Genesis 12:11-20

2007.Jan.14 15:53

Abusing the Blessing

Read Genesis 12

Now comes the story that makes me question the faith, common sense and human decency of Abram.

It came about when he came near to Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “See now, I know that you are a beautiful woman; and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. Please say that you are my sister so that it may go well with me because of you, and that I may live on account of you.” (Genesis 12:11-13, NASB)

The story is told matter-of-factly and pretty quick, but I’ll summarize anyways. Abram, Sarai, Lot, and slaves made it to Canaan. Then, poof, hey, what’s up, there’s a famine in the land. So, they go to Egypt. Abram then has an idea. His wife is beautiful and he’s afraid the Egyptians will kill him and take Sarai as a wife or concubine for some fine, upstanding Egyptian. Or, whatever. Anyway, he asks her to say that they’re siblings. She agrees. Sarai is “taken into Pharaoh’s house” (15). God makes stuff bad for Pharoah, whilst Abram enjoys financial blessings. Pharoah figures it out, sends them away, Abram the richer for it.

I’m not a big fan of Abram in this story. The Bible doesn’t seem to offer an judgement on this action, just tells the story as it is. Abram even does this again later. So, I may be completely off on my reaction to this story, but hopefully it’s useful regardless.

Abram is under God’s blessing. Even when he decieves the Pharoah and puts his wife in danger, he is blessed abundantly. But instead of letting the blessings of God strengthen his faith, at this point, he takes those blessings and does things his own way, anyway. I contend that he gains nothing from his deception, and indeed subjects his wife to a bad situation. After all, because Abram is letting his fear control him, he puts Sarai into a situation in which, had Jehovah not intervened, she would likely be given the choice between being raped (even if she consents for her husband’s sake, is that not rape, and her husband responsible?) or her husband being killed (or, most likely, both). Added to that, Abram has been promised blessing and protection by Jehovah; he has no reason to fear!

God’s blessings are not just a ‘yay for me’ gift. They are part of Jehovah’s developing my faith and relationship with him, as well as teaching me the value of obedience. Abram, in this story, has accepted the blessing but does not exhibit any faith from it. Indeed, God desired to bless others through Abram, but Abram instead brings a curse against the Egyptians who blessed him.

Like I said, the Biblical account does not explicitly comment on the morality of Abram and Sarai’s actions. Obviously, I feel comfortable applying other Biblical principals to Abram’s activities (to which I should probably have added some references). Sarai is more difficult. To simply say she should have beat sense into her husband would be blaming one of the victims of this charade; it is after all clear that the idea is Abram’s. But I have to wonder about the connection between this lack of faith and Sarai’s later lack of faith regarding the child God had promised them?

How a leader can cause pain when he or she does not walk in faith and obedience to Jehovah.

Genesis 9:24-29

2006.Nov.28 20:37

A curse, A blessing

Read Genesis 9

Ah, the fatherly blessing, a lovely feature of Genesis. Ah, the fatherly curse… Let’s review. Ham saw his dad naked and bragged about it (or, perhaps, something completely different). And Noah finds out. Let’s see what the man who built a big boat has to say.

I now put a curse on Canaan!
He will be the lowest slave
of his brothers.
I ask the LORD my God
to bless Shem
and make Canaan his slave.
I pray that the LORD
will give Japheth
more and more land and let him take over
the territory of Shem.
May Canaan be his slave.
(Genesis 9:25-27, CEV)

I imagine Shem’s reaction to this: “Yeah, that’s right, bless me…and let Japheth take…over…my…territory… Um, thanks Dad…”

Noah blesses (although a mixed blessing for Shem) his children who covered him. He curses Ham. And like the curses on man, woman, and snake, this is interesting. The curse is slavery. There will be time enough later to explore how this blessing/curse plays out in human history, but for now I want to consider that this is all financial. Recall the curse on Adam: “You will have to sweat to earn a living” (Genesis 3:19, CEV). Noah’s blessing/curse is this: Ham’s sweat will not even earn him a living; Shem’s sweat will meak out a living; Japheth’s sweat will bring him a living, and will be augmented by the toil of his brother. Looking at it that way, it doesn’t bode all that well for any of them.

Without our high priest in Jesus and grace through him, all blessings and curses are constrained by those original curses. Ham’s hope is destroyed, but Japheth’s hope is merely shallow. One of the promises of Jesus’ sacrifice was the breaking of the curses of toil and birth pains. I can’t really imagine that life, but when I think of Noah and his three sons and how he curses them with destroying each other just to eat…I want God to teach me to imagine a better way.

Genesis 14:19-20

2007.Mar.11 21:42

Blessing from Salem

Read Genesis 14

King Melchizedek of Salem was a priest of God Most High. He brought out some bread and wine and said to Abram: “I bless you in the name of God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. All praise belongs to God Most High for helping you defeat your enemies.” Then Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of everything. (Genesis 14:18-20, CEV)

Melchizedek, in his postbellum meeting with Abram, gives two things, and receives one: 1. He gives Abram bread and wine. 2. He gives Abram a blessing. 3. Abram gives him a tenth “of everything”.

Why Melchizedek brought the refreshments is not explained here, but I think it’s significant that he did meet one of Abram’s needs, that of food; although there’s no indication that Abram was in particular need of food, this is something that, to my knowledge, most cultures do: honor someone by giving them food and drink. So, Melchizedek does a good thing there.

He follows this by blessing Abram, and then praising Yahweh, God of Abram, for the war’s victory. He does something succinctly that seems so hard to do; that is, to honor those who are carrying out some work of God (leading worship, serving some need, teaching, etc.), while giving the principle praise to God, who ultimately deserves it. It bothers me that this seems so hard to do, and I’m not sure why. Both honoring other humans and praising God are very, very important, but I think we humans in general tend to overcompensate one way or the other, either giving all praise to the human party or not honoring or encouraging them at all. To propose that one who ought to honored for their faithfulness in the work of the Lord should be humble and not require any reciprocation is, in my opinion, dishonoring to the work God is doing in them, and perhaps more importantly is just plain hurtful to the person. As a Christian, I have a responsibility to honor and bless others for both good works and their faith evidenced in good works.

And, no, I’m not going to try to define “honor” today.

Abram responds by giving Melchizedek a tenth “of everything”, which I assume refers to the spoils of the war. And Melchizedek receives it. No argument, at least none recorded for posterity. The implication is that this priest/king received as Abram gave. Maybe this was partially payment for troops, maybe it was to assist in Melchizedek’s priesthood, maybe just an exchange of gifts between leaders, I don’t know. But this interaction of giving and receiving is so much how I’d like to act in such situations. I want to receive humbly and gratefully (i.e., without protest) the gifts from God, either directly or through others. I also want to give with joy and without strings attached as God directs me.

“It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35, NASB): It is such a blessing to receive gratefully, and even more to give.

Genesis 26:23-25

2008.Jul.19 15:20

”I Will Bless You”

Read Genesis 26:23-25 | Full Chapter

Isaac went on to Beersheba, where the LORD appeared to him that night and told him, "Don't be afraid! I am the God who was worshiped by your father Abraham, my servant. I will be with you and bless you, and because of Abraham I will give you many descendants." Isaac built an altar there and worshiped the LORD. Then he set up camp, and his servants started digging a well.
(Genesis 26:23-25, CEV)

God reiterates his promise to Abraham, that his descendants will be blessed, and that Yahweh will be with them. That’s not something I should just read past. I’m accustomed to discussion of generational curses, but here is something that is so wonderful: a generational promise. Yahweh often extends his promises to a family or group, for a long period of time. And, isn’t this nice, he is actually able to keep those promises.

The flip side, of course, is that we may not come into possession of a promise within our lifetime. A promise that I may think I will receive, may actually be received by my descendants several generations down the line. That’s okay, but it’s important to be aware that I may not fully understand the details of a specific promise from God. Not so that I can play the Nostradamus game of trying to make anything that happens fit with a given promise, but so that I can check my own expectations. Often, of course, the fulfillment of a promise blessing from God can be better than what I had imagined.

And one more aspect of this generational promise is that Isaac is receiving a portion of that promise, not because of himself, but because of his father. Likewise, I receive the promise of salvation in Christ, not because of me, but because of Christ.

And, of course, Isaac’s servants dig another well.

Genesis 28:1-4

2008.Oct.03 12:15

Extending the Blessing

Read Genesis 28:1-4 | Full Chapter

So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him and commanded him: "Do not marry a Canaanite woman. Go at once to Paddan Aram, to the house of your mother's father Bethuel. Take a wife for yourself there, from among the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother. May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples. May he give you and your descendants the blessing given to Abraham, so that you may take possession of the land where you now live as an alien, the land God gave to Abraham."
(Genesis 28:1-4, NIV)

Isaac, after having been tricked, more or less, into giving the first-born blessing to the younger of his twins, now goes ahead and gives a similar blessing to Jacob, now explicitly adding that Jacob–not necessarily to the exclusion of Esau–shall inherit Yahweh’s promise to Abraham: he will have many descendents; they will possess the land of Canaan. In which the descendents of Abraham are aliens. Which is an increasingly difficult point to argue.

But Isaac takes the opportunity to give, if not a condition to the blessing, at least a clearly related instruction. “Jacob, go home,” he says, “and marry one of your cousins.” Or, more generally, do not marry a Canaanite. This particular point only comes up fifty thousand times in the Old Testament, so I won’t dwell on it here. At least, it now occurs to Isaac to state this desire, where I’m not sure it did in the case of Esau. Isaac, I am concluding, is not a great example of a father.

It’s also interesting that, in Genesis 24, Abraham made it clear to his servant that he did not want Isaac to leave Canaan at all, whereas Isaac explicitly sends Jacob off. It would have been interesting to see interaction between Laban and Isaac.