ABRAHAM AND SARAH
Genesis 11-22
Key Verses
11:26-32 Terah [a descendant of Noah’s son Shem] had a son named Abram…who later married Sarai. But the couple remained childless. …One day Terah set forth with Abram, his grandson Lot…and Sarai to leave his homeland in Ur of the Chaldees for the distant territory of Canaan. They made it only as far as Haran before giving up the journey and settling down. There they lived until Terah’s death at the age of 205.
12:1-18 At that time the Lord spoke to Abram, saying, “I want you to leave this county, your relatives, and your father’s home for a distant land I will make known to you. I will form an entire nation from you and bless you beyond measure. …And more than that, all the nations of the world will also be blessed because of you.”…So at the age of 75, Abram departed Haran…and began his journey to the unknown land of Canaan. After Abram arrived there, God appeared to him with this solemn promise, “One day this land will be my gift to your descendants. [Then Abram journeyed to Egypt and back, and God again made a promise] “Look up from this place and gaze in every direction. All you see will be my permanent gift to both you and your descendants. …I will make those descendents so numerous that, like the dust of the earth, they will be impossible to count. …Therefore travel throughout this land from top to bottom because I am giving all of it to you.” So Abram set out to explore the region, settling at Hebron where he built an altar to worship the Lord his God.
14:18-20 [Some time later] Abram met Melchizedek, who was king of Salem and high priest to God. Melchizedek gave Abram bread to eat and wine to drink, then proclaimed a solemn blessing upon him. Abram, in response, made an offering to Melchizedek of one-tenth of all he owned.
15:1-6 [Soon after meeting Melchizedek] God appeared to Abram in a vision, saying “Have no fear, Abram, for I am both your protector and your most hoped for reward.” But Abram questioned God by saying, “I remain without the gift of children and there is no one to inherit all you have given me.” In response God spoke this word to Abram, “…a son from your own loins will indeed be born and he shall be your sole heir. Then guiding Abram outside to look up at the starry firmament, God said, “Just try to count all the stars you see. That’s how numerous your descendents will be.” Upon hearing God’s word, Abram believed him wholeheartedly and God credited Abram’s faith as righteousness.
17:1-18:14 Time passed until Abram was ninety-nine years old. That’s when God appeared to him again and said, “My covenant with you still stands. You will father many nations. From now on you will no longer be Abram. I am renaming you Abraham because you will be the father of many nations. …This covenant will have no end and will include all who claim you as their ancestor. I will be your God and their God. …But to keep the covenant, all male descendants must be circumcised as a sign of their commitment to the covenant agreement. It will be an everlasting mark for an everlasting covenant. …As for your wife Sarai, she will no longer be called Sarai, but Sarah, for I will bless her and she will give you a son. You are to name him Isaac. …I will continue this everlasting covenant with Isaac and the generations to follow him. …By this time next year when again I visit, you will have a son by your wife Sarah.” …But being old and past childbearing age, Sarah could only laugh at hearing the prospect. …Hearing Sarah express her disbelief, the Lord responded, “Is there anything too hard for me?”
21:1-7 Just as the Lord had promised, Sarah became pregnant and within a year Abraham became the father of a son whom he named Isaac. …When the boy was just eight days old, Abraham circumcised him in obedience to God’s command. By this time Abraham was himself one-hundred years of age. The situation made Sarah giggle with joy…and she said to Abraham, “Who could have imagined an elderly woman like myself nursing a child? In your old age I have actually borne a son for you.”
22:1-8 Years passed. Then God put Abraham’s faith to the test. …The Lord said, “You are to take your only son Isaac, whom you love so very much, and travel to Moriah. There you are to sacrifice him as an offering to me on a mountain I will show you.” …Following God’s direction, Abraham left for the region of Moriah. Upon arriving there, Abraham made Isaac carry the wood for the offering that would be sacrificed, while Abraham carried the knife and the flint for starting a fire. …That’s when Isaac asked, “I see the flint and the wood we need for the offering, but where is the lamb we need to offer?” Abraham simply replied, “My son, the Lord himself will provide the lamb needed for the offering.” And with that they proceeded up the mountain.
22:9-14 Once they reached the place of God’s choosing, Abraham built an altar for the sacrifice. Abraham carefully positioned the wood on the altar, then bound his son Isaac and laid him on top. He stretched out his hand and took hold of the knife to sacrifice his only beloved son. But at that very moment the voice of an angel cried out from above, “Abraham! Abraham! ...Do no harm to the boy…for now it is clear just how passionately you revere the Lord your God, because you were willing to give him back to me.” At this Abraham caught sight of a ram that was trapped in the undergrowth by its horns. He caught the ram and sacrificed it in place of his son Isaac. That’s why Abraham named that place, “God will provide.”
22:15-19 Afterward God’s angel again spoke to Abraham, “I pledge by my own integrity and righteousness that since you have obediently offered that which was most dear to you, I will most certainly bless you beyond measure. And the blessing will include making your descendants more numerous than you can possibly count—like the stars in the firmament. ...And more than that, every nation in the world will also be blessed through your descendants, all because you have faithfully obeyed me.” …Then Abraham returned down the mountain and soon moved to the town of Beersheba, where he settled down.
Basic Message
God called Abram to leave his homeland and all his kin in Central Asia for the land of Canaan, promising to bless him, create a new nation through him, and then bless all the nations of the world through his descendants. Upon arriving in Canaan, God told Abram that all the land he saw would one day belong to him and his offspring. Then God conferred a blessing upon Abram through Melchizedek, the high priest of God and King of Salem.
Then, despite Abram’s advanced age, God promised to give him a son through whom the blessing of all nations would come. God renamed Abram and Sarai with the names Abraham and Sarah, and established a permanent covenant of commitment to them and their descendants. Abraham was told to establish a sign of his commitment to the covenant by circumcising all males in his household, including himself, which he did. The following year Isaac, the promised son, was born just as God had promised.
God then tested Abraham’s faith by asking him to sacrifice Isaac, his dear and only son. Abraham followed God’s directions to the very last detail but was stopped at the last moment by an angel who intervened. A ram, caught in the thicket, was sacrificed instead. The angel, speaking on behalf of God, blessed Abraham for his faith and obedience and promised again to mightily bless Abraham and his descendants.
Comments
* To begin a new chapter in human history, God called Abram away from all that was familiar—his family, culture, and homeland—and established a new covenant of commitment between himself and his chosen vessels for carrying out his redemptive purposes. The sign of the covenant was painfully and permanently cut into human flesh. All the covenant signs listed in scripture between God and humans involve the sacrifice of flesh and blood, from those who perished in the great flood to the Anointed One to come. Across many cultures throughout history, the sincerity of covenants and commitments is associated with flesh and blood—the most precious and personal elements humans can offer.
* The new name God gave Abram represented a new identity, one free from the constraints of the past and open to a new relationship with God in the future. God will rename others later in scripture, including those “overcomers” of the Church of Pergamum in the book of Revelation, who were promised a new name for the new Kingdom they were to inhabit as citizens. Though we tend to think that God’s works are more-or-less in the past, he continues to create and do new things among his people in the world today. But unlike cults with their inevitable novel revelations, God’s pattern of work among humanity today is in perfect alignment with his acts in the past, for he changes not nor do his plans and purposes for humanity and the rest of creation change from his original intention.
* Many view Melchizedek, King of Salem, as either a type of Christ or Jesus himself manifesting to bless Abraham as God’s High Priest. Paul describes Jesus as a high priest “in the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews 5:6; 7:11) to distinguish him from the Levitical priesthood in Aaron’s line of descent because they were all sinful men who required absolution themselves. But Jesus, a non-Levitical priest, not only required no absolution to execute his priestly office (given his perfect fulfillment of the Law) on our behalf, he himself became the sacrifice to make us holy before God. At the very least, the order of Melchizedek, prefiguring Christ, represents a novel priestly class unlike any before or after it—a special symbolic category for the Anointed One who was to come; for he was simultaneously both a flawless priest and a perfect sacrifice.
* God’s testing of Abraham may seem sadistic and extreme. But God was asking all or nothing from Abraham and so demanded that the object most precious to Abraham in all the world, his beloved and longed-for son, not come between them. He asks no less of us today, insisting that the things closest to our hearts not usurp his primacy in our lives. God doesn’t always require us to sacrifice those things closest to us, only that we be willing to do so. And when we are willing, we find ourselves freed from all that draws the heart away from him—our most precious possession.
* God too has sacrificed that which was most precious to him—His only begotten Son. When Abraham placed the wood for the sacrifice on Isaac to carry, it was a potent symbolic precursor to God the Father ordaining that Jesus would bear his own cross to the hilltop where he was sacrificed for us all. But unlike Isaac, for whom a ram was substituted, Jesus would have no substitute. He himself became the sacrificial lamb required to appease God’s judgment of sin on our behalf. And when Jesus returned to the Father after the resurrection, he again mirrored the pattern on Mt. Moriah when Isaac was returned to his father Abraham in a joyous reunion that would forever after impact the world.
* Abraham’s faith and obedience were rewarded with every kind of blessing, including the bountiful land of Canaan. Our faith and obedience no longer result in the acquisition of simple real estate, but affords us something far more valuable. We acquire membership in the wondrous kingdom to come—the New Heavens and New Earth.
Biblical Themes
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
