The Book of Genesis, Chapter 20

Genesis 20:1-18

Summary

Abraham travels toward Negeb, settling between two places called Kadesh and Shur. Clearly not learning from the Egypt fiasco, he tells some other strangers that his wife is his sister, and yet another king takes his wife away. God manages to restrain himself from the plagues this time, and instead prevents the king from having his way with Sarah, and tells the king in a dream that this is uncool. The king, named Abimelech, wakes up in the morning, gives another good "Dude, what the hell?" to Abraham, and offers Abraham some land, some slaves, and some sheep and oxen. Abraham gets a good deal, considering.

Commentary

Okay. I know that Abraham has some decent reasons for not telling people his wife is his wife. Mostly to do with saving his own skin. He actually says it straight up: "Abraham said, ‘I did it because I thought, There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife." (Gen 20:11) I get it. I'd probably be worried too!

And yet. And yet I'm reminded of the last time he did this. A mere 8 chapters ago, back in Chapter 12, Abraham (then Abram) presents the same lie to the King of Egypt, and the King of Egypt takes Sarah (then Sarai) for his wife, and hilarity ensued. Okay, I'm lying: plagues ensued. Plagues ensued because God was angry, and that's apparently what happens when God is angry. I'm not quite sure why God hasn't managed to be angry at Abraham for this, but it probably has to do with Abraham being afraid for his life. All this aside, Abraham hasn't quite learned his lesson from the last lie, and tries it again.

This time, things are a little different. No plagues, at least. God comes to King Abimelech in a dream, and says "Now you've gone and done it, fool!" .. actually it's more along the lines of: "You are about to die because of the woman whom you have taken; for she is a married woman." (Gen 20:3) Abimelech has the understandable reaction of, "Saywhatnow?", or more accurately: "Lord, will you destroy an innocent people? Did he not himself say to me, 'She is my sister'? And she herself said, 'He is my brother.' I did this in the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands." (Gen 20:4-5) God proceeds to acknowledge that he knew the king was clueless, and so prevented the king from doing this heinous deed, but he makes sure to make his warning clear, and threatens to send him to the special hell reserved for child molesters and people who talk in the theatre. Sorry, wrong 'verse. God says, "Now then, return the man’s wife; for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you shall live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all that are yours." (Gen 20:7)

So, Abimelech gets up in the morning, and tells everybody what's up, and everybody's afraid of the Lord's wrath. He calls Abraham in and says, in his best Pharaoh impersonation, "Dude! What the hell!" Abraham says he feared for his life, and adds, "Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife." (Gen 20:12) Bit of a shocker there, but in its context this may not have been quite so shocking. Abimelech is somewhat touched by this (but probably acting more on God's earlier comment that treating Abraham well would be good because Abraham is a prophet), and gives Abraham a whole ton of stuff, including farm animals, land, slaves and money.

"Then Abraham prayed to God; and God healed Abimelech, and also healed his wife and female slaves so that they bore children. For the Lord had closed fast all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife." (Gen 20:17-18)

 That little bit kind of makes me chuckle. It's a very non-chalant sort of "Oh, and then God undid all the stuff God did to Abimelech because of Abraham's little lie." Sorry dude. My bad.

One of the things that I find fascinating about this (beyond the whole "God is Abraham's wingman" thing), is that this is very, very similar to an earlier story, as I commented earlier. I was talking to my Dad about this, and he suggested something which hadn't come to my mind, but probably should've. He suggested that it's very possible that these are two tellings which come from the same parent-story. Sure, details here and there are changed; the identity of the rulers are different, and God's reactions are somewhat different, but the basic plot of, "Abraham tells a ruler that his wife is his sister, the ruler believes Abraham, and wackiness ensues (or plagues)," is maintained. There's been previous discussion of the multiple authors hypothesis in earlier chapters, and I think it's very plausible that this is an alternate telling of the previous story.

Some interesting stuff going on, but ultimately this chapter feels a little bit like the Bible is already going into syndication. In the next chapter! Something new happens. I hope.

The Book of Genesis, Chapter 19

Genesis 19:1-38

Summary

A couple angels go to visit Sodom, where, as the name suggests, things are getting a bit kinky. Lot encourages the guests to stay at his house, and serves them with the proper hospitality, when some folks come a-knocking, interested only in the new fellas, and not a whit in Lot's daughters, who he offers up for their, uh, enjoyment. The angels tell Lot to flee, because God's a bit ticked about how messed up this place has become and intends to destroy it, so they run, and they're not supposed to look back, but Lot's wife does and BAM; pillar of salt. Then in his fear, Lot locks his daughters and himself into a cave, and his practical daughters decide if he won't let any boys come make them babies, they'll have to get him drunk and make babies with him. Phew. Is this the bible or a Jerry Bruckheimer movie?

Commentary

I'm not even sure where to start. This chapter has all the makings of a summer blockbuster movie. Lots of sex, violence, daring escapes, cities being destroyed; It'd be the only bible movie with an Unrated DVD with all the good parts left in.

Say what you like about Lot, but he's pretty dutiful to God and the angels, at the very least. He bows with his head to the ground when he first sees them (Gen 19:1), and insists very strongly that the angels enjoy his hospitality, even when the angels were happy to stay elsewhere (Gen 19:2-3). Shortly thereafter, though, the men of Sodom arrive. All of them (Gen 19:4). They demand that Lot bring out the new boys in town, saying: "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, so that we may know them." (Gen 19:5).

Kinky. If you're not aware, in this context, to "know" someone means to have sex with them. I've heard people describe the depravity of Sodom as being gay sex (Sodomites, sodomy... possibly some rum, and a lash as well), what distresses me here is the clearly impending gang-rape. I can't personally think of the gay sex as being a worse crime than the gang-rape, but somehow Lot does, and he offers his daughters in the angels' place. He says:

 "Look, I have two daughters, who have not known a man; let me bring them out to you, and do them as you please; only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof." (Gen 19:8)

What the [censored]?!  I... what? Man. Okay, so, hospitality, as I said in the last post, is extremely important to the culture, but I seriously can't wrap my head around giving my daughters to a mob to protect the angels; surely there'd be a better answer, right? Well, first things first, we need our daring escape. The angels grab Lot, haul him back inside, and then strike all the men outside blind so they can't find the door.

Just a sec, I need some popcorn.

Right, so the angels tell Lot to get anybody who is close to him and take them out of the city. He talks to his future sons-in-law, and tries to convince them to leave, but just like all the government in The Day After Tomorrow, nobody listens. When dawn comes, the angels tell him to leave again, but he hesitates, so they grab him and forcefully take him to the outside of the city, 'cause the Lord really cares, apparently. With all the blind men wandering around, I have to wonder if this was like the egress from the mall in Dawn of the Dead.

Lot quibbles a bit about where he needs to run to, and the angels decide to spare one little city nearby for his sake, because he's too afraid to go hide in the hills, or something like that. I bet the angels were a bit frustrated with him at this point; I probably would have been. Dude! We are going to destroy your city, would you freakin' run already?!

Funny thing, the angels tell everybody, just before they take off, "Don't look back, or you'll be consumed," because the energy of God's destruction is totally badass, and we need a scene with intense music where people are trying not to look, or something like that. Cue the fire and brimstone, cue the vast destruction, and I do mean vast, the cities, the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and even all that grows on the ground was "overthrown," which I think in this case means burnt to a crisp. Now cue Lot's wife taking a peek. Now cue pillar of salt.

I'd always thought this was some kind of punishment, for failing to heed the warning, but it's entirely possible it just had to do with the energies involved. I won't pretend to understand the thermonuclear dynamics of God. It's also a reference to the story of Orpheus, who goes into the underworld to retrieve his wife, and when he leaves, he's told that if he looks back, he'll lose her.. she stumbles, and he turns, and she's lost. At least this story involves crazy fire and violence and God's power to explain why looking back is bad; in Orpheus' story, it's just Hades being a bit of a prick.

At the end of it all, Lot finally looks over the land he left, and it's just a smoking hole. The entire plain. I don't know how big this plain would have been, but that's definitely up there on the level of nuclear destruction, I think. Oppenheimer said that the detonation of the first nuclear bomb brought to mind Hindu scripture, which said, "I am become death, destroyer of worlds," but I much prefer the words of one of the other test directors. In response to seeing the first ever atomic blast, he said, "Now we are all sons of bitches." I can't help but wonder if any city, any plain, no matter how depraved, deserves such an end.

This is a long post, and I'm sorry, but we've got a little more sex to get through first. So, after having made such a big deal to the angels about how he didn't want to go hide in the hills, having seen the destructive power of the Lord, Lot is afraid, and decides to go hide in the hills. After having seen their home and their fiancés destroyed, Lot's daughters minds are on more, uh, practical matters. The dating prospects of living in a cave in the hills are not particularly good. "Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of all the world," says the eldest (Gen 19:31).

How do the ladies decide to fix this problem? Simple. The eldest gives us the answer: "Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, so that we may preserve offspring through our father." (Gen 19:32). Right, so nobody's going come out here, lets get Dad drunk, and.. wait, what? Lets use our Dad to make babies while he's drunk? Yeesh, ladies, use your head. Get him drunk and convince him to move where there are men you're not related to! But it's not necessary, because nothing bad could possibly come out of incestuous date-rape, right? ...right?

...right?

The Book of Genesis, Chapter 18

Genesis 18:1-33

Summary

Three men, the Lord included, visit Abraham, and he is a very generous host. One of the three tell Abraham his aging wife will have a son, and Sarah laughs, 'cause this is pretty ridiculous at her age. The men set out towards Sodom, to, ah, settle some "issues," and Abraham makes some fast deals to try to make sure Sodom gets a fair shake from the Lord.

Commentary

This is a really interesting chapter. It conatins a famous story, and a less famous story which showcases how incredibly awesome Abraham was.

At the outset, we're given the image of a very hot day, and the Lord appears before Abraham with three men. Abraham rushes out to meet them, and kneels to show his subservience to the Lord, and offers his hospitality.

The hospitality theme is important, and we'll get a better illustration of how very important it is in the following chapter, but Abram goes very much out of his way for these strangers (and the Lord, admittedly). He has his wife and servants bring them water to wash themselves (Gen 18:4), and cakes (bread), curds and milk, and the meat of a calf for them to eat (Gen 18:7-8). Some washing up and a meal, essentially.

Hospitality in a largely-wilderness world is, I would imagine, very important. If there was an accepted understanding of hospitality for strangers, I would think that that would reduce the likelihood of violent interlopers, as people would be fed and watered and wouldn't have to resort to desperate measures to get such things.

During the meal, one of the three men asks Abraham if his wife Sarah was still around. Upon hearing that Sarah was in the tent, he tells Abraham that "[he would] return ... in due season and your wife Sarah shall have a son" (Gen 18:10). Keeping in mind that Sarah is somewhere around the age of an octogenarian, the author tells us very politely that Sarah had long ago stopped menstruating, saying, "[I]t had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women" (Gen 18:11). So, to their understanding, at the time Sarah was no longer capable of having children. So she laughed. Understandable, I think. Maybe he was being kind and flattering, she thought, or maybe the idea was just too silly, I don't know, but she laughed.

The Lord arched an eyebrow, much like Spock (or so I'd like to think), and said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh," and Abraham, much to his credit, does not respond, "Gee, why do you think?" It's kind of understandable, I suppose, if you're thinking from the Lord's perspective, to be confused by the laughter. As the Lord goes on to say, "Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?" (Gen 18:14). Well, I suppose that makes sense, but only if you buy in one hundred percent to the glory of God. That's really hard for a lot of people, so I can understand why Sarah, even confronted with with the awesome power of the Lord, might laugh at the idea of getting pregnant in her old age.

That's the famous story. The laughing Sarah. My favourite story is actually in the second half of the chapter, wherein Abraham shows he's as savvy as he was badass. The Lord tells him what he's up to, and where he's going, because he wants Abraham to understand the "righteousness and justice" of the Lord (Gen 18:19). Apparently Sodom and Gomorrah have been rather naughty cities, and the Lord says, "[H]ow very grave their sin!" (Gen 18:20). So the Lord is headed down to Georgia, er, I mean Sodom and Gomorrah, to lay down the law.

Abraham sees a bit of an interesting issue with this, and after the three men have left, he approaches the Lord and says, look, what if there are fifty good people in that town? "Will you sweep away the good with the wicked?" (Gen 18:23). God ponders this and says, well, if there are fifty good people, he will spare the town. Abraham thinks for a bit and says, look, what if five of those fifty are not as good as we'd hope, would you destroy the whole town for the lack of five good people? God says that he won't do it if there are forty-five good people. This goes on until Abraham has talked God down to saving the city if there are ten good people there. He cuts God's original requirement down by eighty percent. Talk about a wheeler and dealer there!

I love this story because we get to see God change his mind, a lot. I'm sure there's are explanations which suggest that God isn't so much changing his mind as much as he already knows he's going to settle for ten, but that's, as I've said with similar assumptions in the past, intellectually lazy, I think. Gods forgiveness and love at this point in the story isn't infinite, but he does make a conscious decision here that collateral damage is, for the most part, not okay at all. Could you imagine how many wars would have been stopped if somebody said "You can only go to war if there are less than ten people on the other side worth saving"?

Abraham's willingness to go up to God, and say "look, I think you're being a little harsh here, that's totally unfair if there are good people in that city," is amazing. He is incredibly brave, incredibly wise, and an all around total badass. I have so much more respect for Abraham than I did before. So I guess we all have to think about speaking truth to power, and standing up for what's right even when it's mind-bogglingly scary to do so.

The Book of Genesis, Chapter 17

Genesis 17:1-27

Summary

God approaches Abram and establishes his covenant with him. This covenant involves a name change for Abram and Sarai, and what seems to me to be a rather inordinate amount of focus on the foreskins of Abram's family's penises. God tells the newly-named Abraham that his son Ishmael will be the father of many princes and a great nation, but that it is with Isaac that God will make his covenant.

Commentary

As anybody who has ever worked at, gone to, or been in the general vicinity of Huron Church Camp can tell you, a covenant is a big deal. Often written in crayon on funky paper (well, at Camp, at least). A covenant is a solemn promise made between people, and in the Bible often between people and God, in which both parties agree to perform some sort of action.

God's side of the covenant is pretty impressive. God tells Abram that she will make him "the ancestor of a multitude of nations," (Gen 17:4), and further goes on to change Abram's name. The footnotes for the online Bible say that "Abram" should be taken to mean "exalted ancestor" and "Abraham" (the new name) should be taken to mean "ancestor of a multitude." Which makes sense, as God goes on to tell Abram that he will be the "ancestor of a multitude of nations," and "exceedingly fruitful," and that he will be the father of kings (Gen 17:6).

Yeah, there's a pretty impressive amount of repetition in this chapter, but I think part of that is an attempt to emphasize how important this covenant really is. This isn't the sort of promise that God makes every day to just any ancient patriarch. It's a grand covenant, that bestows on Abra(ha)m all the glories of being the father of nations who is in an everlasting covenant with God. And all it costs is a little bit of skin, from every male.

Ah yes, the eminently reasonable requirement of circumcision. That's only partially a joke, because at the time I'm sure it made sense. A circumcised penis is easier to keep clean, and with actual cleanliness tends to come ritual cleanliness. I haven't seen a lot of it yet, but I do know that a huge emphasis on being ritually clean is upcoming, and this appears to be the very start of it.

God requires that every male, including the slaves born into the household and the slaves purchased from elsewhere, must be circumcised at the age of eight days. Presumably any slave older than eight days when purchased would be circumcised that day (or at least reasonably, it's sometimes hard to tell how much leeway you get with something like this). It must be done, however, because "[a]ny uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken [God's] commandment" (Gen 17:14).

It kind of strikes me as a slightly odd place to start with requirements for a covenant with God, but I fully admit straight up that I don't really know what pleases God all the time. Maybe it's the cleanliness, maybe it's the unquestioning loyalty that he later forces Abra(ha)m to display with his son, but taken at face value God clearly needs this for a reason, I just don't know what that reason is.

In the next bit, God also changes Sarai's name to Sarah, and tells Abra(ha)m that she will bear him a child. In response to this, Abra(ha)m "fell on his face and laughed" (Gen 17:17). I love that moment, because it speaks powerfully to the humanity of Abra(ha)m; he just can't believe that his ninety-year-old-wife can bear him a son, and who can blame him?

I enjoy seeing the reactions of people in the Bible who are experiencing God's power for the first time, because I know that were I to witness the same raw power and majesty, I'd probably have a hard time believing it as well. My ninety-year-old wife bear me a son? Preposterous! Maybe it'd be better if God just established his covenant with Ishmael, Abra(ha)m suggests, but God won't allow it.

Ishmael doesn't get left with nothing, though, God hears Abra(ha)m's plea for his bastard son to be blessed as well, and says that he will be made "fruitful and exceedingly numerous; he shall be the father of twelve princes and [God] will make him a great nation" (Gen 17:20).

In the end, though, Ishmael is still denied the greatest gift, the sweetest pot in the whole deal. God says that though Ishmael is to be blessed, "[God's] covenant will be established with Isaac" (Gen 17:21). I don't know the specifics of how inheritance law really worked back then, but as Ishmael was considered a legitimate heir, it was probably a bit of a kick in the pants when Isaac showed up on the scene and became the heir-designate. I wonder if being the son of the patriarch's wife would supersede being the eldest? I don't know, either way, I imagine there was some bad blood, even if it didn't get recorded in the Bible (to be honest, it might have been, I don't know much about Abraham's sons, it's Isaac's sons I know a little more about).

The last few verses of the chapter tell us that Abraham and Ishmael and all their slaves and male family members were circumcised. It doesn't tell us that God said it was good, but I think we can assume that God was approving.

The Book of Genesis, Chapter 16

Genesis 16:1-16

Summary

Sarai, Abram's wife, has borne no children, so she sends her husband to Hagar, her slave girl, to bear Abram a child. Hagar conceives, and gives Sarai dirty looks, so Sarai "deals harshly with her". The Angel of the Lord^TM finds Hagar on the road to Shur, and sends her back to Sarai with the knowledge that her son will be named Ishmael, and he will be a "wild ass of a man" (Gen 16:12). Isn't that just heartwarming.

Commentary

So, some interesting interplay here at the beginning of this chapter. Sarai owns a slave-girl named Hagar, and because Sarai is not conceiving a child, despite God's promises, she suggests Abram have a child with Hagar, so that she "shall obtain children by her." (Gen 16:2) Clearly there is nothing unwise about this plan at all. Clearly.

So Hagar conceives, and that pretty well illustrates to her that the problem isn't Abram, but Sarai, which causes Hagar to look upon her "with contempt." (Gen 16:4) Sarai, in purely logical fashion, blames Abram for causing her slave to look upon her with contempt. She even asks the Lord to judge between them. This doesn't end up happening, though, because Abram simply replies that Hagar is "in [Sarai's] power, do to her as you please." (Gen 16:6) Sarai does something harsh enough to make Hagar decide to run, though the chapter doesn't go into further detail than to say that Sarai "dealt harshly with her" (Gen 16:6).

It's hard for me to say how I feel about this, because there's a lot of difficult stuff in there. I can only imagine how hard it would be for a woman to be in Sarai's position, with the patriarchal society requiring children to further the family line. In what seems to be desperation she suggests Abram should try things with Hagar, and Sarai discovers in the process that the problem seems to be her. This would be a very difficult way to find out a very difficult thing. There's a lot of hurt going around and like most people she lashes out at the people near her. It seems a rather reasonable, if unfortunate, outcome.

Regardless of this, Hagar runs from the ire of her mistress and stops at a spring of water in the wilderness, where she is found by The Angel of the Lord^TM. I think it's fascinating how many things happen at interesting land forms in the wilderness. A spring, a grove...even a rock used as a pillow. The Angel of the Lord^TM tells Hagar to return and submit to Sarai, agreeing to "so greatly multiply [Hagar's] offspring that they cannot be counted for multitude" in return for her obedience (Gen 16:10). The theme of fertility and having a crap-ton of children rears its head again here.

What interests me most here is my own reaction to the themes of fertility and plenty-o-kids. I know, intellectually, that when you don't expect all of your children to live to maturity and when you live in an agrarian society that children are life and future, but it still feels weird to see these people obsess so much about something that I've barely considered.

The very last bit of this chapter is a quick peek ahead into the life of Ishmael, son of Hagar and Abram. According to Wikipedia, Ishmael is considered to be the progenitor of the northern Arab peoples by Islamic tradition and much of the Jewish traditions as well. It's understandable, I suppose, that the Hebrew scripture would describe him as a "wild ass of a man, with his hand against everyone, and everyone's hand against him" (Gen 16:12). It's also appropriate that, according to Wikipedia, he is more positively regarded and given a much larger role in the Islamic tradition, so we'll just chalk this up to good old-fashioned intolerance.

The last two verses of the chapter are quite formulaic:

"Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael." (Gen 16: 15-16)

Funny moment. Due to the age inflation in Genesis, when I was reading the above quote I inserted the word "only" before Abram's age. It's a sad day when you're starting to think eighty-six is young. I find the reptetition of Hagar's name a little amusing; it's like the author wanted to be extremely clear that this child was not from Abram's wife.

Hagar's baby. Just in case it wasn't clear.

Once More Into The Breach

Well, it's been almost a year, so it's time to dust off the cobwebs and get this rolling again. There's a Facebook page for the blog now, but I can't give the page a username until it gets 25 fans, so once we're there I'll update this post with a link to the page. Genesis 16 to follow shortly!

The Book of Genesis, Chapter 15

Genesis 15:1-20

Summary

God speaks to Abram in visions and dreams, establishing between them the knowledge that Abram's nation would be great. The whole "Egypt" fiasco is hinted at, and God makes a covenant with Abram.

Commentary

Interesting to see this chapter, because, as I mentioned in the last post, I always view Abram as the ancient guy with many many children. However, in this chapter, Abram is childless, and he worries about the fact that one of his slaves from Damascus will inherit his house.

I'm intrigued by the practical nature of Abram's worries. God comes to him and says,

"Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great." (Gen 15:1)

but Abram calls God out in return, saying,

"O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?" (Gen 15:2)

Interesting note, the first few times God speaks, it's described as "The word of the Lord" coming to Abram. I'm reminded of Alan Rickman's character in Dogma, Metatron, with the memorable line,

"Human beings have neither the aural nor the psychological capacity to withstand the awesome power of God's true voice. Were you to hear it, your mind would cave in and your heart would explode within your chest. We went through five Adams before we figured that one out." (Dogma, 1999)

Dogma is rather silly, but it can jive with the scripture in this case if you're interpreting it in the right way. The author of Genesis says:

"But the word of the Lord came to him, 'This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.' He brought him outside and said, ‘Look towards heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ Then he said to him, 'So shall your descendants be.'" (Gen 15:4-5)

So, depending on how you read this, the word of the Lord could be a person, because the language suggests that the word of the Lord brings Abram outside. It doesn't really have any major impact on the story of this chapter, but it's fun to speculate.

Shortly thereafter, God patiently tells Abram that he will give all the land in the area to him, and Abram is again skeptical. "O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?" (Gen 15:8) Abram asks, and God says, "Hush you, and bring me dinner." Or something like that. Actually he requests a very specific sacrifice of three-year-old farm animals and a couple birds.

Perhaps there's a significance to what God asks for that I'm not understanding, but I honestly don't see how this validates his claim that he will give Abram a whole whack of land.

Abram falls asleep, and when he does so, a deep and terrible darkness falls upon him as well. God comes to Abram in a dream and plays the part of the dark prophet, warning Abram that while his descendants would face great trials and be slaves in a strange land for four hundred years, judgment would be brought on their oppressors and they would be a great nation.

According to the book, Abram's descendants are going to be paying for the "iniquity of the Amorites", but sadly a quick googling of this subject has resulted in finding little but the sites of people whose scholarly knowledge is very questionable.

Abram, however, is told to have a long life, many children, and a quiet death. In the ancient world this is a blessing and miracle in and of itself, and I hope that most of you don't under-appreciate how important a message to Abram this really is.

With a smoking firepot and a torch passing over the sacrifice, God makes a covenant with Abram to grant him the lands of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.

Whew, that's a lot of land (I'm guessing). I'm kind of intrigued by the imagery of the sacrifice and the fire. It's indicative of the growth of our perception of God, from a very primitive and wordly God who is associated intimately with the affairs of the day to a God who plays from the shadows, much more like the Wizard of Oz (pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!).

If God is eternal and unchanging, it must be that our perceptions and understandings of God change with time, as the God we know now is very different from the primitive and worldly God suggested by the ritual in this chapter.

Posting at Camp

Hi folks,

It turns out I have some internet access at camp (occasionally), so I will be posting as I can, when I can. I'll be trying to build up a buffer over the summer as well.

The Book of Genesis, Chapter 14

Genesis 14:1-24

Summary

There's a huge war between two groups of kingdoms (nine kings in all), and poor old Lot gets caught in the crossfire and captured. Abram hears about it, gathers up his buddies, and takes a huge road trip out to recapture Lot and all the people and stuff he had with him. Abram kicks some serious butt, and it turns out he doesn't really want anything in return from the King of Sodom.

Commentary

So, I bet you didn't know Abram kicked some serious butt in his day. I didn't. I always pictured Abram as the ancient man with a crazy amount of kids. We'll get there, though, first we should talk about the huge war. At the time, the kings of Elam, Goiim, Shinar, and Ellasar had allied themselves against the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela in a great war.

It should be pointed out that the second group had been subordinate to the king of Elam for twelve years, but in the thirteenth year, they rebelled. It kind of fascinates me how matter-of-factly this war is mentioned. There's no description, but war in the ancient world was pretty ugly, and even though most kingdoms were pretty small (no more than what we would consider cities or towns today), when you have nine kingdoms clashing, people are going to die.

It's mostly interesting to me because this huge great war is just background; it's setting the scene for the story that's about to unfold. The war is only important because one of the kingdoms that gets crushed in this war is Sodom, and that's where Lot lives. The last couple chapters have been telling the story of Abram and his family, so this follows pretty directly on, but I have to admit I'm a little more intrigued by the war.

Regardless, one little interesting fact about this war is that after getting their asses handed to them by the other kings, the Kings of Sodom and Gomorrah call a retreat, and while retreating, some of the people fall into bitumen pits. It's an odd little detail, but it does serve to be an example of the horrors of war.

For those not in the know (and I'll be honest, I had to look this up), bitumen is a naturally occurring, sticky, tar-like form of petroleum, which is described as being, at room temperature, much like cold molasses in terms of its viscosity. I can't imagine the horrors of drowning in one of those pits. It's kind of reminiscent, for me, of the stories of people dying between the trenches in World War I, not from the gunfire, but from taking a bullet in the leg, falling face-first into a puddle, and drowning. Long story short, war sucks.

In all this chaos, Lot, the people who are with him, and all of their stuff gets taken by the victorious armies (it's not personal, they take all the stuff in Sodom and Gomorrah). Fortunately for Lot, Abram is pretty badass, and when he hears about his nephew's plight, it's a little bit like Liam Neeson in Taken:

"I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you." (Taken, 2008)

Pretty scary, huh?

Anyway, Abram and his trained three hundred and eighteen men (possibly a nod to the Spartans?), all of whom incidentally were born in his house, take off after the people who captured his nephew. They follow them all the way to Dan. No, stop laughing, Dan is not some random guy. It's a city, and it's the northernmost city in Israel (sort of), so you can imagine that hearing they got chased all the way to Dan is just another nod to how far they really went.

That night Abram divided his forces and went against the enemy and routed them. I hope most people reading this blog understand this, but a rout is a serious, serious victory. It's the kind of victory where you take your enemy and rub their face in the dirt. After this rout, they chased the broken enemy all the way to Hobah, a town north of Damascus (another very long trip), and recovered the stolen goods.

When Abram got back, the king of Sodom met with him, and the king of Salem met with them also. The king of Salem was also the priest of "God Most High" (Gen 14:18), and he brought a beautiful blessing for Abram, but much more interesting to me is that he brought bread and wine. To my knowledge, this is the first linking of bread and wine into the worship of God in the bible, and it happens in the fourteenth chapter.

I guess I always thought that was kind of a Jesus thing, but as I go, it's becoming more and more clear to me how very appropriate, right, and steeped in tradition was pretty much everything Jesus did. He comes forward very much, as he said, as the culmination of a tradition, not the destruction of it.

At the end of the chapter, Abram is offered a great deal of money, but he graciously declines because he does not wish to be in the debt of the king of Sodom. He does, however, name a few people who should receive their shares, and they do. It's a nice little testament that shows Abram's badassitude is tempered by his wisdom and generosity.