Gen 17
1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty ; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. 2 Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.”
3 Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, 4 “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. 5 No longer will you be called Abram ; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. 6 I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. 7 I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. 8 The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”
9 Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. 10 This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner—those who are not your offspring. 13 Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant.
14 Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”
15 God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. 16 I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”
17 Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?” 18 And Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!”
19 Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. 20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. 21 But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.”
22 When he had finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him. 23 On that very day Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household or bought with his money, every male in his household, and circumcised them, as God told him. 24 Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised, 25 and his son Ishmael was thirteen; 26 Abraham and his son Ishmael were both circumcised on that very day. 27 And every male in Abraham's household, including those born in his household or bought from a foreigner, was circumcised with him.
Gen 18
1 The LORD appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day.
2 Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.
3 He said, “If I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, do not pass your servant by. 4 Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. 5 Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way—now that you have come to your servant.”
“Very well,” they answered, “do as you say.”
6 So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. “Quick,” he said, “get three seahs of the finest flour and knead it and bake some bread.” 7 Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice, tender calf and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it. 8 He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared, and set these before them. While they ate, he stood near them under a tree.
9 “Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him. “There, in the tent,” he said. 10 Then one of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.”
Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. 11 Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. 12 So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?”
13 Then the LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, 'Will I really have a child, now that I am old?' 14 Is anything too hard for the LORD? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.” 15 Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, “I did not laugh.” But he said, “Yes, you did laugh.”
16 When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way.
17 Then the LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? 18 Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. 19 For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.”
20 Then the LORD said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous 21 that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.”22 The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the LORD.
23 Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” 26 The LORD said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
27 Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, 28 what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?” “If I find forty-five there,” he said, “I will not destroy it.”
29 Once again he spoke to him, “What if only forty are found there?” He said, “For the sake of forty, I will not do it.”
30 Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?” He answered, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”
31 Abraham said, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?” He said, “For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it.”
32 Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?” He answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.” 33 When the LORD had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.
Snapshot 34
Gen 17-18
Abram is 99 years old when a God renames him Abraham and establishes a covenant with him. God likes renaming people when he gets involved. God has talked covenant with Abe before and I am not sure how this time is different. Better look that up. Bibleheads say it was mentioned before, but this is a formal entering of the covenant.
He is given the land forever and told kings will be in his line. So far so good. But God tells Abraham that his people must keep their end of the deal up as well. A sign of being a part of this agreement is circumcision.
Pause, I would have loved to see the faces of Abraham's people when they were told they had to have the most sensitive area of their body cut for God. Honestly, weirdest deal handshake ever. Why does God want this? A reminder of your agreement to be pure every time you drop your drawers? I better looking it up. First, I wondered how Abraham even knew what the word meant. Apparently, this sort of thing was already being done in Egypt but it had not religious significance. Next, the Bibleheads think that it weakened the men (I bet!) and showed them they could do nothing without God. I read a book once that said circumcision protects men from some disease. It is not unusual for God to insist we do things that are for our own benefit.
Next, God renames Sarai to Sarah. She is going to be the mother of nations. Abraham thought that was funny because he was 100 and Sarah was 90. Then he tries to encourage God to just bless Ishmael instead since he was a sure thing. Ever try to rewrite God's plan with something easier to achieve? God promises to bless Ishmael, but says Isaac will the covenant line.
God is a God of unlikely things. These parents are too old to give birth. God uses them. The line of a family was through the first born male. But God is using the second born son.
Gen 18
Abraham is hosting three visitors. One is likely Jesus (they call him Lord, but Bibleheads think it is Jesus) and two angels. I am going to call him Jesus because it makes me happy and I think it is accurate. Abraham is thrilled and invites them to a meal. They are there to tell Abraham that Sarah will have his baby in about a year. Sarah hears it and it gives her the giggles. When called out over her laughter, Sarah did the ol' cough over the laugh thing and pretended that she had not laughed.
This section is such a comfort. We have God's chosen couple. One tries to rethink God's plan and the other laughs at the plan. God still used them. It gives me hope in my failures and imperfections that God can use me.
When the meeting is over, the Lord decides to tell Abraham that they are going to be doing a bit of undercover investigation in Sodom & Gomorrah. This catches Abraham's attention because his nephew Lot is living in Sodom.
Abraham goes into this great negotiation mode to try to save Lot. He keeps bargaining with God trying to make it harder for God to punish the city. I wonder if he thought ten good men could be found in Lot's family alone. Jesus eventually agrees not to destroy the city if 10 righteous men can be found there. I read once that it takes ten men to form a synagogue – so that would mean a religious community could exist there. As an aside, I always thought ten men tithing would make up a salary for a priest. It makes so much sense in that context. Tithing is not meant to build up wealth in mega churches. Recipe for disaster. But I digress.
I was wondering why God went there at all – he knows everything that happens. Was he giving them a chance to repent? Or was he really just going to save Lot's family? Don't know. Looked it up. Bibleheads think it was to save Lot from the sinful place. That puts a new light on the story for me. It is a story of Jesus saving someone from sin. Sounds just like him!