Five Life Lessons from the Story of Abraham
I am the way…
1) Genesis 11, 12: Following God’s path for ourselves will sometimes require leaving long established relationships, customs, and/or beliefs behind.
The Hebrew man named Abram didn’t leave Ur of the Chaldees (today’s Iraq) alone with just a suitcase and a passport. His father Terah led him and his nephew Lot to Haran, a place perhaps named after Abram’s brother Haran that died in Ur. They dwelt in Haran (today’s northern Syria, along the Tigris River) for some time, but God had called Abram to something totally new. Not everyone needs to leave behind as much as Abram, Sarai, and Lot in order to obey God, but for many, it’s necessary. God calls all of us to a separation from our old lives and old connections, but for some that separation is more drastic and painful than for others.
Abram came away with an abundance of worldly goods. Tents, food, water, servants, animals, etc. would make for a major caravan. What he left was his entire family, all of their gods, his status to be a future patriarch, the land that Terah may have accumulated in Haran, the goods they accumulated in Ur, the excitement of being in an ancient city with a wondrous ziggurat and advanced architecture, their friends and neighbors, their native language, and anything else familiar and particular to life in Iraq and Assyria. He was following a deity known to few, a god with no image and no temple who gave Abram a ridiculously improbable and narcissist-sounding promise that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky or the dust of the earth.
The one caveat in the astonishing promise to Abram is that the God that made it didn’t want to share loyalty with other gods. Abram covenanted to be a strict monotheist. Abram to a huge risk going mono, because there were a thousand other gods and cults and religions out there, all claiming reality-changing powers, but God also took a risk in putting his whole program for the future on this man’s shoulders. Abram had a lot of responsibility in being Yahweh’s witness on the Earth.
2) Gen. 12: Abram wasn’t perfect. He traded his beautiful wife for wealth and good treatment vs death.
This was not Abram’s finest moment, but before we judge, understand that it was common for Asiatics (today’s academic term for Canaanites and Mesopotamians) to seek refuge in Egypt during times of severe drought and famine. It was also common for kings to snatch beautiful women off the street to be placed in a king’s harem, and if she was married, it was common for her husband to be murdered so that the marriage can be legitimately blessed by the gods. Apparently, murdering the husband was OK, but stealing a married woman wasn’t. Although Sarai was in her 60’s, she still had it, and Abram knew that was bad news for him. The plan was simple. They lie and say she was his sister (she actually was his half-sister). Pharaoh did negotiate with Abram about Sarai. Her thoughts about it are not explored in the narrative, but you can imagine how devastated she must have been. Pharaoh lavished goods and favor on Abram for her sake. Had the Egyptian king consummated his relationship with Sarai, Abram could never have taken her back, and she would have been forced to worship a foreign god. Abram didn’t fully appreciate at that time that all of his household was under the covenant love and protection of God. Abram sold Sarai for some slaves and a pack of camels.
What was he thinking? He couldn’t trust God to protect him and her? But then, Sarai was known to be barren, and Abram was supposed to have lots of descendants. Some kings had many wives and more children than they could count. Perhaps Abram saw her as an aging albatross, standing in the way of him finding a fertile young wife. No one, not the king, not Abram, worried about what Sarai wanted. She was just a woman, after all.
Problem solved. A plague struck the pharaoh’s household, and when the diviners inquired the reason why, the truth came out without Sarai snitching on her husband. We would like to think Abram was delighted and relieved, but I’m wondering if he was shocked and disappointed.
…and the
truth
Here lies a mystery so pay attention. When the Bible doesn’t tell you something don’t try to figure it out.
Abbreviated timeline: Five Mesopotamian kings came south to raid and oppress the people of the Jordan valley where Lot has made his home. God had not yet judged Sodom and Gomorrah, so the land was well-watered and the people were wealthy, but after 13 years of foreign rule, the people of Jordan valley rebelled, so war was declared. The northern kings beat the snot out of the southern coalition, making off with many people and goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, including Lot and his family. By that time, Abram had his own militia of 318 men who were born in his household. Think how many servants he had in all, including the parents of these trained men. Think of the logistics required to sustain such a household.
Abram’s band raced furiously after the offending kings and won back all the people and goods of Sodom and Gomorrah. When he returned, the king of Sodom came to meet him and offered him all the recaptured goods. All the king wanted was the people. Abram refused, saying he did not want anyone saying the king made him rich.
So here’s our first lesson in the chapter. Don’t take a nickel or a sandal strap from the devil. Give the devil a nickel, he’ll come back for a dime. After you borrow wealth and health from hell, thinking what could go wrong with such beneficence, you repay the loan in pain and regret. This moment is where Abram shone and made his God proud.
Also coming forward to meet Abram was the king of Salem, which later became Jerusalem. This man was a king and priest, something forbidden much later in Mosaic Law. One would be a king by the lineage of Judah or a priest by the lineage of Aaron. This king’s name was Melchizedek, which means “king of righteousness.” Salem refers to the Hebrew word “shalom.” Peace. So His Highness King of Righteousness, worshiper of “the Most High God,” who is the king of Peace, brings bread and wine to Abram. This should begin to ring some bells in the minds of Christians, who cherish the sacramental communion meal brought to us by Jesus, our Prince of Peace.
Furthermore, Abram tithed ten percent of all his profit to this king, meaning that Abram had great respect and saw something of his own deity in the man. We don’t know what tribe Melchizedek was from. We don’t know his age. We don’t know when he died. All we know is that he is a shadow of Jesus Christ. We must turn to Psalm 110 to continue this thought. In verse 1, King David sees a vision.
A Psalm of David
The Lord says to my lord:
“Sit at my right
hand
until I make your enemies
a footstool for your feet.”
2 The Lord will extend your
mighty scepter from Zion, saying,
“Rule in the midst of your enemies!”
3 Your troops
will be willing
on your day of battle.
Arrayed in holy splendor,
your young men will come to you
like dew from the morning’s womb.
4 The Lord has sworn
and will not change his mind:
“You are a priest forever,
in the order of Melchizedek.”
When you see the word LORD in a Bible translation like NIV or NKJB, it signifies the holy name of God, which is not shown with vowel points because the priestly scribes who wrote the original manuscripts did not want common tongues pronouncing it. Remember what I said above, if the authors don’t tell you something, go with it. Don’t try to find a logical analog answer. When you see “my Lord,” the word is Adonai, meaning an honorific like Sir or lord. Some person who is NOT explained to the reader is higher than David, sitting at the right hand of God Himself. This Person will be a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek…in other words an eternal person who will be more powerful than his enemies, a priest/king who will lead a willing army. This is not necessarily a nationalistic statement. God is speaking to David in the cultural language of kingship. All kings wanted to be the “son” of their deity, wanted to show the power of their god by crushing their enemies, wanted their armies to be filled with patriots and mercenaries, wanted to rule with a rod of iron, wanted all the kings around to bring them tribute (protection money). The hard lesson for Israel was that this Person that David called “my lord” would only support the Israelite kings that worshiped Him in Spirit and in truth. This King’s enemies could be calling from in the house. The willing warriors could be those Gentiles who were outside of the Jewish Mosaic covenant.
The author of the New Testament book of Hebrews saw this clearly. In chapters 5, 6, and 7, he mentions Melchizedek, comparing him to Christ. Think of a light shining on an object that you desperately want to see, but the object is hidden. All you can see is the shadow. So you keep shining various lights at various times, hoping that by examining all of them, you can discern the veiled object. Hebrews 6:19, 20 offers us the key to the mystery of Melchizedek:
“19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, 20 where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.”
We are the willing warriors of Psalm 110. The object that angels desired to see has come from behind the veil. We no longer need shadows because the object of our desire is before us, but those shadows verify that this Jesus Christ was no late usurper. He was prophesied through all of the Hebrew Tanak, in both their histories and their prophetical writings.
…and the life
God plays the long game, not for happiness, but
for the joy of his Presence and his protection on us and our descendants. Sarah
had experienced a lifetime of being sidelined because she was barren. Her
extreme frustration exploded in the deal with Hagar and the resulting son
Ishmael, whom she tried to adopt. Don’t think for a minute that Abram’s siring
of Ishmael gives modern people the right to have sex with whomever. To Abram’s
credit, he stayed faithful to Sarai until Sarai came up with her own human plan
to solve her pain. Abram loved Ishmael, but neither Hagar nor her son loved
Sarai. All Sarai reaped from her inability to trust the word of Yahweh was more
pain. God honored that son for Abram’s sake, but Ishmael did not inherit the
patriarchal blessing, which usually went to the first born. Another thing to
remember is that Abram and Sarai were living by the law codes of the day, some
of them old by the time Abram was born. Our customs are different today and our
faithfulness to God requires a higher standard.
But we can all understand the excruciating frustration of waiting a looong time for God to fulfill a promise that seemed impossible anyway. Sarai thought surely there was some mistake. After a life of disrespect from those women who had seven children, she may have felt that Abram’s God had kicked her to the curb and made a joke of the promise. As long as Abram stuck it out with her, there was no way his precious promise could come to pass. But folks, in the long run waiting on God is worth it.
Yahweh proved his love for Sarai by giving her the name Sarah. She went from “My Princess” to “Princess,” a status not dependent on her relationship to Abram. Abram’s name was changed to Abraham, denoting that he will not just be the father of a people, but the father of nations. The promise was renewed, and tied specifically to Sarah. She will be the mother of kings of nations. The Messianic line will come through her and her son.
5) Ch. 19: Lot’s wife cannot let go.
There isn’t space here to examine all aspects of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. For this essay I want to focus on Lot’s wife. Lot was still righteous before the LORD, but the pressure of the values and customs of all of his neighbors must have been intense. Anyone climbing the corporate or social ladder understands the pull to be a part of the team, to laugh at the jokes, to drink the same drinks, and to approve what everyone else is approving. Lot was wealthy and influential in Sodom, and his wife loved every minute of it. She had everything a woman could desire—two daughters and a rich husband in a wealthy neighborhood. Well, it was a little crime-ridden, but as long as the crime didn’t involve her family, she could look the other way.
When it came time to flee the destruction, while the fire bombs were falling, while her family toiled up a hill just in front of the destruction, she couldn’t resist pausing to look back. The angels had commanded them to not look back, but she was losing everything she ever knew and cherished. And that is a good bookend to end this essay. Abram left it all and never looked back. Lot managed to do the same. Lot’s wife deliberately ignored the commandment of a rescuing angel because her heart was really on what was behind rather than what God could bring her in the future. Legend has it that she became a pillar of salt. I think what happened is that she delayed and the destruction caught up with her. But metaphorically, the point stands.
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