I find it to be quite interesting that there is no significant fallout after the prostituting of the covenant sign on the part of Jacob’s sons as well as the lack of leadership on the part of Jacob. God’s word to Jacob completely omits any mention of this or any of his other failings. Instead, He told Jacob to move to Bethel. This command wasn’t given so Jacob could flee the area where so much violence had taken place, but so Jacob could fulfill his vow before God.

Apparently, Jacob had learned a thing or two about leadership within the covenant community, telling everyone to put away their idols and to purify themselves, including the changing of clothing. Up until this point, Jacob had allowed those with him to worship any god of their choosing, evidenced by his knowledge of their idols. It is not until this point that he takes a stand and has the idols put away. Purification was also important. The people were to consecrate themselves before God, symbolized by the changing of garments. Without complaint, the people complied with his leadership.

Not even an argument! I imagine most of these idols were attained through their intermingling with the local people. They gave the family a common bond with their neighbors and likely had become a matter of psychological comfort to them. However, it was immediately apparent that all ties to these people had been severed. The social aspect of idolatry was duly broken, and so there was little need to argue.

This is not to suggest that the covenant family was incapable of their own idols. Not by a long shot! The evil within their hearts will be made apparent in the coming chapters, just as the common evil in the hearts of all is presented time and again in the scriptures. I believe it was Calvin who said that the heart of man is an idol factory. If that is true, then we are exceedingly capable of producing new forms of worship when the desire wells up from within. Therefore, we should not be too quick to proclaim victory when one lust is removed, for it can spring up in other forms as well.

God saw Jacob’s family from the area with a dread upon those staying behind, not unlike the fear that preceded Israel as they wandered forty years, and as they took most of the land promised to them. God is forever faithful, whether we are true to Him or not. As you look to your own shortcomings, comfort yourself in this. If you are in Christ, He accepts you. This is not because you have done anything great and not because you have avoided anything evil, but it is because you bear the righteousness of Jesus. If your actions can sway this matter in any direction, His work on the Cross is reduced infinitely.

After Jacob fulfilled his vow to God, the Lord renamed him Israel and ratified his place in the covenant line. There are some who would expect this placing to be accompanied by prosperity, but the days of Jacob will be hard for the remainder of his life. To begin, he lost his wife shortly after she gave birth to Benjamin. After this, his eldest son betrayed him, laying with his concubine. He is noted for his inaction at this, but God remained with Him. To one who is looking toward the city whose builder is God, that is enough. I don’t mean to build up Israel as a model for us to emulate, for there is only one man in all of history worthy of this honor. Israel’s passivity will cause him much grief in the years to come, but God will prove Himself to be true throughout all of his bad times.

That is the thought of this day. God is ALWAYS the hero of every account in the Bible. Jacob’s name has been referenced quite a bit in these chapters, but he is truly only playing a bit part in this story. Oh how I wish I could glean the text deeper to place even more emphasis on Christ! If Moses wrote about Christ and if all of the texts of scripture are writing about Him, I can easily become frustrated when I miss these references. But that is no excuse to stop reading.

This reading ends in genealogies. These have their place, and much gold can be mined from their rich veins. For the time being, let me point out that in the book of Genesis, one function they have is to recap what has happened and point the reader ahead for the next major section of the book.

As several of my friends can attest, I have spent far too much time contemplating this writing. That is not to say that I could ever spend too much time contemplating the reading of the Bible, but I believe I did fall into the error of trying to fit two Biblical accounts together in ways that they were not intended, thus I over-contemplated my own writing. It is true that I was out of town for a few days. Add some travel time and the uber-important time spent reconnecting with the family, and I have been out of action on this blog for just under two weeks. Because my original concept didn’t pan out, I’ll stick to this one chapter for today.

In chapter 34, we can see that the family of Jacob had been getting just a bit too cozy with the locals in Canaan. I say this because Dinah went out to see the women. This was not an activity akin to birdwatching. Dinah was out to associate with them, not to observe their strange practices. And while she was out and about, Shechem gave her an up close and personal taste of these practices against her will. Following this despicable act, he spoke tenderly to her and desired her hand in marriage.

I find this to be strange. In our culture, a rapist would not follow up with tender words and the desire for any form of commitment whatsoever. Call it a shot in the dark, but don’t you suppose this could be a pagan form of… trying out the girl before deciding to marry her? I have little reason to stand on this interpretation, in fact all that I have is laid out in this post. But if I am correct, then Christians have yet another reason to avoid intimate contact before marriage, due to the pagan nature of the act. The culture we live in is one that values sex and devalues marriage at every turn, much like the pagan culture of Canaan.

I don’t have any daughters, so I can only imagine the anger that would burn in me if I were to find that my daughter had been taken advantage of in this way. I can be hot-headed at times, but when your daughter’s honor has been stolen from her, wouldn’t you think that rash action is better than inaction? The sons of Jacob were out in the fields, so he stayed silent about the matter. The appropriate thing to do, of course, would have been to inquire of the Lord, but being hot-headed myself, I can’t fault Jacob for looking past this important step at this time.

You will recall that Jacob was living on the land that was promised originally to Abraham. When Hamor spoke to Jacob about this matter, he suggested that the land would be open to Jacob as they intermingled with the Canaanites. With the acceptance of a bride-price, Jacob would no longer be relying on God as his provision. In a sense, Jacob did the best thing that we see in this chapter. He said nothing.

That was a bit tongue-in-cheek, by the way. He should have… well… he should have responded as Dinah’s father! Instead, it was his sons who responded with an offer. The offer suggested that the men of the land be circumcised so that all would be well.

What’s so bad about this? Well, circumcision was the sign of the covenant. It was a sign given to all Israelite males and those in their homes to mark them as the people of God. It was a sign of the promise that was infinitely better than the empty promises of the Canaanites! And it was prostituted by the sons of Jacob in a deceitful act to gain the upper hand over their enemies. Remember that word as the chapter comes to a close. The sons of Jacob prostituted the sign of God’s covenant just as the men of Canaan sought to treat their sister as a prostitute.

I do want to pause for a moment to point something out. Being circumcised in the flesh was not an action that caused a person to be a member of the covenant people. Circumcision was used as a sign that the person already was in the covenant! There certainly are parallels from circumcision to baptism, and remembering that covenant “membership” precedes the covenant sign serves as just one of many reasons why I am not a paedobaptist. A person becomes an heir with Christ once they repent and believe in the gospel of Christ. Once they are an heir, they are within the covenant of the blood of Jesus. Therefore, baptism should follow their entry into covenant. Is this an overly simplistic argument? Yes. But remember that it is an aside and is not the main point of the text.

Three days later, while the men of the city were sore from their circumcisions, Jacob’s sons attacked them and plundered their city. They used the sign of the covenant for revenge and material gain while their father said nothing. As the patriarch, Jacob had a responsibility to lead them in this difficult situation, but the situation truly began when the family got too cozy with the inhabitants. I imagine that Moses used this accounting as a warning to the people of Israel that they must clear the people out before them when they arrived back at the land some 400+ years later.

Jacob responded to this event in anger toward his sons, for he feared man more than God at this point. Even though he was a keeper of the covenant and the recipient of great promises from God, he looked away from his Heavenly reality and looked toward his Earthly dangers. His perspective was firmly placed on circumstance, leading him to chastise his sons for what had transpired. Their response? Why should he treat OUR SISTER like a prostitute? They didn’t refer to Dinah as Jacob’s daughter but as their sister.

That says a lot, doesn’t it?

To bring us all up to speed with Jacob, let me give you a recap of his life. He was the younger boy in a pair of twins, struggling against his brother Esau from the beginning of their lives in their mother’s womb. During this time, it was revealed to Isaac and Rebekah that the older son would serve the younger. So Jacob was predestined to be the covenant heir all along. Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for a stew to quench his hunger, though I doubt he was truly near death. Then Jacob, with the help of his mother, deceived Isaac to take the blessing that Isaac wanted to give to Esau, though God’s original intent was that Jacob would receive it.

Out of fear for his life, Jacob fled to Laban, and God met him and confirmed the covenant with him. Despite this, Jacob lived his life by his own strength and his own wits, sometimes coming out ahead and sometimes not. He fell in love with Rachel and was tricked into marrying her older sister Leah after seven years of work. Another seven years was required to marry Rachel. There was much contention between the two sisters, one desired his affection and the other desired offspring, and each of them were getting what the other craved in the beginning. Six additional years of labor, filled with plots between Laban and Jacob, continued and God blessed Jacob despite his underhanded (and worthless) tactics. Laban’s strategy was more sound, but the providence of God is mightier than any scheme of man.

Jacob fled Laban at the command of God and was pursued for a week. After that time, Laban searched for his household idols among Jacob’s belongs, neither of them knowing that they were hidden beneath Rachel. Laban and Jacob agreed to part ways, but I wouldn’t consider their relationship to be very warm from this point on.

Jacob had the command to return, which was good because going back to Laban wasn’t an option for him. From a purely human standpoint, he was in a tough spot. He couldn’t retreat, and he feared going forward because his brother would be waiting. Jacob wasn’t around to hear Esau announce his intention to kill him back in chapter 27, but he knew his brother and he knew his deception. Scheming had marked his path up to this point, but sooner or later you run out of room to maneuver, and Jacob was certainly trapped at this point.

OK, we’re caught up now.

Let’s recall that Jacob was announced as God’s chosen heir before he was born. Both his election and God’s proclamation that he would carry on the covenant line happened before we have any reference point toward belief or his repentance from his sinful reliance on himself. Some would point to the story of Jacob’s ladder as a mark of divine union with God, but there is no example of a changed life based on his actions at the well where he met Rachel. There is no mention of him inquiring of the Lord. He really never managed to juggle his wives toward any family unity whatsoever. Also, he tried to use his own plans to prosper himself, apparently forgetting the grand promise of God. When he made a covenant with Laban, he spoke of the God of Abraham and Nahor, and swore by the fear of his father, not by the God that he served. All of these point toward unbelief. An unbelief grounded in self-sufficiency and pride.

Now I can relate. Now this whole rock and a hard place picture of his situation is coming together.

None of this happened by accident and none of it happened outside the decree of God. By his own actions, Jacob had painted himself into a corner that he couldn’t get out of. He had run out of ways to trick the system. All he had was his wealth. And that is what he sent ahead of him to Esau, in an effort to make peace with his brother before actually meeting him face to face. Why did he do this? For starters, Jacob learned that Esau was coming with four hundred men. Jacob didn’t know the reason why all these men came with his brother, but he could imagine any number of bad reasons for this.

Let’s look at his prayer for a moment. He begins by addressing God as the God of his father and grandfather, and reminds God of His promise to bless Jacob. Then, all of a sudden, Jacob says something unexpected. He says that he is not worthy of the love of God and he acknowledges that it was God who blessed him, not his own actions. He asks for God to deliver him and goes back to the promise of God. Up to this point, the promise of God had no bearing on his life. Now, he turned to God when he was in the pressure cooker of life and death.

You know somebody who has not had a saving encounter with Jesus. We all do. Hopefully you remember that person frequently in your prayers. We all say we do. I believe it is best to pray that God would reveal Himself to that person in His own way, rather than pray that some situation would work out to their favor so you could proclaim that it was God’s doing. Why do so many people pray that God would comfort the unsaved and salve their woes? The primary role of the Spirit of God is to glorify Jesus as the savior, not to comfort the sinner’s felt needs! It is far better for the sinner to be given an inventory of their own misery from God, that they may finally detect their true state. I don’t necessarily pray that God would make their lives worse so they can believe, mind you, but I do pray that God would reveal Himself to someone and trust Him to respond according to His mercy and grace. If that mercy and grace involves me in some way, great! If not, I know that I can only trust in the goodness of God.

Back to Jacob. He wasn’t yet done trusting in his own ways yet. He sent his extravagant present to Esau, perhaps to offset the blessing that he “stole,” and separated his camp into two camps, in case one was overtaken and destroyed. That very night, he had his encounter with the preincarnate Christ.

In the end, it was God who sought out Jacob. In an intense wrestling match that lasted all night, God took the final source of Jacob’s strength by wounding his hip, not unlike the practice of a shepherd wounding a lamb with a propensity to stray. And just like the sheep, Jacob was wounded so that he would learn to lean on the strength of his shepherd rather than his own ability to stray very far. Jacob refused to let go of God until he received the blessing. This is a wonderful picture of the command Paul Washer gives in his sermons to throw yourself at Christ for your salvation. We are saved, not by any magical prayer or by our good deeds or anything else within our power. We can only be saved by clinging to Christ as our only hope.

This is the point I choose to mark as Jacob’s conversion, for his life will never be the same. However, as we continue on, we will soon see that Jacob’s life continued to be influenced by the fruits of his earlier actions. It is a truth that far to many Christians refuse to accept in themselves or others. This refusal to acknowledge the sinfulness that remains is a deep root of legalism. It is a root that must be violently wrenched from the soil of our hearts if we are to serve as witnesses to the Gospel.

Rather than provide commentary for chapter 33, I will ask you to read it once again in light of what I have said today. You will see a genuine change in Jacob that promotes an end to the hostility between him and his brother.

As I read chapter 31 a few times, I couldn’t help but think of Jacob’s departure as one where he plundered Laban. This is not to say that he was not within his rights to do so, but I believe it to be a precursor to the plundering of Egypt by Israel as Moses led them and they were laden with gifts. Also, when Israel left Egypt, they took the idols of Egypt with them in their hearts, signified by the golden calf of Aaron. When Jacob fled Laban, Rachel took the family gods with her, tucked in her saddle.

In the command of God to leave, it is made clear that the animals were colored differently by the hand of God and not by Jacob’s silly attempt to influence them with peeled sticks. And with that command to leave, Jacob’s departure was within the will of God. But Jacob decided to leave at a time that Laban was busy. In fact, it took Laban three days to realize what had happened and to take chase. I wonder how this tactic spoke to Laban about the power of God. Did he look upon it as a sign that this Covenant man was confidant in his God or did it seem to him that Jacob didn’t believe that God could see him to his destination without Jacob’s plan?

Another thought, Jacob says that Laban had changed his wages ten times. This can be taken to show that Laban had taken complete advantage of Jacob or it may be an actual ten times that the wage had been changed. Verse 8 implies that the deal for the various patterns of animals had been changed to include spotted animals one time and striped another. Perhaps Laban had seen the minority of patterns on the animals and had designated that to Jacob at different times.

These are just a few thoughts to consider about this chapter. As Jacob reentered the promised land, he encountered the angels of God. Somewhere in all of this, a change in Jacob was begun. The text doesn’t pinpoint the event of this shift, but a potential sign has already been seen as Jacob acknowledges God’s provision in the colored animals and further signs will be seen before he wrestles with God.

But I’m saving that one for tomorrow… or maybe the next day!

Romans 9:10-13
And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

I came across a different thought as I read chapter 27 for about the third time. If you will recall chapter 25, God had already decreed that the older of the twins would serve the younger. In that same chapter, we see Esau despising his birthright, selling it to Jacob for a bowl of stew. Before the boys were even born, God had proclaimed the appropriate heir for Isaac’s family. It was good for Isaac to love Esau, but who was he to try to give the blessing to Esau in spite of God’s decree?

Another note: Abraham was taught to walk by faith and not by sight. Isaac had received similar instruction from God as well. When it came time to give the birthright, he didn’t even have sight, but he did have his other senses. The text refers to him feeling the goat hair on Jacob and smelling the scent of Esau on the clothing. Because his eyes had failed him, these will serve as his sight. Therefore, at the most important moment of his life, Isaac walked by sight rather than by faith.

What would the response have been if he were to inquire of the Lord which son was with him? This is an impossible question to answer, but if I were to take a crack at it I believe God would have told him that this is Jacob, but that he should bless Jacob as his heir. Had he told Isaac to reserve the blessing for Esau so God could bless Jacob separately, the covenant line would be broken and restarted. This is not even hinted at until Moses intervened on behalf of the people of Israel on Mt. Sinai, and it would have grave consequences regarding the original promises given to Abraham and to Isaac.

However, Jacob and Rebekah also attempted to intervene on the plan of God. The Bible doesn’t tell us of their motives, but I can’t believe that Rebekah wanted to trick her husband so that God’s plan would work out. She preferred Jacob over Esau, and that is the only concrete reason for her part in this trickery. So Isaac isn’t the only one guilty of walking by sight here.

Chapter 28 begins with a directive for Jacob that he not marry a Canaanite woman. The reasons for this have already been spelled out, but this instruction is repeated for us in the text once again. Why? To highlight Esau’s action immediately following. In fact, not only did he marry against his father’s wishes; he married multiple women. Esau was beginning to show his true colors in the fallout of his anger.

Back to Jacob. He slept with a rock for a pillow. He was a man on the run when he had a divine meeting with Jesus. Why do I say Jesus is involved?

John 1:51
And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you,[1] you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

Jacob calls this place the house of God, and the gate of heaven and he worships God. Later in the gospels, Jesus refers to his own body as the house of God and the gate of heaven. The gospel is promised in this very passage, though only as another layer of progressive revelation. God came to Jacob when he was on the run and after he had committed some very underhanded tactics to gain everything of value from his brother, and yet God sought him out.

Now, it may be more exact to say that Jacob’s encounter was with the second person of the trinity, for the name “Jesus” was not given until the first advent, but I’m writing from this side of the cross, not the previous side here. And from this side, it is much easier to make parallels from the revelation given in the New Testament to the revelation given in the Old. God sought Jacob from before his birth all the way to the evening that is in this reading.

In response, Jacob worshiped the Lord. But did his ways change immediately? As we will soon see, he still tries to achieve his goals through his own methods, choosing superstition over truth.

But that is a story, best reserved for another day. Let it suffice to say that if your Christian walk hasn’t been perfect, there is still hope for you. Jacob will prove to be a scoundrel and a coward in the coming days, and yet he is listed in high regard throughout the rest of scripture, even in Hebrews 11, a chapter written that we may have examples to follow. The people of that chapter are all flawed in one way or another, but they sought the spotless lamb, and His righteousness covered their flaws, just as it covers all who believe.

As this post title suggests, we are heading into a series of conflicts. That’s not to say that there haven’t been any troubles leading to this point, but the next week or so will be highlighted by conflict. Much of this will be caused by Jacob, but we’ll get to these instances in due time.

Before this is discussed, why don’t you go back and count the number of Ishmael’s sons once again. Now re-read Genesis 17:20. God is a promise keeping god, whether or not one is in the covenant line.

Back to the covenant line, Jacob and Esau struggled in the womb of their mother and it is shown that the older would serve the younger. God had already chosen the patriarch as well as the order of birth. Why then would he choose the patriarch to be born second? Perhaps it is to show that God makes His sovereign choices in ways that can contradict the ways of man. Isaac certainly didn’t see it that way, for he favored Esau! But Esau despised his birthright due to his lack of faith.

And what’s up with Isaac’s claim that Rebekah was his sister? That wasn’t even a half truth! And the controversy surrounding the wells? Abraham may have proved his faith when God provided the ram for the sacrifice, but Isaac doesn’t seem to have picked it up. Parents, do not expect your children to learn from your life lessons!

Treasuring God’s Truth in your Heart

Proverbs 3:5-6
 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
  In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.

As I read and listened to this day’s reading, I began to get a sense that the promises to Abraham are beginning to take shape. Sure, by this point he had a son, the child of promise, but today’s reading seems to take a different tone. It is a tone underscored by the death of his wife. Not surprisingly, the ongoing fulfillment is accomplished through this suffering of God’s covenant line.

When Sarah died, the family was residing inside the boundaries of the land promised to Abraham. In a sense, Abraham began the fulfillment of this acquisition by buying the cave of Machpelah and the field adjacent to it at an inflated price. Before this, he was merely a sojourner in the land as far as the Hittites were concerned. After the sale of the property he became a legal land owner.

In chapter 24, we read about the providence of God as he led Abraham’s servant to Rebekah to further the line of descendants promised to Abraham. One thing to point out is that the slave referred to Abraham as his master until he returned, at which time that distinction was given to Isaac. There is a definite passing of the torch going on through this reading, which is further distinguished by Isaac taking Rebekah into Sarah’s tent comforting Isaac as he mourned the loss of his mother.

So we see the family line taking shape as well as the acquisition of the land in today’s reading. Both promises took a giant step forward, but we should not place an unhealthy amount of stock in physical descendants or in geographical land today.

Hebrews 11:13-16
These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

Treasuring God’s Truth in your Heart

Proverbs 3:5-6
 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
  In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.

In today’s reading, we see that God kept his promise to Sarah, that she would bear a son to Abraham. He did this, despite her laughter when the promise was made a year earlier. Two reasons for this are because God promised that Abraham’s descendants would be like the stars, impossible to number, and because God operates within His plan, whether our schemes agree with Him or not. Having an heir through a servant may be valid in a pagan society, but it is completely contrary to the word of God from Genesis 2:24.

Hebrews 11:11-12 paints a different picture of this matter than I saw it, and where the New Testament offers an interpretation of an Old Testament passage, it is important to concede to the greater revelation. This is an important reminder, since I haven’t exactly been kind to Sarah thus far. I don’t know of any passage in the NT that speaks directly to the weaning of Isaac, though.

Generally speaking, it is a bad thing when I try to determine what a woman is thinking. Seriously, that has gotten me into more trouble than just about anything! But I will try to do this as we look at the time when Isaac was weaned. Ishmael was laughing at the event. The notes in my Bible suggest that this laugh was more of a scoff against the child than a laugh of humor. I’m taking this as the last straw in the mind of Sarah. She laughed in disbelief when God told Abraham that she would bear him a son. She laughed with joy when her son was born. Hearing the son of her servant laugh at her own son was all it took for her to demand that Hagar and Ishmael be sent away. It seems to me that she needed to produce an heir before she could confidently approach Abraham to have him remove his eldest son from the family.

Though that is an example of thinking outside the covenant framework, God affirmed the request and Hagar and Ishmael were sent out. And when their water was gone and they were without hope, God provided water for them, and they lived outside the land promised to Abraham. In a sense, this is an early manifestation of all of the nations being blessed through Abraham, for God provided for his son, not because Ishmael was part of the covenant line, but because God loved Abraham and had promised that Ishmael, too, would be the father of a great nation.

In Genesis 22, God tests Abraham to see if he has truly learned from his experiences. Hebrews 11:17-19 tells us that Abraham truly believed that Isaac was the next in his line through which God would meet His promise of decedents like the sand of the sea. And that belief even allowed him to thrust a knife into his son, believing that God could raise him from the dead. In a sense, he was raised from the dead at that point.

But then, just as Abraham promised to Isaac, God provided a lamb for the offering. Do note that the ram was caught in the thicket by its horns. Had it been caught by the hindquarters, it likely would have been cut and bleeding. God provided a sacrifice to Himself that was without blemish, just as He did in Christ. And just like the crucifixion of Jesus, we are spared the death that we should suffer and will one day be raised from the dead. It is a beautiful picture for us today, and I hope that it inspires worship within you as you read it.

Treasuring God’s Truth in your Heart

Proverbs 3:5-6
 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
  In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.

Looking at this day’s reading, I would have to say that the reoccurring theme that stands out to me would be hospitality. The reading opens up with Abraham going far out of his way to serve a group of three men who appeared before his tent. Before long, we are told that it is God along with two angels.

During the meal, God promises that Sarah would bear a son to Abraham and she laughs. Then she denied it. God’s response is a bit interesting, and I wonder if I’m not reading into it too much. “No, but you did laugh.” It reminds me of the response given when Joshua asks the commander of the Lord’s army if he is for or against Israel. The answer there also begins with “No.” Is this an oft-overlooked word in this passage or am I grasping at straws?

After the intercessory prayer of Abraham, the angels go down to Sodom and are met by Lot at the gate. I have read that Lot may have been a judge serving his community in that capacity based on his location, but Genesis 19:9 seems to work against this understanding. I don’t see the comments of an angry mob as being very forthright. My impression is that their response was not unlike a child saying to another child, “You’re not the boss of me.” So what was Lot doing at the city gate in the first place?

Lot knew what kind of a place Sodom was. He knew the dangers that a traveler might face if they were sleeping in the town square. Because of this, he insisted that they quickly come to his home and leave early the next morning. He was trying to show his hospitality to these seemingly unsuspecting travelers. He was a good man in that respect.

He wasn’t a very strong man when it came to other matters. The people of the city didn’t take him seriously. His future sons in law didn’t take him seriously. His wife didn’t take him seriously. Even he didn’t take the matter of imminent death seriously, needing to be caught up by the angels to get going. Even his plea to go to Zoar contradicted the promise of safety in the hills that had been given him. Side note, Lot has a lot in common with the evangelical church in America.

So they escape to Zoar, then leave because they are afraid to live there. Perhaps they were expecting further destruction, maybe the townspeople weren’t too keen on taking in refugees. The text doesn’t really say. But Lot and his two daughters go to a cave and Lot is seduced with wine to impregnate each of his daughters. They knew that they weren’t the last people on Earth, you know. Zoar wasn’t destroyed, and it is unlikely that there were no men in that town. Why did the daughters think that sleeping with Lot was the best way to make sure they didn’t die childless? They seemed to think that there weren’t any men around, but I can’t imagine where they would have come to that conclusion, having just left an intact city. It seems to me that many of the national enemies of Israel are a step removed from being related to them and their beginnings are all ones in the failures of God’s people. There’s a lesson to be learned in this repeating example, I’m certain.

After all this, we read about Abraham and Sarah in Gerar. Once again, Abraham tells his half lie that Sarah is his sister, then goes so far as to say that he asked her to tell people this out of kindness to him. I’d like to say that I do not understand Abraham in all of this, but I know all too well how easy it can be to pass the blame for your own lack of faith on to others. To stay with a theme of hospitality, I would say that this lie and the resulting trouble caused in the house of Abimelech can serve as an example of how not to thank a hospitable host. The command to love your neighbor includes your enemies as well, though this king had no quarrel with Abraham until Abraham began to look away from God’s promise and look to the earthly powers around him.

Treasuring God’s Truth in your Heart

Romans 11:33-36
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

“For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?”
“Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?”

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

OK. So the post title isn’t the best one I’ve come up with so far. But I do want to use this opportunity to say that I am enjoying this style of reading quite a bit. If I were laboring over each word in the text, I would point several things differently. The matter of a slave becoming the heir of the covenant. The only instance that I can think of where a man is told to look to the stars to marvel at a promise meant for him, rather than to proclaim the magnificence of God over man. The animals used in the cutting of the covenant being the same animals suitable for sacrifice. And so on.

Instead, I am looking at this three-chapter block in terms of offspring. God had promised to Abram that he would be the father of nations, and Abram complained that he had not been granted a natural heir. God responded in a profound way, walking alone among the slain animals to signify that He alone would be accountable to keep the terms of the covenant. There was no “if you do this I will do that” to this covenant. God would keep His word and that was that.

Immediately in chapter 16, this sense of divine assurance is undermined by Sarai, and she convinces Abram to produce an heir through her slave, Hagar. Then, when Hagar looks on her with contempt, she treats Hagar harshly and blames the fiasco on Abram! Abram is not off the hook in the slightest, however, for he had been given a grand sign and wonder in the covenant. He did not protect his marriage to Sarai, preferring her suggestion to produce an heir the way a pagan would go about it. He then did not intervene, but told Sarai to handle the situation however she saw fit.

What did God do in the following chapter? He went back to His covenant and renamed Abram and Sarai. He then initiated circumcision as the sign of the covenant with them and promised a direct heir between Abraham and Sarah. For all intents and purposes, this is the point where they cease to be pagans and begin to be Hebrews. In fact, it isn’t until Sinai that God makes any sort of covenant with a people who are not pagan. And even at that time, the inherent pagan nature of the people will show through.

So why did God persevere with Abram after all of this? There are several reasons that I can think of, but for now I will stick to the covenant itself. God had made a unilateral promise to Abram in His own name. Abram had many faults. So do I and so do you, but to those who have been promised a great reward from God, it is imperative that we remember the character of God. The apostle Paul words it best in 2 Timothy 2:13: if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.

Treasuring God’s Truth in your Heart

Romans 11:33-36
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
“For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?”
“Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?”
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.