How much have you really been ‘thinking’ while reading Genesis? Let’s take another quick quiz:
1. Who sounded the first bell in the Bible?
2. When is money first mentioned in the Bible?
3. Who is the first economist in the Bible?
4. Which of the United States is mentioned in the Bible?
5. When is smoking first mentioned in the Bible?
6. Who is the straightest man in the Bible?
7. When is tennis mentioned in the Bible?
By way of clarification from our last lesson where God did not explicitly explain the reason why He rejected Cain’s offering, we should remember that our fundamental approach is not to superimpose our concepts and notions on the text so that we miss the flow of God’s Story to us. God did not record for us in Genesis why He accepted Abel’s offering and why He rejected Cain’s offering. We simply need to accept that as a fact so far in the story. For those who want to dwell a little longer on this incident, it is worth noting that the meaning of an ‘offering’ in Genesis 4:4-5 is ‘tribute’. This is why some translations render it as a ‘present’, ‘gift’, or ‘oblation’. This could be a ‘vegetable offering’ or ‘blood sacrifice’. This takes it beyond a sin offering for atonement to an offering of ‘thanksgiving’. Think of this in contrast to when Noah made ‘burnt offerings’ after the Flood in Genesis 8:20, these are offerings of dedication to God and propitiation (covering) for sin. I would rather ask Cain about sin crouching at his door, because I heard God talk to him about that, than talk to him about the types of offerings, which would only lead to the first two denominations: the ‘meat gatherers’; and the ‘veggie gatherers’.
Here are some of the responses to ‘In the beginning BABEL’: It was man’s way of reaching God versus God’s way. There was a united front against God. There was a rebellion against the command to be fruitful and multiply as they gathered in one locality against God. There is no counsel or wisdom against God – no one can trump God’s plan. In Genesis 11:8 they were looking for a city, but it was the wrong one. They sought city dwelling due to rebellion against God’s command. Cain looked for a city, a social system, because he could no longer work the ground. Genesis 11:3 says, “Come let us”, and in verse 7 God says, “Come let Us” (the triune God).
Remember that God’s Story related in Genesis easily falls into two main sections: God’s dealings with humans in general (chs. 1-11); God’s dealings with those He has chosen to be His special people (chs. 12-50), which we now move into…
There are five patriarchal fathers: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and Job (not mentioned in Genesis, but it is suggested he fits just after Genesis 11:26, possibly making him forty years old at Noah’s death). These were heads of households or tribes. In Genesis, the patriarchs were sometimes inspired to declare a name of God in response to a ‘theophany’, a wondrous experience of the presence of God. They were so overwhelmed by God's visitation that they had to frame it with a title. It was a spontaneous act of worship. For example, when Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac, God provided a ram for the offering in Isaac's stead, prompting Abraham to declare that he now understood God as “Yahweh-Yireh”, meaning “The Lord Will Provide” (Genesis 22:14).
In the truest sense, there actually was no covenant in the Bible with Abraham, nor with Adam, nor with Noah. Every time God makes a covenant in the Bible, He always makes it ‘with you and your seed’ (descendants). God makes covenants with families, and in so doing, He binds us together. No individual stands alone in a covenant with God; families are in covenant with each other in the covenant with God.
God’s relationship with Abram begins by setting him apart with a promise in Genesis 12:1-3. It has a covenant structure. God sovereignly obligated Himself to Abraham while assigning him a task: ‘You go…’ and ‘I will…’ Abram was to leave his father’s house in Ur, a city of the Chaldees and his father’s birthplace (220 miles southeast of Baghdad), and Yahweh would show him where to go. The promise included: a land; a blessing of fruitfulness and dominion; a great name; mercy along with all those who bless him and those who disdain him will be judged; this shows God’s absolute sovereignty over human history.
A good example of not superimposing our concepts and notions on the text comes when we read about God taking Abraham on a journey of faith. The defining event in the life of Abraham and the midpoint of Genesis takes place on Mount Moriah, where he binds his son Isaac as a sacrificial offering on the altar he had just built. Our emotions well up as we read God’s instructions to Abraham to slay his beloved son and offer him as a burnt offering before Yahweh. The conversation between father and thirty-eight-year-old son on their way up the mountain seems to be without emotion: Isaac spoke to Abraham and said, “My father… Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham replied, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering” (Genesis 22: 7-8). In this patriarchal society a son would normally accept the patriarch’s word as final. This is why an evil patriarch corrupts his entire household.
We can only appreciate what is going on in the story when we keep the Mount Moriah climb in the context of the journey God took Abram on since the promise in Genesis 12:1-3. By the time God gave Abram a vision in Genesis 15, Abram had received enough tests and was able to question God enough to receive definite responses that God used to have Abraham respond in belief. His response results in one of the most profound statements in all of Scripture: ‘And he [Abram] believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.’ God sealed his belief with a covenant in Genesis 15:7-21.
The test on Mount Moriah came only in the full context of God’s journey with Abram through many years and hundreds of miles of travel west from Ur to Haran to Canaan and as far south as Beersheba. He built numerous altars and worshiped throughout Canaan (e.g. Genesis 12:7; 13:4, 18); he took a faithless detour to Egypt where he denied Sarai as his wife (Genesis 12:10-20); he was generous to his nephew Lot (Genesis 13:5-13); he paid the tithe to Melchizedek, recognizing him as king and priest (Genesis 14:18-20); he received a vision where he questioned Yahweh’s promise of a great reward because he was childless (Genesis 15:1-5); along with his wife, he fell back on human custom in taking a slave-girl to bear a child for him (Genesis 16:1-15); he received another appearance from the Lord commanding him the rite of circumcision as the sign of the covenant, followed by changing his name from Abram (‘High Father’), to Abraham, meaning ‘Father of a Multitude’, and changing his wife’s name from Sarai (‘My Princess’), to Sarah, meaning ‘Princess’ (Genesis 17:1-27).
All of these lessons and testing taught Abraham that God was not there to serve him, but for God to use him. The years of testing were years full of self-interest and self-deceit. Then he learned that he was not in charge of his life. He found out that he could live in obedience to the presence of God. This is why obedience was the response to the Moriah test. Although the test covered three days, the context of it spanned across a hundred years, years in which the way he lived had been repeatedly put to the test.
Abraham needed testing, and God tested him. In the beginning of his journey he tried to get the most out of life on his own terms. The test results showed that he wanted God in the image he was accustomed to with his father’s household idols. Then he found in the final test that faith is not the way to God on his own terms, but the way of God to him on His terms. Abraham was not surprised to hear the voice tell him that there is a ram in the thicket. And Isaac was not surprised to end up not sacrificed. Not a word in the story indicates anything like surprise. It took a life journey of faith to know that to live a faith life means to be tested. His faith, repeatedly tested by sacrifice, was a way of life for Abraham. Each sacrifice left him with less of self and more of God. In the command to leave Ur, Abraham had abandoned his past. He then learned how to do that for thirty-five years or so, losing nothing in the process. Finally, he was asked to abandon his future. If he had not been accustomed to trusting God, it would have seemed like an outrageous command to sacrifice his son. Untested faith does not yet qualify as faith! The Genesis story of Abraham’s journey of faith gives us enough insight to know that God was doing something with the promise He gave Eve that her “Seed” would suffer in order to gain victory over the serpent’s dominion.
What would it be like traveling and living with Abraham and Sarah, as you watch them go through the tests of faith in an unseen God? How would you advise them in their failures? How would you identify with Sarah’s desperation for a child and laughter at the possibility of a child after passing the age of childbearing? What would it be like to watch Hagar in her desperation after being cast out of Abraham’s household because of Sarah’s scoffing? What would you ask Isaac after descending Mount Moriah with his father? What attributes and titles for God do you learn about as you read God’s Story with the Abraham and Sarah?
Some shared: God really understood the intent of Abraham’s heart – past, present, future – and reckoned him as righteousness. Abraham’s faith can be compared with the faith of Noah. As we read about Abraham’s journey in faith, we notice how God is interested in what we are doing with Him right now. If all we had as a description of faith was Abraham’s journey of faith, it would be enough to understand true faith in God. Our tests of faith may be hard, but this is how we get to the place where we can believe and obey like Abraham. His test on Mount Moriah showed that his faith was not in his son but in God. Could it have been that Abraham’s faith was in his seed instead of God? Abraham could have ‘sneaked in’ another child for the sacrifice in place of his son, in a way like he told the king that his wife was his sister. The practice during Abraham’s time was child sacrifice, and Abraham knew that God had brought him out of that pagan practice so that He would not approve of sacrificing his son. Faith is linked to obedience because it does not just know something but it does something – it is an action involving obedience. Faith is not simply in the mind. Abraham’s faith drives him to obedient service to God. God required he leave his father’s land of birth and his household of idolatry. Idolatry is not simply placed in an ‘idol’ as an object, but it is more of a lifestyle, an attitude. Reading about Abraham’s journey of faith makes us ask ourselves where we are in our faith journey. We don’t want the tests without knowing why things are happening as they are for us. Wanting to know the ‘why’ is not an exercise of faith. If we knew the ‘why’ of our test, it would not require faith! God’s testing of our faith is not for God to determine where we are in our journey, but it is for us to determine where we are in our faith journey. God’s promises to Abraham were very specific and Abraham remembers those specific promises. Abraham’s faith was pure because he did not bargain with God. It’s worth noting that Isaac is not mentioned again until Sarah’s death – maybe Isaac in essence really did ‘die’ symbolically. Tests of faith do not stop at a certain point in our lives, no matter how old we grow. When do we get to the place where Abraham was in his journey of faith? It will only be after we are ‘beat’ up in life. God ordained pain and suffering for our faith to grow.
We continue in our next session with the remaining patriarchs of Genesis and their journeys of faith…
Answers to quiz: (1) Cain, when he hit ‘a bell’ (Abel) (2) When a skunk boarded the ark with a cent (scent) (3) Noah floated his stock while everyone else was liquidated (4) Noah looked out of the Ark ‘n saw (Arkansas) (5) When Rachel lit upon her camel (6) Joseph, after Pharaoh made a ruler out of him (7) Joseph served in the courts of Pharaoh
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