so today i want to dig in a little bit to the section of genesis that goes from 11 27 to 25 11. if you looked on your whole book survey this is the generations of tara section so really this is the abraham narrative at the end of it we get a little more focused on isaac but really these this is our abraham narrative and we've already looked at key moments in this this section and a little bit beyond in two different ways one related to key moments of the covenant so with abraham those happen at chapters 12 15 17 and chapter at the end of chapter 22 when the covenant is reiterated and that those are kind of the slow unfoldings of the covenant to abraham and then outside of this section we have two significant covenantal moments at chapters 26 and 28 one to isaac and one to jacob um the other way we looked at some significant moments in this portion of the narrative we're looking at those moments where god specified and reiterated his ultimate purpose of the covenant and that was that god was not coming just to make a relationship with this one person or this one family um with a high emphasis on kind of an exclusive relationship but ultimately that exclusivity of this relationship was for the inclusiveness of bringing blessing of relationship upon the entire world and that is reiterated is emphasized first in chapter 12 that again in chapter 18 right before we have sodom and gomorrah then again at chapter 22 at chapters 26 and 28. so four of those five are at key covenantal moments and another is at a moment when it when we're really going to feel like god is a against others um and yet we see that god's ultimate purpose for the covenant is for all the nations for every family on earth but what we want to look at here um is the fact that this section of the narrative and all of genesis really is not just about these significant key covenantal moments but also about moments when we have significant threats to the covenant it gives genesis this real up and down sort of narrative feel we get these high points and then we get these low points and you feel the characters even though it's happening generally over expansive periods of time um you you feel the characters kind of getting pulled both ways as as they're meeting this god who is offering them these amazing promises and how are they responding how are they um um viewing their own their own um agency in these promises that god is going to be doing so we're going to look primarily at um at the abraham narrative here but it's a way to think about all of genesis when is a threat to the covenant happening and who is causing the threat to the covenant etc so the first significant threat to the covenant by the way these three note the three um um significa significant threats here are the threat of a dead abraham the threat of a dead sarah and then the threat of a dead isaac um this is developed in those kind of ideas that this structure is developed by victor hamilton in his um handbook on the pentateuch which is in your recommended reading um but i'm going to kind of play on this just a little bit so the idea of the of a dead abraham um is significant in the stories that we often call the sister wife stories or the sister wife cycle or the sister wife motif these moments when abraham um passes off sarah sarai or sarah not as his wife but as his sister it happens first in genesis chapter 12 immediately after god first gives the promises of the covenant to abraham he abram at that point he then goes to egypt and he says they will see you sarah they will sarah they will see how beautiful you are and they will kill me but you they will let live now we're i'm going to do another video just kind of doing a little bit of a compare and contrast with the sister wife motif stories because another one happens with isaac dow over in chapter 26 so he also passes off rebecca rifka um as his sister um so we're going to go look at those in detail but what i want to emphasize here is this moment abraham has just abram has just heard in chapter 12 again in chapter 20 by then he's abraham has heard that god is going to do this through him right these promises god is going to make him a great nation and so for in his mind the ultimate threat to that initially is that he might die he might be killed how will god then carry out his his plans and so we see abram what we learn what we can see is abram's perception that it is his responsibility to preserve his own life so that the covenant may be fulfilled and what we see is that god steps in and says i will be the one who fulfills my covenant covenant through you and god protects abram yes he does abraham does not die in these moments but with the rebuke of god upon him in the way he went about doing that um a dead sarah the thing we might think of most and what what hamilton developed most fully is the fact that sarah is sarah's womb is dead right sarah is barren and so we see the um again sarah sarai um set realizing her own inabilities here and so stepping in to provide a solution so here abram provides a solution so that he won't die here sarah provides a solution for her own reality of barrenness and offers hagar now it's interesting we we know about this practice from the ancient world that's often important to let people know this is not kind of something that they came up with on their own um let me read you a very brief um excerpt from the newsie archive now the personal archive of newsie um which is an ancient near eastern city dates to around the 14th 15th 14th centuries um bc whereas abram were way back at the 22nd century um bc so whether or you know whether or not this shows that some kind of development that might have been slightly different from where abram and sarai were at this point but let me read this to you gillam ninu nagilam ninu is the woman here gilan ninu has taken excuse me has been given to shenima that's the man here um as a wife if gillam ninu the woman bears children shanima shall not take another wife but if gillan nino does not bear she gilem ninu shall take a slave girl as a wife for shinima as for the concubine's offspring gillam ninu shall not send them away so a few things you see you see this kind of this is a cultural a culturally accepted culturally normed response to barrenness um so it would have been you know somewhat potentially self-evident to sarah and abraham and yet you also see whether this indicates a development or whether we see in the biblical text actually sarah going against the the cultural norm um gilimnino the wife should not send the the concubines offspring away and that's exactly what we see um um sarah sarah doing in chapter 21 now in 16 she treats hagar so badly that hagar runs away in 21 she requires abraham to send hagar and the child away so so much that we see playing out here we could do significant textual work here i think a few major takeaways from the hagar story is a one again like with with the first one this is perceptually we again in our broken perceptions we see okay god needs has told me this is the outcome so i'm going to have to figure out how to get us there as opposed to relying on god to indicate the way forward and in this case god very specifically says it is not going to be through hagar that that your offspring will be reckoned that the the the covenant the covenantal promises are not going to go through ishmael they are going to go through isaac and yet god works even in and through our choices that are not for good he does choose to work them out to good and even brings blessing upon ishmael he protects hagar he protects ishmael both in chapter 16 um and in chapter one but i want to i want to point out another significance here it's not just um sarah's barrenness that is a threat it is actually indeed that in in both the sister wife motif and in the hagar story there is a threat to the covenant that first abram and the sister wife motif and then sarah it with with giving hagar both of them are are making sarah dead in terms of her participation in the covenant um so god is very clear to point out it is through sarah that i am going to bring about the the my promises of covenant and in doing so we can go all the way back to god's original intent of genesis one and two and see this idea this mutuality of relationship in the two that are made one flesh relationship of marriage is god is significantly re-emphasizing that in the covenant this is not just about abram and the great the the great nation that is going to come from abram even through ishmael but in significant ways god protects sarah when she is passed off um as not even being his wife um and also here with hagar god says no i it is through the mutuality of the marriage relationship that i am going to bring this this covenant about i don't think we should overlook that let me let me read um the quote from chapter 12 verse 13. so this is the first sister wife motif um abraham abram is asking sarai to say that she is um um that she is the sisters of his wife please say that you are my sister so that this is the purpose of doing that so that it may go well with me it may be good for me abram says because of you and that listen to this this is another purpose abram saying and that i may live on account of you think about that that is part of these covenantal promises that abram may live that his offspring may live on on account of sarai even in the moment that abram is asked is potentially creating a dead sarah eliminating sarah from being part of the covenant he is actually in his words stating the very purpose that god is going to work out by protecting sarah in the sister wife moments um and bringing her back as wife to abram and by um indeed um quickening her womb so that she is not barren but that she does bear um at that moment the last then um major threat to the covenant we have is a dead isaac one of those by the way is in chapter 26 when isaac also says um to rebecca say that you are my wife so that i so that they don't kill me so that i might not die um but the biggest one of course that we think about is chapter 22 genesis chapter 22 the akida that's the hebrew term um for this chapter means binding the binding of isaac is often what this chapter is called now we could we could spend so long um in this in this section and i'm not going to spend too too much time today but let me take you through a few key textual points um chapter 22 begins sometime later so sometime later after um chapter 21 which includes the sending away of ishmael so in in many ways abraham has just lost ishmael and now sometime later god tested abraham by asking him to sacrifice isaac so we have these two juxtaposed moments um i mean abraham really you know has god has emphasized that no it is going to be through isaac that i will fulfill my covenant um and so we see abram abraham having to struggle with these two moments back to back note it does say from the very beginning as readers we understand that god is testing abraham so right up front the reader is is tipped off that god is not asking for is not actually going to ask for child sacrifice he's not going to to require child sacrifice of course um knowing what we know from the rep the rest of the revelation of scripture that would go against all that god is asking humans to sacrifice their children of course we know what this ultimately sets up for us is the picture of the ultimate father sacrificing his son we'll get to that but we know from the beginning that this is a test abram abraham at this moment does it all he hears is god's calling to him and saying abraham and abraham responds here i am this is this is always abram's response abraham's response to god in this chapter here i am um um this is abraham giving his un unfettered yes to god he is fully ready to to respond to god so we know up front that god is not going to nullify his covenant by actually requiring the sacrifice of isaac but abraham does not know that um often i hear um i hear students ask i've heard it preached um at this moment you know um would would you be willing to offer your son um as god as asking abraham and i think that's that's fair it's a it's a question of how much do we trust god what is our faith in god but it is important to note that this is not a standing command of god this is not the kind of this is this is a a an unusual type of command this is a one-time command in the text that we have preparing us for something in the future that we're going to see god enacting for us but also to give us giving us a picture of abraham it's not like many of the commands in the bible that do shape um our lives that ask us for a continuing obedience to a command so while that may be a good question to ask kind of for a thought process of you know how deep is my faith in god we also want to be careful to never over to never emphasize incorrectly that this is a standing command that god continually asks um of his people in the same way that god asked it of abraham it's it's a one-time very specific command that acts in this in this section of scripture um we go then what does god ask he asks him to take take your son and there's a small word here in hebrew that's often translated please he asks abraham please take your son your only son whom you love isaac this intensifying um um clarifications of who god is speaking of take and go now this is the same goal in hebrew go that we had back in chapter 12 when god said go to the land i will show you here he says take your son and go to the region of moriah which is another connection back to chapter 12. um and then um and sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain i will show you so note this um this idea of showing um a mountain that god will make abraham able to see this idea of seeing is significant throughout this chapter so the next few verses show abraham following god's command in in very short specific very sparse language we just have he gets up in the morning and he loads his donkey and he took him and he took with him two of his servants and his son isaac and he cut the wood and set out for the place that god that god had told him so very um very terse narrative here that doesn't give us any insight into maybe what abraham um has is potentially feeling the the rabbi's rabbinic literature really develops what might abraham have been thinking and feeling at these moments on the third day we could really develop the idea of the third day in scripture um how how that kind of fee how that feels here abraham looked up and he saw in the distance now look at verse 5 and he said to his servants stay here with the donkey while i and the boy go over there we will worship um and that could even be written as a purpose as a purpose clause um while the boy and i go over there so that we may worship and then the result and then again potentially so that we will come back to you so look in verse 5 where we haven't heard abraham respond here's the first time we're hearing from abraham and whatever has been happening in abraham's heart and mind he has come to the conclusion that he and his son are going to worship god sacrifice being a means of worshiping god and then we will return and i think that is very significant of course we have in the insight of hebrews 11 starting at verse 17 here by faith abraham when he was tested so referring to this chapter he offered up isaac and he who had received the promises was ready to offer up his only son of whom it was said through isaac shall your descendants be named he considered abraham considered that god was able to raise men even from the dead hence figuratively speaking he did receive him back and i think that expanded version is what's encapsulated in that statement the very last clause of verse 5. we will come back so whether or not god was going to ask abraham to follow through with the sacrifice and then receive his son back from the dead or whether or not god was going to work out something else abraham had solidified in his heart that they would be coming back um from this and so then um he placed the wood on on isaac and the two of them went off together and isaac asks him the question series of questions father in verse 7 yes my son isaac the fire and the wood are here but where is the lamb for the burnt offering and abraham answered god himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering my son now in english in my english bible a lamb for the burnt offering comma my son because he's talking to his son but in the hebrew where there's no punctuation there's a bit of ambiguity is this just abraham talking to his son and to addressing his son as my son or is this being used to say god himself will provide the lamb that is my son and in hebrew there is some ambiguity there that abraham is actually already saying you isaac are the land that god will provide um that i that note that phrase god will provide we're going to come back to that in just a minute and so they reach the place and um he lays he binds isaac and lays him on the altar it is interesting to note that in jewish tradition the age of isaac at this point is 37 so um sarah has isaac at age 90. um the death of sarah happens in this the immediately print following um chapter chapter 23 and again jewish tradition it is upon the news of what abraham and isaac have just done that abraham almost offered isaac or offered isaac didn't kill him um but offered isaac that that is actually what brings about the death of sarah and it tells us that she died at age 127 so if you go from 90 to 127 and if if that is the precipitating event of her death then in jewish tradition isaac is 37 at this point so we see that's very very a very significant factor in how we think about what is playing out here um because we have a young man with his much older father um who is willingly and silently allowing himself to be bound and laid upon the author on the altar and of course abraham as he raises his hand with the knife is stopped by the angel of the lord calling from heaven abraham abraham now note back in chapter 21 verse 17 um that um the angel called from abraham to stop hagar or to to call to hagar to um to intervene to save ishmael and so here the angel of god steps in to save isaac so we see god actively stepping in to save both ishmael and um and isaac and we see the calling abraham abraham um evokes ideas of the call of moses moses from the burning bush the call of samuel samuel in first samuel chapter 3 in this moment when the word of god was rare and there were no visions to waken samuel we have a samuel samuel and then the saul saul on the damascus road these intense moments of god calling out to his servants with these two the two names and he says if he stays his hand um do not lay a hand on him do not do anything now i know that you fear god that was the test right does abraham fear god because you have not withheld from me your son your only son and then abra abraham looks up and sees the ram and so verse 14 so abraham called the place the lord will provide remember back up in verse 8 god himself will provide so that verb there is just if you did a word study on it you would see it's just the word to see um so god will um god will see and how do we get the idea of providing from seeing well god will in english we have the idiom god we'll see to it right he'll take care of it so the idea of god seeing um itself implies that god will care take care of it he will provide he won't just see and stay distant and and not act no god's seeing implies his actions so god will provide he will see to it that's a good translation there so he called the place the lord sees the lord provides the lord sees to it it's a great translation and to this day it is said now this is the interesting part on the mountain of the lord it will be provided okay so that is the same verb to see but in a different verbal stem we've talked about this in our context studies so we go from god sees god provides active to it will be provided which is passive and this verb um for god to for something to be seen passively can also be translated it appears so on the mountain of god it it appears um it god god he appears or he is seen um he shows himself there are multiple ways that we could translate this and actually we have this varying tradition the septuagint translates one way the vulgate the latin translation translates another and it seems like we have kind of a dual tradition going on here of this being both active god sees he provides as well as it is provided or translated differently god appears god is seen god shows himself so we both of them what i love when we see com two different scribal traditions happening in the text um what we see is that both of them communicate truth they don't they don't have to they might even work together we don't have to see it meaning both and potentially in each tradition meant one or the other it was preserved one way or the other but both of them preserve truth yes god sees he sees to it he provides and yes god appears both of those things are true about how god acts here and about how god acts in our lives um then we get the reiteration of the covenant starting at verse 15. notice in 16 how god says it i swear by myself it's the only place in scripture that god swears by himself in that in that exact um um phraseology with those exact words and then it says declares the lord this is the prophetic phrase thus says thus saith the lord occurs a lot in prophets this is the only time only only one of two times it occurs in torah in the pentateuch both here god declaring the other time it happens is in numbers chapter 14 when god is declaring that his people will not go into into the promised land because of their of their rebellion their failure to trust in god um so the significant moments when god says i swear by myself declares the lord thus says the lord that because you have done this and have not withheld your son your only son i will surely bless you and make your descendants descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as i said on the seashores your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed because you abraham have obeyed me that reiteration of those covenant promises and don't miss 19 then abraham returned to his servants and they said all for bishop before beersheba and abraham stayed in boshiba now it feels like isaac is not present there right and so it feels like abraham even though we know god has stayed his hand and we know that isaac is alive it feels like we have experienced abraham following through with the command that god had given him now the end of this chapter is interesting because it goes into the lineage of nahor's children and rebecca is included here and so we have this this small genealogy that points us to the future that god has for isaac so we know we have iterate even though isaac kind of disappears for a moment we have this emphasis on isaac's future that comes up there at the end of the chapter um i don't want to stop almost at 30 minutes but let's make sure we make the connections to jesus of course we have a father who is out who is willing to sacrifice his own son in light of covenantal promises and it might feel like abraham is doing it in spite of covenantal promises but i would disagree i think from hebrews but even from from the text itself here especially at the end of verse 5 abraham is fully convinced in the covenantal promises and and he is willing to sacrifice his son we see the willing sacrifice of the son willing to lay himself down at the will of the father to drink from the cup that the father is giving to him and then finally we see in genesis 22 we see the resurrection of the sun even though abraham didn't have to go fully through with sacrificing his son it is as if he did um and we again see that emphasize both from hebrews but also in the passage in genesis 22. so we see this beautiful moment when god is preparing us already for what he will be doing ultimately in his covenant in this significant covenantal moment which is both a threat and yet a reiteration of the covenant [Music]