slowing me down here. Listen, Yahweh paved the way here. Can we please go back?' And they said, 'Well, let's call the young woman. Whatever she says, we'll ask her.'"

So this is the moment. This is Rivqah's moment. "They called Rivqah and they said to her, 'Will you go?' And she says, 'I will go.'"

Think back all the way back to the Avraham story. "Get yourself going." It's the first words that God said to Avraham, get yourself going from your land and family to a land and family. And it was very brief. It was just like this.

"And Avraham went, just as Yahweh had spoken." And so here, Yahweh has spoken and she just says, "Yeah, I'll go."

"So they sent Rivqah their sister, her nursemaid, the servant of Avraham, his men, and they blessed Rivqah." So the word for bless is "berakah," which is again, the letters of Rivqah,berakah, Rivqah. So they berakah Rivqah. 

And they say to her, "Oh, sister, may you become in 2 thousands of 10 thousands." 1,000 times 10,000 is a million. A lot. "Oh Rivqah, may you become revavah." May Rivqah become revavah, 10 thousands. "May your seed possess the gates of its enemies," of those who hate you.

Does that ring a bell?

That's almost exactly what God said to Avraham after he gave up, surrendered over Isaac, "Your seed will possess the gate of their enemies."

"So she got up, she rode," the word "ride" is also the letters of Rivqah's name and the letters of the word "blessing" mixed up. Just blessing. There's blessing oozing out of this chapter every way in the names. 

"And they went after the man and they took Rivqah and he went."

"Now, Yitskhaq, he was going from the entrance of Beer Lahai Roi." Anybody, do you remember? Do you remember that spot? It means the well of the living one who sees me. Do you remember? Do you remember that spot? 

That was where God met Hagar the first time.

"And he was dwelling in the land of the Negev. And well, he went out to urinate in the field right around evening." None of your English translations say urinate. What they say is he went out to meditate or walk in the field.

it's an odd Hebrew word. 

Gary Rendsburg, the Semitic scholar suggest. It means "urinate." It's used a couple other times, a cognate word in the Hebrew Bible for when Saul goes to relieve himself in the cave. When Elijah's poking fun at Baal and saying, well, maybe he's relieving himself. He'll come back later. In other forms it prayer or covering your feet.

"Yitskhaq went out to urinate, or meditate, or pray, or walk in the field."

"Yitskhaq went out to whatever in the field as it turned to evening, and he lifted his eyes and he saw camels." Camera shift, "Rivqah lifted her eyes and she saw Yitskhaq and she fell off her camel."

All our English translation say she got down from, it's the word "fall." So the whole point is like, it's a little comedy of errors here. He doesn't like going to the bathroom. And she is like, "What, wha, oh!"

"And so, she said to the servant, 'Who's that man walking to meet us in the field?' 'Oh, that's my master. That's the guy you're gonna marry.'" And so think Eden, "She took a veil and she covered herself." It's a positive sign. She's preparing herself for marriage. 

"So the servant told everything, all the things that he did. Yitskhaq brought her into the tent of Sarah, his mother. He took Rivqah, she became his wife, and he loved her."

The words "vayevi’eha," and "he brought her," and the words "he loved her," it's the same letters, different mark around. Vayevi’eha. He brought her. Vaye’ehaveha. And he loved her. "And he was comforted after the death of his mother." So it's a beautiful story. It's as beautiful as the provision of the ezer in in the garden of Eden.

Rivqah: Avraham’s Counterpart in the Next Generation

Rivqah is Abraham's counterpart. Everything that Avraham did to leave his land, the faith, the promise of blessing, it's all duplicated here in this story, down to the vocabulary.

the word "blessing" occurs five times in God's first speech to Avraham. The word "blessing" occurs seven times in this chapter, Genesis 24. She is the Avraham of the next generation. 

Sarah’s death signals the passing away of Avraham’s generation. How will the next generation participate in the ongoing coveant promises of Yahweh? For Avraham, the question of seed is paramount. The chosen son has no counterpart, even though Avraham finds himself in a state of blessing. This story foregrounds the miraculous nature of Rivqah’s entry into Avraham’s family, and it also highlights her own faithfulness by portraying her as a female counterpart to Avraham.

Lifted up the Eyes

"they lifted their eyes and they saw," you can do a lot of things. At the most basic, it's about highlighting a character's perception and what they think of it, which may not seem very interesting, but this whole story is gonna be how good are humans at truly perceiving reality? 

Think on all the way back to the tree. "And she saw that the tree was good." Well, good for what? Well, good for eating. No, it will kill you. It's not good for eating. It's desirable for gaining wisdom. No, real wisdom is fearing the Lord and doing what he said. 

So the whole premise of the Eden and the tree moment and the test is that humans have a problem perceiving reality.

And so, very often, this language will come in a Eden beat of a story where it's highlighting people's perception. And sometimes it's really charged. 

And then other times like this, I think it's a way of adding to narrative drama, of putting you in the perspective of the characters. 

Not Chosen But Blessed

Let's think through the cycle. The Eden's been planted.

The wife, the ezer, has been provided. And so what I'm expecting is maybe something that's disappointing, some sort of mistake or tragedy that's going to lead to division, strife.

Genesis 25:1–18 NASB95

1 Now Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah. 2 She bore to him Zimran and Jokshan and Medan and Midian and Ishbak and Shuah. 3 Jokshan became the father of Sheba and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were Asshurim and Letushim and Leummim. 4 The sons of Midian were Ephah and Epher and Hanoch and Abida and Eldaah. All these were the sons of Keturah. 5 Now Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac; 6 but to the sons of his concubines, Abraham gave gifts while he was still living, and sent them away from his son Isaac eastward, to the land of the east. 7 These are all the years of Abraham’s life that he lived, one hundred and seventy-five years. 8 Abraham breathed his last and died in a ripe old age, an old man and satisfied with life; and he was gathered to his people. 9 Then his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, facing Mamre, 10 the field which Abraham purchased from the sons of Heth; there Abraham was buried with Sarah his wife. 11 It came about after the death of Abraham, that God blessed his son Isaac; and Isaac lived by Beer-lahai-roi. 12 Now these are the records of the generations of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s maid, bore to Abraham; 13 and these are the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names, in the order of their birth: Nebaioth, the firstborn of Ishmael, and Kedar and Adbeel and Mibsam 14 and Mishma and Dumah and Massa, 15 Hadad and Tema, Jetur, Naphish and Kedemah. 16 These are the sons of Ishmael and these are their names, by their villages, and by their camps; twelve princes according to their tribes. 17 These are the years of the life of Ishmael, one hundred and thirty-seven years; and he breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people. 18 They settled from Havilah to Shur which is east of Egypt as one goes toward Assyria; he settled in defiance of all his relatives.

"And Abraham did it once more." What is that? "He took a wife and her name was Keturah." Smoke, Keturah.

"And she birthed for him Zimran and Jokshan and Medan and Midian," "and Ishbak and Shuah.

And Jokshan birthed Sheba and Dedan. the Sons of Dedan were Ashurites and Letushites and Leummites Oh yeah, and Median, yeah, his sons were Ephah, and Epher and Hanoch and Abida and Eldaah. These are the sons of Keturah."

Now, pause. You may or may not recognize any of these. Do you recognize some of these names from like later in story? 

Midian

Midian, they're gonna play a big role, especially in the book of Judges and then somewhat in Samuel, but they're, they will be hostile all around.

Hostile to the Israelites and cause a lot of problems.

There's a few Shebas or Shevas. There's one that's down in Sudan from what we call south of Egypt. They call it different, up river from Egypt. And that's the famous Queen of Sheba.

What we're talking about here is all of the tribes that are going to live in the in the east, what we would call the north part of the Saudi Arabian peninsula. So modern day Jordan and then northern Saudi Arabia. 

So these are tribes that are out there, and the Midianites and the Dedanites are gonna feature big. And they're always hostile. 

Avraham took a wife and gives birth to what will become big, big problems for Isaac's descendants.

Now, there's no like overt statement here that he shouldn't have done this.

But it's just one of those things where a biblical character does something and then you watch and bad things happen. And you just have to stop and say, "Huh, huh, I wonder if they were supposed to have done that. It didn't work out well."

"Avraham took everything that belonged to him, and he gave it to Yitskhaq.

To the sons of the other wives of Avraham," that is to Yishmael, he has two other wives now, Hagar and Keturah, "he gave them gifts. He gave everything to Yitskhaq, he gave some parting gifts to the other sons.

And he sent them away from Yitskhaq his son, while Yitskhaq was still alive. He sent them to the east, to the land of the east." How you guys doing?

This is our Genesis 3 beat here, and it's our Genesis 4 beat as well. The division of the brothers. Both ended up with exiles being sent to the east. Remember in Genesis, they're sent to the east. In Genesis 3 and in Genesis 4, they're sent to the east.

It's very clear, there's a favored chosen one, and then there are the non-chosen. What's interesting, this is Avraham doing this. In Genesis 4, it was God showing favor.

So what's interesting is the sin of Avraham, that's not really the focus. The moral is he made a choice and it resulted in these consequences, which was just, added hostility to everything that's already happened. And it ends in the east, which is never awesome.

"And these are the days of the years of the life of Avraham, which he lived 100 years and 70 years and five years. And he expired. And Avraham died in good old age, old and complete," or fulfilled.

This is where the symbolism of seven as a symbol of completeness. It's because the word "seven" and the word "complete" are spelled with the exact same Hebrew letters. So it's called a homonym. Most languages have them where you can have two different words spelled with the same letters.

"Lead," which was something that used to be in pencils when I was a kid. And I would just chew them all day long, and it turns out it was actually a low-level poison. And then "lead," you know, whatever, you lead something around. So same four letters in English, totally different words.

Sava‘ complete, sheva‘ seven. So he both went through a cycle of 175, but he went complete. His life is a seven, his life is a seven cycle. Think through Genesis 1.

"And God blessed the seventh day." It's a complete blessing. "And he was gathered to his people." That's interesting. What does that mean? Gathered to his people?

It's referring to burial of some kind, but what an interesting way to say it. Gathered to his people.

"So they buried him, Yitskhaq and Yishmael his sons in the cave of Machpelah. Remember in that field of Ephron, son of Zohar the Hittite, remember it's opposite Mamre, you know the field that Abraham purchased from the sons of Het. That's where they were buried, Avraham and Sarah.

And it came about after the death of Avraham that Elohim blessed Yitskhaq his son." And where did Yitskhaq experience that blessing? You know, at this just amazing miraculous provision of water in the wilderness out at the well of the living one who sees me.

You can just watch the torch being passed here.

So Avraham joins his people and in theory, who else is buried there?

Sarah.So there's some sense, remember this is where we're back to that theme of there's intimations here that to be dead to each other is not to be dead to God. And so he joins Sarah, but who else is he joining? Oh, well you remember Enoch, like, where'd that guy go?

And Noakh, and you've got the whole line, that's the concept here that God knows who belongs to him. And when you die, you are gathered to your people. It's a fascinating little phrase. And then the blessing passes on to Isaac. 

but we're not done yet.

You remember the sons of Keturah, the first second wife of Abraham. We end with this now, the sons of Hagar, and you get a long genealogy of Yishmael. And here's something interesting, you're gonna get all of these sons of Yishmael, Nebaioth and Kedar and Adbeel and Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, East.

The last son is named East, Kedemah. It's the Hebrew word for "east."

"These are the sons of Yishmael by their villages and encampments." Oh, did I mention that there were 12? Yeah, there's 12. Go count them. There's 12. So now we have 12 back in Mesopotamia, 12 in, and it's that theme of like, hey listen, just 'cause they're not on the main stage doesn't mean they don't fit into God's plan to do some good here in the world. And then Yishmael passes from the scene, he expires and he dies. "And they dwell down on the way to Egypt.

And he lived, he fell against the face of his brothers."

So this whole chapter 25:1-18 is Avraham is joined to his people, the blessing passes to Yitskhaq, but it's with a whole scene of a divided and fractured family. Because of the thing with Hagar and also this thing with Keturah, which is complicated, but at least it seems less painful. But it's complicated nonetheless.

That's how the story of Avraham ends. It feels so incomplete.

And you're ending with the division of the brothers. Think how the flood story, they get off the boat and then the brothers scatter and separate, just like in Genesis 10, all of these peoples and they're gonna be hostile to each other. And so man, how is God going to bring about the blessing of Eden to all the families of the earth when it seems like they're more divided than ever before? 

That's how the Avraham story ends.

And of course it's not the end, it's actually, you're just supposed to turn the page and keep going. But it definitely leaves you with a lack of resolve that forces you to move forward in hope. And I think that's actually a very realistic, that's a very realistic way to conclude a story like this.

Decendants of Avraham and Qeturah

The design sets up a paired relationship between Avraham’s sons through Hagar and Qeturah, both in contrast to Yitskhaq. They all dwell in the south and east of the land of Canaan where Yitskhaq lives. Notice the wordplay between the sons of Qeturah who live in the east (המדק) and the last son of Yishmael who is named “east” (המדק).

The “sending away” of the sons of Qeturah from Yitskhaq is also parallel to the sons of Yishmael “falling against the face all his brothers.” The vocabulary of these opening and closing sections of closely aligned with the story of Adam and Eve and Qayin’s expulsion from Eden

The descendants of Qeturah and Yishmael are also set on analogy with the sons of Ham in through the not-so-subtle repetition of names.

Descendants of Ham

Dedan and Sheva (Gen. 10:7)

Havilah (Gen. 10:7)

Ashur (Assyria, Gen. 10:11)

Egypt (“Mizraim,” Gen. 10:6)

Descendants of Avraham Through Qeturah

Sheva and Dedan (Gen. 25:3)

Ashurim (Gen. 25:3)

Descendants of Avraham Through Yishmael

“And they lived from Havilah unto Shur, which is before Egypt as one goes to Ashur” (Gen. 25:18).

These sons of Avraham are likened to the sons of Ham, who will live at odds with the chosen line of Avraham near their borders.

Theme of Avraham Story

And so when you're talking about Scripture, we're talking about a collection of texts that have been addressed to lots of audiences over many, many years. And so in that sense, it's for all of God's people.

But the Hebrew Bible, when it was framed all together as one collection a few hundred years before Jesus, into its final shape, it was addressing real ancient Jews in their situation. And Jesus saw himself as among that early generation of Jews that the Hebrew Scriptures were all about. 

there's an Israeli scholar, brilliant Hebrew Bible scholar, Yair Zakovitch. And he made a very simple observation about the basic message and theme of the Avraham stories

When we are thinking about the storyline of story of Avraham,

In terms of big geographic locations, Abe begins his story in Mesopotamia, doesn't he? That's where we met him, in the fiery oven of the Chaldeans, Mesopotamia.

And the first major step of his journey was coming up out of Ur of the Kasdim. And he goes to the land of Canaan.

He's not in Canaan but half a page before he goes down, remember? He goes down in a self-imposed exile out of the land, not to Mesopotamia, but to Egypt.

And that didn't go very well. So he comes back up in chapter 13, back into the land of Canaan. And that's where he hangs out for the rest of his story.

Well, he sends the servant back to Mesopotamia and then Rivqah comes back with him, but that's where he stays for the rest of his story.

That's where Yitskhaq is gonna leave. Yitskhaq is actually, there's gonna be a famine and Yitskhaq is gonna be tempted to go down to Egypt. And God stops him in a dream and says, "Hey, don't go to Egypt.

It won't go well." And he's a smart guy, so he listens to God. So Yitskhaq, he's in the land of Canaan. I'll just give it the English spelling here. When we get to the story of Jacob, or Yaaqov, something interesting happens. Yaaqov is born in the land of Canaan, but then he and his mom deceive their dad with this meal.

In fact, the dad can't see, his eyes are closed. And he uses deceptive food and drink to get the blessing. They've got their own plan for getting the blessing. And so his brother is so mad at him that the younger- his brother Esau is so mad his younger brother, that his younger brother is now the chosen one that he gets angry and he says he's gonna murder his brother. Are you, yeah, that's exactly where it goes. And so Jacob ends up in an exile for 20 years. And where does he go? He goes exactly, like, exactly to the house of Laban where Rivqah came from. Which is exactly where Avraham, Avram came from.

So after the 20 years of exile, he comes back to the land of Canaan, and he's gonna be there until one day he sends his youngest son Joseph to go out and check on the brothers. And his brothers hate the younger brother. The older brothers hate the younger brother 'cause he's the favored one. He gets this fancy coat and he has these dreams about being the king of the universe.

So his brothers throw him in a pit and sell him as a slave. And where do they end up?

Down in Egypt.

So these Mesopotamia, Babylon, and down south, Egypt, these two empires formed these kind of, like, alternate exiles. Both are places of descent, of slavery, of subjugation and death. And to return up out of Egypt is a return to Eden, but to come out of Babylon is to return to Eden as well.

It's as if Avraham's story has been designed to anticipate the story of his future descendants. So let's take this another step forward because of course when Jacob's descendants come up out of Egypt, we call this the story of the exodus. Yep. And they go into the promised land and they stay there for quite a while. They don't deserve to, but they stay there for a long, long time until Assyria comes, shaves off the northern tribes, Babylon comes, ruins everything and takes them all back to, and here you go, Mesopotamia.

And so this becomes, is Israel's story.

It makes a person wonder if the story of Avraham's calling and exodus out of the fiery oven of Babylon was very meaningful, very, very meaningful to these later generations. 

Why a story about a brother's sin that leads him into a long exile in Mesopotamia, I wonder if that would be a story that's very, very meaningful. 

I wonder if a story where God performed great deeds to bring down one of the greatest empires in the world to bring them up out of exile. 

You know, it's interesting when you read the book of Isaiah, for example, the exodus from Babylon is very often set on analogy to the exodus from Egypt. And so this is such an astute observation, and it seems a very intuitive and simple one that Zakovitch made, but all of a sudden you realize like, oh, the Hebrew Bible is a unified story (Tim laughs)

and it's pointing to some greater exodus out of Babylon.

And so there is absolutely no coincidence, for example, that the Gospel of Mark begins by saying, "Yeah, the good news of Jesus, the Messiah. Just read Isaiah 40," which is a long poem calling the generation of God's people to come up out of Babylon. Now, of course, some returned from Babylon a long time ago, but is the new temple glowing with the presence of God like it did in Eden? Are all the tribes reconciled? Are all the families of the earth? Like, no, the whole world's in Babylon.

The whole world's in Babylon. And so Avraham's story is the whole nation's story.

It's all humanity's story told just in the micro form of one person's life. But then Jacob's life is Avraham's story in the form of, and because, remember all of it is Adam and Eve's story, think of the melody and the cycles. And so the Hebrew Bible, it is actually a unified story on all of its levels. And the way Mark's Gospel begins, it just takes that all for granted.

Avraham’s story is the whole nation’s story. It’s all humanity’s story told in one person’s life. It’s Jacob’s life, it’s Adam and Eve. The Hebrew Bible is a unified story on every level. - Tim Mackie, The Bible Project

These are very intimate personal narratives, but they are addressed to God's people sitting in Babylon, wherever that is and whenever that is. Babylon becomes an image for the time before the coming of the Kingdom of God and awaiting the new ascent to Eden. 

these stories speak a message as current as any story in the Hebrew Bible.

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.

Richard N. Longenecker, “The Melchizedek Argument of Hebrews: A Study in the Development and Circumstantial Expression of New Testament Thought,” in Unity and Diversity in New Testament Theology: Essays in Honor of George E. Ladd (ed. Robert Guelich, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978), 161.

https://bible.org/article/melchizedek-covenantal-figure-biblical-theology-eschatological-royal-priesthood#P8_421

Anders Aschim, “Melchizedek and Jesus: 11QMelchizedek and the Epistle to the Hebrews,” in The Jewish Roots of Christological Monotheism: Papers from the St. Andrews Conferences on the Historical Origins of the Worship of Jesus (eds. Carey Newman, James Davila, and Gladys Lewis, JSJSup. 63; Leiden: Brill, 1999), 130.

Paul J. Kobelski, Melchizedek and Melchiresa (CBQMS 10; Washington DC: Catholic Biblical Association of America, 1981), 126-7.

https://bible.ca/manuscripts/Septuagint-LXX-Shem-was-Melchizedek-Masoretic-chronology-Messiah-Jesus-Christ-priesthood.htm

https://www.ancient-origins.net/history-ancient-traditions/history-circumcision-0010398

https://www.gotquestions.org/city-gate.html

https://www.gotquestions.org/hand-under-thigh.html