Genesis 21:1-8

2007.Nov.13 01:04

The birth of Isaac

Read Genesis 21:1-8 Full Chapter

Then the LORD took note of Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did for Sarah as He had promised. So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac. (Genesis 21:1-3, NASB)

God fulfills a promise. Years after hope no longer makes sense, Sarah and Abraham have the child they’ve desired. And Yahweh takes another step in fulfilling his promise of creating from these two a great nation, because of their faith. Not only does God fulfill this promise, he does so just when he said he would. Isn’t he great?

I can’t help but consider, though, if the last chapter is in sync chronologically, whether Yahweh healed, as it were, Sarah’s barrenness (or Abraham’s infertility? Well, I suppose he was fertile once before, anyway…) at the same time as doing so for Abimelech’s wife and servants. I don’t know that there is any valuable point to be made about that, but it strikes me as neat.

Perhaps the reason this possibility strikes me is because of a mental constraint I tend to put on my understanding of Yahweh: I often think of God’s actions as being purely practical. He does such and such with the goal of bringing people to him, picking whichever option is best towards that end. Now, that may not be at all accurate anyway, but that is the way I tend to think about why he does things. So inclined, it strikes me particularly when he does something that seems to me primarily aesthetic. Did God create rainbows principally because they made a striking symbol of his promise, or did he create them because he thought they were beautiful, then used them as a symbol? Is that actually a sensible question? Probably not. But I need to remember that Jehovah does seem to like beautiful things, and to not try to restrict him to “the practical”.

Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.

Now Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.” And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.” The child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. (Genesis 21:4-8, NASB)

So, what do the happy parents do in response to this. They largely forget about Hagar and Ishmael, apparently, but that’s for next entry. Aside from this unhappy point, Abraham and Sarah obey and celebrate. Abraham circumcises Isaac as God had previously commanded him, and they have a feast on Isaac’s, erm, weaning-day? And Sarah laughs.

I think that’s a good way to respond to Yahweh’s fulfilled promises: obedience and celebration.

Genesis 24:1-4

2008.Feb.02 20:43

Read Genesis 24:1-4 | Full Chapter

Well, we’ve spent a while now looking at the lives of Abraham and Sarah. Finally, somebody else is going to get married! Yay. Chapter 24 of Genesis is about Isaac marrying Rebekah. Isaac, of course, is not a central figure in this story. And even Rebekah is not the principal actor. It is instead the oldest of Abraham’s household servant, to whom Abe has assigned the task of finding a wife for Isaac.

Now Abraham was old, advanced in age; and the LORD had blessed Abraham in every way. Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household, who had charge of all that he owned, "Please place your hand under my thigh, and I will make you swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I live, but you will go to my country and to my relatives, and take a wife for my son Isaac."
(Genesis 24:1-4, NASB)

The job is finding a spouse for the heir of Yahweh’s promise to Abraham that his descendants would inherit the land of Canaan. Abraham assigns this job to the eldest of his household servants, which indicates to me that this is very important to Abraham. As I reckon it should be. Of course, as the eldest servant, we might assume he’s, well, old, so it is also a testament to his devotion to Abraham (whether out of love, fear, or something else), that he agrees to this adventure.

Now, we come to the point that it is extremely important to Abraham that Isaac does not marry a native of Canaan. This does have a nice logical ring to it: it would be difficult for Isaac’s descendants to dispossess the Canaanites of Palestine if they are, in fact, all Canaanites. Throughout the next four books of the Bible, too, are warnings against inter-marrying with the then-inhabitants of Palestine, due to the probability that the Israelites would adopt the prominent religions of the land, forsaking Yahweh. For example:

People of Israel, the LORD your God will help you take the land of the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. These seven nations have more people and are stronger than Israel, but when you attack them, the LORD will force them out of the land. Then you must destroy them without mercy. Don't make any peace treaties with them, and don't let your sons and daughters marry any of them. If you do, those people will lead your descendants to worship other gods and to turn their backs on the LORD. That will make him very angry, and he will quickly destroy Israel.
(Deuteronomy 7:1-4, CEV)

I don’t know if this is particularly Abraham’s concern. Indeed (and I may just be missing something obvious), it’s not clear to me why this is so important to Abraham. The results represented in the rest of this chapter certainly suggest that Yahweh supports and agrees with this decision. Then, it’s not necessary to know the precise reason for each action of the patriarchs and matriarchs of Judeo-Christian tradition. Trying to do so is one of those things that I, at least, can get caught up in at the expense of really seeking God himself.

Genesis 24:5-8

2008.Feb.08 00:30

Read Genesis 24:5-8 | Full Chapter

Abraham, as noted last entry, is assigning his eldest household servant to find a wife for his son, Isaac. Abraham, in asking the servant to accomplish this task gives him two restrictions. The first was that the servant must seek a bride for Isaac from among Abraham’s relatives, not from among the Canaanites. Now, we come to second:

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?" Abraham answered him, "Make sure that you don't take my son back there. 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. 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."
(Genesis 24:5-8, Holman)

The servant, while heading back to Abraham’s native country, is to ensure that Isaac stays in Palestine. Abraham and Isaac are, I assume, fairly nomadic. Abraham and Sarah certainly have moved around a lot. And while Abraham has taken hold of Yahweh’s promise that his descendants will inherit the land of the Canaanites, there’s no indication that Isaac wouldn’t migrate on back to the ancestral homeland. Especially if he went back there to get married.

For me, there’s often the temptation to return to what is comfortable. Having grown up as an alien may have been very trying for Isaac. Returning as the heir of Abraham’s success to his relatives and there “settling down” would, I think, have been tempting. And yet it was not in line with Yahweh’s plans. Welcome to earth. This is one of the key differences of pick-and-choose religion for my immediate benefits verses obeying God, that obedience to Yahweh means doing what is uncomfortable, even when I will not inherit the promise of that obedience. Because inheriting the land will not be Isaac, nor his children.

Genesis 25:7-18

2008.Apr.05 03:46

The Other Son

Read Genesis 25:7-18 | Full Chapter

Abraham died at the ripe old age of one hundred seventy-five. His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him east of Hebron in Machpelah Cave that was part of the field Abraham had bought from Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite. Abraham was buried there beside his wife Sarah. God blessed Isaac after this, and Isaac moved to a place called "The Well of the Living One Who Sees Me."
(Genesis 25:7-11, CEV)

Abraham, grandfather of Israel, has died. He lived well, made some mistakes, but ultimately lived a life of faith (Hebrews 11:8-10). I don’t have a lot more to say about Abraham at this point.

This passage is also a bit of a coda on the life of Ishmael, Abraham’s eldest son. That Isaac and Ishmael apparently worked together to bury their father is at least a nice idea. These two sort of got stuck in the middle of the Abraham-Hagar-Sarah triangle, but I’ve seen no reason to assume that these two didn’t get on just fine (although Isaac maybe thought all this was normal, based on the favorites games he and Rebekah seem to play once they have children).

I hear some amount of talk about the struggles between modern day Arabs and Jews having its roots in Ishmael-Isaac–as opposed to, say, the complete fuck up of a job the government of Great Britain (and to be fair, other European powers and the US) did in the Middle East in the last century or so. But I digress. I really don’t see animosity between Ishmael and Isaac, and I think it’s foolish and distracting to place the blame for modern struggles on the actions of Biblical patriarchs. Yes, sure, many of their actions do have effect today (as shown by the fact that I am commenting on their stories), but I should not place blame on the distant past at the expense of recognizing the effects of my own actions and those of my contemporaries.

I guess I didn’t stop digressing, there.

Ishmael was the son of Abraham and Hagar, the slave woman of Sarah. Ishmael had twelve sons, in this order: Nebaioth, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. Each of Ishmael's sons was a tribal chief, and a village was named after each of them. Ishmael had settled in the land east of his brothers, and his sons settled everywhere from Havilah to Shur, east of Egypt on the way to Asshur. Ishmael was one hundred thirty-seven when he died.
(Genesis 25:12-18, CEV)

So, Ishmael has twelve sons (an interesting complement to the twelve sons of Jacob), and the passage implies that they were a fairly powerful group of people. Ishmael settles somewhere, which is about all I can figure from the description. Well, it’s east of Egypt. So, God’s promise to Abraham that Ishmael too would be a great nation is fulfilled (Genesis 21:12). What I particularly don’t see in all this is God punishing Ishmael or his descendants for the actions of Abraham and Sarah. Instead, Yahweh brought Ishmael into his plan, and blessed the man who too often I think of as “the other son”.

Genesis 25:22-28

2008.Apr.18 19:47

The Younger of Twins

Read Genesis 25:22-28 | Full Chapter

But the children struggled together within her; and she said, "If it is so, why then am I this way?" So she went to inquire of the LORD. The LORD said to her, "Two nations are in your womb; And two peoples will be separated from your body; And one people shall be stronger than the other; And the older shall serve the younger."
(Genesis 25:22-23, NASB)

Rebekah has now conceived, after a period of barrenness, as it were. But a new problem arises. She’s pregnant with twins (that’s not the problem), who are struggling with each other. I’m going to just take that point as it is, since I have no idea what that would feel like, whether such a feeling is common with twins, etc. Understandably, this bothers Rebekah a bit, and not only because it’s probably causing her to feel more sick than hormonal changes alone. So, she asks Yahweh what this is all about.

Yahweh explains that this is just the beginning. Out of these two children are going to be borne two powerful nations, one of which will serve the other. Perhaps God chose to let them wrestle for illustrative purposes; one does not imagine that the brothers’ struggle is because they understand all this. Shoot, even I don’t understand all this. Add to that a reversal of the “normal order” in this society, in which the eldest son generally holds authority. In this case, it will be the younger son who becomes more powerful.

This seems to be a bit of prophecy for the sake of prophecy (or whatever is the right term when Yahweh just tells one person directly). That is, there doesn’t seem to be a particular warning here, just a “this is the way it’s going to be.” On the other hand, it may be an intentionally self-fulfilling prophecy, which I’ll explore a little later in this article.

When her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. Now the first came forth red, all over like a hairy garment; and they named him Esau. Afterward his brother came forth with his hand holding on to Esau's heel, so his name was called Jacob; and Isaac was sixty years old when she gave birth to them.
(Genesis 25:24-26, NASB)

The two kiddos are born, Esau and Jacob, in that order. I think it’s interesting, though I’m not sure to what purpose, that Jacob is holding on to Esau’s heel. I guess if their lives had gone differently, this might have been more interpretted as a show of love and cooperation between the two. Alas.

Isaac and Rebekah are fairly old by this point, although spring chickens compared to Abraham and Sarah when Isaac was born. Nothing particular to say about that point.

When the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the field, but Jacob was a peaceful man, living in tents. Now Isaac loved Esau, because he had a taste for game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
(Genesis 25:27-28, NASB)

The two boys are different (surprise, surprise). Esau likes the outdoors, Jacob tends to stay at home and is probably more “intellectual” of the two. Esau becomes Isaac’s favorite, while Rebekah prefers her younger son. According to the text, Isaac’s preference is straight forward: he likes the meat of the animals Esau hunts. Rebekah’s is not explained that I’ve noticed. However, as I touched on earlier, I wonder if her favoring Jacob is due in part to Yahweh’s explanation about the struggle between the two during her pregnancy. That is, does she prefer Jacob because she knows that he will become the more powerful of the two?

Whatever their reasons, favorites is a dangerous game, that is, playing favorites. It’s quite natural, I imagine, that a parent will have more in common and/or be closer to one or another child. The trouble (I think) comes when a parent translates that natural connection into actively acting for the better of one child at the expense of another, for no other reason than that preference (Having not raised any children, I take a moment to comment that I may be quite misguided on these assertions). As we will see, Rebekah in particular goes down that road, and although I don’t think I can prove it, I get the impression Isaac does as well. Trouble, naturally, ensues.