Genesis 17

In this week’s bible chapter we’re going to be introduced to a practice that has haunted men for centuries. You can read the summary of last week’s chapter here and you can read Genesis 17 itself here.

Now the practice I just mentioned is indeed circumcision and in this weeks reading we find God commanding Abraham to take on this task. For the sake of context I’ll summarise where were coming from.

Moses, the author of Genesis, is chilling in the desert with the Israelites, fresh out of Egypt and he’s basically providing them with a history of their nation, while dropping some seriously theological themes. Therefore, we can see how Genesis 17 and its explanation of the origin of circumcision in Israel would have been important for the average Israelite to know. No doubt, the men in Israel had some serious questions about why they had a tradition involving the most vulnerable part of the male body. But that’s not all this chapter explains. Let’s walk through it together.

We start off with God appearing before Abraham. Now as far as we know, God hasn’t shown up for around 15 years. In fact Abraham hasn’t seen God since before the awkward turtle situation with Hagar, which resulted with little Ishmael. So apart from the problems that ensued when Abraham heeded ill advice of his wife (Genesis 16:2), Abraham probably had no reason to think that Ishmael was not the promised son. God had never said that his promised son would come from Sarah, so his child with Hagar probably seemed like a legit part of the covenant made in Genesis 15. Anyway, we’ll touch on this more later.

Now God basically starts with one of His spiels, restating much of what He’s said before. However, this time He changes Abram’s name to Abraham, which is great because up until now I’ve been crazy confused about which name to use in our weekly bible summaries. Now the meaning of his name has gone from “exalted father” to “father of many nations”. Now let’s stop and think about this. Abraham in the past would have introduced himself as “exalted father”. People would have heard this and asked how many children he had exactly. This was a question that could only be answered by an awkward silence on Abraham's part.

But NOW God amps it up a bit. Now Abraham is a father of NATIONS. How embarrassing would that be? I get the feeling the dialogue would go something like this.

Stranger: Hi, what’s your name?

Abraham: The God I serve has changed my name to “father of many nations”.

Stranger: Oh cool, how many kids you got?

Abraham: One.

Stranger:…right

But that’s just how God works. God writes the future. We can’t even see it. So when it appears like we’ve been promised something impossible (like, I don’t know, a guy on a horse with a sword coming out of his mouth and with eyes like blazing fire, cracking the sky open to come save us from this earth) we need childlike faith to trust that God can and will do what He says. And God has never broken a promise.

Okay, so in verses 9-14 we see the act of circumcision come in. The New Testament (Col. 2:11-14) sheds light on the meaning behind circumcision. The cutting off of the foreskin basically represents the believer in Christ, putting off the flesh and its ways. The fact that the flesh being physically removed is on the male genitalia possibly indicates that God is sanctifying for Himself a line of descendants or a nation from one man, through whom he will accomplish his work of redemption and the ultimate “putting off of the flesh” at the great consummation at the end of the age. Another interesting point is that these circumcised men were to be sexually pure (since they were God’s people) and thus the incision of the foreskin marked them off as different to the other nations. Ironically if they were to fall into sexual promiscuity and have relations with women or even prostitutes from other nations, the women would see that the men were different and possibly even question why, which would have been a convicting question for the men about to engage in what they knew to be an immoral act.

Now one of the ways that circumcision is relevant to us today is found in verse 7. God states that this covenant will be an everlasting covenant. Now since the New Testament states clearly that we no longer need to be circumcised, some view water baptism as the symbol of the new covenant, replacing circumcision. They bring Colossians 2:11-14 into the discussion to show that therefore in the same way all the newborn males were circumcised, now all newborn children must be baptized. In other words they believe in infant baptism. Others believe that a profession of faith is necessary in order for one to be baptized and infants clearly cannot profess faith in Christ, therefore it makes no sense for us to baptize our children.

Now I think it would be highly ignorant for me to say that infant baptism is an unimportant issue. Some people hold to the view that the essentials of salvation are the only things in the bible worth arguing over. Last time I checked ALL scripture was God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16) and therefore it’s ALL important. Therefore, I have no problem with people who get dogmatic over this issue and try to take God’s word seriously. Personally, I’ve listened to arguments for and against baptizing children and while I do lean towards infant baptism, I know way too little to be dogmatic about the issue myself. Google it and come to your own conclusion :)

Onto the second half of the chapter! God notices that Sarai probably feels left out of the whole “getting a new name thing” so he changes her name to Sarah, which basically means the same thing. If anything, her name has changed from “my princess” to just “princess”, perhaps indicating that the scope of her princess-like position as the mother of many nations is greater than the average woman. She is not just MY (Abraham’s?) princess but also the princess over many nations.

Now when God finally says indicates that Sarah herself would give birth to his promised son, he reacts on a less than faithful manner. He basically laughs in God’s face. Now, granted he and Sarah were quite old and it literally would have taken a miracle for them to give birth to a child so it's no wonder he laughed in disbelief. But still. Never laugh at God. When I was reading this verse I was surprised that the next verse didn’t say “and God struck him down and went looking for a new patriarch”.

Anyway, after picking himself up off the floor from his laughing fit, Abraham proceeds to ask God to choose Ishmael as the promised son. No doubt Abraham loved the boy, being his first child and thus would have wanted the blessings of the covenant to be enjoyed by his firstborn. And yet God rejects Ishmael. Why? Let’s go to the New Testament for some clarification.

Galatians 4:22-23
“For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise.”

Ishmael represents human effort. When Abraham and Sarah lacked faith in God’s promise, they decided to help Him along and thus Ishmael was born. But God doesn’t work according to human standards. He does the impossible. Thus Abraham’s promised child was to be called Isaac, since God’s promises are so outlandish that they cause us to laugh with disbelief, but at the same time God himself is so faithful to His word that when He brings His promises to pass, He causes us to laugh for joy (Genesis 21:6).

Be encouraged. God has promised Christians the greatest gift He could offer; namely Himself. And while life’s struggles seek to sway us and cause us to fear, may we persevere in faith in God’s promises since He is faithful regardless of life’s trials or even our faithlessness (Romans 3:3) and no matter how unbelievable his promises may seem, our God can do the impossible (Luke 1:37).

Peace

Genesis 12

We're starting with the life of Abraham in our weekly bible readings. If you guys want an idea of what happened in Genesis 11, so you understand a bit of the background then check out our summary of it here.

Again here's the text so you can read it for yourself:

The Call of Abram

12:1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8 From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. 9 And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.

Abram and Sarai in Egypt

10 Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. 11 When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, 12 and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. 13 Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.” 14 When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15 And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house. 16 And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.

17 But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife. 18 So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go.” 20 And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.

So to start off its always important to lay down the context for the chapter, otherwise we could probably twist the passage to justify racism if we tried hard enough.

The author of this passage is commonly held to be Moses who is assumed to be the author of the entire Pentateuch. He's writing this history of the patriarchs for Israel, who he has led out of slavery from Egypt and with whom he's currently wandering aimlessly in the desert with (...yeah, the Israelites thought it was messed up too).

And its not like they sipping drinks by the pool side. In fact, that wouldn't even make sense cos there was barely any water. This was a hard time for Israel. Most of them would not live to see the Promise Land and they would need to know that God has a purpose and a promise even through their punishment. This is the point of Genesis as a whole.

I'm gonna deal with the first half of this chapter first and then come to the wife swap situation later. Basically, God rocks up and is like "Abe, it's time to bail. I'll be in the car". Now this means leaving his fatherland, which was a big deal back then cos it was basically like leaving your identity behind and becoming a no one.

To do this requires FAITH (and a fear of being crushed by the omnipotent being who just tore your roof off and commanded you to do something) and its this type of faith that gets Abe credit in Hebrews 11:8. This reminds me of the fact that without faith its impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6) and also anything that does not proceed from faith is sin (Romans 14:23). You would do well to think about this for a bit.

Upon commanding Abe (can I call him Abe? I feel like were close enough) to leave his home, God gives him this stunning blessing:
"I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

Hopefully, you can see this is a clear reference to the future Christ who will come through Abe's seed. Notice how God says "in you" and not "through you". Paul later states that all believers in Christ are children of Abraham (Galatians 3:29). It would seem as if it works both ways.

IN Abraham is almost synonymous with being IN Christ (his seed) and THIS is where the blessing lies. So for all those who think God broke His promise because not all the families of the world are blessed through Abraham, this blessing is for those in Christ only. And they are CRAZY blessed.

Let's move onto Abe's issue in Egypt. On the surface it just seems like a nice story with the basic moral being: trust God and He'll get you through trials.

And it is.

But I think there's something else here. Notice the contrast between the first part of this chapter and the second part.
In the first part we see Abram displaying great faith, leaving everything he has in Haran to follow the call of God and setting up altars where ever he goes in worship of God.

THEN, we see Abram set up a huge lie to protect himself (while neglecting the sanctity of his wife, mind you) all because he had no FAITH in God. See the contrast?

So what does this passage say as a whole?
Well, it seems quite clear that in regards to man, he is fickle and changes like the weather (and by that I mean Melbourne weather). One minute he might be a man who displays such great faith that he goes down in history for it and the next minute he's telling his wife that he's cool with another dude having his way with her as long as he gets to live. Nice. I guess the moral there is, don't trust Man.

But I think the more important question is what does this passage say about God?
Well, lets look and see...from verse 17:

"But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife. 18 So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go.” 20 And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had."

We see that even though Abe was inconsistent, God remained faithful to his promise (Romans 3:3-4). He wasn't about to let some Egyptian mess around with Abram's wife and compromise Abe's seed.

Take note; our God is a faithful God.
As much as the bible, and Genesis specifically, is about the depravity of Man, it is also about the faithfulness of God to His promise that he made from the beginning.
(Genesis 3:15)

Key thoughts:
Are YOU living by faith?
Are you trying to please God with your works or with your faith in Jesus Christ?
Jesus said if you love Him, you will obey Him. You may be genuinely doing what you think to be God's will but you might be totally off and actually in sin.
It's God's will for us to read His word and obey Him by faith, just like Abraham did.
At the same time, recognise that although you're unfaithfulness is practically guaranteed, God will always remain faithful to you if you are His chosen people.

May that knowledge lead us to worship.

Peace

Why all the alls then?

Consider these verses with me:

John 3:16

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

John 1:29

The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

1 Timothy 2:3-4

This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

And look these up too if you got the time:

1 John 2:2, John 4:42; 6:33, 51

Now, most people take these verses and a bagillion other similar verses to demonstrate how God loves and died for EVERYONE in the world ever and wants EVERYONE in the world to believe and be saved.

I don't :)

But this post is NOT an attempt to convince those who hold to the former view of why their view is illogical and wrong and what not.

The standard Reformed view of these verses (which i adhere to) is that the authors are emphasising that Jesus did not die to only save Israelites or to only save lower class people but to save all kinds of people (Revelation 5:9).

But what always bothered me about these types of verses is not the persistent proof-texting that free willers are dying to confront me with, but that there's just SO many of them. I mean, I get that Jesus died for all types of people, but why does every author in the new testament (slight exaggeration) seem to want to make that clear? Why is it such a big thing to emphasise? Why all the alls???

In fact if anything would persuade me to switch over to the typical Arminian interpretation of these verses, it would be the sheer amount of the verses like this that exist.

It would seem as if God is trying to make a really important point here.

And that's because He is.

I discovered the meaning behind this aggressive emphasis of Christ dying for all, during my study of our weekly bible reading.

We're up to Genesis 10 at the moment which is basically one of those genealogy chapters that everyone groans at and upon encountering it wonders why God would purposely make the bible seem boring; which is what I did at the start of the week.

But then I decided to shrug off that lethargic attitude and really sat down with the text to see what God was saying here.

So that's what I did. I got my study bible out and checked the cross references for the text. For those who have no idea what the text is about, I'll set the scene.

In Genesis 9, Noah and his crew just got out of the ark after the rainy days. Noah throws his own private party (literally), gets drunk and passes out, naked, in his tent. Now, Noah has three sons; Shem, Japheth and Ham. Ham has a laugh at his dad and shows disrespect towards his father, which if you've read the bible, you'll know God puts right up there with murder (Romans 1:28-32).

In response to this, after Shem and Japheth cover him up (and after he sobers up), Noah curses Ham, blesses Shem and kinda half blesses Japheth. We then see in Genesis 10 the descendants of each of these sons.

Now the key part of Genesis 10 is that God's chosen people would come through Shem's line (because he has been blessed) and the enemies of God's people would come through Ham (primarily) and also Japheth. So we get a nice list of all the major sons of each line, and we (hopefully) recognise some of Israel's major future enemies, like Babylon, Assyria, etc.

Now, get this.

After around half an hour (at the most) of studying through all these cross references, examining where each of these descendants get mentioned in the rest of the OT, I fell into a line of thinking that I never thought I would.

At one point I actually stopped and said to myself, "wait...am I in God's elect line? Am I part of his chosen people? What if I'm a descendant of Ham?? What does that mean for me? Am I destined for hell?" I froze and instantly went in search of where Sri Lanka's earliest ancestors originated from, hoping i would be able to somehow trace it back to Shem.

Now at this point you're probably laughing at me and thinking I'm being completely ridiculous (or you've probably stopped reading cos yes I agree, this post is crazy long, but I'm about to make my point) and in hindsight I would completely agree with you. Obviously, Christ died to redeem people from all nations (as I hope was made clear at the beginning of this post).

But here is my point:

I fell into this crazed line of thinking after 30 MINUTES of bible study.

Imagine living your WHOLE LIFE under this type of theology. Because this is basically what it was like for Israel in the OT. God clearly played favourites and had made it quite clear that Israel was "His people" as opposed to the other nations. A typical Jew grew up easily being able to make the mistake of believing that God loved HIM only and hated all other nations. That God would send a Messiah for HIS people and HIS people only.

Then one day, all of a sudden, the Messiah rocks up and some random dude cries out at Him, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"

This would have ROCKED the world of the average Jew.

That salvation was not merely for the Jew but now also for the Gentile (Romans 1:16) was an idea that had to be so repeatedly emphasised so as to override thousands of years of faulty doctrine. And this is precisely why the NT constantly stresses that indeed Christ died for ALL!

And after my 30 second panic attack today, I have a new found appreciation of this truth. Let's take a moment and think about the gravity of these texts that Arminian interpretations fail to capture.

Soli Deo Gloria

Peace