MORNING. MESSAGE: John Cline/Joyce Bellous
Text: Genesis 21 & 22
In Genesis 11, Abraham and his family moved from their homeland of Ur of the Chaldeans, in today’s Iraq, to Canaan. In Genesis 12, we read why they did it: God had made a covenant with Abraham.
God’s covenant made with Abraham promised him three things. First, land. Second, blessings for all people, Gentiles and Jews. Third, a son, Isaac, to whom and through whom all the blessings would flow.
The chapters that followed showed Abraham’s struggle in believing God’s promises, in trusting Him. But, last week, in chapter 21, Isaac was finally born, 25 years after the covenantal promises were initially made. And Abraham learned he could trust God. In the next chapter, Genesis 22, we will see the pinnacle of Abraham’s now fully-developed faith in God. But, in the chapter before Isaac’s birth, Genesis 20, two weeks ago, we saw a prime example of Abraham’s lack of trust in God. He and Sarah had gone to the land of the Philistines, to the city of Gerar, because there was a drought in Canaan. The prerogative of an Ancient Near Eastern king such the one there, Abimelek, meant that he could take any woman he wanted as his wife. Obviously, we moderns view that practice as despicable, wrong in every way, selfish and sinful. Oh, add to that the fact that a husband of the wife would be put to death so that the king wouldn’t be committing adultery with a married woman. That furthered the disgusting aspect of the king wanting to increase his harem by taking whatever woman he wanted, the women simply being a bragging point about his power and riches. Well, Abraham caused some difficulties to and with Abimelek, when he claimed that Sarah was not his wife but his sister. Abraham did that to save his own life. However, after Abimelek had taken Sarah as his wife, he was struck with an illness and threatened with death by Abraham’s God, YHWH, with whom he had a very disturbing conversation. After then getting up and confronting Abraham his lie, Abimelek, annoyed but humbled and fearful of Abraham’s God, YHWH, returned Sarah to Abraham, untouched, along with gifts of animals, servants, silver, and land, saying to Abraham, “Take whatever land you want for yourself. My land is your land.” That is how chapter 20 ended. We aren’t told whether or not Abraham accepted all those gifts and land, but the story is then dropped to focus on the birth of Isaac. However, the events with Abimelek are picked up again at the end of chapter 21. Abimelek goes to Abraham, not because he admired Abraham as a person so much as he feared Abraham’s God, YHWH. Abimelek did admire Abraham for having a relationship with such a powerful and mighty God and now, having learned of the miraculous birth of Isaac, a birth that only YHWH could have brought about, plus having had his own earlier, uncomfortable encounter with Abraham’s powerful God, Abimelek set aside any lingering resentment he held against Abraham and he took steps to become Abraham’s formal ally. The text doesn’t flat-out say it, but it is believed that Abraham had accepted Abimelek’s gifts of sheep, cattle, servants, money, and land.
At that time Abimelek and Phicol the commander of his forces said to Abraham, “God is with you in everything you do. Now swear to me here before God that you will not deal falsely with me or my children or my descendants. Show to me and the country where you now reside as a foreigner the same kindness I have shown to you.” Abraham said, “I swear it.” (Genesis 21:22-24)
A covenantal treaty was made between Abraham & Abimelek. But,
Then Abraham complained to Abimelek about a well of water that Abimelek’s servants had seized. But Abimelek said, “I don’t know who has done this. You did not tell me, and I heard about it only today.” (Genesis 21:25,26)
Abraham and his servants had dug that well but then Abimelek’s servants or soldiers had taken it over, blocking Abraham’s men and herds from accessing it. As drinking water was so scarce in that area, this was a major source of tension. As his way of thanking Abimelek for doing the right thing in returning the well to him and his herdsmen, and as a seal of the covenant made between the two men, we read
So, Abraham brought sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelek, and the two men made a treaty. Abraham set apart seven ewe lambs from the flock, and Abimelek asked Abraham, “What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs you have set apart by themselves?” He replied, “Accept these seven lambs from my hand as a witness that I dug this well.” So, that place was called Beersheba, because the two men swore an oath there. (Genesis 21:27-31)
In Hebrew, the word “Beersheba” literally means, “The well of the seven” (referring to the seven ewe lambs given by Abraham to Abimelek) or “The well of the oath” because the Hebrew word for “seven” and “oath” are the same – “Sheva”. Going on,
After the treaty had been made at Beersheba, Abimelek and Phicol the commander of his forces returned to the land of the Philistines. Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called on the name of the Lord, the Eternal God. And Abraham stayed in the land of the Philistines for a long time. (Genesis 21:22-34)
So, now that we are on the edge of going on to Genesis 22, let’s recall that Genesis 12-21 told of the promises of YHWH to Abraham. We saw,
God’s covenant made with Abraham promised him three things. First, land.
God told him, “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. 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.”
Second, blessings for all people, Gentiles and Jews.
We saw that happen earlier with Melchizedek the High Priest of Salem and today with King Abimelek of Gerar, in Philistia. God said, “I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
God’s covenant with Abraham promised him three things. First, land, second, blessings for all, and
Third, a son, Isaac, to whom and through whom all the blessings would flow.
God said, “This is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. 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.”
Now that Isaac was born and the promises of the covenant were coming true, Abraham could see that God’s words could be trusted. He was now strong enough in the faith, fit enough, for God’s ultimate test. The pinnacle of Abraham’s faith was about to be reached. By way of setting the coming events in Genesis 22, let’s view five photos.
Photo of Florence, Italy and Cathedral -https://www.italiandualcitizenship.net/the-history-of-the-cathedral-of-santa-maria-del-fiore-il-duomo/
In an art history class I took way back in my student days at the University of British Columbia, I learned about this magnificent cathedral, in English called the “The Dome of Saint Maria of Florence”. Il Duomo” is known the world over. At the opposite end of Il Duomo is a much smaller, but still substantial building, “The Baptistery”.
Photo of Baptistery and Cathedral https://www.visit-florence-italy.com/florence-baptistery-saint-john-florence-italy.html
The Baptistery was the cathedral of Florence from 1059 to 1128 A.D., before the construction of the much larger Duomo of Santa Maria del Fiore. For literary buffs, the famous Italian writer Dante was baptized in this building, and he refers to it in his classic “The Divine Comedy. The Baptistery is a three-story, six-sided building with two sets of bronze doors that are 17 feet tall, 10 feet wide, and 4 inches thick. Each door weighs 8 tons!
Photo of Baptistery https://duomo.firenze.it/en/discover/baptistry As the Duomo Cathedral was being built next door, it was decided that a competition would be held to see which artist would be commissioned to illustrate scenes from the Old and New Testaments, scenes that would be sculpted onto the bronzed doors, a torturously slow process that involved melting down the doors and, working with a hammer and chisel, then hammering out the scene backwards, from the inside out. Here is what the panels look like on the north doors of the Baptistery. They became an icon of the height of Renaissance Art.
Photo of Baptistery door http://www.travelingintuscany.com/images/art/lorenzoghiberti/paradise700.jpgThe decision as to who would sculpt these bronze panels was determined by various artists (and, their guilds or working places of art), all creating their own version of the same scene, the subject being from Genesis 22 where God tested the faith of Abraham by commanding him to sacrifice Isaac, his only son. The competition lasted an entire year and was intense and brutal. Many famous artists failed the test. The second-place finisher, Brunelleschi was given the reward of constructing the beautiful dome on the magnificent cathedral being built next door. So, we can’t feel too sorry for Brunelleschi. The winner, though, was a 21-year-old painter untrained in bronze work named Lorenzo Ghiberti, produced the following work:
Project Ghiberti's bronze door panel of Abraham’s sacrifice sacrificing Isaac http://www.travelingintuscany.com/images/art/lorenzoghiberti/sacrificeofisaac700.jpgIn the middle, Isaac is looking upward for deliverance from death while Abraham, his arm embracing the boy, is poised with the knife pointed toward but not touching his son. An angel in the top right stops the sacrifice with a gesture while a ram in the top left rests quietly before his thicket, while down below two servants and a horse are waiting.
Joyce Bellous will now complete today’s look at this subject, speaking a Lenten Devotional now from Genesis 22…
