Genesis - Chapters 12-23

Abraham's life and God's calling upon him are discussed in chapters 12 to 23. Abraham is a descendant of Adam and Eve through Seth and Noah. God tells Abraham to leave his country and promises to make him a great nation. Abraham travels to Canaan, then Egypt due to a famine. He rescues his nephew Lot and meets Melchizedek. God establishes a covenant with Abraham and promises him descendants and land. Sarai gives Hagar to Abraham, causing jealousy. God promises Hagar descendants. God changes Abram's name to Abraham and Sarai's name to Sarah. They have a son named Isaac. Abraham pleads with God to save Sodom. Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed, but Lot is saved. Isaac is born, causing joy. Hagar and Ishmael leave, but God provides for them. Abraham faces a test to sacrifice Isaac. I am Julie Callio, your host, and thanks so much for taking time out of your busy schedules to tune in with me today. If, by chance, you want to contact me, you can do that at vab.bc.pc at gmail.com. Today we're looking at chapters 12 through 23 with the life of Abraham and God's calling upon his life. We have learned that Abraham was a descendant of Adam and Eve through their third son, Seth. And Noah is the next main descendant through this line, and of Noah's three sons, it is through the line of Shem, which is where we get the word Semitic, that Abraham is born. Chapter 12, verses 1 through 3 read, The Lord has said to Abram, Leave your country, your people, and your father's household, and go to the land, I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you. I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you, I will curse. And all the people on the earth will be blessed through you. One of the things this passage shows us is that we are blessed by God in order to be a blessing to others, it is not just for ourselves. Abraham was seventy-five years old when he was called by the Lord to go to Canaan. He and his wife Sarai, plus his nephew Lot, left. Lot's father had died. They went to Shechem, and verse 7 reads, The Lord appeared to Abram and said, To your offspring, I will give this land. So Abram built an altar to the Lord. He then traveled east of Bethel, built an altar there, and called on the name of the Lord. They continued traveling to Egypt due to a famine in the land, and due to fear he told the Egyptians that Sarai was his sister, which was a half-truth because they had the same dad. But before the Egyptians took Sarai, God protected her, and she was given back to Abram. With chapters 13 and 14, Abram and Lot had headed back to Bethel, and then they separated ways because they were both wealthy with many flocks, and quarreling happened between the herdsmen. Abram let Lot choose his direction, and Abram would go the other way. Lot chose the plain of Jordan, which was like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt. Lot pitched his tent by Sodom, and verse 13 reads, Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord. Abram headed toward Canaan. Verses 14-17 read, The Lord said to Abram after Lot had departed from him, Lift up your eyes from where you are, and look north, south, east, and west, all the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust then your offspring could be counted. Go walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you. So Abram moved on and went to Hebron, and he built an altar to the Lord. In chapter 14, Lot and all his possessions were taken captive. Verse 13 reads, One who had escaped came and reported this to Abram, the Hebrew. This is the first time the word Hebrew is used, which in English is Eber. In the line of Abram, Peleg's father was named Eber, chapter 10 verse 25, so it could mean from him, however the meaning of the root Eber is to cross over, transition, to bring or carry over, away, beyond this side, region, across, from, over, passage, in other words an immigrant or not from here. I hold to this view of interpretation because there are many other references to Abram being not from here or an alien. Well Abram rescued Lot with the help of some other men. After they returned, Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of God most high said to Abram, Blessed be Abram by God most high, creator of heaven and earth, and blessed be God most high who delivered our enemies into your hands, verse 19. Then Abram gave a tenth of the spoils. Melchizedek is also mentioned in Psalm 110 verse 4, which King David, who is also a prophet, said, The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, you are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. Then in New Testament book of Hebrews in chapters 5 through 7, the writer explains that Jesus is the priest in the order of Melchizedek, not after the Levitical priest who had not yet been born. Chapter 15 begins, After this the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield, your very great reward. Chapter 15 shows the covenant between God and Abram. In verse 2 Abram questions God since he is still childless. Verse 4 God promises him a son and offspring that outnumbers the stars. Verse 6 is a key verse for both the Old Testament and the New Testament, Abraham believed the Lord and he credited it to him as righteousness. Then the promise shifts not just to children but to land, God promises the land and then Abram questions the Lord in verse 8, But Abram said, O sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it? Then they had a ceremony of sacrifice to seal the covenant. Abram Kuruvilla said in his commentary, It is surprising that on either side of the remarkable proverbial statement of Genesis 15 verse 6 that emphasizes Abram's faith we see his doubts. In fact all Abram can muster in this chapter are questions, What will you give me? And how will I know? Those are his first recorded words to Yahweh in the entire patriarchal story and these form his only words in this particular episode. The bulk of the patriarch's speeches to God in the Abrahamic saga concern his doubt. It is his silences that indicate his faith. People in the Old Testament and in the New Testament are both saved by faith. Chapter 16 begins with Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children, but she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar. This chapter tells the story of how people try to rush along God's timing and end up making a mess of things. Sarai had the idea of giving Abram her maidservant so he could have a child. He did, they did, and now jealousy arose. Sarai mistreated Hagar who ran away. An angel of the Lord found Hagar and asked, Where have you come from and where are you going? The angel told her to go home and submit to her mistress. She too would be blessed with descendants that would be too numerous to count and her son was to be named Ishmael. Verse 13 reads, She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her, You are the God who sees me. For she said, I have now seen the one who sees me. Abraham was 86 years old when Hagar had Ishmael. Chapter 16 verse 15. 13 years later chapter 17 begins. Abram is now 99 years old and the Lord appeared and said, I am God Almighty, walk before me and be blameless. 13 years later chapter 17 starts. Abraham is now 99 years old and the Lord appeared and said, I am God Almighty, walk before me and be blameless. This time God changed his name to Abraham. Abraham meant exalted father and Abraham means the father of many. From Abraham's seed will come nations and kings. Abraham's part of the covenant was to keep circumcision. Verse 11 reads, You are to undergo circumcision and it will be a sign of the covenant between me and you. Then God told Abraham that from now on he was not to call his wife Sarai but Sarah because he will bless her and will give her a son and she will be the mother of nations. Kings of people will come from her. Verse 17, Abraham fell down, he laughed and said to himself, will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of 90? God told Abraham that his everlasting covenant will continue through Isaac, the son of Sarah. Then in chapter 18, three visitors came and met with Abraham and they told him that in a year Sarah will have a son. Sarah was listening from the tent and verse 12 said, so Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, after I'm worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure? Then the Lord asked Abraham a question, is anything too hard for the Lord? The men leave, but the Lord stayed and spoke with Abraham and told him what was going to happen to Sodom. Abraham pleaded for God to save them. If there were 50 righteous people, will God spare it? He asked about 45, then 40, then 30, then 20, then 10. The Lord answered, for the sake of 10, I will not destroy it. Then the Lord left. Intercessory prayer really does make a difference. Chapter 19 tells the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. There were not 10 righteous people. Only four escaped with the angels and only after the angels took their hands and led them safely out of the city, verse 16. Of those four, Lot's wife turned around and looked at her home that was being destroyed and she became a pillar of salt, verse 26. The three escaped were shown grace because, verse 29 reads, so when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had been. So the three were saved because of Abraham. The rest of chapter 19 tells that Lot's daughters got him drunk and went in with their father and bore him children who became the Moabites and the Ammonites. Chapter 20, Abraham moved on and just like in Egypt, the people of the land took Sarah because Abraham said she was his sister. God protected Sarah and fought for her and they gave her back to Abraham. Then in chapter 21, Isaac is born. His name means he laughs. In verse 6, Sarah says, God has brought me laughter and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me. Now the teenage son mocked Sarah and Isaac, so Sarah had her kicked out which made Abraham distressed due to his eldest son, but they left. On their way, Hagar thought they would die with lack of water. God saw her and heard the boy crying and he opened up her eyes to find a well. The rest of chapter ends a dispute about a well that Abraham dug at Beersheba. He ended up buying it. Here Abraham planted a tree and settled down for a long time. Here he also called on the name of the Lord, the eternal God. Chapter 22 is the story of Abraham's test. He was to take Isaac and sacrifice his one and only son unto the Lord. Now keep in mind that this was a common practice with other religions in his day, but also this event pictures Jesus, the son whom the father loved and was willing to sacrifice for us. In Hebrews chapter 11 verse 19 we learn that Abraham reasoned that God would raise the dead and figuratively speaking he did receive Isaac back from the dead. The Lord provided a ram and a thicket and they sacrificed the ram instead. Verse 14 so Abraham called that place the Lord will provide. One thing I learned from Dr. Curavella in class was from this moment on in scripture there is no mention of Abraham and Isaac ever being together. There is no mention that Isaac came back with his dad. And then in chapter 23 it looks like Sarah died while she was in Hebron. While in chapter 22 verse 19 we see that Abraham stayed in Beersheba. In verse 3 of 23 it says that Abraham went to mourn for Sarah and to weep over her. He bought land from the Hittites to bury her in a cave by Mamre. So ladies let me ask you what the angel asked Hagar. Where have you come from and where are you going? She knew where she had come from but she did not know where she was going except away from there. Yet the angel of the Lord interceded. She realized God saw her and through the Lord's leading she went back. When we think of Abraham he also knew where he had come from but he was not running away from it. He was walking toward something. He did not know when or how. He was a sojourner, someone not from there but he had faith in the God most high, the creator of the heavens and the earth. This God was his shield and very great reward, the eternal God, the almighty God, the Lord that provides. He went where God directed him. How about you? All my life I have never known what that next step was. Some days I am full of questions like Abram was with God and other times I have quiet confidence and faith that the Lord will direct in his time not mine. We saw what kind of mess happens when we try to speed up God's timetable. If you have heard his voice today please don't harden your heart. Let's be women of faith who hear and obey. Until next time, thank you so very much for listening.